Sheila Heti does it again! An instant classic - filled to the brim with her signature voice and humour. Wish it could be 200 pages longer, but grateful for any and all new writing from Sheila.

Sheila Heti does it again.

"𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨—𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦, 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦, 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵—𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰, 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘺."

I am a thing trying to love. I am a thing trying to be essential.

I am trying,

I am trying.

thank you @netgalley and @fsgbooks for letting me read this one early! i have been intrigued by sheila heti’s style since i read ‘pure colour’ and i thoroughly enjoyed ‘alphabetical diaries’.

‘alphabetical diaries’ is a compilation of heti’s diaries for a ten year period arranged in alphabetical order by sentence. reading heti’s thoughts in alphabetical, rather than chronological order, made this reading experience more intriguing than most biographical nonfiction reading.

watching the ebbs and flows of her relationships and feelings through a lens that is one that we never consider made this one of the most fascinating and introspective reads of this year. you’re in her deepest darkest thoughts but you have no idea in relation to what they happened, it was truly a thrilling escapade.

i recommend this for all readers that enjoy non-traditional storytelling.

overall: 5⭐️

I did not really understand the concept of this book. It is just an alphabetical stream of consciousness and I had a very hard time motivating myself to pick it up since it wasn’t organised by themes at all.
Nevertheless, thank you kindly for providing me with this eARC!

I loved this. I can't believe no one has thought to do this before, but then again, who but Shelia Heti would do this and do it well. Somehow the arbitrary structuring device of alphabetization made this all the more intimate. Who wants to know how many times they start a sentence with their ex's (perhaps??) name? Juicy and frustratingly beautifully. I want to be a voyeur of Sheila Heti's life forever.

So clever, pretty unreadable for me. I am a big time fan of Heti’s recent novels and this was so unlike those. Just not my jam for curling up with a book at the end of the day.

Initially, I have to admit, I wasn't entirely convinced that the book's premise would provide much depth - arranging the sentences of diaries by letter seemed, at first, more like a gimmick than a real methodology - but in fact (as my 5 star rating would attest) I'm pleased to say my assumption could not have been more wrong.

Naturally, there is a sense of randomness, or arbitrariness, in the book's structure: names are clustered together, taking up huge chunks of certain chapters, while others are mentioned only once, without context; the tone and style of narration jumps around, reeling from elation to utter misery, from first-person through to third. Such a structure (or rather, a lack of structure) produces a kind of disorientating effect - one in which the reader is forced to make their own connections, or else submit completely to the whole, hopeless mess - but here, in essence, is the exceptional brilliance of Heti's project. Nothing else I have ever read has managed to represent how it really feels to live, or love - for what else is life itself, except a series of arbitrary connections, an assortment of haphazard, fervent thoughts? Organised in this manner, the individual and overarching stories contained the diaries are allowed to unfold sympathetically, without the heavy burden of hindsight. Themes and ideas (about relationships, about writing, about money and power and sex) emulsify and then rise, slickly, like perfect beads of oil, to the book's surface.

Thank you to @netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for this ARC ebook - I will be encouraging everyone I know to purchase it as soon as it comes out!

This for me struck a perfect balance of sentimental yet logical. This is thanks to the format and the way she chose to breakdown the original sentences and then regroup them. You can’t help but think about the original context of her words and where they were situated originally but then it’s also nice to think reading them in this way was always meant to be.

For fans of Sheila Heti, this will by no means surprise you with how enjoyable this is. I personally couldn't think of something I like more than a autopsy one of my favorite authors' personal diaries. The alphabetical structure is continually fascinating, how it shows one their own repetitive nature and keeps the reader engaged with the content. I found myself curious about the editing process of this collection and trying to decipher whether or not two paired sentenced even originally belonged within the same year of writing.

It is very Sheila Heti to turn the form of personal diary upside down. Within a cyclical exploration of family, career, men, sex, etc. you will find many golden nuggets of sentences you could possibly live by. Brilliant!

This is very interesting experiment by Sheila Heti, to organize sentences from her diaries into alphabetical order. Some chapters being very short (E, J, K) and others being very long (A, I). In fact, "I am" was about 10% of the book, which I am sure would be true of any diary. The forced order means that certain people get paragraphs and thereafter only pop up sporadically. It is jarring to read out of order like this and I found myself wondering what years these were written, how far apart in time were 2 sentences right next to each other? I guess you just have to go along for the ride, but that also made it harder for inertia to take me through the pages.

Coincidentally, I was reading The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister at the same time as Alphabetical Diaries. Lister's diary entries were written about 200 years earlier (salacious bits written in code and de-coded posthumously) but the parallels were uncanny. Both diaries ponder on relationships, queer sex, desire, writing, work, unsavory inner thoughts, money, friends, etc. Anne Lister wrote in one diary about being so restless in bed that she tried to sleep on the floor, which I could distinctly see Sheila Heti doing.

I enjoyed Heti's diaries but part of my enjoyment came from having a different writer to compare against, plus the fact I have read 3 of her previous novels and listened to many of her interviews to know her themes. I am guessing that this diary publication will be a nice read for fans of Heti but gibberish to new readers.

The concept shouldn’t work but it just does. I loved this, such a quirky idea taking lines from diary entires over a decade and compiling them alphabetically. I was shocked just how coherent and absorbing it actually was. Shelia Heti is a genius and I will be recommending this book to every one.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. This is such a fun experiment. The author has taken ten years of her journals and arranged them in alphabetical order based on the first letter starting the sentence. And it ends up being more interesting and genuinely informative than you would ever imagine. It’s lovely because your mind constantly reads it like a novel, because over and over again you’ll read three sentences and feel like she is talking about one thing, building to a certain idea and then a sexual confession will come out of nowhere and then you realize that the three sentences you thought we’re together may have been written years apart. It’s a book that keeps you in your toes as she talks about relationships with men, and at least one woman, friends, her editor, her desire to either leave Toronto or stay and embrace it and, mostly, about writing. Write more, write better, think commercially, just write something true, emotional, something real. It’s a lovely glimpse into the random thoughts of an author, both big and small.

Sheila Heti has done it again! I adored ALPHABETICAL DIARIES. For a project that relies on such stricts rules (collating diary entries alphabetically, by sentence) there is still somehow a sense of narrative propulsion. I was able to fill in the story being told, the one of the various men our narrator is juggling alongside her writing, and also her preoccupations with money/capitalism. It's a generous and insightful book, rich and poetic. Thanks so much to the publisher for the e-galley!