I don’t always finish (or start) the books I buy, but when I do actually complete a book, it is usually because the story deeply resonated with me and / or fundamentally changed me:
The God of Small Things #
by Arundhati Roy
“It is after all so easy to shatter a story. To break a chain of thought. To ruin a fragment of a dream being carried around carefully like a piece of porcelain. To let it be, to travel with it, as Velutha did, is much the harder thing to do.” ~Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things
Beauty and Sorrow; Life and Death – one must reclaim the courage to write their own stories.
A Little Life #
by Hanya Yanagihara
“…things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize that no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully…” ~Harold
I found this book while browsing in the Half Price Books in Berkeley, CA. As fate would have it, this tome by Hanya Yanagihara, an author from Hawaii, would be my only companion while under quarantine in Hawaii at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first ten days of my quarantine was spent with Dad, who had just been placed under hospice care. The remaining four days of my sentence were spent alone, in the silence of an apartment grieving the loss of its tenant. A lot of reviewer of this book dismiss it as “too dark”. I thought it realistic; the book does have dark moments, but so does life. In its roughly 800 pages, horrible actions and words unfold – but Yanagihara’s writing also embeds beauty throughout.
The back-cover of books rarely stick out to me, but A Little Quote from this book’s back-cover did (perhaps because I was confronting a life without the family I was born into):
“[A Little Life] is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.”
To Paradise #
by Hanya Yanagihara
“…the problem, though, with trying to be the ideal anything is that eventually the definition changes, and you realize that what you’d been pursuing all along was not a single truth but a set of expectations determined by context. You leave that context, and you leave behind those expectations, too, and then you’re nothing once again.” ~Hanya Yanagihara, To Paradise
Babel #
by R.F. Kuang
Fantasy books have not really appealed to me since middle school. Babel, however, was a surprising spin on the genre. Well-written and with a lot of clever critique on the very real state of this world and the privileged institutions in it – all the while begging the question: How does one align themselves?
All About Love #
by bell hooks
During graduate school, a few friends told me that counseling services were part of our student fees. I had been considering therapy for a while, so I thought “Why Not?”
I began therapy for the first time and soon after, my therapist mentioned this book to me. Following a therapy session, I would usually spend some time alone to reflect, but this time I walked directly to the nearest bookstore to pick up a copy.
All About Love would later be assigned as required reading in a Moral Leadership course a year later. The Professor discovered it while clearing out his parent’s home. He told the class that the book “destroyed” him.
I think this book should be required reading before any persons are allowed to marry or breed. I have since gifted All About Love to many friends – usually to people who are navigating trauma, loss, or an otherwise low point. But I especially love gifting this book to friends who are beginning relationships.
The Sandman #
by Neil Geiman
“…but he did not understand the price; Mortals never do. They only see the prize, their heart’s desire, their dream – But the price of getting what you want is getting what you once wanted.” ~Dream
The style (writing and illustrations) are amazing. The first two volumes were purchased after watching the Netflix adaptation of this cult classic. I revisit sections for the poignant writing and dark insights into the frailties of human nature (and its fortitudes).