Reading Recommendations
I grew up surrounded by books, and continue in my adult life to live in fear of my bookshelves collapsing and burying me under a pile of prose. For far too many out there, however, the only only time they read is in school. This is a serious shame. I wanted to share a bunch of my favorites and encourage you to put down the electronics, turn off the television, and let a good book take over.
Fiction:
Ghosts, Monsters, Terrible People, Scary Stuff:
Ghost Summer: Stories by Tananarive Due
"Whether weaving family life and history into dark fiction or writing speculative Afrofuturism, American Book Award winner and Essence bestselling author Tananarive Due’s work is both riveting and enlightening. In her debut collection of short fiction, Due takes us to Gracetown, a small Florida town that has both literal and figurative ghost; into future scenarios that seem all too real; and provides empathetic portraits of those whose lives are touched by Otherness. Featuring an award-winning novella and fifteen stories—one of which has never been published before—Ghost Summer: Stories is sure to both haunt and delight." Courtesy of Goodreads.com A short story collection that spans, ghosts, lake monsters, zombies and the unsettling parts of human nature. Tananarive Due is leader in a literary movement called Afrofuturism, which is 'science fiction and horror steeped in African traditions and black identity' (BBC.com). I loved this collection. Some stories made me cackle with glee, some gave me nightmares. Short stories are fun because you do not have to commit the time to read an entire novel, you can take this in short bursts. |
The Changeling by Victor LaValle
"One man’s thrilling journey through an enchanted world to find his wife, who has disappeared after seemingly committing an unforgiveable act of violence, from the award-winning author of the The Devil in Silver and Big Machine. Apollo Kagwa has had strange dreams that have haunted him since childhood. An antiquarian book dealer with a business called Improbabilia, he is just beginning to settle into his new life as a committed and involved father, unlike his own father who abandoned him, when his wife Emma begins acting strange. Disconnected and uninterested in their new baby boy, Emma at first seems to be exhibiting all the signs of post-partum depression, but it quickly becomes clear that her troubles go far beyond that. Before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act—beyond any parent’s comprehension—and vanishes, seemingly into thin air. Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His quest begins when he meets a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Emma’s whereabouts. Apollo then begins a journey that takes him to a forgotten island in the East River of New York City, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest in Queens where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever. This dizzying tale is ultimately a story about family and the unfathomable secrets of the people we love." courtesy of goodreads.com This novel does not sit in the Young Adult category. Nor does it squarely sit in the horror genre. It has science fiction, horror, speculative, drama and fantasy combined in a fairy tale-like story that is nothing like you've ever read. It is currently being made into a series for FX, so read it now! |
The Girl With All The Gifts by M.R. Carey
"Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.
Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad."
courtesy of goodreads.com
Like The Walking Dead? You'l love this one. A top rate zombie story set in a dystopian future. I was hooked from the first chapter. It is a unique twist on the zombie theme, a sympathetic monster in a world that is utterly hostile to her existence.
"Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius."
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.
Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad."
courtesy of goodreads.com
Like The Walking Dead? You'l love this one. A top rate zombie story set in a dystopian future. I was hooked from the first chapter. It is a unique twist on the zombie theme, a sympathetic monster in a world that is utterly hostile to her existence.
Wither (book one of the Chemical Gardens Trilogy) by Lauren DeStefano
"By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.
When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?
Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?"
courtesy of goodreads.com
Get hooked on the first book and you'll find yourself devouring the entire trilogy. There are elements of romance, horror, and tragedy throughout.
"By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.
When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?
Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?"
courtesy of goodreads.com
Get hooked on the first book and you'll find yourself devouring the entire trilogy. There are elements of romance, horror, and tragedy throughout.
Delirium (book one of the Delirium trilogy) by Lauren Oliver
"In an alternate United States, love has been declared a dangerous disease, and the government forces everyone who reaches eighteen to have a procedure called the Cure. Living with her aunt, uncle, and cousins in Portland, Maine, Lena Haloway is very much looking forward to being cured and living a safe, predictable life. She watched love destroy her mother and isn't about to make the same mistake. But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena meets enigmatic Alex, a boy from the "Wilds" who lives under the government's radar. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?" courtesy of goodreads.com This book is less of a love story and more the story of rebellion. Engaging and addictive. |
The 13th Continuum (book one of the Continuum trilogy) by Jennifer Brody
"One thousand years after a cataclysmic event leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, the survivors take refuge in continuums designed to sustain the human race until repopulation of Earth becomes possible. Against this backdrop, a group of young friends in the underwater Thirteenth Continuum dream about life outside their totalitarian existence, an idea that has been outlawed for centuries. When a shocking discovery turns the dream into a reality, they must decide if they will risk their own extinction to experience something no one has for generations, the Surface"
courtesy of goodreads.com
I will be honest - I get scared away by science fiction at times because I am convinced it is going to be all science, science, science and I will be lost. This trilogy showed me that an author can blend character, action, plot, and yes...science into a novel and I will 100% hooked.
"One thousand years after a cataclysmic event leaves humanity on the brink of extinction, the survivors take refuge in continuums designed to sustain the human race until repopulation of Earth becomes possible. Against this backdrop, a group of young friends in the underwater Thirteenth Continuum dream about life outside their totalitarian existence, an idea that has been outlawed for centuries. When a shocking discovery turns the dream into a reality, they must decide if they will risk their own extinction to experience something no one has for generations, the Surface"
courtesy of goodreads.com
I will be honest - I get scared away by science fiction at times because I am convinced it is going to be all science, science, science and I will be lost. This trilogy showed me that an author can blend character, action, plot, and yes...science into a novel and I will 100% hooked.
Fantasy, Magic, and Magical Realism:
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
"Find your magic
For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.
Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.
From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.
The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy."
Courtesy of goodreads.com
A story that follows three siblings from childhood to adulthood. I fell in love, love, love with this fast. See also Practical Magic by the same author - this novel is a precursor to that work.
"Find your magic
For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.
Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.
From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.
The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy."
Courtesy of goodreads.com
A story that follows three siblings from childhood to adulthood. I fell in love, love, love with this fast. See also Practical Magic by the same author - this novel is a precursor to that work.
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
"The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways--farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother. She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends." courtesy of goodreads.com This novel falls into the fantasy category as easily as it does dystopia. Nalo Hopkinson is another author in the Afrofuturism movement, and you see rich layers of Caribbean history, voodoo, and complex social commentary woven into an addictive and engaging story. See also Sister Mine by the same author. |
If I Stay by Gayle Foreman
"Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.
I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can.
And I listen.
Stay, he says.
Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?
Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.
If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make."
courtesy of goodreads.com
This book broke my heart and made me cry buckets. Loved it. There is a movie of this book - don't watch it, at least until you've read. There's no way to capture the emotional depth this book packs in film.
"Just listen, Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.
I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can.
And I listen.
Stay, he says.
Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?
Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.
If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make."
courtesy of goodreads.com
This book broke my heart and made me cry buckets. Loved it. There is a movie of this book - don't watch it, at least until you've read. There's no way to capture the emotional depth this book packs in film.
Nonfiction:
Memoirs and True-Life Stories
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
"...What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms." Courtesy of goodreads.com Okay, so you have probably heard of this one before. It has found its way into some schools, rightfully so. If you haven't read it yet, please do. Jeannette Walls does something extraordinary in this memoir - she tells the story of her utterly insane childhood with humor, affection and tone that never for a minute feels inauthentic. It's captivating. |
Apocalypse Child: A Life in End Times by Flor Edwards
"For the first thirteen years of her life, Flor Edwards grew up in the confines of a religious sect know as the Children of God, an outgrowth of 1960s counterculture founded in California in 1968. The group's nomadic existence was based on the belief that, as God's chosen people, they would be saved in the impending apocalypse that would envelop the rest of the world in 1993. Flor and Tamar would be 12 years old. The group's charismatic leader, Father David, kept the family on the move, from Los Angeles to Bangkok to Chicago, where the group would eventually disband, leaving the Edwards sisters to make sense of the foreign world of mainstream society around them on their own. Apocalypse Child is a cathartic journey through Flor's memories of growing up within a group with unconventional views on education, religion, and sex. Whimsically referring to herself as a real life Kimmy Schmidt, Edward's clear-eyed memoir is a story of survival in a childhood lived on the fringes."
courtesy of goodreads.com
Flor Edwards grew up in a cult, and was told her entire life that the end was coming soon. I could hardly pull myself away from this book, it is a fascinating look into a world that most of us could never imagine.
"For the first thirteen years of her life, Flor Edwards grew up in the confines of a religious sect know as the Children of God, an outgrowth of 1960s counterculture founded in California in 1968. The group's nomadic existence was based on the belief that, as God's chosen people, they would be saved in the impending apocalypse that would envelop the rest of the world in 1993. Flor and Tamar would be 12 years old. The group's charismatic leader, Father David, kept the family on the move, from Los Angeles to Bangkok to Chicago, where the group would eventually disband, leaving the Edwards sisters to make sense of the foreign world of mainstream society around them on their own. Apocalypse Child is a cathartic journey through Flor's memories of growing up within a group with unconventional views on education, religion, and sex. Whimsically referring to herself as a real life Kimmy Schmidt, Edward's clear-eyed memoir is a story of survival in a childhood lived on the fringes."
courtesy of goodreads.com
Flor Edwards grew up in a cult, and was told her entire life that the end was coming soon. I could hardly pull myself away from this book, it is a fascinating look into a world that most of us could never imagine.
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.” In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her own past—including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life—and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself. With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved—in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes." courtesy of goodreads.com Roxane Gay lays out her struggle with her weight, her confidence, her body and her very soul in this memoir. It is not easy to read - and not because Gay's writing is difficult to understand. On the contrary, she writes in a very conversational tone. No, it's difficult because it discusses issues we don't often talk openly about. Gay is searingly honest, and we see the trauma that sparked her battle with her body, we also see the ongoing war of her everyday life. This is an important read. |
Classics: Reading For Life
Some of these 'classics' are modern, some are old. This list consists of authors and books that I truly believe you need to read at least once in your life. Some will give you perspective, some will open your mind to places and people that you may not have ever thought about.