books to rekindle your love of reading

a non-exhaustive list for lovers

When I was little I would pull back the curtain to other worlds. This was done frequently, and achieved as easily as scrunching my eyes shut very tight. It was something of a magic trick to be able to drop in and out of these invisible realms. A small clearing in the woods with a spongey moss floor quickly became an abandoned fairy village. My mother’s Q-tips were perfectly suited as makeshift dolls. I didn’t always invent things myself, though. I could peel back the layers of a parallel universe in the early morning hours, peeking down the stairs as the hushed voices of adults conferred over morning coffee. I could sit alone in bed at night and see shapes morph and play in the corner of my room. One of the most satisfying escapes, perhaps the most magical, was found in books.

As a child with a desire to learn but a tendency to space out, it could be hard to hold my focus. I would often start and stop projects, flitting from one hobby to the next in search of something to quiet my mind. When a book was able to do that it was as if a spell was cast. I would stay up all night devouring the pages, even sneaking paperbacks behind textbooks in class to keep the story going. The older I got the more my relationship with reading shifted, as new distractions cropped up with currents too powerful for my inattentive brain.

In the past few years I have unlocked my love of reading again, and I did it by finding a book that gave me that same deep obsession that Goose Girl and Enna Burning had all those years ago. Here is my list of reads for that stay-up-all-night feeling, and hopefully they reignite your spark too.

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt

I’m sure you’re used to seeing people praise The Secret History online, but I’m here to confirm that the hype is real. This is the book that broke my reading dry spell, and even kept me up until 5 in the morning to finish it. The Secret History follows college student and interloper Richard Papen as he joins an elite group of classics students at Hampden College in Vermont. If you’re looking for dark academia, unlikeable main characters, mystery and ancient greek tragedy, you’re going to love it.

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Bunny, by Mona Awad

Mona Awad is such a singular voice in the what-the-fuck-just-happened, chaotic female lead category. There’s a twisted magical realism that threads through all of Awad’s novels, and Bunny is a fantastic example of it. Our main character Samantha is in a respected writing program in grad school, and she is plagued by the giggles of an obnoxious clique of girls that refer to each other as ‘Bunny’. Samantha follows them down the rabbit hole so to speak, and the result is equal parts terror and tinsel.

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Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff

This is one of those books that you just never want to end. Lotto and Mathilde are two gorgeous meteorites poised to ascend at the beginning of their marriage, and the book follows each of them over a span of twenty-four years through the public and private moments that make and break them. Perfect for romantics, lovers of epics, and secret keepers alike.

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The Friend, by Sigrid Nunez

Even on this list of all time favorites, I’ve never read anything that makes me think or feel as deeply as The Friend. The death of her friend and mentor leaves our narrator in a small New York apartment with his giant Great Dane, and the result is a story filled to the brim with life, laughter, and grief. I have never wanted to write in the margins more, there is so much wisdom in one lovely little book.

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The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante

When a book starts with a sentence about being an ugly little girl consider me hooked! I still haven’t read Ferrante’s iconic series My Brilliant Friend, so maybe if I had that would be on this list too, but The Lying Life of Adults is by far my favorite of hers. I was so captivated by this family portrait, complete with a mysterious Aunt, and loved considering these themes of beauty, class, and sexuality alongside our narrator.

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Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin

I already touched on this in my August Keepsake, so true keepsakers already know Giovanni’s Room changed my life and colored it for the better. I’m in awe of Baldwin and his ability to write from these different perspectives, to see himself and see outside himself. This is another book I need to reread with a highlighter and pen so I can keep all the beautiful and human moments close to my heart. This novel is set in 1950s Paris and follows a young man as he runs away from and eventually confronts himself, his desire, and more.

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The White Album, by Joan Didion

Thought daughters rejoice: Didion mentioned! I’ve read her fiction as well as her essays, and for me personally the essays connect so much more. The White Album is an excellent collection of works spanning from memoir to political journalism. It goes without saying that it is the gag of a lifetime to open a book and see that the first line is her iconic quote “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” That we do, Joan! Thank you for telling us yours.

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