Molly over at Ten Block Walk has started a great discussion about the books we'd go back in time to give our younger selves if we could. If it were me, I think I'd stealth stalk my teenage self, leaving single books in unmarked, brown paper wrapped parcels. One on the back step, one on my pillow, one in my locker on that first day of high school...And the deliveries would have to start with Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti. I read that book a couple of years ago and just could not get over how I wish every teenage girl could read it. Like if they did it would help them know who they are and avoid a fair chunk of unnecessary pain. It's a beautiful book and one I highly recommend. Follow-up dropoffs would include The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White (because EEW books rock), Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes by Chris Crutcher (because it would have made me think about things I wasn't thinking about then but should have been), An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (because 14-year-old Angie was in desperate need of a good laugh), and the complete Harry Potter series (because I would have thought I'd died and gone to heaven). What books would you love to have read then? Go check out the discussion and leave a comment!
Looking back at it now, it was a really solid reading year. I mean, it did its usual (for me) thing and meandered its merry way, here and there, up and down, and in fits and starts across the span of all twelve months. But it really did shape up nicely. Which is a good thing, because it was—shockingly, I know—another year in which we so desperately needed the authors and books and words of the world to come through for us. And they did, didn't they? I am, as ever, so grateful for them and their willingness to push through every barrier and battle that I know must try to keep them from putting their visions on paper. And so, as has long been my custom, I record here my list of published books that saw me through the year. Gifts, every one. (listed in the order in which I read them) The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake Bride by Ali Hazelwood You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian Once Persuaded, Twice Shy by Melodie Edwards Lucky Bounce by Cait Nary Lips Like Sugar by Jes...
How cool. I have a Deb Caletti book at home that I should read - I've never read any of her stuff!
ReplyDeleteThis is something thats crossed my mind more than once. Strangly, in my late teenage years I had a little Angie-Fairy that would drop books of every kind off in different areas of my life in accordance with what was going at the time. So in a way, you were probably doing for me, what you wished you could do for yourself years ago... How lucky am I?
ReplyDeleteJanssen, I really love her stuff. She writes with such humor and insight. Not just fluff.
ReplyDeleteElisa, I re-live vicariously through your reading, don't I? Lol. You put up with my book pushing like no other.
The Outsiders. It's been a very very long time.
ReplyDeleteStay golden Ponyboy.
Jenny Girl, ooh, good call. Such a wonderful book. Stay cool, Sodapop.
ReplyDelete