My Go-To Book Recommendations (ever)

1. Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

Calling my fellow Scooby-Doo fans! I happened upon a used copy of this book in a super crowded bookstore where I’d successfully stowed myself away into the horror section and, to my surprise, found myself a bubble of breathing room. The cover instantly roped me in; it was colorful and curious and spooky and neon. It piqued my interest and held my attention before I’d read over the inner cover or back of the book. I paid three whole dollars for this lightly worn edition of a book by an author I’d never heard of and happily made my way home.

I settled into what I remember being a cozy-ish fall afternoon and cracked that bad boy open. When I looked back up, it was nighttime What and the book was over. I’d engulfed every sentence within hours and truthfully, I’m indebted to Cantero for reigniting my passion for books. It pulled me out of a reading rut at the time and my only hopes in making this recommendation is that it will do the same for someone else who needs as much.

2. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

Before I was able to successfully escape small-town-USA, there wasn’t a bookstore that I could just stroll into and peruse. There was only digital browsing and impatiently waiting as my selection was shipped via snail mail. Once upon a shipment, I needed a final book choice in order to secure free shipping (it was either free shipping or a substantial discount that wouldn’t make sense to pass up – plus, what’s one more book, right?). A grey thumbnail with a mouse in Shakesperean theater-ware sat lonely on my wish list. It was the first ever memoir I’d actually shown interest in, but even still, I was hesitant.

That hard cover book showed up at my door and let me tell you…. Jenny Lawson secured a permanent spot on my top 5 authors list immediately. Never had I ever experienced a book that made me laugh *so* audibly and uncontrollably. Never had I ever experienced tales of mental illness in such a relatable and shamelessly spoken voice. I will forever be grateful to Lawson for pursuing writing as a career and attribute a lot of my confidence as a writer to her and her work. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened is 1 of 4 books, IF you count the coloring book she put out, which I also recommend.

3. What The Hell Did I Just Read by David Wong

Unquestionably lives up to the title. The opening line of this book – while I won’t spoil it – I will attest to the fact that it still lingers in my brain when I sit down to write something new. Reading through this book was how I imagine a lucid fever dream would feel. Chaos and unpredictability at every turn, characters as real as the pages between my fingers and a cosmically horrific flip of the tides before I’d ever gotten a chance to adjust to the one previous. Wong puts together a platter of both the wicked and wacky while managing to ensure they both taste delicious and neither one outshines. If you’re in search of heads or tails book, look no further. You will either attach yourself to Wong’s plot and stick with it throughout the trilogy or you will question why you picked it up in the first place.

4. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

This book pushed quite a few of my reading buttons. Kind of a love story, kind of a book that made me want to punch most of the characters at one point or another, kind of a curious mystery throughout, and this doesn’t even really scrape the surface of the hats that this novel wears. It’s riddled with quirky jokes and resilience from all directions, heartache and genuine disbelief.

This was one of those reads that caused a sense of sincere irritation when my alarm would go off to remind me that I have to put my book down and go put the clothes into the dryer. The strange part here though, is that typically that response – the irritability, because who did this? Who let me attempt to be a responsible adult? – that usually requires an actual thriller or incredibly suspenseful story. This book isn’t either of those things and yet, it held my attention page to page to page forward until I closed the back cover and it settled softly into my heart as a new personal favorite.

5. A Short Walk Through a Wide World by Douglas Westerbeke

Full transparency, of the books on this list THIS book is the one I’ve read most recently. It’s fresher in my mind than the others but I’ll do my best to refrain from picking favorites among those that made the list because the others will get jealous and then we’ll all be in trouble.

I digress; Westerbeke crafts a picture of the human race in a light that I personally haven’t been granted the benefit of understanding until I read this book. I haven’t seized any real chance to travel outside of the US, which makes my broadening horizon limited to media and the sources I’m receptive to (ie, realistic fiction). This book is the book I would tie a bow around and present to a young reader who knows little about life outside of their school in an effort to pay forward the gift I was given when I read through it the first time.

6. Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune

 I waited far too long to read anything by TJ Klune. There was never a clear reason as to why – I loved the artwork on the covers of his books and each one that I’d picked up or read a description of immediately became something that I wanted to read, but other books took precedence. This fact honestly kind of upsets me because of how enjoyable Under The Whispering Door was to read. I cried and I laughed and felt new emotions (I’m almost 30!).

Klune, with characters so dynamic and beautiful in their own rights, taught me about myself with this one… and it’s a fictional tale of a tea shop. Death is not an easy reality to portray in a breathable and digestible light. Klune didn’t only do that, he managed to transport his reader (me) to a place where she could be ok with the passing of the people close to her in the real world. Congrats, Klune, you successfully added a new subdivision to my imagination. I’d recommend this book to anyone. That’s it. Anyone.

7. Weyward – Emilia Hart

I snagged a copy of this book about a year after it was released and if I remember correctly, people were still talking about it. Reviewers online were still raving so it inevitably made its way to the top of my TBR pile. All said and done: switchy, witchy and mildly itchy. There’s talk of spiders and crawly things throughout this story and despite the fact that I don’t do bugs or the like, I found myself drawn to the naturally centred side of me that embracing my inner feminist can bring out.

We follow Hart alongside the three women in this book closely, wide eyed and terrified of the world around us. But she, our fearless author, carries a torch with pride and navigates the plot effortlessly. In the ever-growing population of women today who resonate and identify (at least to some degree) with witchcraft(ed) roots, Hart does a spectacular job painting a picture of both pain and poise. I’d recommend this book to all my bookish girlfriends in need of something to help them reconnect with their inner, wickedly feminine souls.