I really loved Enchantment by Katherine May. I read it at a time when I was trying to find more to enjoy in the everyday. Also really loved Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
First of all, I love your newsletter and look forward to it! I just got back from a birthday day trip to Ojai. I spent two hours shuffling around Bart's Books and painstakingly limited myself to 5 books.
Books that found me at the right place and time...
1. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (at a period of time when life had finally seemed to make sense)
2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh (at the start of the pandemic)
3. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (high school, lol)
4. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (also high school!)
5. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (while studying playwriting in college)
6. Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine (navigating young love in nyc)
7. One Day in December by Josie Silver (when I had just gotten married and felt oddly lonely and needed to read something sweet and romantic)
Thank you for your beautiful and intentional writing <3
What a wonderful list. I haven’t read any of these, so bookmarking them all now. And only 5 books is impressive! They make it hard with the discounted and secondhand prices. Happy belated birthday! xo
Hello Kayti! I loved this edition of the newsletter!
My brilliant friend - Elena Ferrante
Girl, woman, other - Bernardine Evaristo (which is actually a UK Booker Prize so not sure if it counts! But it was there when I needed it)
Eat pray love - E. Gilbert (a given)
Unorthodox - Deborah Feldman
Island beneath the sea - Isabel Allende (pure escapism...)
Quiet - Susan Cain (changed my life)
The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The pillars of the earth - Ken Follett
The time in between - Maria Duenas
One day - David Nicholls
Auntie Mame - Patrick Dennis
A Hat Full of Cherries - Oriana Fallaci
So many great titles! Excited to add some of these to my own list x
Eat Pray Love is definitely a life changer.
I really loved Enchantment by Katherine May. I read it at a time when I was trying to find more to enjoy in the everyday. Also really loved Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett
First of all, I love your newsletter and look forward to it! I just got back from a birthday day trip to Ojai. I spent two hours shuffling around Bart's Books and painstakingly limited myself to 5 books.
Books that found me at the right place and time...
1. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (at a period of time when life had finally seemed to make sense)
2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh (at the start of the pandemic)
3. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (high school, lol)
4. Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder (also high school!)
5. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (while studying playwriting in college)
6. Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine (navigating young love in nyc)
7. One Day in December by Josie Silver (when I had just gotten married and felt oddly lonely and needed to read something sweet and romantic)
Thank you for your beautiful and intentional writing <3
What a wonderful list. I haven’t read any of these, so bookmarking them all now. And only 5 books is impressive! They make it hard with the discounted and secondhand prices. Happy belated birthday! xo
Untamed, Glennon Doyle
Make it Scream Make it Burn, Leslie Jamison
When Breath Becomes Air (!!!!) paul kalanithi
Gregory Boyle, of Homeboy Industries - any of his!
Any of Samantha Irby's - they always just make me laugh wholeheartedly.
Sex and Rage, eve babitz
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan
Joan Didion, the year of magical thinking
Thank you so much for writing this newsletter!
So many good ones!!
I love this concept! On Beauty by Zadie Smith was like this for me
Thank you for this recommendation, I have been wanting to read Zadie Smith's work and will begin with this book.
Here's mine:
If You Find This Letter - Hannah Brencher
All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
Americanah - Chimammanda Ngozi Adichie
A Thousand Splendid Sun's - Khaled Hosseini
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Redeeming Love - Francine Rivers
The Last Sin Eater - Francine Rivers
...
They are a lot but I'll stop here.
All The Light We Cannot See is one of my absolute favorites. Thank you for sharing! x
Oof! The Writing Life is so good.
Two of my recent favorites are My Antonia by Willa Cather and A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet - Jamie Ford
A treasure I found at Goodwill and kept even though I dropped it in the tub and warped the pages.
My favorite lines: “in the coldest of winter,””letting my skin burn,” and “We spent too much money on coffee.”
A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield helped me get through the pain and disorientation of divorce.
You’re writing is lovely. Keep writing.
Thanks so much, Ryan x
Ways of Seeing and Confabulations - John Berger
The Chronology Of Water - Lidiay Yuknavitch
Godshot - Chelsea Bieker
The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue - VE Schwab
Abandon Me - Melissa Febos
So many more...
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran
The Overstory - Richard Powers
What I Know for Sure - Oprah Winfrey
My Inner Sky - Mari Andrew
Island of the World - Michael O'Brien
Love this list. All the Light We Cannot See stuck with me for so many weeks after finishing it.