Reading in the fall/winter months is a special kind of satisfying. The sun sets sooner, and the chill in the air offers more reason to hibernate indoors. Sleepiness falls on me when I read in bright sunlight. Pool or beachside reading wasn’t something I caught onto. To me, it should feel like I’m watching a movie; curled up with a blanket draped over me and a candle flickering from my periphery. Add rain to the mix and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. You’d think it’d be easier to nap under these conditions, but lately all the books I’ve picked up have been too engaging to put down without a fight. An upswing in consumption lends itself to this time of year. October has some big shoes to fill.
For the reflective: Jedidiah Jenkins is a writer, entrepreneur and enigmatic personality that I stumbled upon on Instagram. His adventurous photos in exotic locations are what first drew me in, and his unique perspective and soul-touching words are what kept me around for years. Many of his vulnerable captions lingered in my brain long after closing the app. I read his debut memoir, To Shake the Sleeping Self about his travels from Oregon to Patagonia with a smile plastered on my face and adrenaline in my bones.
His follow up book, Like Streams to the Ocean, is a candid collection of essays on matters of the ego. It was akin to sharing a late-night dinner with a friend and closing out the restaurant with empty wine bottles on the table. He dedicates a chapter on family, home, friendship, love, work, death, and the soul. Jenkins seamlessly blends philosophy and poetry – it’s as if words roll off of him with no effort at all (I’m sure that wasn’t the case, but the best writers create the illusion). He can articulate familiar ideas into something brand new and shiny coloring everything around him with depth.
In one chapter, he talks about his childhood home. Most of his formative years were spent in a Nashville farmhouse that got later turned into a restaurant. He describes the surreal experience of visiting and seeing people eat in the same place where he would watch his Grandpa make donuts. He tenderly portrayed the visit in a way that felt as though I was there with him, like those memories belonged to me too.
My only regret was renting a copy from the library first. I had to resist highlighting, notating and dog earring passages. Instead I wrote page numbers and quotes in my notes app to remember them for later. I plan to purchase a copy of my own so I can mark it up and lend it out. His writing is meant to be shared and revisited whenever your soul needs a hug. Not to mention, the cover of Yosemite would make anyone smile when glancing over at their nightstand or coffee table.
4.5/5 mugs
For the hurting and healing: Coming off the heels of her latest novel, Verity I knew I had to go down the Colleen Hoover rabbit hole. Luckily for readers, she’s produced almost two dozen books in her prolific career.
It Ends With Us, is a story depicting different kinds of love: the purity and eagerness of a first love, the strained love of imperfect parents, the platonic love of a best friend, and the love of a beautiful whirlwind romance that turns dark slowly and then all at once. Lily Bloom is at the center as she navigates through the complicated relationships in her life that for better or worse, shaped her into the person she is today.
I had the same urgency in reading it as though it was a thriller or mystery. Unlike Verity, this book doesn’t fall under either category yet the tension built up from the first chapter stretched it’s way to the final pages. Colleen Hoover is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors for that reason. Her writing style is gripping and vulnerable and addictive all at once. She melds romance with heavy subject matter adding layers of humanity that ground her stories to reality. Certain chapters were particularly difficult to get through. My heart broke in a million pieces then somehow got put back together again. The book portrays the courage to love and the courage to let go. Lily’s story will stay with me for a longtime.
Trigger warning: contains emotional and physical abuse
5/5 mugs
For the broken: A bone chilling novel about the aftermath of three mothers/childhood best friends who experience the worst night of their lives when their high school aged sons don’t all make it home after a sleepover. One son ends up dead, one in a debilitating coma, and the other is left too traumatized to speak needing psychiatric attention. Detectives, lawyers and doctors wedge themselves in their lives as they investigate the crime scene and continue to poke at the women’s broken hearts.
The mothers shared grief and their longing for closure is enough to pull some relationships closer and some further apart as each family tries to figure out what really happened the night of the accident.
The tragedy is heavy and unexpected amongst the backdrop of a gated suburban community. I am not a mother, but the sense of loss and heaviness that these three women face is palpable and expressed in such a raw way.
Before Lucinda Berry began writing fiction full-time, she was a former clinical psychologist and leading researcher in childhood trauma. Her writing is so real you can touch it making it even harder to put down. I desperately needed closure.
The Best of Friends doesn’t have a happy ending. It doesn’t make you feel good by any means but some escapes don’t need to. Some are meant to shake you emotionally and take you to a place that you’re grateful to only read about and not experience first hand.
Trigger warning: contains gun violence and trauma
5/5 mugs
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