Every time I’m asked to write up a book recommendations list I jump at the chance. I’ve been a reader my entire life and (not so) secretly have made it my mission to make everyone else on earth a reader as well. For as long as I can remember books have been my safe place. When I’m feeling angry or hurt or confused or happy, there’s an author somewhere who knows exactly how I feel and wrote it down for me to find. That’s what is so beautiful about literature, you learn that your longings are universal; everyone feels what you feel. It connects us.
So I’ve put together a list of books that have changed my life, since we all suddenly have a lot more free time on our hands. There’s probably too many titles, but I couldn’t help it. They’re all so great. I hope you choose to fill your time with books and art and creativity and exercise. We may be stuck at home all day, but it’s still not good for us to binge Netflix. Maybe one of these titles will help get the ball rolling. That’s the thing about reading, it only takes one book to change your whole perspective and before you know it, you’re a reader! :)
Nonfiction
1. The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
I’ve noticed a shift in conversation recently, one from productivity and hustle to rest and solitude. Maybe it’s just the circles I’m in, but it’s an important conversation to consider. Read any poet and philosopher (modern or not) and they all say the same thing - our soul needs solitude. We need to give ourselves space to think and to feel in order to know who we truly are. And unfortunately, we’re not very good at it. We never have been, but it’s especially difficult today with all of the screens and technology at our fingertips. This book is John Mark Comer’s roadmap to finding solitude and stillness.
2. Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig
Matt Haig is a writer and speaker on mental health. He first wrote Reasons to Stay Alive, about his experience with depression. Notes on a Nervous Planet is a kind of sequel to that, a book about anxiety. Our societies are making us sick, from noise pollution and advertisers demanding our attention to us forgetting that our minds and bodies are connected to each other. This book is a breath of fresh air, an empathetic collection of essays quietly encouraging us to take a deep breath and find ways to calm the anxiety we all feel at times.
Technically, this book should go in the next section with the essays, but Mary Oliver is such a great writer that she belongs in every category. This book is a collection of essays in which Mary writes about nature and her astonishment with the world. It’s a beautiful reminder that often, the answer we’re looking for lies in the quiet wind rustling the trees, or the sound of waves crashing against the shore. All we really need to do is get outside, get quiet, and listen to what the world is trying to say.
Essays
1. They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib
I have recently gotten into reading about music. I’ve always been obsessed with music. Seriously, don’t start a conversation with me about it or I’ll talk for days. They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us is a sometimes heartbreaking and always hopeful book of essays on how our lives are defined by the music we listen to. As Hanif wrote in one of them, “I understand what it is to be sad, even when everyone around you is demanding your happiness - and what are we to do with all of that pressure other than search for a song that lets us be drained of it all?” Whether it’s an essay on Fleetwood Mac or Carly Rae Jepsen or Future, you’ll learn something important about the world and maybe discover new music along the way.
2. Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World by Rob Sheffield
Rob Sheffield is one of the greatest music writers I’ve ever discovered. The work he does for Rolling Stone is unmatched and his books are no different. Dreaming the Beatles is not just another book about the Beatles, Rob focuses on the emotional connections we make to music. And all of us, whether we’re eight or eighty, have a connection with the Beatles. Why does the next generation keep discovering them, and loving them more than the last? Like he says in the book, “The world keeps dreaming the Beatles, long after the Beatles themselves figured the dream was over. Our Beatles have outlasted theirs.”
3. Am I Alone Here? by Peter Orner
Maybe it’s just a thing that readers do, but I love reading about reading. I love authors who can articulate the importance of certain books to themselves and to culture as a whole. And that’s what Peter has done here. “Stories, both my own and those I’ve taken to heart, make up whoever it is that I’ve become,” Peter writes in this book that is an elegy for a late father and an end of a marriage, but is also a celebration of renewal through the stories we read and tell ourselves.
If you aren’t familiar with Zadie Smith, I highly recommend you become familiar. She will save your life more than a few times. I have personally taken to calling her the Queen of fiction, because she is. But in this particular book, she graces us with essays on all sorts of subjects ranging from climate change to social media to Brexit and American politics to libraries to Justin Bieber and everything in between. This book is Zadie at her finest.
Poetry and Memoirs
1. Popular Music by Kelly Schirmann
I know poetry can sometimes be intimidating to get into, but I promise you won’t be disappointed. Poetry has a way of tricking your heart so that it gets to the true feeling of things. In Popular Music, Kelly shares poems that are at once intimate, but universal. She explores the spaces between - between the singer and the audience, and between the lyrics and the message. Poems on questions of life, music, and sometimes America, it’ll feel like you just took a deep breath when you’re finished reading this one.
2. How to be Happy: Not a Self-Help Book. Seriously. by Iain Thomas
I discovered Iain Thomas accidentally on Tumblr like a thousand years ago. He used to write under an anonymous name “iwrotethisforyou” and is one of my favorite living poets. This book is a collection of poems, prose, emails, and tweets about going through difficult times, being depressed, not being able to write the book you promised your publisher, and maybe finding something that resembles happiness along the way.
Patti Smith is a hero of mine, and you’ll understand why when you read this memoir of her time in New York City in the 60’s and 70’s and the relationship she had with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The way Patti writes is so poetic and dreamlike, it just carries you away to someplace wonderful. An honest account of their youth and friendship, I can’t recommend this one enough.
4. Love Is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
Rob Sheffield made the list twice, but for good reason. Love Is a Mix Tape is about Rob’s wife, Renee, who was also a music journalist before she suddenly passed away in 1997 and left behind all of the mix tapes they had made together. Mixes for dating, for road trips, for doing the dishes, for sleeping, and eventually mixes to mourn his loss. This is a memoir of how Rob’s first love, music, led him to his second, Renee.
Fiction
1. How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
If you’ve never heard of Caitlin Moran, then you’re welcome. My job here is done. I first read Caitlin when I discovered How to Build a Girl, a story about a young girl growing up in Wolverhampton, England who moves to London to become a music journalist at the age of sixteen. Loosely based on Caitlin’s life, this book is endearing and hilarious, and truly captures what it’s like to grow up as a girl in this world. I have since read four books by Caitlin, and all of them are as charming as the next. Bonus: there is a sequel to this book, How to be Famous, with a third one in the works!
2. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami is one of those authors that I am so thankful to have discovered. I can’t imagine my life without his books in it. Norwegian Wood, titled after the Beatles song of the same name, is the coming of age love story of Toru and Naoko. But as Toru settles into a life of loneliness and isolation on campus, Naoko finds the pressure of life unbearable. With his unique and surreal style, Murakami weaves together the music, the mood, and the ethos of the sixties with one man’s romantic coming of age story.
3. Isn’t It Pretty To Think So? by Nick Miller
Jake Reed is struggling post graduation. He’s finding it difficult to find a use for his liberal arts degree, but after a death in the family and a surprise inheritance, he quits his job and goes on a road trip to find something new. Like the green light in The Great Gatsby, Isn’t It Pretty To Think So? evokes a universal longing. We all know what it’s like to be lost and confused and to be searching for who we are. Nick Miller captures the angst and restlessness of the Millennial Generation better than any book I’ve read. Like this quote from the book, “Get a grip on reality, man. Stop worrying about who you aren’t, and start being who you are.” We’re all so worried about appearances, and appearing better than we are online. If we stop worrying so much about what everyone else thinks, we could actually be who we are, because who we are is pretty cool.
4. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
The Night Circus isn’t exactly a new book, it was published in 2011. But somehow it sneaks its way onto every book list I create. It is still, after nearly nine years, my favorite fiction book I’ve ever read. It’s a story about a circus that arrives in the middle of the night. No one sees it go up and no one sees it leave. It’s just there one day and gone the next. It is only open at night. To patrons, it’s just a circus, but behind the scenes a fierce competition is underway. Celia and Marco have trained their whole lives for this competition, and unbeknownst to them only one can survive. Despite being competitors, they fall in love. For those who enjoy a little magic and sweeping, grand, rich love stories, don’t pass this one up!
Sarah is a freelance writer and creative, making videos and podcasts with her husband Cody.
More than anything, she loves reading, writing, travel, blurry photos, and anything that
makes her feel something. You can find her online at sarahjensen.co and on instagram @sarah_jensen