Recommended recent reads.

Okay, so. I asked on Tumblr if anyone wanted me to write a blog on what I've been reading, or watching, and Tina asked for books - so books it is. These aren't so much reviews or critiques as I read them, I loved them, you should read them and tell me what you think.

“I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it.” 

Okay, so I did the obnoxious thing and I watched the film first. Sorry. Then I was wandering through Dymocks (fuck, I miss Borders) near university and saw it and had a few hours to kill, so I decided to read it. And I'm really glad I did. The movie is amazing, but the book just explores the characters and their backgrounds in ways film scheduling could never allow. I really loved the way that Stockett wrote Aibileen's accent, you could really get a taste of the talk and the times, I loved each and every perspective - Aibileen's loss is felt in every increasingly bitter thought,  Minny was as fantastic as the film portrays her, so fierce, yet so fragile in so many ways. Skeeter - what the movie doesn't show you is just how courageous what she does is in the sense that she is betraying friendships. In the movie, Hilly is the evil villain that needs to be taken down at all costs, but in the novel - well, Skeeter really struggles with it. They were best friends, after all. Even if you know your friends are evil to the core - they're still your friends, for some reason or another.

The writing is superb. Aibileen's perspective is especially painful, yet perfect. It makes you view the past, and the present, in different ways, and coming from a country whose education system does not explore the American Civil Rights movement - it's a great way to learn, and to gain a little sympathy from the insight that I think a lot of us lack. You can never know exactly what it was like to be such an oppressed people, and to have to wear it with a smile, but I think this book gives enough to open your eyes.

“...and there was nothing to do except to wait and to hurt.” 

One of the books I read on a train in Europe. I was running out of things to read when I spotted it in a newsagency, and I had heard so much about it yet never gotten around to reading it...and what a shame that was. Yet, it felt even more profound to read it in completely relaxed mode. What else can I do on a train but read and observe? So I read. And I felt. And I cried. This book is written from the perspective of an autistic boy, hell bent on solving the crime of his neighbour's dog's death. Yet no one wants him to explore, to discover, to investigate. 

For him, everything is about the mystery. For us, it's about everything else we discover about his sad life on the way. And oh, is it sad. And oh, has his family suffered. But it's presented in such a blunt and matter-of-fact way that you cannot help but laugh at much of what he says, the jokes he tells, the situations he finds himself in. I think that's a really unique thing. To present a devastating story without omitting humour. And quite often, in my experience, that comes from the perspective of a character who isn't "all there".

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” 

You know that book that you find yourself reading in public, and suddenly you hit that "oh god, shit's about to get sad" moment and you have to stop? Well, this was TFIOS for me. I was on the train back from my father's hometown to Salzburg, and I felt it. That pang. I closed the book and held it to my chest until I got back to my hotel room, my sister went down to the bar with my father, and I read.

And I ate cake. 

And I cried. 

Ugly sobs. The blurb is enough to tell you that you're in for an exquisitely sad read - but what makes this book so sad, so emotional, is that it isn't all tragedy. There is love, laughter, and life. John Green is a hell of a writer. He knows people. I have since read Looking for Alaska (more tears) and Paper Towns (less tears, but a touching tale nonetheless) and I've never read a writer quite like him. He has a fantastic grasp on comedy. And characters. The characters he creates are flawed, and thus they are loveable, and so are his books.

“Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly. Literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for us to endure nobly.”

 Confession: I only read this book because they cast Jennifer Lawrence (Jennifer LOVEOFMYLIFE Lawrence, as I like to call her) in one of the lead roles in the film adaption. Ahem. 

Further confession: I loved it. And it's now one of my favourite books of all time. Where do I start? I don't know. It's not a book that can be summed up in a mere review. I think it just needs to be read. Pat Peoples is a very damaged man, released from a mental institution to stay with his mother and his less-than-pleased father. He's determined to get his wife back, who promised they would when "apart time" was over - the thing is, apart time is indefinite. But he wants to prove that he's good enough for her. So he loses weight. Reads the literature she teaches in her classroom (and hates it, because it's depressing and doesn't focus on the "silver linings" in life.) And he tries to be nice, instead of right. But there's much more to Pat's backstory that we - or he - knows, as we find out. And then we meet Tiffany. Fucked up in her own way, Tiffany runs with Pat every day - without his permission. This distresses him. They go on a date. They join a dance competition together and that -- that's all I'm saying for the plot. Mostly it's a story about the people we meet, and the people we need to let go of. Mostly, as cliché as it sounds, it's about Silver Linings. And it's beautiful.

(And the author, Matthew Quick, is a gorgeous person who regularly replies to me on Twitter and everyone should support him and buy the book before they see the movie, because while I'm excited for it - it's never going to be what the book was to me.)

"I know you’ll never hear this, but someday there may be someone who should know about you… us. Your name was Gwen Stacy and mine is Peter Parker. This is the story of how we fell in love. Or, more appropriately, how we almost didn’t fall in love."

Okay. Even just finding that quote made me cry. I found Spider-Man Blue through trawling through the ASM tags (I LOVED that film, suffice it to say) and saw a fan of the comics who insisted it be read -and so I did. And my god, is it sad. But it's also incredibly beautiful. And I think even if you aren't the biggest Spider-Man fan, or you find yourself more inclined towards the MJ romance, it ought to be read. Because ultimately it is a story about love, loss, longing - and what it means to finally pull yourself together and move on, all the while accepting that you're never going to quite let go. Peter/Spider-Man records messages to his long-lost-Gwen Stacy on Valentine's Day, and you can feel his pain. The pictures, the words, altogether - it's incredible. I loved it. I hope you do too.

Please let me know if you opt to read any of these based of my recommendation, and what you think!