A book should move you, actively and forever after. The words should stick with you, should paint your current reality and all of your memories in a different light. From grieving the loss of a lover to the way the first sip of coffee tastes in the morning; don’t settle for anything less. This is your time and your mental space and your fingers upon those pages, so choose wisely, consume entirely, and get completely lost in this beautiful world at your fingertips. Start here, with any of my favorite books, which conveniently are all by female authors. Because I gotta be honest… I only trust a woman to get this deep inside my head. Read and then share them with the women in your life.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery
Heartbreaking, gripping, and just enough dry raw humor when you need it most. A book about the frustrated misunderstanding of youth and the jaded dissatisfaction of adulthood and the necessity of pure imagination for survival. It’s a story of friendship and understanding and it will stay with you, these characters and these words. This is for the wordsmith, the writer, the deepest woman in your life.
Tiny Beautiful Things, by Cheryl Strayed
Before she strayed, Cheryl of Wild fame was an online advice columnist with the moniker of Dear Sugar. With no formal training or psych certifications, what she gave was pure empathy, anonymously. Her beautiful and broken soul connecting to another beautiful and broken soul, through the void and heart to heart. This book highlights some of the deepest cares for help she received during that time and how they healed and hurt and saved her own life. Read this as soon as possible. Share this with your soul sister or real sister or mother.
I’ll Tell You In Person, by Chloe Caldwell
A book of essays by the relentless Chloe Caldwell, who highlights perfectly the recklessness, rawness, and pure beauty of being young and wild and free and a woman in New York. Her stories of friendship, of intimacy, of drug use, and of generally fucking with people who take you for little more than a pretty face are raw and biting and had me laughing out loud on the subway and crying alone in public. This one is for your partner in crime.
Sweetbitter, by Stephanie Danler
If you haven’t heard already, this stunning coming of age novel by Stephanie Danler is one of the best things I’ve read in years. The pain and exhaustion and confusion and desire of your first year living in this city she outlines so poignantly, it makes you somehow kind of wish you could go through it all again. Her words embody all of the complex contradictions of life in New York, how we walk the gossamer thin line of constant self-evaluation and simply blaming the city for any perceived shortcomings. The pleasantness of exchanging a smile across the subway platform is immediately usurped by train traffic delays, a rat on the platform, a homeless man crying out. Tiny, vital victories that are swallowed immediately by some reality that was waiting there all along, just masked by a sweet summer day or full coffee card. Everything defined by utter gravitas as we all just float along, somehow. Sheer joy and earth-shattering defeat, it’s all just the allure of the city, of course. It’s what brought us here and keeps us here, somehow. This work is as stunning, captivating, electrifying, honest as the city it’s set in. Fall in lust with New York again. Get this one for your for the one who needs to be reminded just why she’s living here.
Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert
Creative living beyond fear. There’s no denying that making the leap into the unknown of your own passionate hustle is scary as fuck. Take the words of someone who did and has and is, and use them to motivate you to get beyond this fear. Elizabeth Gïlbert has evolved in such a beautiful way, with words that won’t leave you. Give this to your friend who needs to believe in herself and follow her dreams, or who just has and could use a little (or a lot) of reassurance.
How to be Parisien, Wherever You Are, by Caroline de Maigret and her best friends.
By Caroline de Maigret and co-written with three of her friends, this slightly snarky and wholly charming book about embracing life of the Parisien woman and seeing the world through a distinctively European lens. It describes and exudes a woman who is approachably confident and unyieldingly seductive and deceptively complicated and, well, French. Buy this one for your tightest girl group and read it together and be cooler than everyone else.
How To Be An Explorer of the World, by Keri Smith
This is the equivalent of an adult workbook created by the most inspiring, moving, and wholly creative-minded person you know. You can’t help but interact with it. I bought this just after moving back from Barcelona and found that it helped by rediscover and embrace the world around me through a new lens. This is the cure for reverse culture shock and the answer to the broke and temporarily stagnant traveler. Give this to your Gypsy friend who you can tell is getting restless.
Leave a Reply