It’s a Sunday. You’re dehydrated. You feel a little gross. You’ve got work tomorrow and you need to feel better about yourself. Here are some short books that you can read in one rotting session. Enjoy the ride babe x
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Hopecore.
Some books remind you that all hope is not lost. The world and its creatures are worth saving. It can be okay.
The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono (74 pages)
An allegorical tale about environmental stewardship and our symbiotic relationship with nature. Our impact on nature is terrifying until we fight for it to be beautiful.Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (116 pages)
This one will make you cry, I have to admit. It’s a story about the brutality and control of women and communities by the church via the mother and baby homes in Ireland. However, it is also a story about courage, selflessness, and the drive for good by ordinary people.What You’re Looking for is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (253 pages)
A cheesy collection of mini and connected stories. If you need a hug this book will hug you. People go to the library with a void in their hearts, and the librarian finds covert ways to suggest fixes. This is a public library stan account.Sweet Bean Paste by Tetsuya Akikawa (216 pages)
This is another that will pull on your heartstrings. Think unlikely but adorable found family, hope, acceptance, and finding your calling in life.Disobedient Bodies by Emma Dabiri (150 pages)
This is the only non-fiction book on this list because… let’s be real. However, you can read this wonderfully cathartic book in one session. Dabiri tears down the beauty industry, tracks its origins, and identifies alternative beauty standards we could strive towards. Norms that can fix our relationship with the self and the earth. P.s. it’s not you, it’s capitalism.
We all need to ugly cry sometimes.
The combination of post-socialising anxiety and the Sunday scaries is a disaster waiting to happen. Channel those emotions and release them with the characters of these books.
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly by Novel by Seon-mi Hwang (134 pages)
A little hen dreams of being a mother. In a miraculous turn of events, she gets her wish. This novella is a sweet, uplifting tale until you’re lying in the dark sobbing about a little hen and her little son. (Don’t worry, neither of them dies at the end).Elevation by Stephen King (146 pages)
This is not a horror, and not what you’d expect from King. Imagine that each day you get lighter and lighter and lighter and lighter until you can barely stay connected to the ground. Is this a goodbye?Lie With Me by Philip Besson (148 pages)
A story of a queer first love in a small town riddled with shame."This feeling of love, it transports me, it makes me happy. But it also consumes me and makes me miserable, the way all impossible loves are miserable."
Weird. No Notes.
Listen, sometimes you need to read something that’s so messed up it makes you feel better about your current state of being. I get it.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata (247 pages)
I couldn’t make a ‘weird’ list without Murata. A coming-of-age story about a girl and her cousin who come to believe that they’re from another planet. As the book progresses they plunge deeper and deeper into this fantasy world. Before picking this up, please check the trigger warnings. This becomes actively disturbing.Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (195 pages)
A group of women partake in an expedition to explore Area X. Area X is known for its strange ecological events, from which most explorers have never returned. It’s a fever dream. There’s an angry… blob? A tower that’s not quite a tower because it goes down and not up, but I guess it’s still a tower? Also, someone knows what’s going on here. But who and why?Heatwave by Victor Jestin (104 pages)
It opens “Oscar is dead because I watched him die and did nothing.” Follow a teenager on a spiral of guilt, fear, disorientation, and a description of the summer heat that’s so realistic you will feel as nauseous as our main character. There’s also a pink bunny.Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley (243 pages)
A folk horror novel. It asks the familiar question of its genre: is it the paranormal or is it mental illness? Follow along as a couple embraces very different coping mechanisms to deal with the loss of their son. I have never read a closing line that has given me such violent goosebumps. Highly recommend.
Let me know if you’ve read any of these, or if you have any other bookish hangover recommendations! Until next time <3
P.s. I am still working on a piece entitled ‘Is it still nostalgia if it never stopped being all-consuming?’ but I am a little paralysed by wanting it to be perfect. If you see it drop in the next week, please feel proud of me. Thank you, love you.