One thing I love about reading is that you can truly never run out of new material. My taste in reading has changed quite a bit over the years and I fall more and more in love with the habit of getting information in. There is just so much interesting content and discussions out there and really, I can’t get enough!

My childhood was full of those dreamy love romances by Danielle Steele and Nicholas Sparks, then it moved to darker material by the likes of Dean Koontz and Stephen King. After that was legal drama and conspiracy types from folks like John Grisham and Dan Brown. For the past 7 or so years, I’ve been enthralled by people’s lives. Give me a memoir or story of resilience any day any time and I’m taking it!

For some strange reason I’m always attracted to literature where people it doesn’t always have a happy ending. Because you know, that’s kinda how life is, yes? You don’t always get what you want.

Like most bibliophiles, there are a couple books in my collection (what remains of it due to lending and never getting back. Ugh!) that I’ve read many many times over. To me, every time I read them, I come across something I may have missed before. Sometimes it’s the littlest details that make a book all the more worth another read.

Let’s talk about a few of my favorite of all time, books to read. They show everyday people like you and me, shuffling through life and dealing with what it dishes out. They faced very difficult feats and not everyone made it out unscathed. In fact, no one made it out truly in tact. But I mean, how many of us truly make it through life totally whole? These pieces are worth a read.

Night – Elie Wiesel

Mr Wiesel passed a couple years ago and although he lived a long full life, surviving the Holocaust and all, I still felt pretty gutted. He wrote several pieces about his experience as a young jew during WWII and his life afterward, but Night, which was my first read from him, is my favorite. This book is a short read, but is packed with an abundance of intense sadness, anger, frustration and determination. He gives graphic detail into a life of someone losing his entire family, surviving horrific abuse and getting out to the other side barely alive. This life experience is so compelling, and even though so vastly different from my own ancestors (though not in it’s entirety), I continue to read and be connected to it.

My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward – Mark Lukach

Another heart wrenching story but this time it’s about a young marriage. Although there’s talk of hardship and unhappiness, it is very much a beautiful love story. I got swept in by the first few lines and that’s how I know I’d truly enjoy and love this book. Lukach does an amazing job of describing life before, during and after diagnoses of a mentally ill loved one. I’ve had several mentally ill friends and family on various spectrums throughout my life and it’s always a wonder, that every single case, every single person’s story and experience is different. I always marvel at their tenacity to survive and live a life that some of us take for granted.

The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls 

This has got to be my favorite book of all time. I think I’m that attached to this memoir because there are so many aspects of it that I can relate to. It’s about a young woman talking about her impoverished childhood and strained familial relationships. That sounds like a pretty normal, everyday story right? But wait till you get to learn who her parents are. You’d continue reading just to try figuring them out. This little book holds many a tale of life as an offspring of hippies, various attempts at escape and how sometimes you just can’t get away from your past. No matter how far across the world you travel.

Mr Loverman – Bernadine Evaristo 

This is the only one of the bunch that has a bit of humor in it. Although a bit dry, I love it! All because of my Caribbean kinship with the characters and the way the author jumps from character to character without saying who’s who. You get to learn them eventually and it’s an adventurous read. This story is set in the days where not everyone got married for love, but more so out of necessity. Simply to keep up and maintain a certain status in society.

In this book you’ll read about heartbreak, making decisions that may ruin us in efforts to find happiness and peace and what it’s like to find true love, only to be told it’s the wrong kind of love. We see how our choices have repercussions and although we think we may have made the right choice, it sometimes come with a hefty price that makes us wonder if it was really worth it.

Peep me if you’d like to borrow. Promise to return though! Lol.

What are you favorite books to read? Do tell!

Thanks for stopping by!

PS~ 2018 Reading List and 5 recent reads.