The Bibliotaph: joan didion

One of my favorite things about books is that there are books for every mood. Below is a list of some books you may enjoy if you’re looking for a more melancholy and sad read:

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien - This book has funny moments and terrifying moments, but the overall feeling of this book is sad and thoughtful and definitely melancholy. This book deals with the Vietnam War in a very thoughtful and somewhat gloomy (but honest and vulnerable) way.

Hold the Dark by William Giraldi - Missing children, a cold and unforgiving landscape, and a narrator who’s experienced much loss come together to make this book both intriguing and pensive.

Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks - This fictional diary of a young woman’s descent into a life of drugs, sex, and difficulties can be a difficult and sad read. Recommended for YA readers.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - Didion’s account of the year following her husband’s death is a serious and vulnerable look at encountering grief. This book is perfect for anyone experiencing loss and wondering how to cope with it.

What Daddy Did by Neal Shusterman - This fictional story regarding one family dealing with the death of their mother (at the hand of their father) is a difficult look at grief and at young children coping with loss and learning to move past it.

What books would you add to this list? What melancholy books have you enjoyed? What makes a book melancholy in your mind?

Ah! I’m so glad June is almost over. This month, I loved across the country AND started graduate school, so it’s been hectic. I think we’re finally unpacked and that I’m finally adjusted to being back in school. That being said, June has been crazy and I haven’t read nearly as much as I’d like to - at least not for fun. Graduate school involves a lot of reading - textbooks and articles especially. So while I have gotten a few books read, there aren’t as many to pick from in my summary as I had hoped for. The fun part of reading for school is that I’ve had to read a few books that I probably normally wouldn’t have tried out and I’ve been exposed to a lot of topics that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. So hurrah for school! And reading new and interesting books and topics!

With all that in mind, here are this month’s best and strangest:

BEST

Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb - I’ve been meaning to pick up a Robin Hobb book for ages and I finally got ahold of this one and IT WAS SO COOL. Magical ships and pirates and family drama and romance - this book has a bit of everything and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m so excited to try out the next book in the series. Highly recommended for pirate lovers and fantasy readers.

Dune by Frank Herbert - In an effort to enhance my knowledge of classic sci-fi, I finally got around to reading this and I’m certainly glad I did. Not only is the world-building fantastic, but it’s an interest story and a unique one. I’m now trying to build a D&D campaign that’s loosely based on this book, so that will be interesting. Recommended for sci-fi lovers (slash why haven’t you read this yet?!)

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion - I read this for a class and it really resonated with me. Didion shares her experience of the year following her husband’s death. She talks about other difficulties in her life and how she confronted her own grief and how the people around her were both helpful and harmful to her grieving process. It was a fascinating and very honest book and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I finished it. Recommended for those who work with grieving individuals or who are working through their own grief.

STRANGEST

Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure

Vibrator Nation: How Feminist Sex-Toy Stores Changed the Business of Pleasure by Lynn Comella - I didn’t read very many odd books this month that were worth mentioning -books I read were either exactly what I expected or were different, but in a boring way. This book was fascinating and not exactly what I expected, so I loved it. Comella shares her research of the first feminist sex-toy stores and how these stores both influenced attitudes and policies about sex. She also shares the strange and sometimes game-changing business practices of some of these stores and how they started a revolution in sex-toy shopping. This book was so serious and informational while still being about something that made me giggle a bit. I wanted so badly to tell everyone about all the interesting things I was learning in this book, but striking up a conversation with your dad about the development of high-quality vibrators doesn’t always seem comfortable. I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in feminism or in sex-positive literature.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS