favorite books / tbr

hihihihihihihi hi there. i’ve been in  year long book slump, and i am finally attempting to get out of it. so here i am going to talk about my favorite books i’ve read and some books on my tbr !! beware: i love classics. ok here we go !!

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girl, interrupted

a mental health memoir about the author, susanna kaysen, and her stay at the famous mclean psychiatric hospital (the same hospital sylvia plath stayed at. also the same one my favorite author, david foster wallace, checked into for a short period of time.) also made famous by the movie with winona ryder. this book touches on so many serious topics, not even just exlusively mental health. there are themes of cultural struggle and societal standards that fit beautifully with the rest of the book. each chapter is its own little short excerpt about her time at the hospital, and her time dealing with the people there and even herself. 

prozac nation

i relate to this book more than most of my favorites. this is another mental health memoir (i have a thing for them, can’t you tell?) this book helped me tremendously, so much so that i think i am going to reread it soon. the author, elizabeth wurtzel, recalls her time during the prozac-prominent america she lived in. she was a journalist at harvard, and did music journalism in other states, which is why this was so inspiring to read for me. it goes into disturbing detail about how elizabeth dealt with depression and self harm, but was still worth the read. 

the bell jar

i love sylvia plath. she was one of the first poets, along with edgar allan poe, that got me into writing poetry with vivid imagery. this is also a mental health memoir, but it’s presented as a novel. however, with knowledge of plath’s lifetime, she describes her stay at the same mclean psychiatric hospital that susanna kaysen stayed at, of course this was before susanna’s time. this book is very disturbing, and it is definitely ride. it ends suspended in the air, not on a high note, but just suspended. maybe it would be a good ending if the circumstances with sylvia’s own life were better, but it isn’t. a quote from this book that i think perfectly captures it’s essense is “because wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.”

the metamorphosis 

this story absolutely DESTROYED me. i mean, i was ugly sobbing. this book’s first line is pretty infamous, “as Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”, and from that line i loved the book. but don’t let this somewhat absurd concept make you think it’s a lighthearted read, because it isn’t. this book is so incredibly sad for me, because you’re watching this man who loves his family become the subject of their repulsion. i won’t spoil it, (i really kind of want to), but basically they treat him horribly and all he wants is to be loved in his new form. and he doesn’t get that:( pls he loved his sister so much and was going to send her to a school to help her violin career</3 and they were disgusted by him. i will genuinely start crying if i keep going i’ve got to stop now okay i’m done

the jungle

i haven’t read this book yet, but i do have a copy of it in my room and i have started it !! i was really interested in this book after my english II teacher (the best teacher i’ve ever had and ever will have) introduced me to it. i love gore and i love the fact that this book is completely based on true events that upton sinclair witnessed himself. he is one of my biggest journalistic inspirations, because he worked in these meat factories during the 1900s and witnessed the sanitary issues and absolutely disgusting accidents that took place in his workplace. this book is quite literally what led to the pure meat and drug act. you have a lot to thank upton sinclair for. 

other books on my tbr list that i won’t go into detail with: the picture of dorian gray (idk i’ve tried reading it so many times but i kind of hate it), clockwork orange, and silence of the lambs (never finished it)

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so yeah, thanks for reading. cya next week.