The Rabbit Hole
Small Things Like These (Claire Keegan)
This one's a short one, I read it in about two hours, but incredibly impactful. Seriously, I feel like I highlighted half the prose. A novella on what it means to do the right thing versus staying silent. K, it reminds me of that book you suggested, Beartown.
Synopsis: A father in a small Irish village goes about his life as usual, reflecting on the rush of life, when he encounters a young woman being held hostage in a nunnery. A novel on doing what's right, centered around the Magdalene laundries in Ireland.
Lucy's Rating:
Paired stuff: I would highly recommend, if you find this interesting, looking into Kierkegaard's philosophy of "all paths lead to regret," which centers on the idea that by choosing one path, you lose another. VERY baseline explanation, so go look yourself!
A Man Called Ove (Frederick Backman)
A beautiful novel on the purpose of life, happiness, and grief. Seriously, this book is so sad and so happy/cute at the same time, really makes you think about the way you decide to live your life. Also, books on old people always make me sad.
Synopsis: A grumpy old man has a new family move in next door, and his connection with each person in the family helps reshape how he decides to live his life, when he had previously decided to end it early.
Lucy's Rating:
Blue Sisters (Coco Mellors)
Truly one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL pieces of writing on sisterhood and grief I’ve ever come across. Like I genuinely cried (although maybe that’s not a good measure I cry a lot over media). Reminds me of a modern-day version of Little Women, if that's your vibe.
Synopsis: Three estranged sisters struggle to find their way through life and its obstacles after losing another sister to overdose. They reconnect to try and protect their house from being sold.
Lucy's Rating:
Yellowface (R.F. Kuang)
Figured you’d like one from a familiar author! Yellowface is a story told from the most unreliable of unreliable narrators, but that’s what makes it so fun. It’s about cultural appropriation, plagiarism, the power of social media and egotism/narcissism.
Synopsis: A struggling white author suddenly stumbles into the hands of an unpublished, unseen manuscript by a (much more successful) Asian writer whom she knew, and takes it up as her own. She then falls into a spiral of plagiarism, cancel culture, and cultural appropriation.
Lucy's Rating:
Paired stuff: Eating the Other (Bell Hooks) and Orientalist (Edward Said), on cultural appreciation vs. appropriation. Also recommend looking at some of @glasshouse_ insta videos! Very engaging.