The year is new, and so is your reading list. If you need a riveting read to ease you back into your literary groove, look no further! Here are three books to add to your list if you’re in search of something…
…Quick-witted, contemporary, and raunchy
You’ll fly through Melissa Broder’s Milk Fed, a short novel stuffed with provocative imagery that navigates the topics of repressed sexuality, family trauma, and restrictive eating. Whilst it’s advisable to read the trigger warnings before embarking, Milk Fed is laden with relatable humour and touching anecdotes from the protagonist, Rachel, who cuts off her toxic mother and meets Miriam, a young Orthodox Jewish woman who immediately entices Rachel with her full figure, unrestrained diet, and strong religious faith. In Broder’s simultaneously erotic and spiritual depiction of desire—for food, sex, and family—she scintillatingly navigates the American-Jewish experience and the often-ignored intimacy of sex between women.
…Optimistic, thought-provoking, and full of anecdotes you’ll be keen to retell
Rutger Bregman’s Humankind: A Hopeful History is the perfect anthro-political read. While attempting to prove that humans are, in fact, generally decent, Bregman skilfully weaves in anecdotes ranging from military defection during World War II to the “real Lord of the Flies”. Humankind is a longer read, but its succinct chapters and narrative flow are sure to keep you hooked as Bregman explains some of the most surefire signs of human moral failure—the Stanford Prison Experiment, Easter Island, the Holocaust—with the logic that it is not evil, but “groupthink” that is humanity’s greatest weakness. Read it and dissect with a friend – it’s a perfect book club pick!
…Touching, angst-filled, and queer
Philippe Besson’s Lie With Me will tug at your heartstrings with its beautiful prose and raw emotion. A French memoir translated by Molly Ringwald, its title is a double entendre, emblematic of a clandestine romance between two young boys in rural France who are pulled apart when one moves to Paris to live openly and the other is fated to a dishonest marriage. Besson recounts his whirlwind teenage romance in the 1980s as he encounters his lover’s döppelganger 20 years later. You can read this tender story that explores class, shame, and queer adolescence in one sitting. Better still, read it in French!
Avoid January’s dreary weather and the sudden onslaught of university work by jumpstarting your 2024 Reading Challenge with one of these fantastic books.
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