Down Memory Lane: My Top 5 Reads in the Last 3 Years
This may feel like a very banal post, and if it does, I really am not sorry. The whole point of this space is for me to gush about the things I love and complain about the things I don’t (fair warning).
And if you know me at all, even slightly, we have likely had a conversation about books and/or how much I love reading. So to me, it is but natural that books would be the central focus of my first proper post, and that more than that, I would use it to talk about my five favourite books from the last three years.
So without further preamble and in no particular order, here we go.
Did I pick this three year window of time so I could squeeze this book in? Maybe. But it just goes to show how much I love this book and how much you need it in your life. 84, Charing Cross Road feels like a tonic in the world that we live in today. It is the story of connections and friendships that are formed over shared passions, and the power of thoughtfulness and kindness.
Entirely composed of letters, 84, Charing Cross Road covers two decades of correspondence between Helene Hanff, a freelance writer based in New York, and Frank Doel who was a book dealer at a used bookshop called Marks & Co on 84, Charing Cross Road. What ensues is an enduring friendship which starts over books but then spills over to life.
Marks & Co no longer exists much to my dismay, but there are still lovely used bookshops along Charing Cross Road, like Henry Pordes Books (72, Charing Cross Road) and Any Amount of Books (56, Charing Cross Road).
Pick this up when you need something sweet, nourishing and hopeful.
I was not a stranger to John Green when I came across this book. Around the time ‘The Fault in our Stars’ frenzy gripped my generation, I also picked up ‘Looking for Alaska’ and ‘Paper Towns’ (and liked them much better, if I’m honest). And then of course there was the Crash Course series on YouTube, which I still dip in and out of (shout out, Thought Bubble).
However, this book trumps all of that. All two-hundred-and-something pages of joy fill you up with warmth and you start to look at the things in your life differently, as a result. But what’s it about, you may ask. It’s a collection of essays (and therefore, easy to consume in bite-size pieces) of various things that have been a part of John’s life for a long or short time that he reflects upon and reviews. In a way that is hopeful, hilarious and ever so memorable. My favourite chapters are all of them.
The book originally started out as a podcast (although there is content that the book covers that the podcast doesn’t and vice versa) and can also be accessed that way.
Read when you need a hug.
This book is very short, but it is one of the most quietly powerful books I have ever read. Claire Keegan is able to transport you through her words to the world of a little girl who is sent to live with distant relatives for a period of time. In that period of time, the little girl goes on to experience what I think will later on become a core memory for her, and I think she provides something of a solace to the family she stays with too. I don’t want to give away too much; you should go into this book knowing as little a possible. I would love for Claire Foster to write about the little girl reflecting about these memories in the future and how they have impacted her life.
Read to break your reading slump.
I had put off reading this book for years before I finally picked it up. It is funny how books find you at exactly the right time, and give you a dose of perspective that you have been craving. This is an autobiography by a 36-year-old neurosurgeon who gets diagnosed with lung cancer. What follows is Paul Kalanithi reflecting on his childhood, his journey to becoming a doctor and his feelings about his friends and family. It is so poignant and grounding as a book, it pulls you back to focus on the things that matter to you most. My favourite quote from the book:
“Even if I’m dying, until I actually die, I am still living.
Read when you need something impactful.
This is not a very nice thing to do, but my blog, my rules, I suppose, and so here I am picking the first book of a trilogy as my fifth choice. This book had to make the list because Brandon Sanderson is really so deserving of all the hype he receives.
Mistborn: The Final Empire is a fantasy book and I could try to summarise what it’s about, but I wouldn’t do it justice. So I will quote the blurb which has been written by professionals because it’ll do a much better job than I can:
“The mists rule the night...
The lord ruler owns the world.
For a thousand years the ash fell.
For a thousand years, the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years, the Lord Ruler reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Every attempted revolt has failed miserably.
Yet somehow hope survives.
A new kind of uprising is being planned, one that depends on the cunning of a brilliant criminal mastermind and the courage of an unlikely heroine, a Skaa street urchin, who must learn to master Allomancy, the power of a mistborn.
What if the prophesied hero had failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn trilogy, a saga of surprises that begins here”
If you read this book, and then of course the rest of the series, I can promise you many twists and turns, stomach lurches, squeals of shock and indignation, eager anticipation and perhaps just a smidgeon of confusion (because Brandon Sanderson’s world building takes a minute to wrap your head around). It pays off though, because just as you think you’ve figured one thing out, there is more mystery you need to unravel.
But my favourite parts of this book, and the series was seeing the character arcs and how we watched them fight, fall and fail. They are so complex and feel so real that it is a wrench to leave them when you finish the series.
Read when you’re ready for commitment.
So there you have it. My top five books of the last three years. This has been a really fun exercise. There are of course books that are among my favourites that I haven’t bee able to include here because of the time window, but I think any time beyond this and I would have to re-read the books to recommend them again with certainty.
I will leave this here for now. I would love to know if you read any of these, or if you’ve read them already and what you thought. Let me know your favourite reads from the last three years.
It is amazing how individual neurochemical processes fire on emotions as diverse as pen friendship (even in this world of instant messaging) to tragedy to some version of star wars. I have not had the good fortune of reading any of these... Yet... good to add (atleast one of these) to my longlist for future.