TOP TEN TUESDAY | BOOKS I HAD VERY STRONG FEELINGS ABOUT

Oh, well this is going to be interesting. I am a very emotional reader. I have a hard time reading books that don’t have a strong emotional component. I’m going to look through and try to pick the ones I remember being some of the strongest, so we’ll see what I come up with!

               

In an odd sort of way, all four of these books gave me a similar feeling upon finishing them. They’re very different, and I had a variety of different emotions while reading each one of them, but when I closed the cover, they all left me feeling like I’d just had a deeply satisfying reading experience. I felt a bit warm and fuzzy – if also a bit sniffly in some cases. But oddly comforted, like even the things that were sad made sense, and like I’d left these characters somewhere they belonged.

              

These four were all very powerful reads in one way or another. Heartstopper because it showed a very beautiful group of relationships and friendships, and a kind of diversity I never knew existed when I was that age. It gave me hope. Ove was such a lovely sense of community, and it also showed the power of opening yourself up to the people around you who want to help. Demon Copperhead was a gut punch of a novel, but in the best way. I loved the narrative voice and how even though the story was horribly sad, he still allowed for some humour and levity. The writing was beautiful and evocative, and there were so many deeply impactful passages that I marked as I read and that will stay with me. The Air Raid Book Club is a WWII book, so of course it’s going to have some emotional bits. But it was also a story of people who found comfort in reading during the Blitz, which is a story from my family as well. My Nan started reading as a way to pass the time during air raids, and that love of reading stayed with her for the rest of her life. It was also one of the only uncomplicated things we shared, being as we were such different people. So this book brought all that to the fore.

   

These two books made me feel seen. They made me feel like I’m not alone, and like my experiences are valid. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating recounts the experience of having a chronic health issue, and also the importance of finding a tether that can keep you grounded and stop you from giving up. A Thousand Ways to Pay Attention is about a woman’s life disintegrating as her mental landscape becomes increasingly fractured. She is eventually diagnosed with ADHD. I felt like some parts of it were my own story, and though her symptoms were different than mine, and her challenges weren’t exactly the same, a lot of the emotions she had to deal with felt viscerally familiar.

     

These two books are difficult reads. And yet, they’re also beautiful. Pageboy is a story of self-invention, of suffering that is followed by letting go and embracing the self. Ten Steps to Nanette is similar in some ways, but told with a different tone. Gadsby is a comedian, so while the meat of it is as deeply sad and anger-inducing as Pageboy, it’s also told with a type of humour that is exactly mine, and because of that I felt this double reaction to it – lots of pain and anger, but also a lot of laughter and enjoyment. Two excellent memoirs about queerness, identity and trying to fit into a world that doesn’t have a place for you.

So there you go, some books I’ve had a strong emotional reaction to. I decided not to include the books that made me feel bad or icky, because I’d prefer to focus on books I liked and got something from! What about you guys? Which books topped your list this week? Where any of my picks on yours?

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.