TOP TEN TUESDAY | THINGS THAT MAKE ME PICK UP A BOOK

This week’s topic is an interesting one. I remember reading about this in Anne Fadiman’s book Ex Libris. She talked about how most readers have an odd niche interest in their reading – in her case, arctic exploration. She couldn’t explain exactly why, but books on this topic fascinate her and she has a shelf dedicated to her books on it. I think most avid readers have at least one of these, as well as a host of particular interests that, if they show up at all in a book, however incidentally, will pique their interest. I definitely have several hot button things that will make me look twice at most any book. Here they are:

1. Books set in England

I’m a sucker for certain settings, and England is really my #1 spot to visit through literature. I think it’s something to do with it being my ancestral home, and never really having come to terms with my parents’ decision to make me Canadian. I do not fit in here. It is way too surface friendly, the sky is too big, the streets are too orderly and there isn’t enough variation in the buildings. I prefer cute and old buildings (like pubs with crooked walls), the accents, the language (I mean really, “crisps” is so much better than “chips”), and most of all, the humour. It’s my jam. These three books are all very different, and yet there is a common culture that runs through them that just feels like home to me. When life is too much, England is where I want my books to take me.

1. Bookstores

 

Of these three books The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry was by far my favourite, but I was definitely drawn to all of them because they held the promise of time spent with shelves full of books, and let’s face it, I can’t resist that.

1. WWII

I can’t always handle war books, but WWII is the only historical time period I will read. I’m not generally a fan of historical fiction, this is my only exception. Lately I’ve been more interested in reading about the time right after the war (I’ve also watched a lot of Call the Midwife), but anything about the home front during or after is going to pique my interest.

1. Motherhood

 

I am in a delicate place with this topic right now. I am drawn to it, because I’m looking for people who get how hard it is to be a mom when you’re not a naturally kid-oriented extrovert. It’s also hard to spend too much time thinking too much about it, so I have to ration myself. I adored Shirley Jackson’s Life Among the Savages because she wasn’t a perfect mom, and she dealt with her various domestic crises with patience and humour. Goals. I just finished Small Animals which was hard going topically, but gave me lots of food for thought. I’m excited to get to Kid Gloves because I haven’t tried a graphic novel in ages and this one looks really interesting.

1. Immigration

It’s been a minute since I read Hearts and Minds, but I loved that it deals with a few different immigrant storylines and brings up some of the issues immigrants face without that being the focus of the novel. Americanah dealt with a Nigerian woman who moves to the US to go to in ivy league school, and the things she finds hardest about being an African in America but not an African-American. Homes was one of the two finalists in this year’s Canada Reads and is a memoir of a teenaged Syrian refugee’s experience fleeing to Canada.

1. Indigenous/minority rights and issues (fiction and non-fiction)

 

I’m always looking for books that will teach me something, and I think it’s particularly important to try and learn more about the experiences of and issues facing minority populations. We like to think we’ve come such a long way, but we still have so far to go. I worry that we (I mean white folk) have the option of ignoring issues facing immigrants, indigenous people and minorities and we too often take that option. So books that speak on these issues are ones I try to get to on a regular basis and recommend to others.

1. Books set in the southern US, particularly New Orleans

I’ve only visited New Orleans once, but it was enough for me to fall in love with it. I can’t even explain what I loved – the energy, the lush flora, the colours, the late-night drinking, you know, the high-brow stuff. So I love reading books set there. They are vibrant and have a particular feel to them that is impossible to find anywhere else.

1. Books about the criminal justice system

This is one of those oddly specific topics readers are often obsessed with. I could widen this to sociological topics in general, or even civil rights. That would also be accurate. But these two books were both amazing, and I feel like understanding the injustices of the US criminal system is important in understanding the larger social context.

1. Quiet books

I love books that whisper rather than shout. About normal people, and the small moments in their lives that are poignant and meaningful. All three of these books are more about the characters and their internal lives than any external events, and I loved all three of them.

1. Books about reading/readers

 

This one is pretty self-explanatory. I think all readers are constantly looking for other people who share our obsession, whether they’re real life people or exist solely between the pages of the books they adore. I read to hear that same devotion I feel, to hear which books have inspired lifelong love, and to build out my TBR (though god knows I don’t really need any help there). I will spend as much time as I can with fellow book-lovers, so any book about a reader is going on my TBR list. Please feel free to share your recommendations down below!

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.