8 Books That Capture Very Specific Feelings
Every read can be a beach read if you read it on sand
After a few years of avoiding and declining book clubs because I prefer to read what I like, when I like, and at the pace I like, I came back around and joined a few book clubs this year. No regrets! I'm having fun!
One of my favorite parts of book club meetings is hearing people describe how a book made them feel using some of the funniest metaphors, à la "this book felt like receiving a forehead kiss after a long day of changing poopy diapers." As I prepare for a few upcoming beach trips, I started searching my shelves for books that might make me feel a certain way.
As you may have picked up on if you've been following my book reviews for a while, I'm not exactly a "beach read" person in the traditional sense. But for the beach, I do prefer books that are a little lighter than what I'd typically read and don't require as much mental exertion.
That search for somewhat lighter books, along with some highly specific book club metaphors I've heard, inspired this post. I have read and loved (or really liked) all of these books. Enjoy, please!
1. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
I read Let the Great World Spin in 2017, and I still think about it. It's a historical fiction novel that feels more lively and contemporary than most other historical fiction books I've read. It paints a magical portrait of New York City in the 1970s by weaving together the interconnected lives of strangers.
2. Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
See also: the feeling of watching a car crash you can't look away from. Black Buck is a sharp, satirical take on corporate America, and it's a wild ride. The reader follows Darren, a young Black man from Queens, on his journey from being a Starbucks barista to a cutthroat sales job at a tech startup.
What he faces in his new, predominantly white workplace is all too real and cringey, but also moving and hilarious as he navigates code-switching, ambition, and what success looks like for him.
3. Ghosts by Dolly Alderton
Ghosts is one of my all-time favorite books (I need to re-read it soon to confirm its standing). It's a novel about navigating life in your thirties through the eyes of Nina, a food writer who is facing some of modern womanhood's messiest realities: romantic disappointments, career uncertainties, loneliness, family dynamics, feeling like everyone has life figured out, female friendships, and watching your parents age.
Reading this feels like having a long-winded conversation with one of your deepest-thinking friends about everything that's keeping both of you up at night.
4. The Book of Delights: Essays by Ross Gay
The Book of Delights is one of only two nonfiction books on this list, and it's some of the lightest, breeziest nonfiction you'll ever read. The author spent a year paying careful attention to his life and writing about one thing that delighted him each day.
This essay collection is short and joyful, filled with simple pleasures (such as a perfectly ripe tomato) and heartwarming observations (like strangers helping each other out and musings about pickup basketball). His warm, observant writings help you see the small joys happening around you every day and are perfect for the sunny seasons.
5. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
I read The Interestings in 2018, and while I don't remember many details about it, I remember how it made me feel. It inspired thoughts about friendship that stuck with me.
The story follows a group of friends from their teenage years at an art camp in the '70s through their adult lives. It explores how our circumstances, talents, and ambitions shape who we become, and how there is often a gap between who we think we'll be and who we actually become. It's an honest look at the impact that jealousy and success can have on friendships as we grow up and grow into ourselves.
6. Here for It; Or, How to Save Your Soul in America: Essays by R. Eric Thomas
First things first: R. Eric Thomas is hilarious and I love him. Here for It, his debut essay collection, brilliantly combines memoir with cultural criticism, injecting humor into complex and challenging situations.
Thomas' essays provide deeply thoughtful insights into his life as a Black, gay writer navigating small-town Pennsylvania, marriage, internet fame, and more. Reading this felt like listening to my smart, funny friend explain how they're surviving in this life and what they've been thinking about.
7. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
In If Beale Street Could Talk (and no, I haven't seen the movie yet!), James Baldwin displays his usual talent for lyrical prose and love stories that are both intimately real and devastating. This novel tells the story of young lovers, Tish and Fonny, who fall in love in 1970s Harlem (this, unintentionally, marks the third 1970s book on this list...).
Their lives and vision of a future together are upended when Fonny is falsely accused of rape. Through Tish's point of view, Baldwin crafts a delicate, gut-wrenching portrait of Black love and family strength in the face of injustice. This book is an outstanding double-edged sword that shows both the beauty of Tish and Fonny's relationship and the brutal reality of racism in America.
8. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
On a slightly lighter note, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is about a socially awkward office worker who has set up a carefully structured, intentionally isolated life. Things begin to change for her when she meets and befriends Raymond, an IT guy from her office.
This isn't a love story, exactly (c'mon, you know I'm not a romance girlie—no offense to romance girlies), but a story of self-realization. Eleanor begins to realize that her isolation is masking deeper issues, and she'll need to learn to open her heart and connect with others in order to truly live her life. It's a hopeful and heartwarming story that I absolutely adored (and related to in many ways).
That's all! Happy beach/summer reading to the beat of your own drum!