Awash in a sea of feelings: a recs thread

[nymeth]

I think we’re in need of a bit of bookish joy here at Lady Business, and nothing does the job like a good recs thread. So I’d like to ask you to help me put together a recommendations list of feelings-filled, emotionally powerful, heart-stomping books as a gift to our own Renay.

I’ll go first: very recently there was Meg Rosoff’s Picture Me Gone, which I actually blogged about today. The ending had me crying in a way I hadn’t in a long while, and the funny thing is that I can’t even quite tell you why. This isn’t a book with a tragic ending or anything of the sort — it’s a quiet story about the relationship between a father and a daughter and coming to terms with adult fallibility and growing up. Also, there’s a dog: an elderly white German Sheppard named Honey whose presence in the story punched me right in the heart. In case you’re wondering, she doesn’t die or anything like that. It’s just that Meg Rosoff managed to capture the love and the vulnerability present in human-animal relationships in a way I hadn’t seen any writer who isn’t Kij Johnson do.

The same week I read Picture Me Gone I read Philippa Pearce’s A Dog So Small, which means there was a lot of crying over fictional dogs going on in my life. Again, this is a quiet and understated novel whose greatest strength lies in its subtlety and emotional precision. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been so immersed in children’s literature lately, but this is the kind of story that’s been affecting me the most: stories that acknowledge children’s depth of feeling and that allow the full emotional weight of small moments of connection to shine through. In A Dog So Small, that happens between a boy and his initially rejected puppy in the very final chapter, and when I closed the book I was a sobbing mess.

Of course, this isn’t the only kind of book that has the power to crush me. I’m not immune to a good old sad ending, or to a love story that gives me all the feels, or to being overtaken by a character’s sorrow or loneliness or fear. And of course that by “not immune” I really mean “I love it when that happens, GIVE ME ALL THE FEELS”.

So tell me: what was the last book that pulled all your emotional strings? What kind of story does this to you most often? What should we turn to the next time we want to find ourselves awash in a sea of feelings?

Comments

Sleepy rambling

[(Anonymous)]

Language is apparently difficult (I should sleep, but it seems I feel more like reading blogs and crying, so that's probably why) and I can't seem to figure out whether you want cry-making books or smile-from-the-inside-out-making books or the books that do both, and so I am just going to mention a lot of books and probably misspell every other word and then GO TO SLEEP, I promise. Okay, so:

Alberta and Jacob by Cora Sandel. One of my favourite books ever and it just kind of makes me feel understood and at home and read passages five times and then write them down because they are perfect. I can't vouch for the English translation, but hopefully it's good? Seriously, this book is the best. The characters are all very human and real and I love (most of) them and just, gah, go read it, please. Oh and I suppose I should warn that this is the kind of book my mother considers "bleak," though I very much disagree.

And then I want to rec things like Tordivelen flyr i skumringen and everything else by Maria Gripe, but I don't think these amazing books are translated and now I'm angry? Because good YA that makes me feel better about everything and feel things in general.

Seriously books make me feel things all the time but the only books I can remember right now seems to be school books, um, hang on...

Before You Sleep by Linn Ullmann is a lot sad and a lot really weird and a lot surreal and a lot hyperrealistic and I don't think I can rec that book enough. I saw someone online call it "typically bleak and Nordic about a family that's so dysfuntional it's unbelievable" and I very much resent that description because it is really very good and sometimes it is funny and it's not bleak, it's just kind of sad sometimes, but it's so full of love and humanity and sigh. It should have trigger warnings for pretty much everything, though, be warned.

Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson is also everything that is good in the world and weird and sad and happy and amazing and there are cool librarians. Go read it, if you haven't already.

For some reason I keep thinking about Jostein Gaarder's books? The man is... kind of scary, but his books are great, especially those that are a bit older, like Sophie's World and especially The Solitaire Mystery.

Oh my god, I am just giving you a bunch of weird books, most of them Norwegian, this is so not helpful, I'm sorry.

Though normally when I am trying to cheer myself up I just reread Sarah Waters' Tipping the Velvet for the n'th time. That normally works very well.

Good night!

AH/Arrela/something/I don't know what my name is anymore

(P.S. - Is hair a body part??)

Re: Sleepy rambling

[nymeth]

I was aiming for both! And please don't apologise - no such thing as weird, and Norwegian lit is more than welcome! I like that you mentioned Gaarder - there was a book of his I read and ADORED (Vita Brevis I think it's called?) and which would actually be a really good example for this thread. However, I read it well over a decade ago and don't know whether it would hold the same power now. Is that one that you've read? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

(PS: Maybe? :P)