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

[chaila]

I just had a little crisis about what I mean by feels! Putting that aside, except for the caveat that I do tend to go with the "emotional precision" and subtlety, and so often get sucked into feels by books that leave other people cold, both Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (okay all the Ishiguro, basically) and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (though her other books don't do much for me) made me want to hide in a blanket fort for a couple days to recover from the quiet emotional devastation.

For more gleeful but no less acute feels, The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner never fails to reduce me to a pile of nothing but GLEE as the narrative spools out into EVERYTHING I WAAAANTED, even the bits I didn't know I wanted. And Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer is actual bottled joy to read, like it sparkles, I swear. Those two are more "unmitigated joy in the process of reading the book" as opposed to being devastated/moved by the story though.

I think I would be remiss if I didn't actually answer the question of "the last book that pulled all my emotional strings," because it's Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia by Greg Rucka. Even though I wasn't previously a comics reader, this book is amazing; it brings the tragedy, the thoughtfulness, and ALL. THE. FEELINGS. about Diana of Themyscira, if awesome, conflicted, idealistic women, revenge narratives, and/or women standing on Batman's head are things that bring you feels. It's completely a stand alone story too.

[bookgazing]

The Queen of Attolia is currently making me think really hard about my reaction to a similar dynamic in the Spiritwalker books. In other news, I am almost done and everyone should read that book!

[nymeth]

I think I know exactly what you mean by quiet emotional devastation - both Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day did that to me, and I adored them for it. So now of course I must read Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping asap.

yay, Attolia love never fails to make me happy :D That whole series completely hijacked my emotions for the whole of January, in the best possible way. And Sorcery and Cecilia is indeed a delight (that reminds me that I never got around to the sequel).

Really intrigued by The Hiketeia. ALL OF THOSE THINGS BRING ME FEELS. Thanks for all the recs :D