After having just gotten back into reading again in my mid twenties, I've been inspired to compile a list of my favorite books of all time and why. I've been wanting to do this for a while but never quite had a platform for it, this territory seems like the right place! For the sake of brevity I am not including poetry collections, at some point I will give those a list of their own. For now, onwards

Negative Space by Lilly Dancyger

I have always been a fan of the memoir genre, likely because they were some of my parents favorite books growing up as well. Negative Space is a memoir in which the author details her experiences growing up with parents who were addicts and an artist for a father who died when she was quite young. The book features a lot of information about the art world which I found really interesting. For me though the brutal honesty of her narration was the best part. I believe all of us could write a story from our lives with equal impact, it's less so about the story itself but how she tells it (though the story is fascinating).

The Goldfinch by Donna Tarte

If you've read this book its self explanatory. It seems to be unanimously fantastic in the eyes of everyone who's read it. I'm not going to give too much away because it's spoiler heavy, but the pure storytelling is genius in this book and each character is so unique and well developed. My parents and I all read it separately without talking about it, and all came out loving it. The incorporation of artwork into this book as well as Dancyger's must be part of why I like them both so much, I'm coming to realize. This is a beautiful story with so much complexity from start to finish.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

As a woman who was once a teenage girl filled with a lot of angst and sadness, this book pays homage to that experience so well. Many of the coming of age stories, especially ones written during this time, center men and male experiences. Though I have loved many of those just as much, this book did something special for me as it was the first time I saw a young woman protagonist going through a journey of self discovery with just as much complexity as any man. It's a sad book, the voice is very clearly written from the perspective of severe depression. It leads perfectly into my next one-

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

I think I read this book at the exact right time in my life. You often hear of this book talked about in tandem with infamous murderers. Going into it, you'd expect the misanthrope's manifesto. There is a way to interpret this book like that, but I personally just see a young teenage boy struggling very deeply with a lot of heavy things, such as grief and depression. I actually bonded with my first boyfriend at 15 through our shared love and compassion for Holden Caulfield (run young beetle, run.) Though I still see this book as I always have, incredibly important. It's so common for people of Holden's age to feel the way he does, and I think the representation came for me at the perfect moment and really helped me with my own mental health at the time.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

I read this book around the same time I read the Catcher in the Rye, as a young teenager. The title is a reference to the poem The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats (One of Siggy's favorites). I think this works really well, as the story details a man's fall from grace. This comes from his own hubris and cruelty (specifically in his violence towards the women in his life). There are elements of white colonialism talked about in this book which was one of the first times I read about such a thing, and it had a big impact. The protagonist is an extremely imperfect character, but so sympathetic regardless.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw

I cannot express enough how much I recommend this book. It came out pretty recently, and I think there may be a movie underway? Anyway, this book consists of a collection of short stories about various women and their experiences with their blackness, sexuality, and religion. The way this author writes about young queer relationships between women really resonated with me at the time, having gone through similar and still coming to terms with my own sexuality. It's been a while since I last read this one, but take my word for it, it is worth every page.

some others that I will not go into an elaborate description of but still recommend-

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Dry By Augusten Burroughs The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Thank you for reading my little ramble on books which I have thoroughly enjoyed reading. I would love to take recommendations from you as well.