To All the Books I’ve Loved Before
To All the Books I’ve Loved Before
By: Addie Flasck
To All The Books I’ve Loved Before - throughout my life, you have been the most abiding companion I could ask for.
As a child, having a book read to me was both a selfless display of affection and a way to bolster my hungry imagination. Now, while I grapple with adulthood, books have offered a similar comfort. The older I become, the more I realize that I know close to nothing. Yet, for all my unknowing, there is always a lesson from a book to circle back to. I have gathered the top three books (plus favorite quotes) to which I would like to express my indebtedness, all of which are available for purchase locally in Oxford through small businesses and bookstores.
1. Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Written by none other than the lead of the indie rock band Japanese Breakfast, Crying In H Mart by Michelle Zauner is a raw, uninhibited, and poignant grief memoir that is equal parts laughter and tears. It follows Zauner’s struggles with identity while growing up as a Korean-American woman, as well as the turbulent, complex relationship she shares with her terminally ill mother. Reading this book feels less like a memoir and more like an invasion of privacy. At the same time, the unapologetic style of Zauner’s work is what helps convey important messages in grief, impending doom, food, tradition, and shifting family dynamics.
“It was a love that saw what was best for you ten steps ahead and did not care if it hurt like hell in the meantime. When I got hurt, she felt it so deeply, it was as though it were her own affliction. She was guilty only of caring too much. I realize this now, only in retrospect. No one in this world would ever love me as much as my mother, and she would never let me forget it.”
2. Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
Tuesdays With Morrie is another grief memoir that follows Mitch Albom and his rekindled relationship with a former professor, Morrie Shwartz, who is slowly deteriorating from ALS. Through the pair’s weekly visits, Albom receives valuable lessons on abstract issues like the meaning of life, helplessness, forgiveness, and love. In stark contrast to Crying In H Mart, Albom’s account tugs heartstrings using a warm and fuzzy Hallmark approach. The bittersweet retelling of Shwartz’s final days offers compelling insights into the complexities of life. He possesses an incredible adeptness to strip down large, muddled matters like money and marriage until he reaches their soft cores. The story is a reminder of the importance of humility and selflessness in a competitive world. Keep in mind that Tuesdays With Morrie is an inspiring read, but one that requires tissues.
“Part of the problem [...] is that everyone is in such a hurry [...] People haven’t found meaning in their lives, so they’re running all the time looking for it. They think the next car, the next house, the next job. Then they find these things are empty, too, and they keep running.”
3. The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
The Sweetness of Water is the story of two emancipated slaves, an unlikely bond, a distant marriage, and a covert gay relationship between a pair of Confederate soldiers. Hailed by both Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, the historical novel offers a glimpse into the early stages of the Reconstruction Era in Georgia and distills from it, concepts like shame, humanity, and unhesitating compassion. Harris invests equally into each character’s development and their personal plights, which means the subplots are in no way overshadowed by the overarching storyline. Ultimately, The Sweetness of Water is an engrossingly heartbreaking depiction of good people who must navigate their incompatibility with a systematically racist and corrupt society.
“[...] Each day of each year, a man might imagine a tree in his mind. The tree, upon doing good in the world, could grow strong and thick, but with each poor decision, rot would start to sprout -- gnarled roots at its base, limp branches that snapped with the lightest touch. At the end of any given period -- a month, a year -- it was wise to consider the growth of one's tree, and the decisions you had made that led it there. It was yours to let grow or die.”
The best part about a good book is that if you pour into it, it will pour into you. These books are not only an opportunity to get swept away by the authors’ brilliance. They are new perspectives, heartache, plot twists, and a deepened understanding of the world, each wrapped up into one accessible package. All it takes is for someone to open it.
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