So, sometimes I slack off a bit, but it's not my fault I swear. It's a medical condition- I'm almost sixty percent sure. I've been finding myself low on creativity and motivation lately, but thank the almighty powers at be for Pinterest, where I happened to stumble upon a Virginia Woolf quote: "Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river." Now, I know I'm nowhere near a thousand just yet and lately my words have been flowing more like the shower condensation down the bathroom mirror, but if I keep in mind the kinds of authors who did have words, so many wonderful words to build so many worlds out of, I can figure this block thing out.
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte. So I'm not about to give you a huge spoiler or anything but this book kinda changes the way someone can see their position in life. So maybe it was written in Victorian-Era Britain and maybe it's too girly for some tastes, but honestly who can't relate to a woman of meager means who never gets anything she asks for and still manages to win a little bit at the very end?
Seriously, I can't be the only one.
Before I fall
Lauren Oliver. So in this almost-groundhog day-ripoff, a teenage girl relives the day she dies over and over again with her friends who honestly might be awful people. (But everyone is an awful person in high school, they just don't realize it) She tries to make the right decisions and do everything right, and still she ends her day in a car crash in the rain to wake up the next morning on valentine's day. She tries to do everything wrong, as if it doesn't matter how she lives her life because she'll never get anywhere, and eventually she figures things out and gets to pass on like everyone else does. The novel has a lot to say about the choices we make and how they'll affect the people around us.
Hush Hush
Becca Fitzpatrick. This one's more for fun than anything else. Something a little dark, something a little romantic, and something a little fantasy. I mean, fallen angels in high school, man.
Emma
Jane Austen. Anyone who's ever seen the movie Clueless needs to read this book. I'm not kidding and you'd be doing yourselves a huge favor. I'm a big fan of the story about a girl who continuously manages to get everything wrong, and oh boy.
Matched
Ally Condie. It's like "the Giver" with more romance. A girl who refuses to be boring and to succumb to the idea of what a person is supposed to be in a society that's even managed to ban handwriting and music. Extra badass points there.
Thirteen Reasons Why
Jay Asher. Much like Oliver's "Before I Fall," this novel challenges us to think about the choices we make and how they will affect those around us. Done artfully through a continuous monologue over a series of cassette tapes that Ashe makes us read, such a powerful book and something I've read over and over, at least once a year since I discovered it.
The Pelican Brief
John Grisham. Mh. Again, major badass points to a female law student in a time that not many of those existed, challenging authority, tons of drama, getting the bad guys. It's like an action movie you get to think about.
Pride and Prejudice
Forgive me for the second Jane Austen but can you blame me? The woman was a genius and her novels are timeless. Unlike the story where the girl just kind of bumbles her way through life and screws everything up (with the best intention) in Pride and Prejudice we become acquainted with a girl who takes charge of her situation and who isn't okay with being unhappy for the sake of societal custom. And, well, her love interest is a sassy sarcastic British gentleman, so there's that, too.
Anyway, these are the books I like to read when my word flow tend to be a little backed up . Stay Curious, friends.
