hi mariam!! i'd love to know what your essential reads are. what books would be assigned in mariam 101?? 📚 ✨
hi jenna!! *forgets every book i've ever read* this is so hard bc i feel like i go through phases with the books i gravitate toward but here are the books that as of now define my taste.....i think mainly for me it comes down to two things, beautiful, immersive prose and intricate character work. as long as a book has either of these i'm sold.
the raven cycle. when i think of a series that's literally actually changed me as a person this is it. the series of all time??? rewrote the wiring of my brain back in 2018. it made me the writer i am today. no book has since had that kind of impact on me. this is still the book that has the strongest cast of characters i've ever read. their dynamics with themselves and with each other is done in such a way that's just insane to me <3 the character work in this series is crazy, how the hell did she accomplish this. i love books with a deep focus on the characters and their relationships with each other and this is the cream of the crop. i love no plot just vibes bc same, it was never about glendower it was always the friends we made along the way. i love the small town setting and the mystical magical cabeswater, it's all very tightly interconnected. like there's a reason snapshots of passages are still being passed around tumblr today, there's just something new to go insane over with every reread. it's like....the smallest thing in a description will have such a huge impact on the way a character/situation is perceived. it's the way that like almost every sentence actually has something to say? like after adam and gansey fight at gansey's house in the dream thieves, there's this line: 'it was already dark, now it was black', which is serving a dual purpose of telling us about the setting outside but also the aftermath of the fight itself....like it's just small moments like these that add So Much. one day i'm going to reread the series properly from start to finish.
the witch’s heart. my first read of 2021 and i still think about it fondly. it's a quiet, lush, atmospheric book about a scorned witch who makes a life for herself at the fringes of the earth and eventually starts her own family. it's very touching and tender and the themes of motherhood and sacrifice made me quite emotional. it's slow, quiet, tragic and triumphant all at once. i could Feel like i was there with them and i always love when a book can do that.
the song of achilles. another book that made me insane in 2018. i will read anything madeline miller writes. she does it so beautifully.....i always feel like i'm there in the worlds she describes. this story is so tragic and beautiful. i remember my sister and i just breaking down after i finished the book and we were discussing the ending hfkshfjf i love when that happens!
circe. i remember when i got this book in the mail i opened it and started and finished it right then and there in one sitting. i love quiet introspective books like this one, with a character alone against a massive landscape. i love how inhospitable the island is and how cruel and malicious it is to her at the start and how slowly she tames and cultivates it to become her own home. i love the life she makes for herself, i love how doubly alone she feels in both her banishment and immortality. i love books that feel like a casper friedrich painting, where a character is set in a dimished perspective against an expansive landscape:
the dutch house. i read this book earlier in the year and i think it's going to be my top read of the year. i wasn't expecting it at all. it's about the lives of two siblings across three generations, from their childhood to when their stepmother kicks them out of their home to the lives they end up making for themselves over the years. it's written so beautifully, and the sibling relationship is the main focus of the book. and it's written from the perspective of the younger brother, about his older sister and everything she means to him, which i hadn't read before, and it was very tender. they're all they have and they support each other through thick and thin over the years and it's so heartwarming. it's also about the longing for the past, and the hold it has on us in the present, and what it means to let go of it. even as adults, danny and meave park outside of their childhood home, the dutch house, and just sit and look at it, reminiscing, even though nothing is left for them there anymore. they can't seem to let it go. the whole family dynamic, especially with their estranged step mother, is absolutely top notch. i definitely need to read more from this author.
the catcher in the rye. i'll never forgive people who said this is a red flag book and all that nonsense. i felt deeply while reading this story about profound loneliness and a craving for human warmth and connection. holden is just a lonely kid and i ended up caring deeply for him, way more than i ever expected to. this is such a lovely little book that tugged at my heart. it also reminds me of a casper friedrich painting: holden set against massive, sprawling new york.
the last unicorn. such a magical book with such a simple story. the writing is out of this world lovely. it reminded me that sometimes a simple story can be the most beautiful experience. it reminded me of the childlike wonder and awe you experienced back them when you read something enchanting. i felt everything so deeply, from amalthea’s loneliness as the last unicorn to her anguish and sorrow when she becomes a human. i wish i had a physical copy of this one.
the locked tomb. ahhh....i still feel like i'm too dumb to fully understand this series in its entirety but i'm so glad i read these. tamsyn muir’s writing is just on another level.....these books are so funny but also deeply poignant and cutting and complex. no idea how she holds it all in her head bc i'm so confused as to what's going on hfjshfh. i don't even care for sci fi but she writes with such an engaging and charismatic voice. i love all of these characters so much, i could read them all day everyday....it's another rare series for me where the characters feel so real they could leap off the page. it's such a skill to be able to do that, and with such a huge cast. seriously, something shifted in the culture with these books and i'm so glad they exist.
the green bone saga. as an adult i've found it's hard to find a series that makes me feel the way i did as a teenager, when all i did was read series and trilogies. that excitement of theorizing what might happen in the next book felt so distant until i read this series. every time i had to put the book down all i could think about was what was going to happen next, i was so excited and tense, and that feeling was something i hadn't really felt since my teenage years, that sort of excitement. the world is so fully fleshed out, and feels so cinematic, the way each scene plays out in my head like a movie. the characters are fully realized people and i was so invested in their lives and conflicts. i went though every spectrum of emotion reading these books. it was so much fun. fonda lee is a master storyteller.....this is how you worldbuild. i wouldn't change a single thing about these books from start to finish. i've honestly never been much of a world building person but this is the first series where i Really Noticed it and it's incredible. the best world building i've ever read for sure.....no other story world feels as alive as this one.
these violent delights by micah nemerever. right after i finished this book i started reading it again and annotated like my life depended on it. no book has ever done that to me before. this book is about a toxic relationship and it's so intricately constructed....it's a book you Must annotate or else you miss out. i love when love morphs into obsession and murder <3 paul and julian are deeply unwell and i was so here for it. and the last line of this book is just insane.....i read that and flipped right back to the start, there was no other choice.
atonement. lazy golden summers in the english countryside, an old family home, forbidden love, the horrors of war, the innocence and naivete of childhood.....ian mcewan had a mission and did he ever deliver. i was stunned by the beautiful writing and the way he put into words the trials and joy of the act of writing, of telling a story. it's about how one moment can change everything forever, it's about how nothing you do will ever atone for it, it's about writing your own narrative. i know i'll never read anything like this ever again. it started a little phase where i only wanted to read books set in this time period and setting.
hamlet. i started my 2022 with a bang...i love when the hyperfixation hits!!!! it is as good as everyone says.....i love when men are haunted by their grief and indecision <3 stand up hamlet!!!!!! but for real this is such a good portrayal of grief and anguish and bearing responsibilities you aren't ready for. i love when the setting is a character in and of itself, i love how elsinore is a surveillance prison, i love how everyone is putting on an act, 'but break my heart for i must hold my tongue', i love how hamlet and ophelia are foils of each other especially in regards to the impossible expectations their fathers place on them. and it was such a delight to read shakespeare’s way with words—hamlet had so many delightful, witty, snarky retorts that were genuinely so much fun to read. the wordplay and the puns.....i was like i get it now, he is the writer of all time!! so clever and so creative. also idk there's just something about reading something written so long ago that makes me feel insane....firstly the fact that i can read it at all and secondly that humans are connected across time and space like we really all go through the same trials and joys and i just have to sit down. whew i feel the brainrot coming back so i'll stop!!!!!
the secret history. i feel like donna tart would call me slurs but i did really enjoy this book. the definition of atmospheric.....i was there in that fall-swept college taking those crazy ancient greek classes about bacchanals. richard get out of this friend group they're all a bunch of freaks!!! i really couldn't stop reading, and the writing was beautiful too.
i capture the castle. so delightful. the narrator is one of the most charismatic i have read in recent years. i thoroughly enjoyed reading her diary entries detailing her life and the way it changes and the way she changes so by the end of the book she is not the same girl she was at the start. it was very charming and very funny....i had a really fun time reading this one.
the picture of dorian gray. read it for my oscar wilde class and immediately went bonkers. i had to put the book down so many times bc i just couldn't believe what i was reading. 'it was not intended as a compliment. it was a confession'. hello??????? i know mr wilde had to take a walk after that one. and the concept is so intriguing too! it reminds me of the tiktok girlies who are doing the most insane things to ward off aging. noooo dorian don't sell your soul to the painting you're so sexy aha.
monster. i read the entire manga in a few days on my phone, that's how good it is.....i knew from the very first chapter this was a masterpiece. the dynamic between tenma and johan makes me froth and the mouth.......the stories within the story.....nina and johan......mr grimmer......the way kindness triumphs in the cold darkness.....urasawa writes so skillfully. and the art!!!!! he truly doesn't draw the same expression twice. what a story. i cried after finishing it because i knew i would never read anything like it ever again.
blue period. i don't know if this one counts because it's not finished and i myself haven't caught up with in more than a year now, but it's still so special to me. it's all about the trials and tribulations and the joys of being an artist—any kind of artist, in any capacity. the fears and insecurities that plague you. art in a personal capacity, art in a professional capacity, art as self expression. i've never read a manga like this one before, that so fully understands what it means to be an artist. it's so so well done. if you're an artist or love art in any capacity, this manga is for you. it's always going to be special to me.
chainsaw man. i can't believe i almost forgot to mention chainsaw man???? fujimoto is an insaneee story teller and the more time passes the more i have to appreciate about this story. it's just so different from everything else in the shounen manga department and it's such a breath of fresh air for me personally. power system who??? i love how you can think of the craziest shit and then this manga takes it up to 11. i just love the juxtaposition of spine tingling terror (the darkness devil introduction) and fever dream madness (kobeni burger king dance dance dance). but what i love most is the character work with denji. i've never seen such an intimate focus into one character’s psyche in this genre before. he has such a skewed concept of human connection and especially love because of his upbringing and then the juxtaposition between his feelings for makima and his feelings for power and aki is like.....sir i thought this was a horror comedy manga?? it's the way makima gives him exactly what he wants and then brutally tears it away from him....and the themes of food and eating.....and then in part 2 we see him doing his best with what he's got....it makes me feel so much. i Love the character writing in this manga so much. and the insane out of this world fights are just another bonus. the silly shenanigans really make the intricate character work stand out that much more. fujimoto is a one of a kind storyteller for sure. it's like....for me, this is the manga equivalent of a tamsyn muir book. the locked tomb and chainsaw man have the same energy to me—it's that combination of wacky and poignant in the same breath.
okay these are the books from recent years. 2016-2017 is such a blank space for me i can't remember anything except for sjm 😭 good lord. now i have to rely on my memory....
growing up, i had a penchant for cozy, family-centric stories.....the first mary poppins book, the ramona series, jacqueline wilson books (specifically, little darlings, clean break, my sister jodie, lily alone). i would reread these like crazy bc i Loved going into that really cozy world of fun and sometimes messy family dynamics. these books were really just slice of life and i absolutely adored them.
oh! i almost forgot to mention inkheart! i have such fond memories of these books. i really can't remember the plot exactly but it's all about books and stories and i think they literally jump inside a book and that's where the real story happens, i think. really magical. and i'll always fondly think of the character dustfinger.
i also Loved mystery books.....i read so many famous five books back in middle school. something about these cozy british mysteries. i was actually obsessed with them.
and then on the other hand i LOVED the goosebumps books. i was obsessed. i would save up my money to buy them. most of the time they weren't even really scary but i just loved the vibes....they were so charming. i loved the atmosphere. there would be lines like 'the tv was playing a news channel. in the empty house, the sound started to make me feel uneasy so i switched it off' or something like that and it was just moments like those that would make me uneasy more than the actual monsters in the books.
and i can't forget the princess diaries hfkshfhfh i was also kind of obsessed with these books and i still have quite a few of them. i loved how charismatic the narrator was and how funny they were and how dramatic they could get. i thought american highschool and teenage life was just like what was happening in these books. hugely entertaining. i would spend a lot of time just rereading them over and over.....they were kind of influential for me.......
sorry for writing a novel once again, i really wish i kept better track of what i read over the years but yeah these are the books that majorly define my taste/have influenced me in some way.
