2019 has been three full years in a span of 365 days and even as its coming to an end, it still has a few lessons and surprises up it's sleeve. Books featured heavily in my year. If you know me, you know I love reading, so it seems fitting to end of the year and begin this series with my favorite things in the whole world, books.
The best book I have read this year, and by best I mean my favourite, is the OG Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. I first read it eons ago as a teen. It is literal chicken soup for the soul. In between the trauma and turmoil I experienced this year, the stories have been encouraging and uplifting. I'd recommend it for all sensitive souls. I found it at my favourite bookstore, Uncle Spike's.
The book I didn't know I needed this year has been Perfect Daughters: Adult Daughters of Alcoholics by J Ackermann. I stumbled upon it on my audible recommended list. Listening to this book has been like listening to someone tell me my life story in a way that I didn't know existed, a perspective that I didn't know I had to see. It provided the validation I didn't know I needed. The experiences shared and research helped me realize that I am indeed not a special kind of f*cked up. Oh no, I am just the right amount in retrospect and that is perfectly acceptable. I am on my second read, chapter 8, and I know that I will go through it many times before I am done with it.
The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown wins the award for most terrifying and liberating book I have read this year. Dr Brown tweeted "I’m working hard to walk through the world without armour and masks. " I was like, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?!" Now I'm like, "Me too doc, me too."
The best autobiographical work I've read this year goes to Peter Roche for his book Unloved. He tells the story of a his shattered childhood. Brought up by violent and abusive parents, I find that the most compelling thing about this story is that Peter neither pities himself nor invited me to pity him, he is simply telling his story. I know he survived because he is telling the story.
The best work of fiction goes to The Black Widow Society by Angela Makholwa. I love the author for using multiple points of view, she does it so brilliantly and the story is richer for it, a tool barely used and as well as she executed it. I'm still trying to understand, analyze and digest Mwzakhe's final actions. Of course I am here for the narrative. In case anyone is listening, I am willing to donate my 5 cents to help fund an actual black widow society. This book is so good I picked it over Tolkien's Simillarion, yes it's that good! Thank you Book buddy.
The book I should've read, which I actually bought late last year is Golddiggers By Sue Nyathi. Definitely on my 2020 reading list. Book lovers will forgive me for having books on the shelf that I haven't read yet, because, same.
What is life without poetry? The Wind at Dawn: An Anthology of Poems By Sue Smith and Vanne Swacina takes the prize for the blast from the past. Also discovered in my teen years, amongst my mothers' old textbooks I read this again and fell in love with it all over again. It's an old book, the cover is gone.
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