So, as a self-proclaimed stupidly sensitive person, here are my favorite recommendations:<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nEverything I Know About Love<\/em> <\/strong>by Dolly Alderton\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know what it is to feel like you\u2019ve always got a lighthouse\u2014lighthouses\u2014to guide you back to dry land; to feel the warmth of its beam as it squeezes your hand standing next to you at a funeral of someone you loved\u2026I also know that love is a pretty quiet thing. It\u2019s lying on the sofa together drinking coffee, talking about where you\u2019re going to go that morning to drink more coffee. It\u2019s folding down pages of books you think they\u2019d find interesting\u2026I know that love happens under the splendor of moon and stars and fireworks and sunsets but it also happens when you\u2019re lying on blow-up air beds in a childhood bedroom, sitting in the emergency room or in the queue for a passport or in a traffic jam.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I picked up this book this summer, and it has pretty much grown on me like moss ever since. I\u2019d consider it, essentially, the saving grace of my twenties. You may recognize Alderton\u2019s name from her hilarious dating column in The Sunday Times<\/em>, and I promise this memoir is just as silly, serious, and wonderful as her \u201cDear Dolly\u201d snippets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The book is packed with laugh-out-loud childhood stories, passive-aggressive emails addressed to imaginary groups of people (like pissed-off bridesmaids), shopping lists, and transcriptions of text messages. It is, quite simply, a manifesto for being a stupidly sensitive person in a ridiculously insensitive world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fair warning: it will probably make you sob and hug your best friend until she pries you off her.<\/p>\n\n\n The Perks of Being a Wallflower <\/strong>by Stephen Chbosky <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we\u2019ll never know most of them. But even if we don\u2019t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/em>If Everything I Know About Love <\/em>is the pillar of my early twenties, The Perks of Being Wallflower <\/em>was the bible of my teenagehood. It is an epistolary novel that follows Charlie, a shy high school freshman, as he is befriended by two seniors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember watching the movie adaption of this book with my high school friends around Christmas. We always did this thing where we could cast characters for people in the friend group. When it was time to deliberate who Charlie was, nearly every person presented an argument for themselves. This was henceforth known as the \u201cCharlie Effect\u201d. And that is what makes this book so special: everyone, at some point or another, is a Charlie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another reason this book is so important to me is because of the message Chhosky crafts around impact. We are the sum total of everything that has happened to us\u2014specifically the people that have happened to us. There\u2019s a bit of dread in that realization, but perhaps a little relief, too.<\/p>\n\n\n Frog and Toad <\/strong>by Arnold Lobel <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2018What did you write in the letter?\u2019 Frog said, \u2018I wrote, \u2018Dear Toad, I am glad that you are my best friend. Your best friend, Frog.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Oh,\u2019 said Toad. \u2018That makes for a very good letter.\u2019\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alright, hear me out. This is a children\u2019s series, of course. But I firmly believe they are children\u2019s books in the same way The Chronicles of Narnia<\/em> are children\u2019s books. Frog and Toad<\/em> is the kind of story that becomes even more valuable when revisited as an adult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For one, the illustrations are magically nostalgic. Secondly, I genuinely believe Arnold Lobel unlocked the golden secret of what makes life worth living: a very long day spent doing absolutely nothing with your best friend. And, of course, it\u2019s all about the beauty of slow living. Some girls just want to curl up in a cottage with a cup of tea. Some girls just want to curl up in a cottage with a cup of tea. And Frog and Toad are those girls!!!!!<\/p>\n\n\n The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse<\/strong> <\/em>by Charlie Mackesy<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2018What do you want to be when you grow up?\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Kind,\u2019 said the boy.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is another children\u2019s book on the list that I truly believe is meant for adults. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse<\/em> is the kind of story you read in thirty minutes and then immediately force into the hands of someone you love. It follows a boy who befriends a mole, a fox, and a horse on a spring day in the countryside. Not much happens plot-wise, but it is a heartfelt exploration of courage, friendship, and childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the things I love about this book is that it is written in the author\u2019s own handwriting, and the charming illustrations are also done by him. I think it\u2019s one of those rare books that speaks to both glass-half-empty and glass-half-full people. But perhaps what Mackesy is really trying to say is that we are lucky to have a glass at all.<\/p>\n\n\n Letters to Vera<\/strong> <\/em>by Vladimir Nabokov <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s cold today, but in a spring way, and I love you.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is nothing I love more than reading about love, and there is something very special about the way that writers love. They love in a way that consumes the ink of a page and the whole of a heart, and Letters to Vera <\/em>is no exception. It is a collection of letters written by Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita<\/em>, to his wife, V\u00e9ra Slonim. Nabokov began writing to Slonim when they first met in 1921, continuing until his death in 1971. The collection depicts an old-fashioned kind of love, with an old-fashioned kind of longing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Happy reading!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Blog Writer \/\/ Callan Whitley As we usher in 2025, I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about the books I\u2019ve read this year. 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