5 Books for When You Can’t Find The Energy To Read
It might seem strange to begin a book round-up sharing how these past 12 months I’ve struggled to read, but here we are. I used to fit reading into my day easily; on my commute and before I went to sleep. I usually read a lot.
Over the past year, we’ve said usually a lot. I usually like reading apocalypse novels, but this year, it’s too close to home. Or, I usually love a good beach read. Usually, I’m a big commute reader, and so on.
Instead, as we’ve pivoted from our usual routines to adapt to this new landscape, hobbies and old rituals have been lost too. Many of us are struggling to keep our attention on long-form reading, no matter how much we enjoy its subject matter.
So, if you’ve also spent this past year struggling to concentrate on a book; if you miss reading, but can’t quite find the energy, I hope one or two of these books help.
1.What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
Amazon: What is Not Yours is Not Yours
Nothing is as enticing to me as a collection of short stories, it feels like dipping into a writer’s brain; you see how they view the world, trying to find parallels from one story to another.
This is a beguiling collection of short stories. Oyeyemi is a world builder, and this collection of short stories follows queer thieves who fall in love; locked library doors and mysterious occupants; tyrants and pop stars.
Characters slide from their own story to resurface in another, older — or younger — than they were in another. The prose is clean and balances the book’s dark and shadowy world of puppeteers and locked rooms. My favourite is the first, where two female con artists become lovers.
2. Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen by Alix Kates Shulman
Amazon: Memoirs of an Ex Prom Queen
This is not a new novel. In fact, it was originally published in the 1960s, later being unearthed and republished as a modern classic by Profile.
It tells the story of one Homecoming Queen, Sasha, who discovers that she wants more from life than children, a husband and kitchen appliances. As we follow Sasha from suburban teen out into the wider world the main character’s grappling with feminism, sexual double standards, the idea of motherhood and personal freedom is still incredibly relevant today.
3. Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson
Amazon: Negroland
Cultural critic Margo Jefferson’s memoir Negroland offers an insight into the upper-class echelons of Black Chicago society in the 1950s and 1960s.
Jefferson’s sharp observances of class and racial intersections began early, as a child. As someone ‘othered’ in society, she and her sister were expected to be perfect constantly.
It’s crucial for white people, in particular, to appreciate how white mainstream society sets out paradigms of perfection for non-white people to strive for, all the while continuing to move the goalposts to ensure they can’t and the trauma this creates.
Jefferson unpicks complicated and sometimes conflicting feelings towards identity and the intersections of race and gender with class and education.
It’s incredibly smart, written with clarity and honesty.
4. The Bear and the Nightingale series by Katherine Arden
Amazon: The Bear and the Nightingale
This trilogy is YA Fantasy. A mix of Grimm fairytales with lashings of Russian ballets thrown in. There’s drama, a cast of characters fitting for Tolstoy and cold, biting misery, balanced by mystery and myths.
If you’re not looking for a series, the first reads as a standalone (which is what I said too — and then I devoured the whole lot!) The series follows Vasya, the younger daughter of a lord in rural Russia. The land is unforgiving and particularly brutal in the long winters.
Vasya’s mother died when she was young, and an elderly, superstitious servant has raised her on Russian fairytales. Of course, these fairytales are based on some truth and as Vasya gets older, she begins to learn she also has gifts from these stories.
It’s not easy for modern writers to create female protagonists who are somewhat historically accurate but also modern enough to satisfy current audience’s tastes. Arden’s Vasya is well-drawn though and pitched perfectly for readers of all ages.
Put everything down after a tough day and get lost in this whole world.
5. I Am I Am I Am by Maggie O’Farrell
Amazon: I am I am I am
This book is about Maggie O’Farrell’s 17 brushes with death. It’s the first book I recommend to people to get them out of a reading slump. Its paced, incredible storytelling hooks you in and refuses to let go as she recounts moments that nearly changed everything.
Her Sliding Doors reflections are rarely uttered, ‘What ifs’ are left wondered by the reader more than O’Farrell, which can make them all the more haunting. She writes without whimsy and sentimentality. She reminds you how to feel.
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Written by Natalie Shaw
