A Green Glow on the Horizon: Tales from the National Association of Tourist Attraction Survivors

 Written by: Dawn Burns

First line: This is the story I'm learning to tell.

Why you should read this book: Beneath the structure of these surreal fictions, linked by the premise that  roadside tourist attractions leave bruises upon those who don't have the luxury of simply passing through the amusement, lies a series of hard truths about parents and children, and the disconnect and betrayal that comes from irrational adult beliefs that are too rigid to accommodate "sensitive" children. Metaphorically examining religious trauma through a uniquely American fairy tale lens, these stories showcase the reluctantly expressed pain of those (usually daughters) who feel diminished in the face of others' (usually their mother's) obsessions with strange, unyielding ideals that do not serve unbelieving children. From Roswell, New Mexico to Pedro's South of the Border in South Carolina, Iowa's Corn Palace, Arizona's The Thing to The Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, and even stranger settings, surprising locations lead to surprising maladies, anger, introspection, and sometimes, recovery, and redemption.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You know your teenager is wrong about their own identity, needs, and beliefs, and if you just keep ignoring what she wants, she'll get better. 

The Neverending Story

Written by: Michael Ende

First line: This inscription could be seen on the glass door of a small shop, but naturally this was only the way it looked if you were inside the dimly lit shop, looking out at the street through the plateglass door.

Why you should read this book: If you think you know The Neverending Story because you saw the movie eleventy billion times in the eighties, you do NOT know The Neverending Story, because that movie ends less than halfway through this novel and the author hated it so much that he sued to have his name removed from the film. In the original version, Bastian does more than hide in an attic and scream the Empress's new name; naming the Empress is his passage into a magical land (here called Fantastica) where his use of AURYN helps him overcome every one of his numerous personality flaws, transforming him into a kid who wouldn't steal an antique book from an old man or hide from his bullies all day. It's a much more expansive and intelligent story than the movie shows, and Bastian is a much more flawed hero who requires much more from Atreyu, Falkor, the Childlike Empress, and the land of Fantastica than they ever needed from him.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The narration reminds us, over and over and over, that chief among Bastian's flaws (and he's a pretty flawed person: canonically, his only redeeming characteristic is his imagination) is that he is fat and bow-legged. 

American Dirt

Written by: Jeanine Cummins

First line: One of the very first bullets comes in through the open window above the toilet where Luca is standing.

Why you should read this book: Fast paced and gut wrenching, it tells the story of Lydia and Luca, a mother and young child who survive the cartel's assassination of the rest of their family and must escape Acapulco, join the procession of migrants traveling north to the border, and cross into el norte if they are to have any hope of escaping the long reach of their enemies. The journey is terrifying, treacherous, and punctuated by encounters with true monsters, but Lydia and Luca also meet kind and generous helpers along the way, and create bonds with other migrants. The writing is immersive and evocative, creating an intimate picture of the physical and emotionally devastating journey.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The author received some criticism for writing this story despite not being a Central American immigrant but it seems to me that her research was sufficient to tell it properly and well, and that gives a person the right to tell a story. 

The Return of the King

Written by: JRR Tolkien 

First line: Pippin looked out from the shelter of Gandalf's coat.

Why you should read this book: I don't know if Lord of the Rings is the greatest story ever told, but this tale of epic bravery in the face of impossible odds is certainly very high on the list. By the beginning of this third book in the trilogy, every single character is convinced that theirs is an impossible suicide mission, and despite this knowledge every single character chooses to continue on their path simply because it is the right thing to do. Good triumphs over evil, but at great cost, and while there is celebration and joy, there is no true happy every after, because everything always ends, and what has been destroyed can never return (except for Gandalf, of course). 

Why you shouldn't read this book: The poignant, gripping thread of sorrow and loss woven throughout may cause grief and nostalgia for a world that can never be.

The Fellowship of the Ring

Written by: JRR Tolkien

First line: When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday, with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.

Why you should read this book: The story of an unassuming little halfling who leaves behind a life of comfort and ease when he inherits a weapon of mass destruction that is too powerful to even be handled by any creature with more gumption and ambition than a hobbit hits different when you are actually living in a world where a dark shadow is indeed crossing the land. Accompanied by his faithful gardener and two adventurous cousins, Frodo Baggins sets off on a very long ramble, to figure out what to do with this insidious artifact, is pursued by unspeakable terror, is aided by the forces of good, and eventually finds direction and companionship. Determined to undertake an impossible and suicidal quest for the benefit of his entire world, Frodo is the hero to inspire the least among us to strive to do great things in the face of great evil. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't want to read one of the greatest stories ever told. 

Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir

Written by: Tessa Hulls

First line: If you had told me five years ago that my mother and I would find ourselves here, traveling back into the past in the hopes of building a bridge between us, the sheer impossibility would have caught in my throat like a bone. 

Why you should read this book: I notice that I read a lot of memoirs written by adult women about their complex relationships with their problematic mothers, but this one seems overwhelming in comparison, almost impossibly complex, and deep, and heart-wrenching. To understand her relationship with her mother, Tessa Hulls must understand who her mother is, and to understand that, she must understand her mother's trauma, and to do that, she must understand her grandmother, who she knew only as a small and crazy Chinese lady who lived in her house in California, physically, but mentally existed in some evanescent slice of world history involving the Communist Revolution. Now grown, her grandmother passed, Hulls takes her mother back to Hong Kong and China in an attempt to recreate the lives of her ancestors while recalling her own childhood and how her American upbringing made her a stranger to the past. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's heavy; no wonder it took the author a decade to write. 

My Life as a Fake

Written by: Peter Carey

First line: I have known John Slater all my life. 

Why you should read this book: Inspired by a real life literary hoax, this is a fictional novel about a literary hoax, but in the story, the literary hoax literally grows legs and walks around terrifying its creator in the manner of Frankenstein's monster. It's one of those strange, dreamlike narratives where you get the sense that absolutely every character is lying about almost everything they say, including the first person narrator, and everybody in the story is kind of unlikeable at the core, but the reader is drawn in enough to keep reading just to figure out what's actually going on. Sarah Wode-Douglass, the editor of a prestigious British literary magazine, takes a weird vacation to Kuala Lumpur with John Slater, a famous poet she doesn't like at all, and meets a disgraced Australian writer who once perpetrated a literary hoax that, if he is to be believed, was way too successful. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I'm not entirely sure it ever explains itself satisfactorily. 

The Last Cuentista

Written by: Donna Barba Higuera

First line: Lita tosses another pinon log on the fire. 

Why you should read this book: Petra and her family are among the lucky few granted a place on the great starships leaving Earth just before Haley's comet smashes into it and destroys everyone and everything, including her beloved storyteller grandmother, and now she will spend hundreds of years in cryo-sleep, having important computer files uploaded to her brain so she can be a scientist when humanity finds its new home. But even as the ship launches and Petra falls into an uneasy stasis, dissidents have taken over the ship, and when Petra finally awakes, it is into a strange, nightmare reality controlled by "The Collective," a group that has evolved into a species she can barely recognize as human, which has eliminated hunger and war by eliminating art, culture, love, feelings, family, and the stories that Petra loves. Alone among the others on the ship, Petra retains her memories of Earth, and armed with her grandmother's stories, she must find a way to save what remains of humanity from The Collective's single-minded focus to destroy it. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It took me way longer than usual to read because this book is frankly terrifying for a children's story; I don't scare easy in print (I think the last time was Joe Hill's Heart Shaped Box) but something about this girl forced to pretend to be brainwashed while mourning the loss of her family and the rest of humanity and made to live among the fascist Collective just hit way too close to home. 

The Star Side of Bird Hill

Written by: Naomi Jackson

First line: The people on the hill liked to say that God's smile was the sun shining down on them. 

Why you should read this book: Their mother suffering from a lethargic malaise they cannot understand, sixteen-year-old Dionne and her ten-year-old sister Phaedra are shipped off to spend their summer with their Grandmother Hyacinth, in Barbados. The quiet neighborhood of Bird Hill, where everyone knows everyone and has since they were born, is a far cry from the from the familiar boundaries of their lives in Brooklyn, and while Phaedra finds herself interested in Hyacinth's knowledge and her own heritage, Dionne bristles thinking of the excitement she's missing in New York and how this island pales in comparison. Heartbreaking and uplifting, this is a story about family and the splendor of love, and the power and meaning of those things. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: So sad. I cried like three times. 

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

Written by: Conor Grennan

First line: It was well after nightfall when I realized we had gone the wrong way.

Why you should read this book: In order to mitigate the "unrepentantly self-indulgent" nature of his plan to spend a year traveling the world partying and rubbing up against strange women, Conor Grennan schedules a two-month stint volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal. To his surprise, he falls in love with the orphans of Little Princes, who call him "Brother" and have mastered the art of the tackle-hug, and feels compelled to return to Nepal after his grand tour. When he learns that most of the children aren't truly orphans, and some of them have vanished, he dedicates himself to recovering the lost ones and tracking down all the families who thought they were sending their kids to a better life, combatting Maoist rebels, war, poverty, bureaucracy, the cold, knee pain, inclement weather, language barriers, lack of medical care, and a diet consisting almost entirely of white rice and lentils. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You believe empathy is a weakness. 

The Republic of Salt

Written by: Ariel Kaplan

First line: It was three nights until the New Year, and in the mountains north of Mazik Rimon, Naftaly Cresques was lying on the ground beside two old women and a Mazik who was mostly dead. 

Why you should read this book: The second novel in the Mirror Realm cycle, this doorstop of a fantasy novel picks up pretty much where the last one left off, with Naftaly and his crew in the Mazik land and Toba and the now-mortal Asmel back in the human world, and all of them knowing that if they can't stop Tarses from taking over both realms it's not going to go so well for anyone. Arduously, all the characters must travel to Zayit, outwitting enemies, finding surprising allies, eating lentils, and learning more about magic, especially as it pertains to part-mortal magicians. The pacing is good, so that the story keeps moving forward in a Lord of the Rings kind of way, even though it takes everyone a very long time to get where they're going. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Due to its structure and the way Naftaly's powers work, it's kind of obvious precisely how the book is going to end (hint: a cliffhanger). 

Among Flowers

Written by: Jamaica Kincaid

First line: One day, in the year 2000, I was asked to write a book, a small one, about any place in the world I wished and doing something in that place I liked doing. 

Why you should read this book: For reasons that may not seem reasonable to people who aren't professional writers and very avid gardeners, the author takes a grueling weeks-long hike through the mountains of Nepal to collect seeds. Along the way her life is threatened by Maoists; her conscious is wracked with guilt; she suffers from heat, cold, and various other privations not typically sought out by successful Americans; and she has, apparently, the time of her life. The result is a surprising and tidy travelogue unlike any story that I've ever read.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Usually, when I encounter a word I don't know, I look it up and write down the word and its definition, but if I had stopped to look up every single Latin plant name in this book, it would have taken me twice as long to read. 

The Saga of Ilkay and Collected Stories

Written by: Natalie Wright

First line: Thundering hooves, a stampede of thirst compels them.

Why you should read this book: An entertaining collection of fairy tales, this slim volume is intended to represent a book found by a character in the author's Dragos Primeri series. The stories include those referenced in the books, as well as new stories that hint at relevance in later works, as well as poetry and illustrations. These are delightful tales of perseverance, determination, and love and may be enjoyed without reference to the original series.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It might be better if you had read the original series. 

Alternative Remedies for Loss

Written by: Joanna Cantor

First line: "You must be new."

Why you should read this book: Ever since her mother passed away, very young adult Olivia has been sleepwalking through life: sleepwalking right out of college and into an entry-level job, sleepwalking through encounters with men, sleepwalking through the entire country of India. When her father asks her to clean out her mother's office (too soon, Olivia thinks, especially considering the presence of her father's new girlfriend, who showed up only a few months after the tragedy) Olivia stumbles upon a photograph and some letters that hint at some secret, something she needs to learn about her mother to try to make sense of her death. Suddenly imbued with purpose, Olivia becomes a detective as well as a filmmaker, and returns to India to uncover the mysteries left unspoken at the end of her mother's life.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You mainly like to travel overseas for the fresh new shopping experiences. 

A Wedding in Haiti

Written by: Julia Alvarez

First line: My husband and I have an ongoing debate about how old Piti was when we first met him. 

Why you should read this book: The novelist recalls two meaningful trips she and her husband Bill took to Haiti with Piti, a charming and capable young man they befriended years earlier, along with a delightful assortment of other characters. In the first half of the book, they travel to Haiti to attend Piti's wedding, a comically difficult trip in both directions; after falling in love with the people they met on the previous journey, they feel the need to visit again in the wake of the 2010 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince. Haiti is a foreign land to Alvarez, despite the fact that she is from the Dominican Republic next door, and she is equally enchanted and inconvenienced at every turn, capturing the land and its people, their trials, tragedies, and triumphs with a clear eye.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're shocked--Shocked!--to learn that some people take bribes. 

American Oz

Written by: Michael Sean Comerford

First line: Rose Dog's eyes fixed on me as he danced around the trailer in agony.

Why you should read this book: Recently divorced and spoiling for adventure, the author (age 53) resolves to spend a year working as a carnie--building, running, and tearing down rides, sleeping in terrible conditions, getting paid under minimum wage, eating on a dollar a day--in order to write a book about this hidden American culture. Along the way, he meets a fascinating cast of characters, hitchhikes thousands of miles, learns skills and lingo and history that most people will never use, is victimized by criminals, cops, and carnies, and generally Jack Kerouacs his way around the country in a cotton candy fever dream. Anyone who's ever dreamed of running away to a magical and terrible world unlike the place they've always lived will find inspiration (possible to stay home) in this engaging and wonderful memoir.

Why you shouldn't read this book: The life described by the author is magical and also terrible, to the point that it almost feels like he might be punishing himself for some past transgressions related to the end of his marriage, but as the story progresses it become obvious that he is delighted to sleep in the rain on highway on ramps and get hit in the head with giant pieces of hardware and have his life threatened by angry men and be pushed around by cops and so on, and the only person suffering in this story is his elementary-age daughter, who doesn't really understand her dad's journey and only feels his abandonment.  

Castle in the Air

Written by: Diana Wynn Jones

First line: Far to the south of the land of Ingary, in the Sultanates of Rashpuht, a young carpet merchant called Abdullah lived in the city of Zanzib.

Why you should read this book: It is technically a sequel to the delightful Howl's Moving Castle, although for the majority of the book, it feels more like an homage to 1,001 Arabian Nights, and the connection to the original story doesn't become clear until chapter fourteen. Our protagonist, Abdullah, makes a modest living as a carpet salesman, barely tolerating the aggressive meddling of his distant relations, and dreaming primarily of beautiful gardens beyond his reach, until the day he is bullied into purchasing a shabby but magical flying carpet. Suddenly true happiness in the form of a beautiful princess is within his grasp, but Abdullah's quest to marry Flower-in-the-Night is constantly foiled by mortal and supernatural opposition, and he has a long road ahead of him if he is to ever come to the happy conclusion of his quest.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Although I have seen the Miyazaki film about a hundred times, it's obviously different from the original novel, which I wish I had read before reading this one. 

Clorinda Takes Flight

Written by: Robert Kinerk and Steven Kellogg

First line: Clorinda the cow took the sun now and then in the back of a friend's house, the farmhand named Len.

Why you should read this book: Inspired by the flight of birds, Clorinda the cow becomes determined to fly herself, and enlists her friends, Hop the pig and Len the human to construct a flying machine to achieve her dream. Their initial efforts enjoy only limited success, but eventually they settle on the sensible solution of a hot air balloon. The balloon works like a charm, but poor Len is accidentally left behind as Clorinda and Hop fly over the country, across the ocean, and eventually make their way to England, where they take tea with the Queen and bring back a souvenir for Len.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's very silly. 

Amazing Grapes

Written by: Jules Feiffer

First line: What's up? Mommy is staring out the window.

Why you should read this book: This deeply surreal graphic novel tells the story of three siblings, Shirley, Pearlie, and Curly, and their mentally absent mother, Mommy, who spends most of her time staring out the window, insensate to the world. When their father leaves and Mommy decides to remarry, a giant two-headed swan comes to carry the children off to another dimension, but Shirley refuses to heed the call, leaving the younger siblings to take a nightmare journey through another world populated by a strange assortment of companions. Eventually Mommy and Shirley (and Shirley's fiancé, Whatzisname), are able to catch up with Pearlie and Curly in this other world, and everyone sorts out where they belong and can finally move on with their lives, presumably happier than they were at the beginning of the book.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It feel allegorical and the internal logic is more complex than any of Feiffer's other work; it's very strange and in some places hard to read due to the bizarre nature of the subject matter and the characters' decision-making processes, and also due to the pervasive themes of abandonment, loneliness, and alienation. 

Kindred

Written by: Octavia Butler 

First line: I lost my arm on my last trip home.

Why you should read this book: This is a groundbreaking novel about the perilous history of Black Americans and their relationships to the white people who enslaved them, cleverly framed as a time traveling story about a young woman named Dana who, like Billy Pilgrim before her, becomes unhinged in time. Over and over, Dana is called back from 1970's LA to the antebellum south, where she must repeatedly save the life of her distant ancestor, Rufus, a rich white man who owns slaves, including another one of her ancestors, Alice, a Black woman who is the object of Rufus's obsession. As Rufus grows up, Dana must protect him to ensure her own birth, but at the same time, she cannot protect Alice from Rufus without preventing her own conception. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Slavery is brutal.