The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest

Written by: Aubrey Hartman

First line: Clare was dead.

Why you should read this book: Clare the undead fox is an Usher, a gentle, folksy sort of psychopomp whose job is to help any confused souls in the area find their way to the most appropriate afterlife in one of four realms: Peace, Progress, Pleasure, and Pain. Clare takes pride in his work, and comfort in the solitude of his free time, spent amidst his beloved mushroom friends, but has little use for company and zero interest in badgers, until the day that a dead badger called Gingersnipes turns up, completely unable to access any of the possible realms, but brimming over with nonstop questions and exposition and completely destroying Clare's job satisfaction. This is a lovely and deep story for children about death, loss, and grief, but also about love and life, and what we owe other people, and ourselves. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Might be a bit heavy for those who are not prepared to read a children's book about death, loss, and grief. 

The House of My Mother: A Daughter's Quest for Freedom

Written by: Shari Franke

First line:

Why you should read this book: In many ways, Ruby Franke was no different from millions of other abusive narcissists whose deranged worldviews and behavior make life hellacious for their families, but there was one way in which she distinguished herself and stood out enough to gain notoriety and reprobation, which is that she filmed herself being a terrible mother, posted the videos on YouTube, and monetized them to the tune of millions of dollars before the world turned on her. As the eldest daughter, Shari Franke was the first of her family to see her mother clearly and understand that what was going on in her house was not normal, or healthy, or, eventually, legal. These are Shari's Franke's memoirs, from her earliest childhood, of what it was like to grow up under the influence and control of an absolute monster who somehow managed to hide her crimes behind the mantle of respectable Mormonism for almost two decades before Shari was able to break away and eventually seek justice for herself and her younger siblings. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: There's some lurid stuff in here.

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. 

Pride and Prejudice

Written by: Jane Austen 

First line: It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

Why you should read this book: I can't believe I've never blogged this one before; it's the literary equivalent of a warm blanket and a cup of cocoa with marshmallows for many readers, and the story of the Bennet sisters, who must marry well before their father's estate is entailed to their unctuous cousin, is one I've consumed many times. Elizabeth Bennet, the second oldest sibling, has a lively mind and wit, and on first acquaintance is deeply unimpressed with the wealthy, condescending Mr. Darcy, but as the story unfolds, she realizes that there is more to Mr. Darcy than snobbery and smug disapproval. There are lies and betrayals and romance and all kinds of snide remarks and cutting observations and true danger and, as in every Jane Austen novel, everyone gets the husband she deserves. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You have to actually be a reader; if you don't like reading you will find Austen's prose difficult to detangle. 

Speechless

Written by: Aron Nels Steinke

First line: Mira? Mira, is everything OK?

Why you should read this book: Mira suffers from selective mutism: she has no trouble expressing herself at home--she spends hours creating original animations and uploading them to the internet--but she's never been able to speak out loud in school. It doesn't help that her former best friend Chloe has become her biggest bully and is also living in her house and kissing up to her mom. But Mira manages to make one friend who's willing to work around her disabilities, and a new therapist who sees her and understands what she's going through, and suddenly she's expressing herself all over the place. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think children should be seen and not heard. 

When Stars Are Scattered

Written by: Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

First line: For me, the first years are lost. 

Why you should read this book: This is an award-winning graphic novel memoir for children, and about children, and so full of tragedy and privation and heartache and loss and suffering and trauma that I personally was crying for about fifty percent of the book. Orphans Omar and his nonverbal brother Hassan have lived in a refugee camp for most of their lives, and the story follows Omar's trials and triumphs when he is persuaded to go to school. It's difficult to succeed academically in a refugee camp, and even if he finishes high school, there's no guarantee that he will ever be able to leave the camp or live a life with any sense of hope or possibility.

Why you should read this book: It does have a happy ending, but that doesn't mitigate the author's pain or make up for the childhood that was stolen from him. 

Super Boba Cafe

Written by: Nidhi Chanani

First line: OHMYGODTHISISHOWIDIEOHGODDDTHEWATERAH

Why you should read this book: Aria's excited to spend the summer with Nainai, her grandmother, and determined to put her sleepy little neighborhood boba cafe on the map by leveraging the power of kittens and social media, but her plan is too good. The shop is suddenly, virally successful, making it hard to ignore some of the Nainai's more peculiar behavior, especially the way she vanishes every night into her secret kitchen. Aria is determined to uncover Nainai's secret, and then, when she realizes the seriousness of her grandmother's secret work, to find a way to make life easier for her heroic grandmother. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't care if California falls into the ocean. 

How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir

Written by: Molly Jong-Fast

First line: I am the only child of a once-famous woman.

Why you should read this book: Metaphorically, the experience of reading this book is similar to seeing a horse and a thinking, "that is a cool-looking horse," and then you get on the horse even though you don't really know much about horses, and the horse understands this and takes the opportunity to start galloping through the forest at a breakneck speed and you are dodging branches and hanging on for dear life and yes, it's exhilarating but also terrifying and the horse just keeps going until it's got that all out of its system and then abruptly stops in a beautiful meadow not far from where you parked your car and just acts like everything is copacetic and your nightmare ride never happened. Admittedly, while I was aware of the existence of Erica Jong, the author's once-famous mother, I never actually read any of her books, so all my sympathy and interest was held entirely for Jong-Fast from the beginning, and I both enjoyed and was traumatized by her descriptions of a childhood dictated by her mother's absolute chaotic lifestyle and ability to express love, seamlessly woven together with the story of her adult experience of her mother's dementia and decline. The writing achieves that level of flawlessness that allows you to sink into the narrative without noticing how the author is performing all these magic tricks, and it would have been a good story even if she wasn't a tremendous writer. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're still trying to impress your narcissistic parent. 

Nana & Kaoru Volume 6

Written by: Ryuta Amazume

First line: Is my mom really...DEAD?

Why you should read this book: Kaoru's mom is not really dead, but she does manage to guilt trip him into moving to Okinawa, and he justifies his abandonment of Nana because she's going to leave him for university anyway, so what's the point of torturing himself for another year? In Okinawa, he finds that his skills a ropemaster are in high demand, and he enjoys a scene with his favorite fetish model before realizing that BDSM, for him, is inextricably entangled with his emotions for Nana; meanwhile, Nana realizes that she can't live without Kaoru. She travels to Okinawa twice to salvage their relationship, which still seems undecided until the (very) satisfying (but somewhat unbelievable) climax of the story, after which the young couple agree that whatever the future holds, they will make their decisions together. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't really understand BDSM.

Unspeakable: Surviving My Childhood and Finding My Voice

Written by: Jessica Willis Fisher

First line: When I go back to examine the earliest memories of my life, I can distinguish three short scenes.

Why you should read this book: The author recounts the devastating details of her childhood, which involve repeated sexual abuse by her father beginning at a very early age, along with physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse, and the eventual realization that her seven younger sisters were all receiving the same treatment, and that nobody was coming to help or protect them. Meanwhile, Fisher was forced to perform in the family band and held responsible for the family's financial wellbeing, writing most of their music and putting on a brave face for the fans and the television cameras that eventually surrounded her life. While Fisher escaped and lived to speak out about what happened to her and see her abuser incarcerated for his crimes, this narrative also highlights the unknown but assuredly vast number of children who experience the same forms of sexual, physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse do not have the means to escape and never see justice or have a chance to tell their stories. 

Why you should read this book: I think this is the first book I've ever read that included a trigger warning, with page numbers (for the three most shocking incidents of abuse); unlike some survivors, Fisher explains exactly what her father did and it is horrific indeed.