The Door in the Wall

Written by: Marguerite de Angeli

First line: Robin drew the coverlet about his head and turned his face to the wall.

Why you should read this book: With his father off to war and his mother waiting on the Queen, Robin is supposed to begin his training to become a knight, but his parents didn't make plans for Robin to become so sick he lost the use of his legs, and for every servant left to care for him to die of the plague. Brother Luke, a monk who is aware of Robin's situation (and that his father has generously donated to the monk's church) comes to rescue him, not just from starving to death in his own bed, but from his sense that disability means he can do nothing and has nothing to look forward to. With the help of the Brothers, Robin soon learns to swim, read, whittle, and eventually, to walk with crutches, so that eventually he has the confidence and ability to outwit an invading army and save England.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's a bit of a quiet book, although there is a bit of action here and there. I seem to recall my mother trying to force me to read this book 40-odd years ago and me being so bored I didn't get through the first chapter. 

Something in the Woods Loves You

Written by: Jarod K. Anderson

First line: In Ohio, winter is landscape poetry.

Why you should read this book: Magical and heart wrenching, these essays braid the poet's childhood memories of Ohio's plants and animals with his intentional present day reconnection with nature, and its evolution as a tool in his arsenal against depression. This book touched me on a deep level, probably because it resonated with so many of my personal experiences, both beautiful and terrible, but the prose is  also a luscious dive into the wilderness, an immersive experience of midwestern flora and fauna through the lenses of nostalgia, depression, and recovery. This book is for anyone who has ever loved the woods. 

Why you should read this book: You hate the woods. 

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. 

The War That Saved My Life

Written by: Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

First line: "Ada! Get back from that window!" Mam's voice, shouting. 

Why you should read this book: Born with a clubfoot to an abusive mother, Ada has only once in her life left her room, and was beaten for it, but she's been secretly teaching herself to walk, although it is painful and bloody. Thus, she is able to sneak out and join the other children being evacuated to the country from London at the beginning of World War II, to be cared for by a depressed woman mourning the death of her "best friend" (or, as we say today, "they were 'roommates'"). In the country, she learns a great deal about the world, and herself, and love; discovers crutches, and ponies, and the fact that she is capable of much more than her mother led her to believe; and finds possibility in life that she never could have imagined from her window at home. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's pretty sad, although the ending is hopeful. 

Not Quite a Ghost

Written by: Anne Ursu

First line: The house stood a little apart from the rest of the block, as if it did not quite fit in. 

Why you should read this book: Violet Hart is already dealing with that strange uncertainty that accompanies the transition from elementary to middle school and the questions of whether the people you've been friends with your entire life will remain your friends once puberty commences, and now her mom and stepdad have decided to purchase this really creepy house so she can have her own room, even if that room is in the extra creepy attic. This isn't quite a ghost story, although there's definitely something like a ghost in the house, but it draws most of its spookiness from its discussion of undiagnosed chronic illness and its use of symbols and themes from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." Anyone who's ever been accused of malingering when they felt awful or been gaslit by "friends" who had turned against them will understand what Violet is going through in this well-paced and clever story.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you still haven't gotten a diagnosis, it might be a bit frustrating. 

Everything Is OK

Written by: Debbi Tung

First line: I feel so lost and overwhelmed.

Why you should read this book: In this candid and understated graphic memoir, the author describes a difficult period of her life, some relevant backstory, her journey through her mental health problems, and the world she encounters on the other side. The first half of the book is primarily a painfully accurate description of living with an undiagnosed anxiety disorder while also coping with known depression and also trying to balance a relationship and a career. The second half is more or less a catalog of the kinds of things you learn in therapy, presented in such a way that you actually might believe that everything is, in fact, OK, or that it might be, if you just keep pushing through. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I can see how the first half might be kind of upsetting to someone who was not handling their own anxiety and depression very well. 

The Waters

Written by: Bonnie Jo Campbell

First line: Once upon a time M'sauga Island was a place where desperate mothers abandoned baby girls and where young women went seeking to prevent babies altogether.

Why you should read this book: For Bonnie Jo Campbell's forthcoming (WW Norton, January 2024) novel, I have to abandon my typical 4-sentence format. If you're not familiar with my creative relationship with Bonnie Jo Campbell, you can learn a great deal about it here on my visual art website. If you do know about the 4 volumes of comics based on her work I've published, you probably won't be surprised to learn that I drew the map that will appear as the frontispiece of this new novel, and that I read an early draft (the version she sent to the publisher) last year and that I just finished reading the ARC. I'm deeply inspired and I've just been telling people for well over a year to keep an eye out for this book, because I think it's going to knock people's socks off. 

Obviously, this is a biased account and not a true book review. Because I freaking love this book. 

Like most of Campbell's work, it's set in rural southwestern Michigan, is deeply tied to the land, and features a quirky and colorful cast moving through circumstances that perfectly balance comedy and tragedy. It covers new ground by opening the world up to a fairy tale sensibility and the possibly of true magic.

Hermine "Herself" Zook, age unknown, has always lived on M'sauga Island, and has long been the resident witch of the town of Whiteheart, guided by the spirit of her mother, Baba Rose, who haunts her right arm and also the eternal flame of her stove. In addition to providing natural remedies to those who need healing, she also adopts unwanted babies, and, if approached properly, provides herbal abortions. And thus the tale unfolds. Now raising her granddaughter Dorothy "Donkey" Zook in her footsteps, Hermine finds herself increasingly at odds with a hypocritical world that want to use and control her strength even as the poison of modernity seeps into the swamp from every direction. 

I have a million things to say about this book, which I'm saving for the comic I want to write about it. However, if you like rural noir, fairy tales, strong female characters, strange children, the state of Michigan, nuanced debates about ethics and religion, or detailed descriptions of the natural world, you will probably like this book. 

Pre-order it from your local bookstore or public library and be the first to know. 

Healer and Witch

Written by: Nancy Werlin

First line: On a warm April morning, a week after the terrible day on which Grand-mère Sylvie died, Sylvie walked away from her home.

Why you should read this book: Sylvie grandmother warned her to be cautious with her new healing powers, but Sylvie was only trying to help, and her failure was so terrible that she's decided her only option is to run away from home and try to find a more powerful healer to teach her how to fix her mistakes. But the year is 1531 and life is dangerous enough for a girl on her own (or even accompanied by an annoying little boy who refuses to go home), let alone one who might be accused of witchcraft if the wrong people catch wind of what she can really do. What I loved most about this book is that it was never predictable, and always went in a surprising direction with every step.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You literally believe in the devil.

The Artist's Way

Written by: Julia Cameron

First line: When people ask me what I do, I usually answer, "I'm a writer-director and I teach these creativity workshops."

Why you should read this book: You should read this book if you are a "blocked artist," i.e. a person who wants to find fulfillment in creative endeavors, but for whatever reason, can't seem to create the things you want to create. This twelve-week course in creativity has been around for decades and helped guide countless artists through various obstacles to their eventual success, in many cases, to very great success. With numerous activities, writing exercises, words of encouragement, and tough love deconstructions of the psychological barriers that hold us back, it offers an almost hundred percent guarantee of meaningful change of one sort or another for those who follow its specific but simple guidelines; I was certainly skeptical to start, but about halfway through the program I did start to experience some of the promised "magic" of the program. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I personally had some difficulty with its dependence on a "manifesting abundance" doctrine that I'm afraid feels inherently classist, and I didn't really find a way to completely embrace the discussion of a "God" that rewards artists. Also, some of the writing exercises are psychologically extremely difficult.

Searching for David's Heart

Written by: Cherie Bennett

First line: "I don't see why Mrs. Pricher is making us give stupid speeches in front of the entire class," I groaned to my big brother, David, and my best friend, Sam Weiss. 

Why you should read this book: Darcy's brother David has always been her rock, especially since her dad has gotten all weird and depressed and racist, but when she and David have a fight that doesn't get resolved before David's untimely death, Darcy can't forgive herself, or face what's left of her life. Her only hope comes when she realizes that David was an organ donor, and as long as a person's heart is beating, they can't really be dead. With Sam in tow, Darcy sets out on an epic journey to meet the recipient of her brother's heart, and try to make peace with her own.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Oh, man what a tearjerker! I cried. 

Smile

Written by: Raina Telgemeier

First line: Smile!!

Why you should read this book: Raina isn't looking forward to getting braces in the first place, but when a silly accident knocks one of her front teeth out and drives another up into her skull, the year of pain and oral surgeries that follow make braces look like a pleasant daydream. In the midst of her medical turmoil, she still has to deal with the boys who like her, the boys she likes, and her group of mean-girl friends. As she moves through her adolescence, Raina discovers her true passions and learns that focusing on her strengths boosts her self-esteem and helps the world see her the way she wants to be seen, regardless of what her teeth look like.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Medical/dental trauma/phobia.

Restart

Written by: Gorden Korman

Why you should read this book: Chase Ambrose awakens in a hospital bed with no knowledge of his own life: he doesn't remember falling off his roof, he doesn't know his own mother, and he can't recognize his face in the mirror. As he heals, he tries to put together the mystery of his identity, only to gradually realize that he was a terrible excuse for a human being before the accident, and that almost everyone he knows hates or fears him. Now he has a choice: try to get his old life back, or try to become a less reprehensible person before it's too late to change.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Its depiction of how amnesia caused by traumatic brain injury works is based more on popular culture than science or reality: it is unlikely that a person could lose their entire sense of self and all personal memories to become a tabula rasa personality but still retain the rest of their knowledge about the world and not suffer any cognitive deficits.

Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped inside His Own Body

Written by: Martin Pistorius

First line: Barney the Dinosaur is on TV again.

Why you should read this book: A remarkable page turner of a memoir, it's the autobiography of a boy who contracts an unknown degenerative neurological disorder in his twelfth year, loses half a decade to darkness, and then gradually reawakens, horrifyingly with a type of locked-in syndrome: he is well aware of everything going on around him, can see, hear, feel, and think, but is unable to move or communicate his cognizance in any way. At the age of twenty-five, a care worker decides that he is not a complete vegetable and Martin slowly begins to train his body and mind to employ adaptive technology and rejoin the world. Although he can neither walk nor talk, Martin is able to hold down a steady job, find the love of his life, and take his place as a fully fledged adult.

Why you shouldn't read this book:  You love Barney.

Lost Girls

Written by: Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbe

First line: Tell me a story.

Why you should read this book: This is probably what you’d refer to as a “problem” book, its problems being at least twofold: first, although it's billed as erotica, I’m having trouble expressing what differentiates it from intelligent, thoughtful pornography; and second, its premise, as near as I can tease it out, is that childhood sexuality is a wonderful, magical, innocent, and exciting thing that should be fully expressed in childhood, but which is inevitably corrupted, exploited, or destroyed by adult interference. In a gracious but unusual hotel in Austria prior to the start of World War One, three women chance to meet, and, as they’re heroines in an Alan Moore story, it should surprise no one that they are the grownup incarnations of three beloved children’s book characters: Alice of Alice in Wonderland, Wendy Darling of Peter Pan, and Dorothy Gale of the Wizard or Oz. However, Moore reimagines their backstories as metaphors for the taboo details of some very different kinds of fantasies, and, in telling their tales, the three women learn to release the shame, fear, and tension their experiences have evoked in them and recover the shameless, fearless sexual freedom of unspoiled childhood.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: You don’t want to look at cartoon pornography.

Messenger

Written by: Lois Lowry

First line: Matty was impatient to have the supper preparations over and done with.

Why you should read this book: Matty, the incorrigible scamp from Gathering Blue, is a little bit older and perhaps a very little bit wiser, living with Seer, his friend Kira's blind old father, in Village, a special town in their angry, violent world, where everyone helps everyone else and everyone is accepted. Except things are changing in Village, and now the kindest of people have become greedy and selfish, and Forest is getting more and more dangerous, and everything is about to change for the worse. Matty, one of the few people who can pass through Forest without fear, is the messenger who must tell the world about the impending changes, but Matty has a secret in a place where secrets aren't supposed to be kept, and he's not sure how it will affect his work or anything that comes after.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You believe in closed borders, every man for himself, and games of chance.

The First Man-Made Man: The Story of Two Sex Changes, One Love Affair, and a Twentieth-Century Medical Revolution

Written by: Pagan Kennedy

First line: Michael Dillon, a bearded medical student, fiddled with his pipe and then lit it nervously.

Why you should read this book: Over a decade before Christine Jorgenson came out as the first person to use surgery and hormones to change her expressed gender, Michael Dillon succeeded in becoming the man he’d always wanted to be using testosterone and an unusual surgical technique pioneered to help soldiers injured in World War I. Although Dillon was more or less able to completely pass as a man for most of his adult life, and even helped a male-to-female friend obtain surgery that was, at the time, illegal, his brother, an English baron, suppressed the story long after his death. Here is the history of a man determined to refine himself into a person of superlative body and spirit, and the difficulties encountered in a life lived according to his own principles, regardless of what others believed.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: You’ve ever told a family member not to show their face around the old homestead ever again.

The Tale of One Bad Rat

Written by: Bryan Talbot

First line: Once upon a time, there was a very bad rat…

Why you should read this book: Helen Potter, a homeless runaway whose pet rat is her only companion, is deeply wounded on the inside as a result of long term childhood trauma. She doesn’t know how to trust humans and can’t stand to be touched, until she finally chooses to confront her demons by following the path suggested by her idol, Beatrix Potter, to England’s Lake district. There, she begins to heal herself and chooses to rise above her troubled past.

Why you shouldn’t read this book: Trigger warning for incest and sexual assault.