How is everyone feeling mentally, physically, and emotionally during this quarantine? We are mourning the lives of loved one we are losing during COVID-19. We are sad that our school year was cut short and professors are piling on more homework. We are at loss for the families that cannot work or have lost their jobs. Books can give us a break (even if it is just for an hour or two) from our new reality.
Here are three books to read during quarantine:
1. Little Fires Everywhere — Celeste Ng
Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl, after their constant moving, have finally settled in Shaker Heights in Cleveland, Ohio as tenants of the Richardson family. Pearl and the Richardson’s children get closely acquainted and grow to be quite good friends. However, the secrets of Mia Warren’s lifestyle begin to unravel.
The two combatting and polar opposite family dynamics are raw. The authenticity of this book’s family drama, secrets, and past make this book an enticing read. It shows that even the most perfect people have skeletons in their closet.
This book has turned into a Hulu series with the two amazing actresses, Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. A perfect book and television show duo to keep you company during this quarantine.
2. Educated — Tara Westover
Educated is based upon a true story that shines light on Tara Westover’s troubled childhood that she transformed into a memoir. Tara, a member of a Mormon family, lived an isolated life from mainstream society. Tara had never been to a hospital, her father forbade it. Tara never received formal education until the age of 17, she had to teach herself the basics — reading, writing, and math. Tara never had a television and was completely oblivious to events like the Holocaust. She had as far from a normal childhood as humanly possible.
The horrors of Tara Westover’s childhood from her father’s insanity to her brother’s beatings is hard not to raise emotions of sadness, fear, and anger from the readers. While I was reading this book, I was constantly on edge and completely oblivious to the world around me.
3. Normal People — Sally Rooney
The novel delves into a typical modern day relationship. These two very different teenagers Connell and Marianne are constantly crossing paths. Connell is popular, athletic, and handsome. Marianne is unpopular but rich. The pair meet when Marianne’s mother hired Connell’s mother to be the housekeeper for their family. Though their worlds are polar opposites, it is as if there is a magnetic attraction between the two that keeps pulling them together. They secretly embark on a relationship that Connell is too embarassed to reveal. Once they both leave their small town and wind up studying at the same institution, Trinity College in Dublin, one cannot help and see that they are meant to be. Will they see that what others think do not matter and that they are meant to be together?
Sally Rooney does a phenomenal job of giving a raw and accurate depiction of relationships today. The confusion and pain felt by the character’s in their muddy relationship is a parallel to the confusion and pain that is brought on by young love in this generation.