An Honest Recap of My Quarantine Reading List

Rating: 8/10

This collection of essays was so interesting to me. The compilation was written by Esme Weijun Wang, a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia while she was an undergraduate student at Yale University. Wang writes of her experiences getting diagnosed, being admitted to psych wards, navigating psychotic episodes, and living with a chronic illness. The book definitely got into the psychological technicalities of Wang’s diagnoses far more than I anticipated. I would say that someone with a psychology background might find these portions of the book easier to follow than I did. Despite this, I would wholeheartedly recommend The Collected Schizophrenias to anyone interested in memoirs and mental health.

Rating: 9/10

I first read Carmen Maria Machado’s short story “The Husband Stitch” in an English class at Colby. I was very emotionally impacted by this story, and I still recommend it to literally everyone I meet. Over the summer, I finally picked up Machado’s short story collection Her Body and Other Parties and was by no means disappointed. While “The Husband Stitch” certainly remains my favorite short story of hers, the collection is full of haunting tales about the trauma of womanhood. I would consider these stories to be recommended readings for every person; they truly enriched my understanding of womanhood, generational trauma, and sexual assault.

Rating: 10/10

At 784 pages, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch might not hold everyone’s attention, however, I found that I couldn’t put it down. Tartt weaves a beautiful narrative about the trajectory of a young boy’s life after surviving a terrorist attack at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The book is a coming of age story that also involves antique forgery and art theft. As a fervent lover of Tartt’s The Secret History, I will forever admire her ability to make absurd criminal activities seem completely plausible. Tartt easily enchants readers with her simple and elegant prose, and it is no wonder her novels are considered “modern classics.” The Goldfinch is another read I’d wholeheartedly recommend.

Rating: 1/10

To be honest, I hated this book. I purchased it two years ago after seeing it widely considered to be a fundamental text of modern feminism. Since then, I’ve tried multiple times to get into this book, which is loosely based on true events. In I Love Dick, the author recounts a period of intense obsession with a man named Dick. The obsession does anything but fade over time, ultimately leading to her and her husband performing an avant-garde art piece where they read love letters they have penned to Dick, whose character is based on a real person. The real Dick had absolutely no idea any of this was happening and has since been reported as being “appalled” by the book and the art piece. The novel is praised as feminist because the author, a woman, uses a man as her muse completely without his consent, as many men have done historically with their female muses. Perhaps in the 90s, when I Love Dick was written, this type of role-reversal would have been considered feminist. Yet, reading it in 2020 only served to make me extremely uncomfortable. I personally do not think it is feminist for women to simply fill traditionally male roles, especially when those roles deliberately violate boundaries. Despite its cultural significance, I found I Love Dick to be outdated and narcissistic and I would not recommend it to anyone.

Rating: 6/10

When I heard Stephanie Meyer’s long-awaited addition to the Twilight series, Midnight Sun, was set to be released, I was overjoyed. Nothing has ever made me feel the way I felt when I was ten years old reading Twilight for the first time, and I was eager to see if Stephanie Meyer could once again capture my heart with the story of Bella and Edward, this time from Edward’s perspective. I wouldn’t necessarily say that Midnight Sun was equal to Twilight in terms of its emotional impact on me, but I loved it all the same. It was a light, easy read, and I had fun immersing myself in the Twilight universe once again. I even binge-watched all the movies afterward. I gave Midnight Sun a rating of 6/10 because even though I love it, I can be honest about Stephanie Meyer’s writing abilities. Additionally, if a reader didn’t have the emotional connection I had to Twilight, I’m sure they would have no patience for Midnight Sun.