Top 5 Wednesday: Friends Pick
When the Top 5 Wednesday prompts are posted each month, I usually take time to mull them over and slowly compile each list over the course of a few days (or weeks). I slightly panicked when I realized that not only would I be able to take my time on this list, but I wouldn’t actually be able to create the list at all. Instead, I would need to cede control to others, something that my anxiety and trauma disorders really don’t like for me to do. (Depression’s okay with it; it’s one less thing for her to do.)
I thought about approaching a single friend to ask them for five books, but it seemed like a lot to ask of someone to churn out in 1-2 days amid school, work, and/or whatever else we all have going on, so instead I shared a post with my Facebook friends: “If you could recommend just one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?”
The responses came in quickly, and they were quality. Andrew recommended The Hobbit and Katie recommended Little Women, both classics that I have read many times and expected to read many times more. Gretchen nominated Frankenstein, which I have read exactly once and cannot bear to think of again because it destroyed me. Skye brought up Crying in H Mart, which is one of my favorites in the food memoir subgenre.
(In other words: this was an excellent list, and I find myself struggling to pare it down to just five, so I’m cheating a little by including some extras here. I have friends with very good taste.)
#1: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Recommended by Jasmine K.
Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell.” But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?
Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents’ association to their very foundations.
Fredrick Backman’s beloved first novel about the angry old man next door is a thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others.
“Loving someone is like moving into a house . . . . At first you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren’t actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection, but rather for its imperfections. You get to know all the nooks and crannies. How to avoid getting the key caught in the lock when it’s cold outside. Which of the floorboards flex slightly when one steps on them or exactly how to open the wardrobe doors without them creaking. These are the little secrets that make it your home.”
#2: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career.
The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.
Recommended by Lindsay D.
“He really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude.”
#3: Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Recommended by Allison A.
Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle.
To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers there’s far more to Howl—and herself—that first meets the eye.
In this giant jigsaw puzzle of a fantasy, people and things are never quite what they seem. Destinies are intertwined, identities exchanged, lovers confused. The Witch has placed a spell on Howl. Does the clue to breaking it lie in a famous poem? And what will happen to Sophie Hatter when she enters Howl’s castle?
“It was odd. As a girl, Sophie would have shriveled with embarrassment at the way she was behaving. As an old woman, she did not mind what she did or said. She found that a great relief.”
#4: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ‘n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.
Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies.
Recommended by Kristi T.
“I used to care when men called me difficult. I really did. Then I stopped. This way is better.”
#5: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Recommended by Stephanie B.
Every reader knows the obsessive story of Captain Ahab and the famous white whale. Moby Dick is the great American novel, a monument of literature. Based on the events depicted in the “Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex” and the legend of “Mocha Dick,” it is the story of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage aboard the whaling ship the Pequod. Commanded by the obsessed Captain Ahab, a man who is hell-bent on revenge against a white whale of incredible ferocity, the Pequod and its crew are tasked with this singular goal, whatever the emotional or human cost. It is a novel rich with symbolism and complex themes.
“Better to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunk Christian.”
