I Have Read 16 Books This Year – Here Are My Favourites

I promised myself I would read at least thirty books this year, and I am halfway through my to-be-read pile. Nothing makes me happier than sharing my opinions on books, so here's a list of the ones that have made an impact on me.

1. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

Dolly Alderton is a columnist and now bestselling author. This was her first book, and it's an account of her formative years growing up in London. Soon to be a BBC series, this memoir feels like a warm hug, or a glass of wine savoured during a catch up with your best friends. It's about finding yourself during your twenties, the most confusing years of everyone's lives, and the transition into your thirties, when she realized that a rich life is the one where you're surrounded by meaningful connections with people. It's fun and it feels like a light read until it hits you where it hurts, making you re-think your life choices in the best possible way. Written with incredible wit, this highly enjoyable book makes the perfect beach read, and I am recommending it to everyone who feels a bit lonely or lost navigating life.

“Love is a quiet, reassuring, relaxing, pottering, pedantic, harmonious hum of a thing; something you can easily forget is there, even though its palms are outstretched beneath you in case you fall.” ― Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love

2. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

This is consider Banana Yoshimoto's masterpiece, and I whole-heartedly agree. The book, flowing and rather short, offers interesting insights into loss and loneliness, treating these heavy themes with extreme respect and a poetic approach. The protagonist of the story is Mikage, a young orphaned woman who also suddenly loses her grandmother, the only family she had left. Alone, she is unexpectedly taken in by Yuichi, an old friend/acquaintance, and her mother. The title of the novel refers to Mikage's obsession with kitchens, seen primarily as a family gathering place and the very reflection of family members. The novel is pervaded by a continuous sense of loneliness, and the consumerist life held in big cities often emerges. What makes this book captivating is not the almost missing plot, but the magical dimension and moving writing.

“As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.” ― Banana Yoshimoto, Kitchen

3. The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

If you're a reader, you have probably heard about this book. This fiction novel revolves around former Hollywood "goddess" Evelyn Hugo, an icon of film history who is finally ready to reveal the truth about her life and seven husbands. To do so, she chooses Monique Grant, a semi-unknown reporter. The most astonished is Monique herself: why her? The assignment to write the biography of Evelyn Hugo could be the opportunity she has been waiting for to turn her career around. And so, in the actress's splendid Manhattan apartment, Monique listens fascinated by Evelyn's words: from her beginnings in 1950s Los Angeles to her decision to retire from the stage thirty years later, via her many marriages, the actress reveals a story of ambition and forbidden love. As the story comes to an end, Monique discovers the truth about how her life is dramatically and inevitably intertwined with Evelyn's.

If the prose isn't enough to suck you into the story, the fierce protagonist and the tragic and beautiful love story will do the trick. It's a book that you will never want to put down.

“Don't ignore half of me so you can fit me into a box. Don't do that.” ― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

4. Conversations On Love by Natasha Lunn

This is a fascinating must-read by Natasha Lunn, deeply sensitive in her exploration of a topic that lies at the heart of what it means to be human. It is an unfailing ingredient in everyone's life that we understand little about, and this essay goes a step further in addressing it through the voices of the likes of Alain de Botton, Philippa Perry, Dolly Alderton, Lisa Taddeo, and Roxane Gay, to name a few. The interview format makes it digestible, and the author enriches the interviewees' experiences with intimate details from her own life that help the reader understand a little better the complexities of love in all forms (romantic, platonic, for children and for one's family, for one's work and for oneself).

I think readers might be surprised at how much this book can resonate with their own life experiences, and how we can often be our own worst enemies when it comes to allowing a multitude of forms of love and happiness into our lives.

“In my earliest efforts at love, imagination was a thief that stole truth and perspective.” ― Natasha Lunn, Conversations on Love