I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember—truly. I don’t have a single memory of my life before books. They’ve always been there, woven into every season of my childhood and every version of who I’ve become. Continue reading
I like being known as “the girl who reads”.
I like that when people see a book, they think of me. That when someone stumbles across a cozy bookstore or a bookish meme, they send it my way. That when they need a recommendation, they ask me.
I love when people notice my heavily tabbed books and ask, “What do all the colors mean?” I love when someone gives me a book because they know it’s the best gift I could ever receive. I love when a friend picks up something I raved about and messages me in all caps because they finally understand why I was so obsessed.
Being known as the girl who reads means being known for curiosity, for wandering into different worlds, for getting a little too attached to fictional characters. It means being the person who always has a book on hand, who will absolutely ignore reality for a good story, who disappears into books and comes back just a little changed every time.
Some people are known for their sense of humor, their aesthetic, their passions. I’m known for my love of stories. And if that makes me seem boring to some people, that’s fine. My whole personality might revolve around books and reading, but honestly? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I honestly can’t remember a time when books weren’t a part of my life. Some of my earliest memories involve flipping through pages, completely absorbed in stories that felt more vivid than reality. It started with fairy tales—talking animals, lost princesses, enchanted forests—and over time, my taste shifted, but the love for reading never faded.
As a child, I didn’t quite understand the gravity of reading. It was simply a way to pass the time when I wasn’t playing or watching TV. But looking back, I can pinpoint numerous moments where books influenced me, and I realized that reading has been one of the most constant threads in my personal development. They’ve taught me patience, perspective, and how to sit with uncertainty. They’ve kept me company through different phases of life, whether I was completely overwhelmed or just needed an escape. Through books, I’ve traveled to places I’ve never been, slipped into the minds of people who see the world differently, and experienced emotions I might not have encountered otherwise.
I’ve always been drawn to stories that make me feel something—romance that tugs at my heart, thrillers that keep me on edge, horror that unsettles me just enough, and fantasy that demands full attention. Some books stick with me long after I finish them, while others are just quick distractions. Either way, every book I’ve read has added something, even if it’s just the memory of how it made me feel at the time.
And while I don’t always have the time or headspace for heavy reads, I know I’ll always come back to them. Reading isn’t just a hobby—it’s one of the few constants in my life. Even when I take a break, I always find my way back.
Title: The Last House On Needless Street
Author: Catriona Ward
Publication Date: September 16, 2021
Number of Pages: 363
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Viper
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
‘I haven’t read anything this exciting since Gone Girl’ – STEPHEN KING
‘Books like this don’t come around too often’ – JOANNE HARRIS
This is the story of a murderer. A stolen child. Revenge. This is the story of Ted, who lives with his daughter Lauren and his cat Olivia in an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.
All these things are true. And yet some of them are lies.
You think you know what’s inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you’ve read this story before. In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, something lies buried. But it’s not what you think…
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Title: My Mother’s Eyes
Author: Jeremy Ray
Publication Date: December 17, 2021
Number of Pages: 39
Format: E-book
Publisher: Ray Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
“You’re wrong, Jordie. You’ll see. Draw me just one more time.”
No one knows if his mother will come out of her coma, so fourteen-year-old Jordie memorializes her in the only way he knows how: by drawing her. His older brother doesn’t approve of these sketches, but Jordie’s determined to capture the person she used to be.
Unfortunately, Jordie must draw her from memory because his mom didn’t keep pictures, and her body in the hospital no longer looks like her. But the images of her are quickly fading, and if he doesn’t get a drawing right soon, the mother he remembers may slip away forever. No matter how close Jordie gets to completing a drawing, his mom’s most vital feature always evades him.
Will Jordie capture his mother’s eyes? Or are they and his mother gone forever?
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Title: Sheets
Author: Brenna Thummler
Publication Date: August 28, 2018
Number of Pages: 239
Format: E-book
Publisher: Oni Press
Genre: Comics, Graphic Novel, Paranormal
Marjorie Glatt feels like a ghost. A practical thirteen year old in charge of the family laundry business, her daily routine features unforgiving customers, unbearable P.E. classes, and the fastidious Mr. Saubertuck who is committed to destroying everything she’s worked for.
Wendell is a ghost. A boy who lost his life much too young, his daily routine features ineffective death therapy, a sheet-dependent identity, and a dangerous need to seek purpose in the forbidden human world.
When their worlds collide, Marjorie is confronted by unexplainable disasters as Wendell transforms Glatt’s Laundry into his midnight playground, appearing as a mere sheet during the day. While Wendell attempts to create a new afterlife for himself, he unknowingly sabotages the life that Marjorie is struggling to maintain.
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Title: Daisy Jones & The Six
Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
Publication Date: March 5, 2019
Number of Pages: 362
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Hutchinson
Genre: Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction
For a while, Daisy Jones & The Six were everywhere. Their albums were on every turntable, they sold out arenas from coast to coast, their sound defined an era. And then, on 12 July 1979, they split.
Nobody ever knew why. Until now.
They were lovers and friends and brothers and rivals. They couldn’t believe their luck, until it ran out. This is their story of the early days and the wild nights, but everyone remembers the truth differently.
The only thing they all know for sure is that from the moment Daisy Jones walked barefoot onstage at the Whisky, their lives were irrevocably changed.
Making music is never just about the music. And sometimes it can be hard to tell where the sound stops and the feelings begin.
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Title: How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight For Our Future
Author: Maria Ressa
Publication Date: November 17, 2022
Number of Pages: 320
Format: E-book, Audiobook
Publisher: HarperCollins
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, History
Maria Ressa is one of the most renowned international journalists of our time. For decades, she challenged corruption and malfeasance in her native country, the Philippines, on its rocky path from an authoritarian state to a democracy. As a reporter from CNN, she transformed news coverage in her region, which led her in 2012 to create a new and innovative online news organization, Rappler. Harnessing the emerging power of social media, Rappler crowdsourced breaking news, found pivotal sources and tips, harnessed collective action for climate change, and helped increase voter knowledge and participation in elections.
But by their fifth year of existence, Rappler had gone from being lauded for its ideas to being targeted by the new Philippine government, and made Ressa an enemy of her country’s most powerful man: President Duterte. Still, she did not let up, tracking government seeded disinformation networks which spread lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate. Hounded by the state and its allies using the legal system to silence her, accused of numerous crimes, and charged with cyberlibel for which she was found guilty, Ressa faces years in prison and thousands in fines.
There is another adversary Ressa is battling. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is also the story of how the creep towards authoritarianism, in the Phillipines and around the world, has been aided and abetted by the social media companies. Ressa exposes how they have allowed their platforms to spread a virus of lies that infect each of us, pitting us against one another, igniting, even creating, our fears, anger, and hate, and how this has accelerated the rise of authoritarians and dictators around the world. She maps a network of disinformation–a heinous web of cause and effect–that has netted the globe: from Duterte’s drug wars to America’s Capitol Hill; Britain’s Brexit to Russian and Chinese cyber-warfare; Facebook and Silicon Valley to our own clicks and votes.
Democracy is fragile. How to Stand Up to a Dictator is an urgent cry for Western readers to recognize and understand the dangers to our freedoms before it is too late. It is a book for anyone who might take democracy for granted, written by someone who never would. And in telling her dramatic and turbulent and courageous story, Ressa forces readers to ask themselves the same question she and her colleagues ask every day: What are you willing to sacrifice for the truth?
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Lenn of Spades ♠ 