Before You Die, You Must Read These

The last time I loaned my friend, Alison, a book (well, two), was in 2001. She needed something to read on a flight home, so I loaned (read: gave) her Wally Lamb’s She’s Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True. I enjoyed both books: Undone because I understand the need to lose yourself in order to become, and True because it accompanied me on a vacation. Nine years later, she’s asked me for another recommendation, and while I searched my bookshelves for something to suggest, I realized I couldn’t narrow my list to just one or two books. I also couldn’t narrow my list to books recently released or to YA (even though she asked for a YA title specifically).

Maybe these are my desert-island books, or maybe these are the books pulling me toward a recommendation, or maybe these are the books that I naturally gravitate toward when I’m looking for comfort and not something new.

Because Alison asked me via Twitter (@avesdad, if you want to follow me) to recommend titles, I’m going to limit my explanation of the books to 140 characters (or I’m going to try, because I know some titles require explanations of more than 140 characters).

The Eight – Katherine Neville

Computer-expert Catherine Velis gets swept into a centuries-old mystery involving an ancient chess services, immortality, nuns, religious and sexual fervor, and unlimited power. The book weaves together two parallel narratives (one set in 1972, the other set in 1790) and swiftly grabbed hold of my imagination when I read it the first time when I was in eighth grade.

Waking the Moon – Elizabeth Hand

The slow transformation of a college girl into a moon goddess (stay with me, true believers) blends the ancient with the modern, the powerless with the powerful, and creates a mythology surrounding the University of the Archangels and St. John the Divine in Washington, D.C. There is an apocalyptic showdown, senseless death, and the use of love as a weapon.

The Secret History – Donna Tartt

A death and its cover-up unites and divides a group of clever classics students. Kind of a mystery, kind of not, I’ve probably read this book a dozen times, and each time I do, I find something new that I missed before.

The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova

Dracula. Vlad the Impaler. His fake death. And the people who not only believe but attempt to discover Dracula’s whereabouts. The Historian is not Bram Stoker’s story, but instead a way in which we might make sense of the legend and appeal of the vampire (sorry, Twilight fans; probably a bit over your heads since vampires don’t really sparkle in the sun).

Dangerous Angels – Francesca Lia Block

Picking one book by Francesca Lia Block is difficult. I would read her grocery lists, if she made them available. And yet, if forced to pick, I pick Dangerous Angels. Meet Weetzie Bat and Secret Agent Lover Man, Witch Baby and Dirk, and fall in love with them as they fall in love with love and fidelity and family and the fragile way in which we are all looking for something to hold us when we have no direction to go but down.

The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger

So maybe this book needs no explanation, but its appeal still lingers, even after three readings and one viewing of its film (eh, kind of OK, if you forget the source material). I’d like to one day read TTTW in chronological order, but only to see the way the pieces fit together when presented together, not in a way that makes you hold on to memories just as Henry and Clare do.

Possession – A.S. Byatt

Two tales woven together that, when connected, really are one tale. Parallel love stories. Missing documents and an enchanting exchange of letters. Poetry and scholarship, mystery and resolution. Byatt subtitled Possession “A Romance,” and while I’d hardly call it a romance novel, ultimately, I can think of no better word to describe it but romance. Just not one for which Fabio would be cast as a cover model.

Cat’s Eye – Margaret Atwood

The way in which our identity shifts as we age – child, lover, spouse, etc. – takes center stage in the world of Elaine Risley, a painter who returns to Toronto for a retrospective of her art, but who ends up taking stock (holding a personal retrospective, if you will) of her life and past. Is she who she was meant to be? And, if not, does she have time to become that person – if she knows who that person really is?

Th1rteen R3asons Why – Jay Asher

Hannah Baker is dead. She killed herself. No one knows why. Well, almost no one. Hannah made sure that the people who played a role in her decision to die know the role they played. Clay Jensen is one of these players. He receives a package of cassette tapes Hannah made before her death. And as Clay learns the role he played, so do we. And I dare you to read this book without falling in love a little with Hannah and the life she could have led.

The Vintner’s Luck – Elizabeth Knox

A vintner named Sobran Jodeau. An angel (naturally, a guardian angel) named Xas. An unorthodox love story (Sobran falls in love with, and is loved by, Xas, but Sobran also falls in love with and is loved by the Countess de Valday). Vintner was Knox’s first novel to be published outside her native New Zealand, and while hers is no household name, it’s not for lack of talent, creativity, and ability to spin a story that would make any tale-teller proud.

Alison asked me for books that weren’t too heavy, but that weren’t cotton candy. And I know what she meant when she asked for that type of book, and while I can promise that the above books aren’t cotton candy, some are heavy, and some will stick with you long after you’ve turned the last page, and some will become the books you press into someone else’s hands when you’re asked for a recommendation. The best part of recommending? Knowing the world into which the person is about to fall, and knowing that you fell long before.