Mood Reading
A small guide with book recs to match this moment
I used to tackle reading the same way I would tackle a to-do list. I had a book and I was going to read it until I finished it. I felt like introducing other books might interrupt my flow or distract me.
But over the past couple of years, I’ve become more of a mood reader. This often means I have 2-5 books going at any one time – one on my Kindle, a library book, a hardcover, a paperback and maybe even an audiobook if I’m feeling wild!
I’ve been surprised to find that opening myself up to mood reading has increased the amount I read overall. I find that I actually read a lot more when I can match what I’m feeling!
Sometimes I want to learn from my books and go deep in a well-reported narrative nonfiction. Sometimes I want to fully escape into the fluffiest romance or detailed fantasy world I can find. Sometimes I want to be swept up in gorgeous prose and quiet character studies. Sometimes I have binged a TV show and need a celebrity memoir to give me the inside scoop!
Lately though, against the backdrop of our current American nightmare, I’ve found it occasionally hard to pinpoint my mood or what book might best match what I need. I oscillate between intense, down-the-rabbit-hole despair doomscrolling and complete head-in-the-sand-for-my-mental-health and everything in between those extremes. My book selection has similarly flown all along this emotional pendulum.
So I thought I might make a small guide for mood reading in this environment with some book recs I’m loving these days!
For Fueling Your Rage
It can feel good to just dive into the subjects that you are passionate about even if the information you find makes you furious or heartbroken.
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone
One of the best narrative nonfiction books I have ever read! The reporting is unreal and the access these families gave him is revelatory. I cried. I shook with anger. I learned so much and had to challenge a lot of my preexisting beliefs about the unhoused populations in America and about the ways our current system works to keep people in cycles of poverty and precarity. Housing is a basic human right and I hope we can start to actually work toward achieving that.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
“One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” This book is as devastating and convicting as it is powerful. Omar El Akkad is able to write so clearly about Palestine, the role of the West, how we define freedom, and how we must fight for our souls.
For Productive, Righteous Anger
When you don’t want to just learn, but need to turn it into action.
Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes
This book was released a couple of years ago and it grows more and more necessary every day. One of the authors, Mariame Kaba, has stated for years that hope is a discipline and this book gives you the tools to make that practice a reality. It stresses the need for community beyond just connection and challenges instincts (and capitalist tendencies) toward individualism. The authors also released one of the chapters on “Violence” in Social Movements for free this week to help meet the moment.
For Escape
These stories are for getting swept away! The real world doesn’t exist, just the fantasy worlds created in either a romantic sense or actual fantasy worldbuilding!
It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
Really anything by Annabel Monaghan would fit this category! This book is her most recent and I don't know how she managed to make a story about a child star feel so relatable and to craft such a beautiful love story (both romantic and family). Learning that Jeannette McCurdy's amazing memoir was part of the inspiration makes so much sense and made me love it even more.
The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune
TJ Klune said in his author's note that this book is for the weirdos and I'm so glad he wrote this for us! It feels like a blend of sci-fi, Stranger Things, doomsday cults, and queer romance and it's magical! All three main characters are so lovable and I didn't want this book to end. Every book by TJ Klune manages to infuse comforting hugs into the worlds he creates so they all are ones I turn to when I need to escape somewhere positive!
The Night Circus or The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
I couldn’t pick! Both of these books are so good and so immersive that they make for the perfect comfort escape read or re-read! I pick them back up whenever I want to fully lose myself. Erin Morgenstern loves magic and believes in the power of storytelling to create that magic so every read feels special.
For Finding Beauty and Small Joys
Sometimes you need a book to remind you of goodness in the world.
What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama
This translated Japanese novel is so sweet and heartwarming! I fell in love with each library patron and their story of how a good book set them on a new path. It’s the perfect read if you are in a rut or need something that is both introspective and light.
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett is an exquisite writer and observer of humanity. This short story collection was so sweet and beautiful. It ranges in emotion and content but still manages to feel like a warm hug.
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Told through the perspective of a mom in the “sandwich generation” (halfway between her kids and aging parents), it captures the simplicity and complicated dynamics of a family summer vacation with some gorgeous writing and reflections.
For Grieving
Sometimes you just need a good cry or for someone to provide the language to describe your big feelings.
This is one of the most moving books I have ever read. I felt pain, heartbreak, and grief alongside the author and she gave words to so many feelings I would have never known how to describe. This book is a generous gift to the reader and I wrote down so many quotes I know I will want to come back to.
Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone
A fiction book can capture grief just as powerfully as nonfiction! This book ripped me apart in the best way. Its insights on grief and soulmate friendships and falling in love were so timely and perfect and I couldn't put it down. I cried several times, but I also laughed just as many.
I have a million more books in each of these categories so it was hard to narrow down, but hopefully this gives you some good options for your own mood reading journey!
This Week’s Recommendations
Where I’m Donating
National Day Laborer Organizing Network - They are doing some of the best on the ground work I’m seeing for immigrant communities under attack and they have may ways to give and get involved!
On My Screen
Chernobyl on HBO Max - I am several years late to the party on this one, but WOW is this an incredible limited series! It is very heavy and includes pretty much every content warning you can imagine, but I really didn’t know much about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and this was quite the education. The acting is great and it is structured really smartly. Very hard to watch given the content, but I’m glad I did!
In My Ears
Sam Sanders' conversation with actor Jeff Hiller was wonderful! They talk about Hiller’s book and acting journey, but also a lot about faith and queerness and what church means and I just thought it was such a beautiful reflection. It also made me laugh a lot because Hiller is hilarious and has the best laugh!
In My Tabs
Displaced Again and Again, Gazans Ask: Where Do We Go? - “There is nowhere to shelter in, but a graveyard.”
Always read Tressie McMillan Cottom! - Obama Isn’t Going to Save You
Detention and Deportation as Seen Through a Family Group Chat
How Dobbs Unleashed a Breathtaking Disregard for Human Rights
“Good work should do at least one of these things: fund the life you actually want to live, align with values you can defend at dinner parties, surround you with people who challenge you to grow, or teach you skills that compound like interest over decades. Great work does several of these at once. But work doesn't have to feel like play, and you sure as hell don't have to love every minute of it.”
Black plastic spatulas, anti-vaccine fears, and the illusion of control
“Mutual aid is not “a thousand points of light,” George H. W. Bush’s euphemism for replacing the public social safety net with charity. There is no substitute for the state, whose obligation is to redistribute the nation’s wealth for the greater good of the greatest number of people. But when the state is a malevolent kleptocracy, mutual aid—neighbors helping neighbors—starts to look like radical civil disobedience, less a thousand points of light than a brilliant beam shining toward a different world.”
Domestic abusers could have easier path to getting gun rights back under Trump proposal
Watching this group of local D.C. drag queens troll Trump by just existing in the same place as him brought me so much joy! As Boston declared this week, NO KINGS BUT YAAAAAS QUEENS!
How to Sportswash a Sport - On the NFL and culture shifting
What years of witnessing executions taught me about sin, mercy, and the possibility of redemption
I can’t wait for Sabrina Carpenter’s new album and I am deeply annoyed by all of the discourse around the album cover. Loved this piece situating it overall - Sabrina Carpenter is a heterofatalist princess
Was so happy for Cole Escola’s Tony win (and buzzing that I just saw Oh, Mary! and met them after the show!) and loved this behind-the-scenes conversation while they were getting ready for the awards.
Confessions Of A Spelling Bee Pronouncer - “This is the Spelling Bee. OpSec is critical.”