For a relatively happy person, I usually tend to read very depressing books. I have three genres that I gravitate toward: addiction, mental disorders, and stories where bad things happen (death, kidnapping, etc).
Here's a list of my top ten depressing, but very good books.
Smack - Melvin Burgess (fiction) - A story about young heroin addicts. Set in Bristol, England.
Like Being Killed - Ellen Miller (fiction) - Adult heroin addicts living in New York City and how their lives spiral out of control.
Candy - Luke Davies (fiction) - A heroin addicted couple living in Australia and how their lives spiral out of control. (I heard this one may be made into a movie soon.)
The Burn Journals - Brent Runyon - (nonfiction) - I first heard about this book on "This American Life" on NPR. It is so sad that I recommend not reading it anywhere in public. It will make you cry. Unless you have a heart made of wood.
Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood - Julie Gregory and Marc Feldman (nonfiction) - A story about a girl named Julie whose mother purposely makes her sick to get attention from doctors. Julie doesn't realize why she's been such a sick person until college, when a professor is discussing the disease Munchausen by Proxy.
Locas - Yxta Maya Murray (fiction) - A book about young gang members (male and female) living the gang life in Echo Park in California.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich (nonfiction) - Well researched. Ehrenreich, who is a reporter/writer, goes undercover and tries to survive while working at various minimum wage paying establishments, like WalMart and The Maids.
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx - Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (nonfiction) - Compelling book - a must read. The title says it all.
Black and Blue - Anna Quindlen (fiction) - A story about Fran, a woman who is beaten by her husband. At the end of her rope, Fran seeks the assistance of a relocation agency for abused women to help her get away from her husband. The agency helps her create a new identity and a whole new life in a different state for her and her son. This book is on Oprah's book list.
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (fiction) - A young girl named Susie Salmon is raped and killed. The story is about her watching over her family from heaven as she sees how her death affects them, as they try to move on with their lives.
Ok, if you're still with me after all that sadness and depression, I promise to come up with a list of funny books soon. Until then, take some St. John's Wort and watch repeats of "Scrubs" on MyQ2. (Or whatever the hell that channel is called now.)
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3 comments:
I, too, love the dark books. It all began in junior high when I read Go Ask Alice by Anonymous. In my 20s, Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel was a fave. Then I moved onto drug addictions combined with eating disorders, such as Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher. Great read.
Lastly, my mother, Kim, and myself all read The Lovely Bones... we loved it.
Hey! You and I should think of borrowing each other's books sometime! All of the books you listed sound good.
I've read that book! (Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher) I thought it was really good, too! I would love to trade books, but, sadly, I don't own any of those books. I'm a cheapskate and just get books from the library. I'd love any recommendations that you have, though!
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