Like my main character, I’m a Norwegian writer with ties to the US, who grew up with various chronic illnesses. I discovered the reason for much of my trouble when I was diagnosed with endometriosis. Isolated and in pain, I have always turned to books. I craved seeing my life reflected. Since Please Read This Leaflet Carefully came out, I’ve heard from many readers. I hope that it can help people who haven’t seen themselves in art before. This list addresses the needs of a life with chronic illness and pain: guidance, darkness, humor, comfort, and poetry. I hope these books will help you as much as they did me.
Angels in America was the first place I saw a fuller depiction of life with serious illness, and it blew my mind. Prior, who has AIDS, is arguably the main character. The focus doesn’t cut away from him the second things get very bad. Instead, we stay and see him through. I believe deeply in the power of seeing one’s darkest moments honestly reflected in art. I first discovered Angels through the amazing TV series with Al Pacino and Meryl Streep and it broke my heart into a thousand pieces. When I later read the plays, I was amazed at how funny they are. The joke density is very high. The bleakness and pathos combined with incisive humor are what make these amazing works of art some of my all-time favorites.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes includes Part One, Millennium Approaches and Part Two, Perestroika
“Glorious. A monumental, subversive, altogether remarkable masterwork…Details of specific catastrophes may have changed since this Reagan-era AIDS epic won the Pulitzer and the Tony, but the real cosmic and human obsessions—power, religion, sex, responsibility, the future of the world—are as perilous, yet as falling-down funny, as ever.” –Linda Winer, Newsday
"A vast, miraculous play... provocative, witty and deeply upsetting... a searching and radical rethinking of American political drama." - Frank Rich, New York Times
This book begins with the compelling, captivating story of a woman accepting that she is gay and dealing with the turbulence this causes in her life.
That’s enthralling…but then the character falls in love with a woman who has some strange traits. Turns out she has eight different personalities!
However, if the characters were not gay, this would still be a compelling, captivating story of human interactions. I laughed and cried and rejoiced with the characters.
The collection Little Musings, available on Amazon, covers several decades of Joy's work as poet and painter. It touches on many aspects of her life, including the loss of her mother, in Do Not Mourn Her and Loss - Double Rainbow. Her childhood was spent in Plymouth, and in A Plymouth Girl Reflects, she recalls the aftermath of the air raids. Being in close proximity to Cornwall, that area also a major theme here, especially in Newquay, Cornwall, and On Air, By Melancholy. Four of the poems, "Absent Friends," "Isle of Thanet," "At Jim's Cafe," and "Captain Ahab of Thanet" are focused on the Thanet area of East Kent, where Joy now lives.
Tess of the D'Urbervilles has the dual quality of a being great work of literature, and a polemic which faces the issues of poverty and oppression—an incredibly honest, balanced portrayal of all aspects of rural life. Many of my personal problems reflected the traumas faced by the tragic heroine.
HarperCollins is pround to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.
'My life looks as if it had been wasted for want of chances! When I see what you know, what you have read, and seen, and thought, I feel what a nothing I am!'
Challenging the hypocrisy and social conventions of the rural Victorian world, Tess of the D'Urbervilles follows the story of Tess Durbeyfield as she attempts to escape the poverty of her background, seeking wealth by claiming connection with the aristocratic D'Urberville family. It is through Tess's relationships with two very different men that Hardy tells…
The world is an amazing, diverse place that needs stories that represent everyone. I identify as gender fluid and am part of my city’s LGBTQIA+ community. For kids, there aren’t enough stories that feature non-straight cis protagonists where that identity isn’t the focus. LGBTQIA+ kids exist. They are normal. Let a gay kid go into space. Let a teenage lesbian solve a mystery. Let a trans girl defeat a dragon. Let an ace teen be a witch. Everybody deserves their adventure.
The City of Lucille has gotten rid of all its monsters.
That’s what Jam, a teenage trans girl, believed until the demonic-looking Pet emerged from one of her mother’s paintings. But despite their monstrous appearance, Pet isn’t the monster, but came forth to hunt a monster already living among the people of Lucille undetected.
Pet contains vivid imagery, powerful themes, and a sensitive and brave protagonist. Be bold. Be vigilant. Monsters never entirely go away because we are the monsters.
4
authors picked
Pet
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
12,
13,
14, and
15.
What is this book about?
How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?
She stumbled backwards, her eyes wide, as the figure started coming out of the canvas ... She tried to be brave. Well, she said, her hands only a little shaky, at least tell me what I should call you. ... Well, little girl, it replied, I suppose you can call me Pet.
There are no more monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught. With doting parents and a best friend named Redemption, Jam has grown up with this lesson…
I have always felt strongly that there is a world out there beyond our human comprehension where good and evil are at war. Add in the fact that I might have seen my very own angel, and it is a topic that has both intrigued and inspired me. At first, I snapped up every book I could find on angels and demons. Then, over time, I expanded to movies and TV shows. Finally, after consuming diverse media across genres, I wrote my own book centering on a female protagonist who discovers her own Nephilim heritage, the hard way, of course, with demons!
I can tell you I CONSUMED this series; it was delicious in all ways!
Fallen angels who thrive on being bad influences, yes, please! It gave me all the bad boy trope feels! Kaidan Rowe had me hooked from the moment he entered the scene. Then you have the good girl Anna, who is just prime for corruption! Honestly, I adored the tension between the two.
High stakes! Twist on Nephilim. A must-read, in my opinion!
Fans of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series will be drawn to Wendy Higgins's sexy, thrilling Sweet Evil series. What if there were teens whose lives literally depended on being bad influences? This is the reality for sons and daughters of fallen angels. Tenderhearted Southern girl Anna Whitt was born with the sixth sense to see and feel emotions of other people. She's aware of a struggle within herself, an inexplicable pull toward danger, but Anna, the ultimate good girl, has always had the advantage of her angel side to balance the darkness within. It isn't until she turns sixteen and…
Being a petite person, I can’t move furniture by myself or lift heavy boxes. It’s freaking annoying. I dream of having a magic wand or some sort of power that would make me stronger. If there was a potion to turn me into a Buffy the Vampire Slayer, kick-butt type of girl I’d drink it in a second. Since there is no such potion, I write and read books about supernatural girls who don’t take crap from anyone, especially the guys in their lives.
I love Academy series where the reader discovers the world along with the main character. At the Fallen Academy you’re either Demon Cursed or Angel Blessed. Of course, Brielle is a little of both, which shouldn’t be possible and confuses everyone and makes her life a mixture of heaven and hell.
Family is everything to Brielle, so when she learns about an opportunity to free her mother from Demon City, she takes it. No matter how dangerous, Brielle will do anything to unite her family in Angel City. All is going according to plan, until her brother's awakening ceremony. What he is… it shocks everyone, and he's sent away until he can get his powers under control. Then Brielle loses someone precious to her and goes to great lengths to get them back, lengths Lincoln doesn't agree with. He thinks Brielle is too much of a risk taker, too wild, and…
Reading certain texts in the Bible growing up began my love for all things supernatural. The more I studied the subject and understood the worldview of the biblical authors and of other ancient cultures, the more I began to see these scenes in vivid color. With my passion for theological study (personally and as part of a master’s program), my work as a police officer, and my love for fantasy fiction perfectly positions me to write stories in which deep supernatural elements intersect with the gritty and real space of everyday life.
I’ve always wondered what an apocalyptic battle between angels and demons would look like.
Though this book is a theological non-fiction piece, it vastly expanded my imagination, in that realm, as I came to learn more about the supernatural worldview of the biblical authors and of other ancient religions.
What I loved most about the book was the exploration of this theme that hidden, divine beings walk among us.
It captures the fascinating image of the ordinary world being interrupted by that which is extraordinary—and these extraordinary phenomena are a lot closer than we think.
Angelic beings taking human wives. Ancient giants. God holding royal court among other gods. In Supernatural, Dr. Michael S. Heiser tackles these remarkable biblical themes and many more, based on his fifteen years of research into what the Bible really says about the unseen realm. Heiser shines a bright light on the supernatural world--not a new light, but rather the same light in which the original, ancient readers and writers of Scripture would have seen it.
Janice
Hallett has written three novels that shatter the traditional murder mystery
form.
Her first, The Appeal, was a series of emails. And this book is a
collection of notes, messages, and emails put together by a non-fiction author,
commissioned to write a true crime book about a terrible event 18 years earlier.
For me, Alperton Angels is so amazing because Hallett manages to immerse
us in the story, bringing out the characters of those involved in the way they
communicate. With impressive twists along the way, it’s simply brilliant.
*** THE SMASH HIT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER *** *** THE GENRE-BUSTING RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK *** *** A TELEGRAPH BEST SUMMER BOOK 2023 *** *** THE NEW MYSTERY PHENOMENON FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE APPEAL ***
'Her best so far' - MARIAN KEYES 'The queen of tricksy crime' - SUNDAY TIMES 'Another resounding success' - DAILY EXPRESS
THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL... True-crime author Amanda Bailey knows all about the notorious Alperton Angels cult. There have been dozens of books and films about the Angels, ever since the night nearly two decades ago, when they attempted…
My kid got into Good Omens first through the Amazon TV series and then recently read the book. They told me they enjoyed it because they liked the overall story, especially the elements of the separate lives coming together and the detailed descriptions.
They liked it enough that they’re planning to be the Angel Aziraphale for Halloween this year!
THE BOOK BEHIND THE AMAZON PRIME/BBC SERIES STARRING DAVID TENNANT, MICHAEL SHEEN, JON HAMM AND BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH
'Ridiculously inventive and gloriously funny' Guardian
What if, for once, the predictions are right, and the Apocalypse really is due to arrive next Saturday, just after tea?
It's a predicament that Aziraphale, a somewhat fussy angel, and Crowley, a fast-living demon, now find themselves in. They've been living amongst Earth's mortals since The Beginning and, truth be told, have grown rather fond of the lifestyle and, in all honesty, are not actually looking forward to the coming Apocalypse.
I have always been fascinated by the idea of memory. What sticks in your mind, what is lost, what can be manipulated, how you see things in different ways to others, and how sometimes you can’t trust even your own memories. I studied psychology at A-level and that sparked an interest in me, especially in terms of repression and learned behaviours. I studied creative writing to MA level at university, where I wrote my first thriller, which also focuses on memory. I’m always searching for reads that make me look at human nature differently, or break me out of routine and can offer a surprise. Surprises keep things interesting!
This is a sci-fi thriller with amazing concepts and a page-turning story! Meet Hap Thompson – his job is to take on other people’s memories. He carries bad memories for a few hours and gets paid for the privilege. When he gets landed with a bad memory by someone who won’t take it back, he finds himself on the run. Then, people start disappearing… This is a fab read – refreshing different with some sci-fi elements, but still a thriller by nature. Michael Marshall Smith’s writing is both dark, humorous, and inventive. I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect novel but for the ideas about memory and forgetting, it delivers a lot.
A mesmerising SF thriller from a master of the genre. Hap Thompson is a REMtemp, working the night hours, having people's anxiety dreams for them. For the first time in his life, Hap's making big money - and that should have been enough...
Hap Thompson has finally found something he can do better than anyone else. And it's legal. Almost. Hap's a REMtemp, working the night hours, having people's anxiety dreams for them. For the first time in his life, Hap's making big money - and that should have been enough.
