You’re holed up for the weekend with your friends and family out of town, and perhaps movies aren’t appealing to you at the time, so you wish to read, and you’re probably confused about which book to pick. Of course, you have assignments and reports to submit the next week but what’s a weekend if it doesn’t involve you resting and not doing what you have to do?
Here is a list of 5 books you should read.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Calvin Evans and Elizabeth Zott meet at Hastings Research Institute, where they are doing their Ph.D. research. Calvin Evans, one who knows how to hold a grunt and can be unbearable, and Elizabeth Zott, who was sick and tired of patriarchal bullshit and the sexual discrimination amongst scientists all over the world.
Will her deep-seated anger for patriarchy and the world that keeps trying to stifle women cause her to be all she wants to be? And when Madeline comes along, a mixture of both parents, how would she cope?
This is for you if you love the idea of love with a mixture of science and determination.
This is another book on love and science. What happens when two Ph.D. scientists who do not believe in love meet each other unexpectedly and get into a faux relationship to clear their names? Do they fall in love eventually, or is love just the outcome of a mixture of chemicals in science?
This is for you if you love getting cozy with books on a love that’s not Harlequin or Mills & Boons’ kind. Science and love, what an explosion—the perfect combination.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
This book, set in Afghanistan, tells a story of the suppression of women, early marriage, and war. The war of the Taliban in Afghanistan. It also talks about love, love in a sad, terrible way. Love in a way that teaches you that everything might fall away, but love never does. It stays, becomes a hard ball of grief that keeps you going.
If you’ve ever lost something you held dear; people, things, home—especially home, this book is for you. You’ll go through Laila's pain and smile at her joys. A part of you will break, too, and you’ll carry that story wherever you go. But it’ll make you a better person.
Raquela: A woman of Israel by Ruth Gruber
Raquela Prywes, a woman alive during the birth of Israel, was a nurse during the war that killed many people, including her sons and some family members. It started when she was a kid and continued until she was older, and oh, she served. She served the country, the people, the sick, the dying, the broken… everyone.
This book is about love, war, and sacrifice. Because in the end, love is about all the times you were willing to sacrifice your comfort and safety.
How It Feels To Float by Helena Fox
Elizabeth Martin Grey’s father has been dead for ten years now, and aside from seeing him every day and being told stories by him, she is depressed. Depressed in an i-can’t-get-out-of-bed-and-i-have-anxiety way. It is terrible, as depression is.
This book is a mixture of prose and poetry in the most beautiful way possible, and it’s a book you will never want to put down. Ever. Because it’s beautiful. Beautiful in a sad, dark, refreshing way. In a way that gets your creative juices flowing and gets you out of the rut.
If you like sad, thoughtful books, have mental health issues and need to see you’re not alone, or have lost a loved one, this book is for you. How it feels to float is the book for you.