A guest post from Kayla
In a guest post about how I do my reading, I shared that Mom and I recommend books back and forth to each other. I usually share historical romance (but not too spicy) and mysteries (but not too cheesy and not too gory) but I read a lot outside of those genres. According to my Storygraph profile “Kayla mainly reads fiction books that are emotional, reflective, and funny. Typically chooses medium-paced books that are 300-499 pages long.”
I offered to start sharing some guest posts on what I’ve read because there is probably more variety in Mom’s blog readers too. Something we both experience is a “book hangover.” It’s when you read something so good that it turns you off from reading anything else for a while. That’s why my book reviews will always have a buddy.
One book Mom and I both love is The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I love all of Jeannette Walls’s books but this one is probably the most popular because it was adapted to film. It is a memoir about her life growing up in an unstable home. She is able to appreciate the uniqueness of her childhood but also recognizes the harm she suffered or the danger she encountered. If it was fiction it could be seen as a coming of age novel. As a memoir, it is heart-wrenching. I listened to this in audio narrated by the author which really adds to it. You can find it HERE.
When I recommended Wavewalker: Breaking Free to Mom, I told her it was “Glass Castle on a boat.” It is Suzanne Heywood’s memoir of her childhood on a yacht. Her dad has a notion to sail around the world and her mom is distant towards Suzanne but indulgent of her husband’s lofty ideas. Suzanne ends up spending ten years starting from the age of seven travelling some of the most dangerous waters in the world. She misses out on school and relationships due to her travelling lifestyle and negligent parents. You can find it HERE.
I especially enjoyed the time period this was set because Heywood is close in age to Mom. She was attempting distance correspondence education at a time when there was no Internet to do so. She even navigated the entire process on her own. Sometimes her parents even actively thwarted her efforts at schooling. She was attempting to make friends when there was no way to look them up and reconnect later. It was interesting to contrast how my mom grew up with what the author experienced.
Both of these books read like exciting coming-of-age novels where you connect with and cheer for the main characters. It’s bittersweet to know these were true experiences.
Have you read these books? What book buddies would you recommend for people who liked these?
A few more suggestions for “Strong Willed Girls with Parents Who Make Poor Choices“
- Matilda by Roald Dahl (A kid-lit favorite of mine)
- The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (A recent read, will include in a future Book Buddy post)
- Where’d You Go Bernadette? by Maria Semple (Funny and adventurous, told from multiple perspectives)
- The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner (memoir of growing up in a cult in rural Mexico)
- Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (I would love to see this rewritten from Ma’s point of view. Pa’s choices are… interesting)
Do you have any other book recommendations for coming-of-age novels? Mom and I would love to hear them.
This is quite interesting and gave me a couple of books I think I would like to read. I absolutely loved The Glass Castle and I had the privilege of seeing Jeannette Walls when she spoke in our town where I was living at the time. I had many good laughs about different parts of the book with friends who also had read it and also tears often too – “skedaddle” is a word I think of whenever I’m reminded of this book.
I enjoyed The Road to Tender Hearts. Thanks for all the suggestions!
I have loved all of Donna Everhart’s and Ellen Marie Wiseman’s books. All The Forgivenesses by Elizabeth Hardinger is a good one. Also, Where The Crawdad’s sing by Delia Owens.
Be sure and read “Half Broke Horses”, also by Jeanette Walls. “The Correspondent” is great and I am currently reading “The Most Fun We Ever Had” and really enjoying it. I read “Pride and Prejudice” at least once a year. I recently read all the books in the “Lonesome Dove” series. Some may not like those as there is a good bit of violence in all of them but I loved “Lonesome Dove’ and wanted to read the rest of the books in the series. I read rather that watch television, so hope you will keep this up Kayla. I am always interested in good recommendations.
“Educated” by Tara Westover meets the criteria of strong willed girls whose parents made poor/dangerous/weird choices. It’s amazing she survived her childhood. And then she went on to such accomplishments.
I was going to suggest “Educated” as well. It has been a few years since I read it and still think about it often. I probably should read it again. It has many similarities to “The Glass Castle”.
Read ‘Caroline: Little House, Revisited’ by Sarah Miller. It’s told from Ma’s perspective.
Katherine Ryan Hyde has written numerous books and many of them have a young person as the main character. Two of my favorites are “Never Let me Go”and “Have you Seen Luis Velez”. I am working on “Michael Without Apology” which is about a young adult coming to terms with his physical and mental scars as he makes a movie for his college course. All of her books seem to focus on a societal issue and how individuals can rise to meet the challenge.
Hi Kayla…Have you read Kristin Hannah (the Great Alone) taking place in Alaska. A married couple move to Alaska with their thirteen year old daughter (into the unknown and unprepared) it is a page turner !
have either of you read any of Jan Karon
s books ?
Brenda…I have read all the Mitford Series. Excellent author and the characters grow on you with each book…
Some fun light historical romance novels are Sarah M. Eden’s series on the Lancasters. The first is called Seeking Peesephone. They just made a movie with the same name that can be found on Amazon, but as always, the book is better.
1. The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede
2. The Growing Season by Sarah Frey
3. Inge’s War by Svenja O’Donnel
4. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson
5. Beneath a Scarlett Sky by Mark Sullivan
Favorite authors: Ivan Doig, Wm Kent Krueger, JoJo Moyes, Patrick Taylor (series), Jan Karon, Peter Geye
An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff.
(my very favorite book – a touching true story)
Educated is a great choice for this genre! I’d also recommend: Moonlight on Linoleum by Terry Helwig; North of Normal by Sunrise Cea Person; and a bit different but still in this vein, In the Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott — the author’s story of growing up in a very strange and restrictive British religious sect, or cult.
Thank you, Kayla and Jo, for these book reviews ~ always interesting to hear about what others are reading and to get some recommendations. Check out “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” by Gail Honeyman.
I just finished listening to Jean Grainger’s Kilteegan Bridge series of books. There are 5 books in the series. Basically, they follow an Irish family from Kilteegan Bridge, Ireland starting from just after the end of WWII until in the 2000s. The family faces in different family members things such as mental illness, unexpected pregnancies, Nazi war criminals passing themselves as Allied patriots, murders, marriage to Jewish Holocust survivors, religion, homosexuality, finding family members who were thought to be dead, marriage, death etc. As this covers multiple generations, it gives you a prespective on how a person changes over time. Tears of joy and tears of sadness are both included.