The Liars' Club by Mary Karr - Currently Reading
The Liars' Club is a bestselling memoir that recounts Karr's turbulent childhood in an East Texas oil town during the early 1960s, detailing a family steeped in alcohol abuse, psychological issues, and dark secrets, including the narrator's own experience with sexual abuse. The book is known for its raw honesty, dark humor, and unsentimental yet profound portrayal of Karr's upbringing.
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
I Who Have Never Known Men tells the story of a young woman imprisoned with 39 other women in a bunker, with no memory of the world outside. The women are guarded by men who never speak to them. The youngest, the narrator, has no recollection of life before the bunker. When the guards suddenly flee, the women escape to a barren, desolate landscape with no sign of civilization. The novel explores themes of isolation, loss of identity, and the human spirit's resilience as the narrator grapples with understanding her past and present.
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
The Body Keeps the Score explores how trauma, whether from childhood abuse, combat, or other adverse experiences, fundamentally alters the brain and body, leading to a range of physical and psychological symptoms. The book synthesizes research from neuroscience, psychology, and body-based therapies to explain how trauma affects individuals and outlines various paths to healing. It emphasizes that trauma isn't just a mental or emotional experience, but also a physiological one, impacting how the brain and body respond to stress and perceive safety.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Cat's Cradle is a satirical novel that explores the destructive potential of science and the search for meaning in a chaotic world, following a freelance writer, John, who investigates the legacy of Dr. Felix Hoenikker, a creator of the atomic bomb, and discovers the dangerous substance ice-nine. His investigation leads him to San Lorenzo, a fictional Caribbean island, where he encounters the Hoenikker children, each possessing a vial of ice-nine, and the fabricated religion of Bokononism, ultimately witnessing the substance's catastrophic impact.
Flowers for Algernon (Short) by Daniel Keyes
Flowers for Algernon tells the story of Charlie Gordon, a man with intellectual disabilities who undergoes an experimental surgery to significantly increase his intelligence, mirroring an earlier success with a lab mouse named Algernon. Told through Charlie's progress reports, the novel explores the emotional and psychological consequences of his rapidly expanding intellect, including the challenges to his relationships and his evolving understanding of his own identity and the world around him.
