Let’s Talk Bookish is a bookish meme created by Rukky @ Eternity Books in 2019 and co-hosted by Book Nook Bits and Dini @ Dinipandareads, where bloggers write about and discuss all sorts of bookish topics.
As I was on hiatus last month, I didn’t do the LTB prompt, but it’s such a brilliant prompt and I thought it would be a great one to start September with!
Let’s Talk Bookish:
Mental Health and Books
(Suggested by Lin @ Lin’s Perspective)
Prompts: Are there any books that have helped you during a difficult moment in your life? What books would you deem a must-read-must-have when it comes to mental health awareness? What are your favorite book/s that feature a main character going through a rough patch?
Oddly, I think when I really get into a good book, I forget what’s going on around me. They help me get through difficult periods, but in a way that leaves me unable to connect that book to that moment. I just remember really enjoying it and the way it makes me feel! I do think books have a strange ability to come into your life at the right time, too. And they might help you make a connection at the perfect moment. An example would be me discovering S.H. Cooper via her brilliant podcast Calling Darkness, picking up one of her short story collections, fangirling over those two so she paid attention to me on social media, then her hiring me to do beta reading for her when she noticed I was looking for clients. That was years ago and we are still firm friends!
I don’t think it’s always specific books, either, that help as such. Looking back over what I was reading during a period I know was very difficult for me, I read a lot of horror – Stephen King and Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series were always on my TBR at that time, but in general I seemed to be reading a lot of horror outside of that. And if you’re a horror fan, I think horror can do wonders for mental health! Sometimes you need to read something bleak and dark and get the cathartic effect from it. There usually is a point for me where it doesn’t help (if I read too much), but yeah, sometimes you need to read about an apocalypse or monsters or even humans being evil to process whatever shit you have going on in your own life.
More recently, I find a lot of comfort in well written romance, especially contemporary or historical. The kind of books that offer escapism but grounded in the real world, where you can imagine these characters walking through the same world as you and dealing with issues you can relate to (more so for contemporary!) and finding that happiness. There’s a deliciousness in that, and definitely a comfort in knowing that whatever happens, they will end up together.
As for specific books, I’m still working on that! I have some nonfiction books on my TBR that talk about mental health, but one book which helped me greatly (and it’s very specific!) was the Self-Care Workbook for Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers. I think if you can find something that speaks to you and your own personal circumstances, it might not be an easy read, and it might mean bringing up some stuff that you still need to work through – I find that when I connect with something on that level, it doesn’t feel like it’s working completely until I sit with it a bit. It might even feel like the opposite, but it’s the kind of thing where you have to work through it and come out the other side.
It’s hard to say with books with characters going through a rough patch – a lot of the books I read feature that, in different ways! Drawn Together (Contemporary Romance) features characters who are grieving, while our FMC and POV character is adjusting to life away from her home. Maeve Fly (Horror) has a character who refuses to get close to anyone, who is paranoid and closed off. All the Hearts You Eat (Horror) is about facing bigotry (in this case transphobia) and living in a world that doesn’t accept you for who you are, and the way different characters deal with this. This Wretched Beauty (Gothic Historical Fantasy) is, at its core, about queerness, insecurity, and the lengths we go to to protect our own beautiful youth, as well as showing the character being isolated to protect others.
I think those are the kind of books I’m drawn to – in romance, characters going through a tough time tend to work through it to be with the person they love, occasionally with the help of found family. In horror, the ‘tough times’ get dialled up and result in, well, anything. It’s something interesting in books, I think, the way different authors handle different aspects of mental health. What about you? Are there any books that have helped you through difficult periods, or types of books you turn to? Any recommendations for books that feature characters going through tough or difficult periods?
Unwrapping Words 