Very often we read for entertainment and enjoyment, thus romance books will lift up your mood, fantasy and science fiction for an adventure. When it comes to contemporary books, sometimes it touches topics that hard such as mental illness, sexual assault, incurable sickness and etc. Those are topics that are brooding and often puts people in deep thoughts. I quite like books like these, not because I like tragic things but it's how the author convey their message. How realistic they can make a story be that's important and of course it builds compassion. Often than not, these books touches a person's heart and that is the ultimate goal of a good author (IMO). So here is my list not in any particular order:
A Step Towards Falling
Now this book is the first hard topic book that I picked up this year and I went in without any expectations. I really really liked it because it talks about autism, about standing by and not doing anything. It is a hard topic because when a person is helpless and you did nothing, what are the consequences, what should have been done and of course the impact on the victim. This author gave the perspectives of the victim (who has autism) and the teenager who did nothing to help. What this book invoked in me is more understanding towards people with disability. Review here: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2016/02/a-step-toward-falling.html
The Sky is Everywhere
This book talks about grief which is quite a difficult topic to approach because everyone deals with it differently. When I was reading this book, the incident where my love passed away has yet to happen. I can say at the moment when I finish the book I felt that life is hard especially when a tragedy happens in your life so suddenly. When dealing with grief in the family, everyone has a different relationship with the person but it's healthy to grief together. So fast forward to now and thinking about this book I sort of felt that the timing is just too coincidental. Why did I pick up that book that time and it feels like God was already sending me messages or preparing me for the battle ahead. Review here: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2015/09/the-sky-is-everywhere.html
Extraordinary Means
This is a book talking about dying, about non curable disease that happened to young people. The irony, this is another book talking about life, how everyone is dying but just some of us dies faster, some of us slower. I read this book before the book above and it gave me an insight that when you're dying, you act differently. Life is full of surprises, life is unpredictable. Review here: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2015/10/extraordinary-means.html
Finding Audrey
I love this book so much because the author wrote a topic about mental illness yet making the book so funny. When I was reading this book, often I laughed out loud and I was on the bus. Mental illness that's inflicted because of a certain incident and how the victim try to heal from her problem is a serious thing. I love that you learn the message and also get a few laughs out of it. Review here: http://www.anythingbuteverything.com/2015/08/finding-audrey.html
All the Bright Places
I have this book in my TBR list and have yet to read it. It has very very good ratings and a movie is in the making. This book talks about mental illness and a suicidal person. Also grief is a topic too. So I'm excited to see what's good about the book. I'll definitely write a review after I'm done.
There you have it, my picks. You can see the pattern that I've chosen mainly grief and mental illness. I have yet to come across a book about sexual assault, I'm quite intimidated by that topic itself. Do recommend me books on topic like these because I like serious topics even if it's a sad one. Thanks for reading!!
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