Books have been a great escape for me during the pandemic, a way to forget about the mess of 2020-2021 and take a break from everything. In a way, the pandemic has helped me get back into reading properly again! In university, I lost my spark for reading because of all the mandatory articles and books for class, but in the past year, I got it back! Here are four of my favourites books as of late. I encourage you to check if they can be found at your local library, before ordering them.
- Stamped from the beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
What a read. Kendi writes about the history of racism in the US (and the world) and it is an important, disturbing, arresting and well-written piece of literature. I’ve read many books about racism during the past year, and I’d say this is the best one yet for getting a historical point of view and an understanding of how racism became so embedded in our culture. It discusses both intentional and unintentional racism, and it has really helped me widen my perspective on both racism overall as well as unintentional, “well-meaning” racism. I think everyone should read this book. It is also available on Spotify, if you prefer listening. I rated this 5/5 on Goodreads.
2. How to break up with fast fashion by Lauren Bravo
In an approachable and funny way, Lauren Bravo sheds a light on the issues of the Fast Fashion industry. She doesn’t point fingers or blame the customer, but instead acknowledges her own flaws and give good, solid advice. I would say this book is good for anyone who wants to know more about fashion and sustainability. I think it can be a great introduction to the problems if you have no prior knowledge, but also enjoyable for the ones who know more. Even though I personally said goodbye to fast fashion over three years ago, I still found this a good read. I rated this 5/5 on Goodreads.
3. The book of eels by Patrik Svensson
I’d say this is the ultimate summer read – fascinating, cosy and educative. Who knew that a book about eels could be this good! I really enjoyed the way Svensson combines stories about his relationship to his father with the natural history of eels. A bit unexpected, to say the least. The book touches on everything from parent-child relationships, living life, climate change and, of course, eels. Eels are super fascinating creatures, by the way, in case you didn’t know. After I read this, I may or may not have pained many of my friend with fun facts on eels for weeks. Oops!
I rated this 4/5 on Goodreads.
4. Korkeintaan vähän väsynyt by Eeva Kolu (in Finnish)
This book is as of yet not available in English, but I really hope that it will be! The title can be translated to something like “At the most a little tired”. If you speak Finnish and you’re a (young) adult trying to navigate this crazy, stressful thing called life, I think you should read this book. Kolu writes about burnout from a personal, often entertaining and painfully familiar point of view. Just a few pages in, I could already recognise myself in so many problematic behaviours that Kolu writes about. As a chronic over-achiever, I had many epiphanies while reading this book, and they’ve led me to for example lower my goals for this year and to stop using my fitness watch (and that’s a big deal, let me tell you). I rated this 5/5 on Goodreads.
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