Four Books to Get You Through the Winter

Tossed among the textbooks and handouts that amass my desk, there are always a few books thrown in. These books are a reminder that reading doesn't just mean a dense chunk of professor-assigned text that I can barely comprehend. Good books, however you choose to define them, can teach you just as much as your required classroom texts, but with the same enjoyment factor as rewatching Friends for the fifth time. Without further ado, here are some of the best ones I’ve read in recent weeks:

Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff

Tweak is a true story told by a boy named Nic who went through it all. By age eleven, he had already been drunk. Soon after, he was trying any drug he could get his hands on. By the time he was graduating high school, he had been to rehab for his meth addiction. The decade that followed was filled with more rehabs and relapses, living on the streets and complicated relationships. This book chronicles the raw emotions and heartbreaking experiences of drug addiction. It takes an emotional toll on the reader, but it is well worth it.

The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman

Exposing one of Canada’s biggest human rights scandals, The Home for Unwanted Girls tells the story of Maggie Hayes and her orphaned daughter Elodie. Set in 1950, Maggie was pregnant at fifteen and forced to give Elodie up. Although the book is fictional, the general concept actually did occur. In order to get more government funding, Quebec’s orphanages turned themselves into mental institutions and treated the orphans as mentally insane. In the 1950s, treatment for mental illness was very different (think: straight jackets and shock therapy). When Maggie hears of this, she makes it her mission to reunite with her daughter.

Insomniac City by Bill Hayes

Insomniac City is a more light-hearted memoir based in New York City. Hayes tells his story as an insomniac who spends his time wandering and observing the city  that never sleeps, while all the regular people are in fact asleep. He falls in love with his neighbor, who is pretty much a hermit but has a brilliant mind. The two spend their days wandering around, observing, philosophizing and, well, drinking and smoking a lot. This book is a captivating account of a man’s unfamiliar thoughts, experiences and encounters in a city that is, in some way, familiar to most of the world.

The Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

The name of this book is what caught my eye at first, and, in all honesty, made me laugh. I continued to laugh, smile and even cry through a lot of it. Vance tells his own story growing up in the Rust Belt of America, or what he calls “the holler.” Vance goes from almost failing high school, destined to be like the rest of his community, to the first in his family (and much of his town) to go to college and later law school. With the unwavering support and wise-cracks from his grandma, Vance defies expectations, overcomes the traumas of his upbringing, and is able to tell his story with a brutal, but engaging, sense of honesty. This story is definitely the most uplifting of my selection and well worth it if you are looking for a mid-winter pick-me-up.