What to Read When Quarantined
By Marissa Beaty
A lot is going on in the world right now. We’re being forced to stay home, continue our classes, maintain an engagement in a semester that is anything but what we signed up for. I’ll be the first to admit, it sucks. Between close quarters turning quarrels into grudges, a states-away distance between friends, graduation, and goodbyes rescheduled on zoom, there is a lot to grieve. We’ve lost a lot. But we’ve also got a lot going for us.
We’re here.
It’s easy to get caught up in news headlines and daydreams of what-if, to look back and become angry. I have been there. I am still there. But I want to focus on the simple fact that we are still here, still breathing and bleeding and believing that things are going to get better because there are. It will take some time, but they are.
At Illumination, we have two goals for this time: to be an outlet for whatever emotions you may be feeling and a guide for navigating those emotions. The first step of this is to provide you with a few distractions because what better way to forget the negativity of this world than delving into another one. So, for the first introduction of a quarantine based Illumination, we would like to provide you with a few of our favorite books. We hope you enjoy them!
Odes to Common Things by Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda got me to love poetry, and trust me, I used to HATE poetry. I’d rather do laundry at a laundromat a mile away from my apartment than reading poetry...at least, that’s what I would say before I fell in love with Neruda, the artist who can describe the simplest of emotions so eloquently you will find yourself saying, “how did he know.” Odes to Common Things is another gift that embodies and beautifies the mundanity of daily life. It pushes you to listen, learn, and love that which we ignore...about the world and ourselves. If you don’t love poetry once you finish this...well, that won’t happen so I’m not going to worry about it.
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Sequel to the renowned The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments is Atwood's re-immersion into the Republic of Gilead. Fifteen years after the events within The Handmaid’s Tale, three girls - the daughter of a high-ranking official, a teenage anti-Gilead activist, and Aunt Lydia (the villain from the first novel) - act as tools for Atwood’s further immersion into the inner workings of Gilead, as they are forced to come to terms with themselves and their role in the Republic. Will they obey? Will they break the mold?
Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
A part of Reese Witherspoon’s book club, Daisy Jones and the Six, is an Almost Famous-Esque novel that will make you want to dance as much as you want to flip the page. This is the story about Daisy Jones, a young, riveting singer, who, when joining the Six, took the band from small-town hits to national sold-out shows, but the fame and fortune don’t come without its downfalls. Trust us, this is a book you won’t be able to put down.
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
Do you know those people who say that they don’t have time for reading? Well, first off, they’re lying, but there may be a solution to their timeless woes. Look no further than Grand Union, a beautiful collection of stories that delve into love, life, loss, and of course, politics. Each narrative recollects dis-illusions of life - the moral conundrums we all face yet won’t admit - and presents them to us all together in a neatly packaged bow as though to say: here, I hear you, I understand you, you are not alone. At the end of the day, it is a reminder we all could use, regardless of how much time we supposedly don’t have.
Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit
This is the only work of non-fiction on this list, but well-deserving of its placement. Solnit takes you through a history of the U.S., a history of the world, but not in the way you would imagine. It tells the stories of heroes who risked their life going back to save a stunned young man on the streets of a burning New York City, of families who survived Katrina through will and love. Every disaster is a new frame, a heart-warming tale of human survival through the worst of times. It tells the story of resilience, of what it means to be truly human, and shows us that no matter the disaster, we carry on.