Though I've tracked hundreds of books read on Goodreads, less than two dozen have reviews.
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Here are seven female scientists in fiction. They shouldn’t have been this hard to find.
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I love reading, but sometimes I want to zone out and just scroll through pretty pictures on Instagram. I love keeping up with my friends, hearting all the babies, and marveling at the world travelers in my feed.
Whenever I need a shot of inspiration, I browse through what's new in the #bookstagram community. I find it soothing to bask in the beauty of books, and I've discovered some amazing photographers there (@chloeferres, @obviousstate, and @booksugar are a few of my faves).
I wish I was as talented a photographer as I am a reader (I'm a master book devourer, y'all), but I won't let my amateur eye and beat-up iPhone 5 stop me from doing my part to share the #booklove. For me, the key to a great bookstagram post is the story behind the photo. Just like a good novel, it needs character, maybe some backstory, or even a plot twist. I mean, anyone can post a book stack with a Harry Potter bobblehead. I want to peer into the worlds of other readers, have them take me on an adventure through books.
The best bookstagrams are the ones that spark your imagination and make you want to know more. The ones that make you laugh out loud or cheer or think to yourself, Yes. THIS. You can find tons of articles out there about gaining followers. But I'll take a narrative over a hashtag strategy any day.
Here are just a few of the stories behind @silentbookclub's recent posts. Hope you enjoy!
One of my all-time favorite shelf-talkers, and one of SBC's most-liked photos of all time. I wish I could take credit for the quote, but this gem is courtesy of the cheeky booksellers at Green Apple Books on the Park in San Francisco.
Last month, I went on vacation with my family to the Big Island of Hawaii. Our rental house in Volcano had an underground lava tube in the yard that you could peer into. As I was drinking my coffee and reading one morning, steam was coming out of the cave, which made for a pretty epic hashtag string: #whereIread #activevolcano.
This is how we SBC in San Francisco. Sometimes there is a piano player in the hotel lounge, but this month there was ambient music... and it kind of jammed. I told my husband about the Daft Punk muzak when I got home, he went down a deep internet hole trying to find it. Sadly he did not succeed. Well played, Palace Hotel. Keep us coming back for more...
I love doing activities while I hang out with friends. Maybe it stemmed from being a girl scout as a kid, but I'm a big fan of clubs. In addition to being the founder of Silent Book Club, I'm also a member of Ladies Drawing Night SF, a group that gets together once a month to draw (and drink and snack and socialize). This month's meeting coincided with an activist campaign I was working on with the American Library Association, so I experimented with some hand lettering and watercolor. Looking at it now, that book stack really could use a shadow.
I discovered The Last Bookstore on Instagram a couple years ago when my publishing friends started posting photos from there whenever they traveled to LA. I finally got to visit it myself earlier this year. I was only in LA for the day, and I made a pilgrimage stop on the way from the airport to my event. As I was browsing in the kids section, I realized that Christian Bale was standing about six feet to my left with his toddler. But only a moment earlier I had discovered an entire shelf of The Girls of Canby Hall, and I decided I was more interested in reliving middle school so I went back to my browsing.
Unfortunately, that means you get to see this instead of a picture of Christian Bale. #sorrynotsorry
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Whether you are in a relationship or not, Valentine's Day can be rough. It's a holiday that inevitably makes you question your life choices. One day you're happily single, the next, you're hiding in the office bathroom because your coworker's desk is covered with flowers. Your heart could be bursting with love after receiving a painted macaroni necklace from your child—until you scroll through Instagram and discover your bestie got diamonds from her new beau. It's a total racket. So this year, bring on the heartache, but make it on your own terms.
Here are the five most heartbreaking novels chosen by Silent Book Club members. They're guaranteed to take you on an emotional rollercoaster, but the beauty of fiction is that it's not real life. There's something wonderfully cathartic about a good ugly cry, so enjoy the ride. Happy Valentine's Day!
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
The best advice I was given about this book was to read nothing about it before I started, in order to avoid serious spoilers. So, with that in mind, I will only tell you that this is the story of four children who attend an exclusive and mysterious boarding school in the English countryside. As adults, three of the characters reconnect to piece together their past and discover what it was that made them—and their school—so special.
A Little Life
by Hanya Yanagihara
This is an epic and haunting story of four friends who move to New York after college. Over the decades, we observe their relationships deepen and fray, as the dark forces of addiction, success, pride, and trauma take their toll. As one Silent Book Club member wrote, "A Little Life broke me in so many ways. It broke my heart, my mind, my spirit, my eyes..." Brace yourself and clear your calendar. You're going to need some recovery time from this one.
Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes
On a lighter note, while Jojo Moyes' Me Before You isn't exactly uplifting, it is a love story that will give you all the feels. Louisa Clark is a small town girl who takes a much-needed job caring for wheelchair-bound Will Traynor. Before his accident, Will was a golden boy—extreme sports, world travel, power broker, the works. Now he can no longer see the point of living, and Louisa has to convince him otherwise.
The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green
Dying teenagers in love. I mean, that's been a winning formula since Shakespeare conceived of Romeo and Juliet, so we're not covering new territory here. But John Green has such a knack for character development and dialogue that you feel like you are reading about star-crossed lovers for the first time all over again. The movie didn't make me cry. The book? OMG. Floods of tears. Park a box of tissues nearby.
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
And then there's The Time Traveler's Wife. This book took the prize in our poll for the most heart-breaking love story of them all. One reader commented that she was crying so hard in bed her husband thought something terrible had happened. Another dubbed it NSFPT (Not Safe for Public Transit). But it's so, so good. If I could read it again for the first time I would sign up for this sob fest in a heartbeat. Clare and Henry fall in love, but there's a catch. Henry has Chrono-Displacement Disorder—his genetic clock randomly resets and he travels through time to different points in his own life. His disappearances are spontaneous and unpredictable, so Clare and Henry must cling to the time they share together. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I have something in my eye.
*This post originally appeared in the Read it Forward newsletter.
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