I have been in love with story my entire life: a child reading Nancy Drew in the woods, then a teenager dreaming up plot lines for a new novel during a basketball game timeout. Later, as a college student sucked into The Hunger Games mania, and now as a mom picking up Edith Wharton in those quiet minutes before bed.

Throughout the years, story has been a tethering line that connects my present self to all those older versions, reminding me that the little girl who sobbed through Where the Red Fern Grows is still alive and well. 

Jack was two months old when my best friend Bek Robinson came to visit us and brought with her a stack of baby books. “Have you read to him yet?” she asked.

Embarrassed, I didn’t know what to say. It hadn’t occurred to me to read to him yet! He seemed so … out of it. I mean, the kid was still learning the basic elements of head control. Nevertheless, Bek persisted. I can remember the spot on the couch where she first read him Big Red Barn and Jamberry. 

After that, I started reading to him before naps and bedtimes, and now as a two-year-old, I’m amazed by his ability to engage in a book. “Again, again,” he’ll say. (We’ve recently discovered Clifford). I wonder if story will become for him what it became for me—a fresh, sweet lemonade when life was passing out lemons. 

So, here are a few of my favorite books and films I’ve enjoyed recently to give you something to cry, laugh, and muse over in 2023.

Books

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (2009)

Synopsis: Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over — she’s getting divorced, she has three kids and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. (Thank you, Goodreads.)

Why You Should Read It: It’s been a long time since I couldn’t stop reading a book. I was compelled to know if Alice could win her husband back before her memory returned. Moriarity, who also wrote Big Little Lies, excels in creating believable characters. Her insight into the quirks that turn people into individuals is uncanny. With descriptions that engage your senses and a plot that moves forward with every page, there’s a lot to enjoy about this book. 

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton (1913)

Synopsis: This follows the rise and fall of vain, gorgeous New York socialite Undine Spragg whose insatiable appetite for admiration, monetary comfort, and upward mobility is so single-minded it’s almost admirable. Watch her marry, divorce, marry, and scheme with reckless abandon in this witty indictment of the upper class and its folly. 

Why You Should Read It: I have become Edith Wharton’s biggest fan in the 21^st century. On the surface, the plot seems boring. (Three marriages and a spiraling descent into unhappiness? Where’s the dead body?!) But the beauty lies in Wharton’s prose and the weaving of her protagonist’s unfailingly selfish decisions into a cohesive finale that leaves you simultaneously stunned, satisfied, and almost (but not quite) sympathetic. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (2020)

Synopsis: Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place. (Thank you, back cover.)

Why You Should Read It: So… I’m a Christian (You gasp in shock. Lizzy, you’ve hidden this about yourself so well!), so naturally my take on life’s ultimate meaning and what happens after we die differs from the author’s. But there’s still so much truth I could mine out of Nora’s life and choices: Accept what comes while also building towards a future you want. Release the past and a thousand what-ifs so you can embrace what is truly real.

I won’t spoil the ending for you but my takeaway: To love and be loved is to truly live.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (2005)

Synopsis: Aa remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered. (Thank you, Amazon.)

Why You Should Read It: As a child, I found a copy of this memoir on the bookshelf in our family garage. I can remember flipping to a page somewhere in the middle and immediately being absorbed and repelled by a couple paragraphs mentioning “West Virginia” and “lice.” It took me twenty years to get back to it, but I’m so glad I did. 

 It’s a beautifully written, unflinching depiction of human relationships, unconditional love, and personal failure without overbearing commentary. Sounds depressing, I know. It is at times, but it’s also written with enough compassion that you leave feeling more conflicted and pensive than angry. 

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (1966)

Synopsis: A mentally disabled man undergoes a medical procedure that raises his IQ. Thus begins a profound exploration of human worth as Charlie becomes a genius and understands the world and his own existence through new eyes. But will this new identity last?

Why You Should Read It: It’s not the typical fiction plot filled with bad guys and unexpected twists, but holy moly, talk about poignant endings. It’s one of those stories that forces you to reckon with the mysteries of human life in a new way. 

A person’s value isn’t derived from their physical beauty or prowess, their intelligence, or the accomplishments they bring to the world. Value is intrinsic. Inextricable from being human. 

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane (2001)

Synopsis: The story follows three men who were friends in childhood until one of them became the victim of a terrible crime and came back indelibly altered. Decades later, one of them loses a daughter to senseless violence, and that long-ago crime seems to be back in play. Or is it? 

Why You Should Read It: Not your typical “detective mystery.” It starts a little slow, and there were definitely times I wished the author would stop waxing philosophical (there’s a long diatribe on how they don’t make irons like they used to), but the way the plot comes together is genius. Such a wickedly smart book with expertly crafted character arcs—good guys and bad guys and how they step into their true selves. 

Film

I’m deep in the research phase of my next book (1920s!), which means I’m revisiting some writing craft books like John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story. He focuses on film and the essential elements that comprise our favorite cinematic stories. Tommy and I have had a lot of fun watching or rewatching Truby’s film examples and paying special attention to their plot structures. Here are some great films you shouldn’t forget about:

Casablanca (1942) 

Synopsis: A cynical expatriate American cafe owner struggles to decide whether or not to help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape the Nazis in French Morocco. (Thanks, IMDB!)

Why You Should Watch It: This classic only gets better with age. I was shocked when I realized it was released still in the dark days of World War II. As people, I just assume we best understand historical events at a distance, once there’s been time to analyze the context and the repercussions. But Casablanca’s celebration of personal sacrifice for a greater goodprovides an unusual self-awareness that seems far-sighted for its time. 

The action/drive sequence is delayed, but the setting itself provides such a constant stream of tension that you can’t look away. There’s always an enemy sitting at Rick’s bar. It’s just a matter of when he’ll strike.

Silence of the Lambs (1991) 

Synopsis: Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI’s training academy. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out. (Thank you, Google.)

Why You Should Watch It: We finally watched this psychological horror, a genre I typically avoid like a dark alleyway, but I was sucked into the moody Ohioan/West Virginian landscape and the grimy feeling that seems to veil every man Clarice Starling meets. The sexual objectifying done by most of the males, whether FBI hotshot or serial killer, effectively blurs the line between the “good guy” and the “bad guy.” These similarities reveal a root depravity that some are able to keep within “socially acceptable” limits and others indulge to their ultimate downfall.  

On the Waterfront(1954) 

Synopsis: An ex-prize fighter  turned New Jersey longshoreman (played by Marlon Brando) struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate’s victims. (Thank you, IMDB).

Why You Should Watch It: Truby’s book describes this movie’s structure as unusual considering how long it takes for the protagonist to engage in the plot, but it kept my attention. From the opening murder, the protagonist wrestles with his conscience and a false sense of self-sufficiency. His walls really start to crumble when he meets a woman who refuses to let organized crime continue to rule their community. 

 What hit hardest for me was watching that same community turn away from Brando when he finally decides to pursue justice. A society’s passion for status quo and smoothing sailing over what is “right” has timely implications even for today.

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Well, Jack is up from nap and wants to read If You Give a Cat a Cupcake for the fourth time today. Gotta run.