TikTok has become more than just an app to watch funny videos and waste time on. Now, it’s a place for people to find a sense of community, where they can meet like-minded individuals and share advice and recommendations. TikTok has helped open the doors for people to be creative without fear of judgment because out of the billion people with accounts on the app, there’s bound to be at least a few who enjoy the same things you do.
For avid readers and lovers of literature, TikTok has created a community, BookTok, where we can come together and encourage the world to read new books. I have read many books from BookTok’s suggestion, but these three suggestions completely changed my outlook on life.
Everything I Know About Love By Dolly Alderton
This book has been on my feed since the day it was published. In a memoir-style novel, Dolly Alderton writes casually as though she is telling her daughter about the woes and triumphs of her life. I read this book when I had just barely turned 21, and I was going through the everyday stress of imposter syndrome, heartbreaks, and figuring out what my future would look like. Alderton’s words felt like I was reading letters from an older sister who told me, “Whatever you have done or are feeling, trust me, I’ve done worse and felt worse, and I’m okay.”
With stories about friendship, love, heartbreak, and even recipes mixed into this book, you will surely find something that will resonate with you. I have re-read this book several times, highlighting new quotes I love each time. Alderton’s raw talk about being a girl in your 20s is something I have not been able to find in another author so far.
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
John Green takes on a new genre of writing with this book. Unlike his typical young adult fiction-style novels, he writes The Anthropocene Reviewed as a collection of essays revolving around random events, items, and places that connect back to his life, ending each essay with a rating on a five-star scale.
Green recounts a memory of a high school academic decathlon and credits it as one of the only things that gave him peace during the COVID-19 pandemic. My favorite is Green’s connection of the movie Harvey to feeling hope during a depressive episode in his twenties.
The Anthropocene Reviewed says that a person’s entity is mainly created by the mundane. This was a game changer for me mentally because instead of being disgusted by my life’s simplicity, I could step back and see what simple ideas (even as small as a movie or memory with a friend) have shaped me into who I am.
Tiny Beautiful Things Advice from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed
This is a beautiful book. Cheryl Strayed takes pieces from an online advice column that she anonymously wrote for under the pseudonym Sugar. While writing as Sugar, Strayed still spoke from her experience with a bolder and straightforward personality.
Some excerpts in this book broke my heart because of these people’s pure hopelessness. But Strayed was able to soothe and remind us that everyone has something that makes them want to fall on the ground and sob. People are just very good at masking those parts of themselves.
Reading Sugar’s words felt like a conversation with your cool aunt, who holds nothing back when it comes to her life experiences. She talks through miscarriages, divorce, and love with a voice of reasoning and sometimes tough love. This has become a book I reread when I need advice or feel a specific sort of doubt. I know that Sugar will have something to say to bring me peace.