Guest Post!

Today we have a guest post from Melissa! Trigger warnings for death and suicide. --

I am an avid reader. I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t have a book in my hand. Growing up, the library was my favorite place to be, and then when I managed to save some money, I traded the library for bookstores. To this day, I can’t walk past a bookstore without going in, looking at all the books I want to read, and wondering where my books (once I finish writing them!) would end up.

But throughout all the books that I’ve read, there are some that just stuck out and changed my life. Here are four of them:

1. Goodnight Moon - okay I know that this is a children’s book and doesn’t have a deep rooted meaning to it, but this book means a lot to me because it is a book that my mother used to read to me when I was a child. I used to curl up in her lap, resting my head on her shoulder, and listen to her voice as she read the words out loud. She would read to me until I was asleep and then do it all over again the next night.
2. The Devil’s Arithmetic - This book approaches the subject of the holocaust, a horrific event in history, in a way that a child would understand. It doesn’t sugar coat the scenes, or use kid gloves through the story, but shows what really happened during that time and how it affects everyone’s lives, past and present. It’s a heart-wrenching story with a deep routed lesson that every child should be taught.
3. Where the Red Fern Grows - Truth time, this made me cry. This whole story is about a child’s love for his dogs. There is nothing more important a child’s relationship with their pets and how they grow up together. This book illustrated that so clearly, as well as the pain that comes from a pet dying after being in their life for so long. I read this book in school and was hooked from the very beginning. I had to buy my own copy right away, and now it is sitting on my bookshelf with all my other favorite books.
4. The Pact - This hits close to home because I had a friend who committed suicide as well. This books centers around the aftermath of a botched suicide pact where one person died and the other lived. The aftermath is heartbreaking and keeps you on your toes from the very beginning to the very end. You don’t know who to believe, how to feel, and what to think. Everyone's a suspect and also a victim. This books shows what happens to the families when someone takes their lives, and it sheds light to a situation that most people might not think about.

So these are the four books that’ve changed my life forever. No matter how many other books I read, these will always stick in my mind and in my soul.

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