100 Books Like Notes on a Silencing

Do you need a good cathartic cry? This book serves as a pillar to remind the world of the atrocities that happened in December of 1937. I remember having to stop after reading certain chapters and engage in self-care, as to take a break from the pain and suffering that it retells. I paused to reflect that I had been glad that the Nazis were occupying certain parts of the city which in-turn provided relief to the Chinese. I can’t fathom the amount of destruction this Capitol endured between contests to see who can be the first to kill 100 people with a sword before the capture of the city to the systematic rape and mutilation of women and young girls. 

This is such a beautiful, gentle and cozy book that I couldn’t put it down. In this story, people were left with no choice but to completely rebuild their society, and they did something wonderful.

This book is like a breath of fresh air, like a quiet, healing journey that doesn’t rely on action—it’s an exploration, a celebration of nature, and society, and connection. It touched me in a profound way. It made me go outside to check if it was raining and stand with my bare feet in the grass, enjoying the coldness and softness of the sensation. 

This immediately immersed me in another time and place. Apparently, I’m very clear in my bookish likes, because it was recommended to me multiple times due to the combination of nuns and sapphic content. Luckily, it lived up to the recommendations!

It is very well written and extremely atmospheric, and it drew me right into its medieval world. Groff managed to create characters who feel appropriate to their era but who are also accessible to a modern reader, which is not an easy task. This helped me to become emotionally invested in the book.

This book gave me permission to be human. In a world that demands perfection and largely being a perfectionist because of this culture. This book reminded me that I can be a feminist and I can like songs that “a real feminist” (however a real feminist is defined) would rage against. If I’m a bad feminist or bad at being a feminist…that still makes me a feminist and I can still be a part of the movement and culture. I’m not looking to be the top feminist. Roxane is a gorgeous soul, and this book is cathartic in the way that it gave me peace to be myself. I’m very thankful that she chose to write this book. It really challenged me to be kinder to myself. 

This was a compelling, fascinating read. Davis shares the story of her life, from her experiences with childhood poverty, abuse, and racism to her path into acting. 

I loved following along the steps she took to emerge from a challenging childhood to winning an Academy Award. It was also amazing to listen to the audiobook and hear Davis tell the story in her own voice. It is easy to see why this book was awarded a Grammy. It was one of my favorite books of the year. 

I love nothing more than a book that unsettles me, that I grasp almost bodily in the reading but have to return to again and again to truly understand. Lose Your Mother is that kind of book. In Chapter Seven, Hartman tells us that, while working in the archive of the Atlantic slave trade, she came across a scandal: on board the slave ship Recovery, two African girls—one named Venus—are murdered by the captain, John Kimber.

A trial ensues. A mate is put on the stand, who admits there was a book on the ship, a list of all its horrors, The Dead Book, but it’s lost now. Lose Your Mother is Hartman’s attempt to write her version of The Dead Book without committing the same violence against the girls that they endured in their short lives. How she wonders, can we reimagine life for Venus when all we know… show more.

Likely the origin of my love for books within books, especially those lost or deliberately destroyed, this is the third book in the Emily Starr trilogy, the lesser-known series by Canadian author L.M. Montgomery, of Anne of Green Gables fame.

In it, budding novelist Emily decides against going off to college in the city with her three best friends to remain on her aunt’s Canadian farm, New Moon, and write. She finishes her first novel, A Seller of Dreams (what a title!), in a fit of creative joy but struggles to find a publisher.

Close to despair, she gives it to her bookish friend Dean Priest, an older man who’s in love with her, asking if it’s any good. Aware that her devotion to writing will keep her from him, he lies that the book is “artificial” and the characters “wooden.”

Emily throws it on the fire in her… show more.

Emma Tennant was one of Ted Hughes’s lovers in the 1970s, at the height of Sylvia Plath’s early fame. I arrived at her memoir as research for Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation, but I stayed because Tennant’s writing is so witty and clever, full of riotous anecdotes of her time publishing chic literary magazines in 1970s London (she tries to steal, and sell, a family snapshot of Princess Margaret, nude on a French beach, for seed money, which ends in hilarious disaster).

Tennant never descends into self-pity or high drama in describing the dark and mysterious Hughes, who believes a random fox on the road is his dead wife returning to him and tries to convince Tennant that frozen salmon at a third-rate London restaurant is fresh and delivering life force to him. Instead, she sneaks in the violence done to her by Hughes in moments drenched in myth… show more.

There’s a seedy side to the pharmaceutical industry that started well before the creation of the FDA, and continues through the modern era, fueling the epidemic of opioid drug dependency.

In Pharma, Posner’s comprehensive reporting introduces us to brilliant scientists, incorruptible government regulators, and brave whistleblowers facing off against company executives often blinded by greed.

We learn how the Sacklers built a culture of pain relief on the shoulders of oxycontin – one that ultimately led to the lowest survival rates for Americans in a century.

This book floored me with its unflinching exploration of systemic abuse and complicity within Hollywood—a microcosm for many workplaces.

Ryan’s bold, investigative approach helped me better understand how power dynamics shape industries and how meaningful change can emerge when individuals unite against systemic wrongdoing. Her ability to mix stories of injustice with actionable solutions makes this book unforgettable and empowering.