Happy & Healthy
A OPEN BOOK
by Maddy Stolk
My very first great love was the written word. Socially not very handy, and with a peculiar talent for being bad at every sport, books were in my younger years my best friends and a safe haven at the same time. Later, everything turned out fine, I made friends who also don't like sports but do enjoy wicked humor and drink wine like water – and all was well in the world. But that first love, it secretly never completely goes away. Reading is balm for the soul and reading is to the mind what exercising is to the body – and I am firmly convinced that the world would be a better place if more people read. So in a clear top ten, albeit in random order, the best that 2016 had to offer. And now allez vite to the bookstore.
‘Moles’ by Arnon Grunberg
Written after the death of his mother. Grunberg wouldn't be Grunberg if his mother, for example, suddenly hadn't gotten a penis. About life, death, and – of course – love.
‘It Melts’ by Lize Spit
Overwhelming debut from 28-year-old Spit. Publisher Das Mag placed hundreds of copies of ‘It Melts’ in trains for unsuspecting travelers. That, and mainly the book's great expressiveness, led to a huge bestseller.
‘How I Got Talent for Life’ by Rodaan Al Galidi
A refugee from Iraq gives a disillusioning glimpse into life in an asylum seekers‘ center. And in the Netherlands: ’A neat lie is better than the messy truth.’
‘A Little Life’ by Hanya Yanagihara
To keep you awake for weeks, from this novel. Four friends, one trauma: life is only manageable to a certain extent. And you will definitely sleep poorly for a while because of it.
‘The Interpreter of Java’ by Alfred Birney
As a true Indo, this novel was a sad celebration of recognition. A different perspective on Dutch-Indies, the colonial era, and the violence that followed the dismantling. Belongs on every reading list.
‘The Girls’ by Emma Cline
The horrors that teenage girls are capable of – especially when they are under the spell of a charismatic cult leader. Shows suspiciously many parallels with the story of Charles Manson, but nevertheless offers an intriguing glimpse into the machinations of a cult.
‘The Ditch’ by Herman Koch
How jealousy can completely derail someone. With a Kochian plot twist at the end. Reads like a train.
‘Here I Am’ by Jonathan Safran Foer
Ten years after ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ Safran Foer crushes it again. About love, and the loss of it, and described with a razor-sharp pen.
‘Swing Time’ by Zadie Smith
Does our ancestry determine who we are? Yes and no. Beautiful novel about pop culture and lost and found friendship.
‘You Now’ by Griet Op de Beeck
Fifteen short stories that will blow you away one by one.
