By Abbe Townsend and Mamie Potter
Abbe Townsend, is a bookseller in the children's department at Quail Ridge Books (her happy place). She adores the "short people, the littles and the freshly-minted humans" who visit her there. If Abbe ruled the world, every person ages 1-110 would read picture books.
Here are some of her favorites:
Lilly from Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes is her spirit animal. She and Lilly both suffer from/enjoy an overabundance of exuberance.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Modern Library). Comic genius!
Man at the Helm by Nina Stibbe (Back Bay Books). British (very British!) madcap comedy with a nine-year-old narrator.
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride (Riverhead Books). Eloquent memoir and tribute to McBride’s mother, who raised eleven successful children under difficult circumstances.
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson (Broadway Books). Smart, funny, grumpy old guy describes his formative years in middle America during the 1950s.
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson (Berkley Publishing Group). Jenny Lawson, aka The Bloggess, pens a "mostly true" memoir. Mortification meets hilarity.
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh (Touchstone Books). No matter how many times I read this, it always, always makes me laugh.
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (Back Bay Books)
. David Sedaris + the French = "something will leak" laughter.
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed (Vintage Books). Required reading for every human. My wish is that each of us would have an internal "Dear Sugar" to talk us through life.
How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton (Vintage Books USA). De Botton is my newest literary "boyfriend.” He is such a fine writer. This book is an odd combination of biography, literary review and self-help book. It works, and is most entertaining!
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life: Essays by Samantha Irby (Vintage Books). Dark humor but not one for those of you with delicate sensibilities. (You'll need to have smelling salts handy if you read it.)
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