Hi everyone! Here's a second installment of book recommendations, featuring books that I think more people should read. These include:
- The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian (fiction)
- The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh (fiction)
- What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (short stories)
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (and its sequel, Tales From the Cafe - both short stories)
- Kids of Appetite by David Arnold (fiction)
- Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan (memoir)

I hope you enjoy! Comment with your own book recommendations! :)
 

Hi everyone! Here are some of my book recommendations featuring peripheral narrators!
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzegerald
- The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- Looking for Alaska by John Green
- Paper Towns by John Green

In these books (especially the last three) the story is less about the narrator and more about their relationship with an enigmatic friend/lover/family and the love and loss they reckon with. Read more about peripheral narrators below!

~Book challenge!~
- Share 5 books:
#1. Most recent you read
#2. Most recent you bought
#3. Most anticipated to read
#4. Most read and re-read
#5. Most dog-eared/annotated

Mine:
#1. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
#2. The Essential Hemingway (one of the 12 I just bought)
#3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
#4. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
#5. Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler/The Secret History by Donna Tartt
 

You always took Park Place,
cobalt tile weighted by your viridian buildings
and crimson hotels.
Meanwhile,
I stumbled over the borderlines and railroad tracks,
toppled over Baltic.
Wheelbarrow balanced on one side, you
skated seamlessly through the boulevards
and avenues. 
Reckless pass while garish notes gathered
under your corner,
neat, muted stacks lined up bill by bill. 
Alabaster hills sliding beneath the couch,
crumpled roseate you passed conceitedly
as I reluctantly traded tangerine trophies
and another accolade
for an arrogant –
I paid my dividend,
dissidence dismissed by
unofficial bank teller
who slickly slid gilded notes
under palms as you and I bickered
over ownership,
until a misstep cost you
your capital, and
I cheered gleefully
as you claimed bankruptcy
and I claimed Boardwalk.

 

i’m young & inconsolable.
i slip from your infinity-pool mind &
catch my toes on tiles while you skin an apple alive,
curved crimson rind turned to crumpled core.
i watch my mirror-self cry. o midnight mascara’d mess,
you ripped-pantyhose haikus-on-cocktail-napkins darling.

 

Hi everyone!

As you may know, I created Line Break in March 2020, right before the pandemic hit, and I’ve been producing episodes ever since. We just hit the 50th episode milestone, which is so incredible and makes me so happy! I love Line Break and all of the conversations I’ve had with you amazing YWP writers so much. It’s both exciting and bittersweet to announce that I will be handing the podcast over to a new host before I graduate in the spring.

If you love Line Break, YWP, writing, podcasts, and talking to people about these topics and much more, please send me a message through the site. I’d love to talk with you about Line Break and how it would work for you to host, plus any new ideas for changing things up! Ideally, you would also have some knowledge of audio editing/production, but if not it’s easy to learn. I would train you for a few weeks until you’re comfortable, and then you would take over.
 

        time wrinkles with no warning        i was 5 years old running through sprinklers 
gleefully staining my mouth bright red with cherry popsicles        in a blink i was 10 years old
        weaving threads for friendship bracelets        and perfecting my signature
i read a book         and i was 15,        drawing angles of eyeliner and pressing my nose
        against the mirror        because if i get close enough i might find out who i am
i drank a cup of coffeee and now i'm almost 18        it feels like time is laughing hysterically
        in the corner        cackling that life is happening to me        i forgot how easy
living was supposed to be after i        lost friends and secrets i was supposed to keep       i'll turn
       to see who called my name and i'll be at my graduation        wearing a cap and gown and 
stole and medallions and cords and tassels        standing on the grass next to the 

like vanilla bean freckles on your cinnamon hands, i followed the constellations left by saffron strands. i drank lattes every morning when you were gone. i measured the coffee grounds and poured steaming water over the parchment, frothed milk and let it slip into a mug. i sprinkled nutmeg on top, added a stripe of caramel, maybe. honey or cardamom or sugar if i was feeling fancy. i held those mugs so gently, placed them so lightly on the wooden nightstand. like chamomile and rose petals steeped for hours, i stained myself with memories. of you, of driving in the middle of the night, of reaching for the moonlight even when it disappeared behind the dense clouds. i let you have my leather jacket. i stuffed notes in the pockets and waited for you to unfurl them like roses, yet you never sent a reply. i tell these stories to your ghost: the days when you were away, when the shadows came too quickly, when time and mugs fell from my hands as if i was made of feathers.