Books & Poems Recommended by Gracie Abrams
Here are the books and poems recommended by 24-year-old American singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams.
Gracie Abrams has made a name for herself in the music industry. Despite being born into fame, her album Good Riddance has done exceptionally well. After touring with pop star Taylor Swift as the opening act for her Eras Tour, Abrams will be going on a tour of her own to Europe in the fall.
As today is Abrams’s birthday (plus I have such a deep adoration for this girl), I took a deep dive into her social media profiles and feature articles to find all the books she’s recommended or posted about.
These are the seven books recommended by Gracie Abrams.
1. Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation by Roger Housden
In an interview with Refinery29, Abrams says that this poetry book is "bringing her joy". Abrams explains:
There's this collection of poems called Risking Everything— that is my favourite book in the world. It's just the most heartbreaking and striking poetry from different poets and I bring it with me everywhere; every flight I'm on I read it again and again, and I find something new every time. I could not recommend it more. Even if you're not into poetry. I truly do believe that if you spend 10 minutes with this book, it will change your mind about that.
Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Revelation brings together great poets from around the world whose work transcends culture and time. Their words reach past the outer divisions to the universal currents of love and revelation that move and inspire us all. These poems urge us to wake up and love. They also call on us to relinquish our grip on ideas and opinions that confine us and, instead, to risk moving forward into the life that is truly ours.
In his selection, Roger Housden has placed strong emphasis on contemporary voices such as the American poet laureate Billy Collins and the Nobel Prize–winners Czeslaw Milosz and Seamus Heaney, but the collection also includes some timeless echoes of the past in the form of work by masters such as Goethe, Wordsworth, and Emily Dickinson.
The tens of thousands of readers of Roger Housden’s Ten Poems series will welcome this beautiful harvest of poems that both open the mind and heal the heart.
2. The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
In 2017, Abrams tells Highlark that the last book she read was The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf.
I highly recommend it if you wanna wake up a little.
The Beauty Myth is a bestselling classic that redefined people's views of the relationship between beauty and female identity. In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It's the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty."
3. Still Possible by David Whyte
In a Tumblr post, Abrams posted a photo of a David Whyte book.
The poems in Still Possible pay homage to the invisible passage of time—the deep, private current that wends through our lives as a steadfast companion, sculpting our interior worlds as inexorably and exquisitely as its visible manifestations. Whyte turns his eye, and his pen, to the possibilities and harvests this shaping reveals: the shyness and vulnerability of love, the illusion of imperfections, and the new invitations that beckon along the way.
The poems reflect an abiding faith in time's wisdom: a journey turned away from in youth waits patiently for later maturity; an early experience ripens in secret to reveal, decades later, a full understanding. Under Whyte's poet-philosopher gaze, a rain-soaked in an Irish farmhouse becomes a meditation on the essence of a truly good day: a settled contentment, alert and open to whatever may call. Plus sheep, Seamus Heaney and a dog.
Powerful language rests on a foundation of what isn't said, a silence underpinning the eloquence of articulation. In this way, Still Possible hovers above the numinous and the unknowable—what we pray for, what we pass on, what mystery awaits and, in the end, what it might mean to be happy.
4. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
In another Tumblr post, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry sits atop a stack of books.
A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper... And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.
5. My Neighbour Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki
In the same photo with The Little Prince, you can see a glimpse of My Neighbour Totoro at the bottom of the stack of books on the right.
Eleven-year-old Satsuki and her sassy little sister Mei have moved to the country to be closer to their ailing mother. Soon, in the woods behind their spooky old house, Satsuki and Mei discover a forest spirit named Totoro. When Mei goes missing, it’s up to Satsuki to find her sister, and she’ll need help from some new, and magical, friends.
This beloved animation classic by legendary Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki, has been transformed into a novel.
6. The House of Belonging by David Whyte
Abrams posted a quote from Sweet Darkness on her Instagram profile. The quote comes from the book, The House of Belonging by David Whyte.
In this book, poet David Whyte turns his attention to the deepest longing of human beings—the desire to belong to people and places and the many ways of experiencing a sense of home.
The House of Belonging has sold over 50,000 copies and contains some of his most beloved poems, such as The Truelove, The Journey, and Sweet Darkness. The deeply moving title poem reads as balm and benediction to wherever one finds one's home in the world, and taken together, the collection illuminates the myriad ways we belong—to others, to ourselves, and to the world.
7. Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
Abrams posted another quote on Instagram, this time about Wild Geese by Mary Oliver.
An anthology, this book's title poem, Wild Geese, opened Staying Alive.
Mary Oliver is one of America's best-loved poets. Her luminous poetry celebrates nature and beauty, love and the spirit, silence and wonder, extending the visionary American tradition of Whitman, Emerson, Frost and Emily Dickinson.
The winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, she has lived for many years on Cape Cod. Her extraordinary poetry is nourished by her intimate knowledge and minute daily observation of the New England coast, its woods and ponds, its birds and animals, plants and trees.
Mary Oliver is hugely popular in the States, where her many books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. These include four recent collections published in Britain by Bloodaxe Books. Wild Geese is a selection of her best-known poems, including the title-poem and The Journey.
8. How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
There's a paragraph from How to be an Antiracist on Abram's Instagram page.
Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism re-energizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America—but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. In How to be an Antiracist, Kendi asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.
In this book, Kendi weaves together an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism. How to be an Antiracist is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.
Besides these specific book recommendations, Abrams has also posted a number of photos of her favourite poems across Instagram and Tumblr.
Poems recommended by Gracie Abrams
Abrams has also mentioned that she is a huge fan of Kate Baer and Mary Oliver. I think it's safe to assume that she'd enjoy majority of the works written by these two women as well.
It’s evident from her recommendations that she loves poetry and I think it shows in her songwriting. Her lyrics are poetic and rhythmic, often expressing deep emotions I couldn’t even fathom, let alone put into words.
Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of poetry books but I'd be open to give it a try someday. If you've read any of the books she's recommended or posted about, let me know what you think about it in the comments.
Happy birthday to this sweet girl. I cannot wait to see what she puts out in the future. Gracie Abrams and her music is a gift to us all.
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