Books that fit the theme of “Milestones”

December 19, 2021 6:18 AM

My partner and I are celebrating 10 years of bookclub with the theme of “Milestones.” We agreed it can be really loosely tied to that theme. I need 6 books.

I’ve thought of:
You Should See me in a Crown (Prom as a milestone)
And I have some ideas for other milestones but need suggestions:
- home ownership —- I was thinking of a mystery/horror book about moving into a new house
- parenthood — humor books, please!
- death/dying — non-fiction?
- a book about a milestone for the world or the US? Maybe even sci-fi about the future/a future milestone?
- a book having its own milestone (written 100 years ago?)
- a REALLY good romance or a sci-fi book about getting married

I am good at researching books that fit these ideas, so what I am looking for is your personal recommendation for a book that fit these themes that YOU think was stellar.

Thank you! I’d also welcome your suggestions about books related to other milestones.

posted by CMcG to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

How to Lose Everything by Christa Couture is a memoir that deals with death and loss.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:38 AM on December 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Mysterious and horrible home ownership: Broken Harbor by Tana French
Nonfiction about death: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
posted by eponym at 6:47 AM on December 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

A honeymoon trip to Italy
posted by perhapses at 10:13 AM on December 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom.
posted by serendipityrules at 11:00 AM on December 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've recced this book many times: A Match to the Heart by Gretel Erlich. It's about her experience being struck by lightning and nearly dying, and how she returned to the land of the living.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:30 PM on December 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

The Grip of It by Jac Jemc (name, remarkably, spelled correctly) is about people moving into a new house and it’s really pretty scary.
posted by scratch at 2:08 PM on December 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

I liked Atul Gawande's Being Mortal.
I have other suggestions that don't quite match up what you're asking for -- my favorite book about a wedding is YA humor, but I do recommend Save the Date by Morgan Matson. Or parenthood, if you want romance I'd recommend All the Better Part of Me by Molly Ringle, or of you'd prefer sci-fi, then the Saga graphic novels.
Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery came out in 1921. It's about WWI, so not the most cheerful, but most of what was written right then would be in reaction to the first world war, so maybe that's what you will find in general. You could also look at 1821 and see if there's anything there that grabs you.
You might also consider graduation as a milestone (even if right now I can only think of Booksmart and you want books, not movies with "book" in the title).
posted by blueberry monster at 5:51 PM on December 19, 2021

Oh right, so if you do want a book about a graduation, my daughter reminded me that a great fantasy book is The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. It's book 2 in a series but keeps up the great world building, does even more with it, and really does manage to have major themes through the whole book about graduation (especially about what that means in this world).
posted by blueberry monster at 6:39 PM on December 19, 2021

Feersum Endjinn in which the whole (rest of the) human race gets to survive the most cataclysmic event its planet will certainly encounter, and live on. And it's fun to read.
posted by labberdasher at 11:38 AM on December 20, 2021

One of my all-time favorite books is Eudora Welty's Delta Wedding. Another one of my favorites is Annie Dillard's The Living, which is about death as much as it is about life.
posted by Redstart at 11:47 PM on December 20, 2021