Girl, Woman, Other: A Novel, by Bernardine Evaristo.
I adored this book. After 6 years, I finally felt the pull to read it. And not for nothing, but the idea that a book could travel with me for six years—to different cities and apartments and through various relationships and loves—and that it finally, this year, felt like something I could learn from gives me so much optimism. I’m not really sure what I’m optimistic for, but it gives me a lot of hope and a lot of sustained faith in the knowledge that nothing is immutable. The same things can give different lessons if you’re open to it. This lesson could’ve been present in the book but I read it several books ago so I’m a little foggy on what I learned. What I remember is the writing, the stories of the characters, the love that rooted their relationships even when circumstances changed, and the idea that you’ll never outgrow your dreams if you keep working towards them.