Stay Calm and Tell Stories: A Reading List for Self-Isolation

It’s official: all of New Zealand is in lockdown. I was at work on Monday, though the library itself was closed to customers, and that night Jacinda Ardern announced that all non-essential businesses and public venues would be closed for the next four weeks (today and tomorrow will be the grace period for people to start shutting things down).

The good news is that I was prepared for it: my father’s cousin is a doctor who warned him that this was a) serious and b) something that would last for a while, so that message was passed onto me about a week ago. The panic-buying has officially started, but I’m well-stocked. On the whole everyone is pretty calm: the government put a plan in place and has been following it for a while now; the local news stations have been wonderfully informative and Jacinda herself projects a sense of calm and competency.

I’ve no doubt there’ll be a few wankers who will make things difficult (despite all the warning signs, some people just didn’t bother to prepare) but on the whole the general feel is that we’re in control and nipping this thing in the bud. The number of cases is now over one hundred, but people are recovering and there have been no deaths so far.

So what to do when you’re in self-isolation? I’ve always got a pile of books to read and shows to watch, but I think it’s important to choice your material wisely. Don’t for example, watch HBO’s Chernobyl. Seriously, that would be a really stupid idea. Not something that I would ever do. No way.  

Be smart, and choose something from my recommendations: eleven chill, spiritual, life-affirming stories to read/watch while in self-isolation:

Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

A witch in training goes to a seaside village and opens up a delivery service - that's it, that's the plot. It's so gentle, and the story just invites you to tag along with this cute little girl as she flies her broomstick around the place and gradually grows in self-confidence.

The Secret Garden (1993)

It's starts as a Gothic mystery and ends as a fairy tale – that’s the dream combination, guys. All set in an English manor house and extensive grounds, with beautiful cinematography and great child actors. Also, Maggie Smith.

Song of the Sea (2014)

This is the one I've been nagging you all to watch every time I post a gif-set from it. Not to overhype it or anything, but it's the perfect movie. Every character arc, every plot beat, every theme and motif plays out at exactly the right pace and in precisely the right way. Plus the animation is STUNNING.

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Produced by Laika so you know it’s good, this is a feast for the eyes and based on Japanese mythology and culture. A young boy wielding a magical shamisen, whose eye was mysterious stolen in his infancy, is now accompanied by a talking snow monkey on a quest to save his mother. Beautiful soundtrack, gorgeous visuals.

Moana (2016)

The best of the recent Disney films, it's big and beautiful but also has enough quiet moments to do the main character's spiritual arc justice. You've probably already seen it, but consider the chance to see: "I have crossed the horizon to find yooooooou..." again.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005 - 2008)

I know you've already seen this, but now's the time for an uninterrupted rewatch. The animation, the mythos, the spirit world, the character growth, the world's greatest redemption arc... There's also a ton of graphic novels that continue post-show.

She Ra (2018 - )

A bunch of princesses in pastel outfits use their considerable sparkly power to defeat bad guys on a beautifully rendered moon. It's amazing, and the whole thing has a strange, dreamy, future-tech quality that's oddly calming.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making by Catheryne Valente

Valente's imagination is a force of nature, and I promise you've never read anything like this before. It will TRANSPORT you to a place that combines the familiar fairytale tropes with wyverns and talking lanterns and green winds and herds of bicycles and girls made of soap. It’s Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan and Narnia and post-modernism and myth-punk rolled into one. And the best part is, there are four more books and a prequel short-story to keep you fed.

The Darkangel by Meredith Anne Pierce

If you know me you know I HATE "dark male gets redeemed by good, pure, kind female" stories... with ONE exception, and that's this book. It’s because the redemption is hard-won and the heroine’s life doesn’t revolve around his recuperation (there are other mitigating factors as well) but more to the point, this is a Beauty and the Beast tale that makes their story part of a much bigger good versus evil plot.

Winter Rose by Patricia McKillip

You could choose any book by this author and disappear into her poetic-prose, but this one is best suited for this particular list. It's basically a retelling of the Tam Lin story, in which two sisters fall in love with a stranger who returns to reclaim his ancestral home, only for strange occurrences to follow in his wake. It’s strange and dreamy, told with dense prose and filled with symbolism, and carries an underlying message of self-awareness and recovery.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Our narrator returns to his home for a funeral and recalls scenes from his childhood, in which the three strange women living at Hempstock assisted him in the fight against a malevolent enemy. He captures what it was like to be a child – the wonder as well as the powerlessness, and how you deal with problems both mundane and supernatural, with plenty of his usual borrowing from fairytale traditions. (Classic Gaiman, basically).