Happy Tuesday, book friends! It’s Blogtober 25th, and I’m back with another Top 5 Tuesday post. Top 5 Tuesday is a weekly meme created by Bionic Bookworm, now hosted by Meeghan Reads. If you’re interested in participating, check out their blog to get the details and the prompts for each week.

This week’s prompt is “most quotable books,” rounding out this month’s theme of book quotes. Like I’ve mentioned in previous weeks, I don’t have a consistent system for collecting quotes, so it’s hard to say which books have the most little brackets around certain lines. But, I can list off the books I reach for when I’m looking for a quote!

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

This book was incredibly popular for a reason. It is deep and emotional and full of the sort of wisdom that acknowledges we’ll never have all the answers. Side note: one of the categories for this on Bookshop is “special interest: hikes/walks” which I find very funny, for some reason.

One of many quotes I love: “I’m a free spirit who never had the balls to be free.”

H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

This book. It is so raw and brilliant and full of knowing what it is to lose someone and lose yourself a bit in the unraveling of grief.

One of many quotes I love: “The archaeology of grief is not ordered. It is more like earth under a spade, turning up things you had forgotten. Surprising things come to light: not simply memories, but states of mind, emotions, older ways of seeing the world.”

Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

Mindy is hilarious, and I think people often overlook how sharp she is because they associate her with her character from The Office. But Mindy wrote some of those episodes, and she writes the heck out of an essay collection, too.

One of many quotes I love: “And the scary thing I have noticed is that some people really feel uncomfortable around women who don’t hate themselves. So that’s why you need to be a little bit brave.”

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life by Cheryl Strayed

This book is a collection of advice column responses, so of course there are some brilliant nuggets of wisdom in here.

One of many quotes I love: “Don’t surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn’t true anymore.”

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns by Mindy Kaling

See the above comments on Kaling’s work. Generally I think Why Not Me is a much stronger example of her writing chops, but I feel like I have to include this one because it contains the essay I selected for one of the readings at our wedding.

One of many quotes I love: “If I’m at a party where I’m not enjoying myself, I will put some cookies in my jacket pocket and leave without saying good-bye.” (I wish this could be me. I am very bad at leaving parties even long after I’m no longer enjoying them.)

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This list has been the same for a lot of my adulthood, since college, and I’m wondering if it’s because I stopped annotating so heavily once I wasn’t reading for the classroom. I think the switch to doing a lot of nonfiction on audio has made a difference there as well, since clearly I love to quote a good memoir.

Help me find some new books for my list! Which books on the shelf do you reach for when you’re looking for some wise words that will resonate?