The Virgin Suicides is extra special to me, even among the other titles on The Bookhive List. I remember really distinctly reading it on an 8th grade trip to Washington D.C., which is so completely random, but it was the best possible escape during loud bus rides. The novel came into my life when I was a very angsty teen, and that was enough of a reason to love it, but as an adult I moved to Grosse Pointe, where it takes place (although I'll clarify even though no one cares -- I live in the cooler, WASPier part of GP, not the part where Catholic girls gets sad and kill themselves and everything is a metaphor for white flight and mid-60s suburban culture and lost innocence). Now when the weather turns warm and the fish flies descend on every possible surface I start listening to the band Air again in the car and I usually pull out The Virgin Suicides for a little revisit. I never get tired of reading about my hometown, especially when the prose is so beautiful and the novel so incredibly structured. Obviously the best place to read it is poolside at the Little Club with a Bloody Mary in hand, but if that isn't possible it's acceptable to read it in a very green suburban park or in the rumpus room of a split-level ranch built in the 1950s.

The Bookhive List is a weekly recommendation of my all-time favorite, must-read books