Adventure Bookshelf: Just Kids

Though the word is often overused, it isn't often that you come across a book that genuinely transports you. Some books provide excitement or escape, but few have that certain magic that makes you feel every word on every page. Just Kids by Patti Smith is one of those magical books.

After I finished Just Kids, I wrote one short sentence in my book journal: Beautiful. That was the only way I could think to describe what I'd just read. The book is essentially the lifelong love story of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe and is written like poetry. It was the sixties, of course, a romantic decade in itself. What earns Just Kids a place on the Adventure Bookshelf is that Patti and Robert lived a life of adventure in its most raw state. They spent their days painting and reading and starving. They roamed the streets of New York,  lived in the Chelsea Hotel, and dined with Andy Warhol. Their lives were pure art.