After seventeen years, roughly, of loving books and fifteen being able to read them, I have read books that inspire the mind and bewitch the senses (thanks, Professor Snape) or make me want to keel over with boredom. But there are some that make me feel things, think things, believe I am more than a sack of meat on a marble planet slung around the Sun at incredible velocities.
1. Slaughterhouse-five: Kurt Vonnegut
It's kind of funny, kind of sad, and definitely makes you think about love, loss, war, and death. It's partly inspired by Vonngeut's own experience through war, and there's some lines it's impossible not to love. So it goes.
2. The Night Circus: Erin Morgenstern
This may be a lame YA novel, but it's super well-written. And it's really not that lame. It goes through thoughts and dreamscapes and love and betrayal. There's romance, but it's not obnoxious or cheesy. It works with magical realism in a way that makes it feel as if it's part of our world, but also in a liminal space just a little beyond.
3. The Omnivore's Dilemma: Michael Pollan
I am good at about four things and eating is one of them. I feel that being able to realize where food is coming from and how it got there is essential: animal cruelty in feed lots, deplorable working conditions for quinoa farmers, and everything along those lines. This is real and it affects everyone.
4. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings: Maya Angelou
A great void was created when Maya Angelou left this earth. One beautiful work of art she left behind is this book: poignant and haunting, brilliantly written, this autobiographical look of a black woman's life in the South is unforgiving and incredible.
5. To Kill A Mockingbird: Harper Lee
I know this was on everyone's 10th grade required reading list, but there's a reason. There's no other book that tackles situations of injustice and racism quite like this book, written in the '60s and set in the '30s. It also remarks upon innocence and family, neighborhoods and relationships.
6. His Dark Materials: Philip Pullman
My brother bought this book when he was about eight because he liked the cover of The Subtle Knife, a book in the series. We were probably too young to get it, but the His Dark Materials series will make you think about religion and its hold over society. Whether or not that's a good thing is generally up for debate.
7. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
A man with a troubled life who worked to help a lot of disenfranchised people definitely has a story to tell, and as it was recorded by a journalist (while somewhat dictated by Malcom X, it was published posthumously, so that also gives the reader something to consider.)
8. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Jean-Dominique Bauby
Originally written in French, this story of a man whose life was changed forever by a massive stroke that made him effectively immobile everywhere but his left eye, which was the only way he had to communicate that his brain still functioned -- and how he wrote this book. His daughter sat by his side and he dictated through eye-blinks. The book itself is about the moments between life and death, how to embrace moments when they happen and not get caught up in small things.
9. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: Mark Haddon
This book has a lot about mental illness, as it's told from the perspective of a low-IQ boy. He navigates his parents' relationship to each other, to him, and his place in the world around him. All of this takes place after finding a dog stabbed in the backyard.
10. The Alchemist: Pablo Coelho
Beautifully written and easy to digest, this book is about doing what's best for you and what you need to do even if it doesn't seem like the right path to take. It's a small book that packs a heavy punch.
11. The Book Thief: Marcus Zuzak
When a book starts off in Death's voice, you know something's going to go down. And it sure does, but it's written in an overwhelmingly beautiful, lyrical voice that makes even the horrible subject matter -- life in Germany before and during the Holocaust -- which makes it bearable. It will make you think about life, about death, love, innocence, and the importance of words. It will also make you cry.
12. A Grief Observed: C. S. Lewis
Death and grief are centerpiece human emotions. They are part of us, wherever we go; we will all lose people we love, we will always miss them. This book explores that grief. There is nothing too sacred for Lewis to write through, as he lost his beloved wife before writing this book. It is painful, it is raw, and it is beautiful.
