1. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

"The Interesting" takes a group of friends from their adolescence in the Spirit-In-The-Pines camp to their last days on earth. Wolitzer beautifully intertwines the lives of five teenagers who have everything to hope for in their lives, and allows for them to take on this journey leaving that hope behind. She takes the classic New York City narrative and manipulates it into a heart-wrenching story of what it means to grow up, and not have your life be what you thought it would. The honest depiction of life that Wolitzer creates demands this necessary narrative as we embark in our life's work. How will we remember the nights sitting out on the dock, or in this case smoking weed in a tent, and how will we ensure that those promises we made to ourselves all those years ago are still the firm backbone that is holding us up?

2. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

In the wake of his terminal caner diagnosis Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon prepares his last lecture in his tenure. Pausch's lecture spans from the inception of his childhood dreams, to the hopes he has for his children's lives. The lecture is all about how we live our lives, and how we must grab hold of our childhood ambitions. Pausch's lecture takes a brutally honest look at the fleeting nature of our lives, and, essentially, if we are making a life worth living. He makes this case to college students, as he is singing his swan song at Carnegie Mellon. His message transcends his audience to make us all accountable for making sure the five year old we once were, would be proud of us.

3. Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates writes a letter to his son about being an African American man living in the social climate we do today. The letter's honesty about how it is to live in a country that your body is not safe in creates a narrative of empathy so few can relate to. That is the necessity of the book, however. Too often our entitled minds adopt the narrative of these novels, relating it to ourselves. Coates' letter to his son does not create that narrative, rather a call to action for something to be done in our communities. "Between the World and Me" should be more than required reading for college, but to be a positive member of society. Coates' message that the world is often not his own is the basis of the divide we must now strive to repair.

4. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Kaur's collection of poems about being a woman are broken up into four sections, each dealing with a different pain or a different healing process. "Milk and Honey" creates a raw narrative of what it is like to grow up as a woman, from destroyed parental relationships to sex to body image. You can feel the honesty and pain in her words sewn into each page, and as you read them you can leave some pain of your own. Kaur's poetry brings together women in a way that has never been done before, by revealing her story to us through her cutting words. Her work is transcendent of gender, and the necessity for men and gender-nonconforming people is there as well. It is a story of healing from pain inflicted upon by others, and we, too, can learn how to heal ourselves and others

5. Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling

Ok, maybe this one was more of a personal choice, but I believe that comedy transcends to a reality we can all believe in. Kaling writes her second memoir about how he life has developed into her kickass career, and how a simple question of "Why not me?" can make all of the difference. In her book she talks about her time as a orientation leader at Dartmouth, crying in a McDonald's parking lot after Emmy nominations, and plane rides with her longtime BFF B.J. Novak. Our lives come down to the question of "Why not me?". If we are to ask ourselves that question everyday, we may be in better search of our lifelong pursuits. Kaling's story is not unlike our own; the search to find ourselves in college, how our body can be our best and worst friends, and how if we work hard for what we want we may or may not get it. "Why Not Me?" allows for our life's goals to be not a lofty idea but a secure statement of how we want our time to be reflected.