Let me be honest with you all for a second, the last two times I read a book, like seriously read, were in my English literature class three years ago and when I finished “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows” on an airplane. Most of us don’t read unless it’s for school, or read enough when we should; even when we know that reading makes you smarter. Instead, we fry our brain cells —which I’m hoping isn’t a real thing — with television, movies, “crap” music according to our parents, our cell phones, and social media. As such, I’m looking to get into reading again. Here are the top six books that I am excited to read. If you want to join along with me, you can pick some from my own list that sounds interesting to you, or you can make your own list.
6. “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari.
“100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance?” This is is the main question Harari asks in this book. He examines this through three lenses, which are revolutions: Cognitive, the Agricultural, and the Scientific. I’ve heard that Dr. Harari has made some controversial claims, such as that the Agricultural Revolution did more harm than good. However, considering its bestseller status and what I’ve heard, that it’s readable and interesting, this might be a good way of getting back into reading again (and getting smarter. Did I mention getting smart?)
5. “Go Set a Watchman” by Harper Lee.
Oh, sequels. Let’s talk about them, because I feel that a lot of good and a lot of bad can come out of them. The good is that it continues off where a story we loved before finished. Then let’s talk about the bad. The bad is that it may not live up to our expectations or it may seem completely unrelated to the plot of the first one. So, between “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and between “Go Set a Watchman”, which one do you think I am going to read? If you said “Go Set a Watchman”, 50 points to you! Since I heard that “Cursed Child” doesn’t live up to the Harry Potter series, I refuse to spend my money on it. So, I’m going to take a gamble with “Go Set a Watchman”, a very serious gamble indeed, as “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a book which I consider life-changing.
4. “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and other Short Stories” by Oscar Wilde.
This one combines two things I love (well, maybe three.) Oscar Wilde was one of the only authors I used to actually do my assigned readings for in high school. When I see his name, there is no fear of going wrong. I am sure that it will be a book I enjoy. I also like mysteries ( just look at the number of Agatha Christie movies in my home’s DVD cabinet) and anything that will make me laugh (which you will also see in said cabinet.) This book is all three. When Lord Arthur Savile has the lines of his hands read by a palm reader at a party, he takes the reading seriously and decides to start killing his family members. Here, Wilde was making fun of mysteries and a form of literature that was popular at the time called the Gothic.
3. “Beauty Queens” by Libba Bray
When I had to read “Lord of the Flies” in high school, I didn’t like it very much. It was too boyish, and not in the boys going on adventures, Huck and Jim riding on a boat kind-of-way, more in an aggressive, boys killing each other kind-of-way. “Lord of the Flies” was also serious and my teacher made no secret of that fact by asking us all a lot of philosophical questions. Well, “Beauty Queens” is the opposite of that. A plane full of Beauty Pageant contestants falls on a sandy beach, and they try to survive based on who is the most beautiful. If “Beauty Queens” is at all the way it sounds, it would be light-hearted and funny, which would make up for what I didn’t like about "LOTF"
2. “Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson.
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This talks about the author’s experiences growing up in the South, and how those experiences led to who she is today. I just remember coming across a few of this author’s books in the library some time ago, and they were touching. Woodson has a tendency in her fiction to make her characters so real they jump off the page and stick with you forever because a lot of them are based on people that she knew. Wanting to know more about this woman whom I admire so much as a writer is my motivation for wanting to read this book. Bonus, it won the National Book Award.
1. “Heartless” by Marissa Meyer.
I know what I said about sequels, but come on guys, this is a prequel! If you know me, you know that one of the things closest to my heart is “Alice in Wonderland”. When I was a kid and sick, someone gave me an Alice doll, and in high school I was cast as the White Rabbit in my high school’s production of “Alice in Wonderland”. So, I’ve always had a very close connection to wonderland. But “Heartless” takes an unusual character’s point of view, the view of the Queen of Hearts. The Queen of Hearts in Meyer’s version was so harmless, she just wanted to open a bakery shop in misogynistic Wonderland. I know what I said about sequels, but come on guys, this is a prequel!
