We all know that you’re politely “forced” to read many books in college, especially if you’re in the Humanities, and sometimes they even end up being good!
Long Division by Keise Laymon – I would consider this the most impactful book I read during my undergraduate education. To call it a time travel novel is doing it a disservice, but time definitely gets a little weird throughout the book as you follow fourteen year old City Coldson and his bizarre and rich journey. It is steeped in the history of Black Americans and their experiences in various time periods while creating a layered and complex character journey that everyone should experience.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – Not for the faint of heart, this book is an undertaking. Tartt has a particularly meaty and wordy way of writing that not everyone will like, but those who do will live an entire lifetime within the pages of her novels. The Goldfinch in particular has a compelling story that begins with tragedy and a childish mistake, followed by the way one person’s life can fall into place and into pieces so easily as a result of those defining moments.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon – If you like comic books, you’ll love this. I read it before Stan Lee passed away, and I couldn’t help but imagine him in this book. It follows not only the adventures of a (made up for this novel) superhero, but of its creators, Kavalier and Clay, whose story is loosely based on the lives of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and many other early developers of superhero comics. The story-within-a-story aspect is a nice reprieve from the heaviness of the lives of the creators as they deal with censorship and religious prejudice. If you ever wondered what it was like working in comics in the Golden Age, this is the book for you!
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – Garcia Marquez helped to bring Latin stories to fame and also was a forerunner of the creation and popularization of the magical realism genre. His most famous work is this one and there’s no question as to why that is. It follows a family through seven generations and the creation of a magical city filled with mirrors and scientific discoveries. I don’t want to give too much away if you haven’t read it before. It’s a luscious book that deserves to be experienced with minimal spoilers.
Bluets by Maggie Nelson – My favorite poetry book I read during college. The format is unique and unlike anything I’d read before. And while the poems tackle normal, average, every-day thoughts and scenarios, they are poignant. There is a narrative here, if you look closely, though it is non-linear and filled with imagery. And yes, the color blue does make an appearance on more than just the cover.
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri – A short story collection and a great way to expand your reading experience if you feel stuck. Each story stands alone while also building together the experience of Indians and Indian Americans in the 1990s and earlier. If you’re looking for a book to try to break out into reading short stories or trying to read more non-white authors, I highly recommend starting here. The stories are impactful and the writing is poetic.
Vida by Patricia Engel – A series of short story snippets of one girl’s life, Vida follows Sabina, a Columbian-American as she struggles to find her place in a world where she does not feel like she fits in. As a debut novel, this is phenomenal work, painting a particularly lively world that, while not always fun and happy, feels real and lived in. Engel makes it easy to symphatize with and hard to forget Sabina.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – This well known novel still makes an impact to this day. It is a short book, easily digestible. But the moment you start to think about it, the deeper your mind can go. Rereading this throughout your life as you get older will bring out new meanings you missed when you were younger, creating a whole different perspective each time.
Dante’s Inferno – One of the most classic of classics, this epic poem is determined to stump you but also make you think. One man’s journey through the pits of Hell reads differently for each person. You will read it and probably get something completely different out of it than I did. Of course, I also was analyzing it academically at the time, but I feel like it’s a great thing to read and to think about your own mortality over a cup of coffee.
Erasure by Percival Emmett – This book follows a Black author, Monk Ellison, on his journey through life. It deals with writing and the publishing world, of course, but also has a strong focus on family, connections, hardships and growing older. Mixed together, they create a poignant story of anger, violence and familial love. Not a book you’d pick up for a quick read, but powerful enough that it’s worth taking the time to work through it.
Drown by Junto Diaz – With stories that stand on their own while also connecting and creating a whole spiderweb of a fictional world, this book is less of a collection and more of a journey. You can’t skip reading one of these stories or you’ll miss a chunk of the narrative as a whole and you don’t want to miss it. It’s raw and human in form, with sprinkles of hope among the heaviness of living.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf – Virginia Woolf’s most famous novel, this tale follows a woman during World War I throughout a single day of her life. However, the story weaves in past experiences throughout Mrs. Dalloway’s life to explore the character. While personally not my favorite out of Woolf’s work, it is definitely worth reading and is relatively easy to digest as you take on the mundane, human experience of living.
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields – Following one woman’s life as she explores herself and her family’s history, this novel is told through the eyes of Daisy as a fictional autobiography of a simple life. Its simplicity is what caught my attention, as many people can relate to living a mundane, average life. The story is rich with emotion as you follow Daisy from birth to death and the ups and downs of her life in between.
Life On Mars by Tracy Smith – Life on Mars is a poetry collection that appealed to my science fiction soul as well as having a hopeful, optimistic view of the future, a rarity in a lot of futuristic fiction in my opinion. As someone who does not frequently read poetry – it’s never the thing I reach for first when I’m browsing shelves – this collection has stuck with me for ten years.
-Reviews by Heaven, Local History Librarian
