Comprehensive recommendations for books you’ll never be assigned in class

The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls

A touching memoir that becomes so gripping toward the end it is difficult to put down (as cliché as that sounds). Walls published this in 2005, but the movie adaptation starring Jennifer Lawrence will hopefully hit theatres in 2016. This non-fiction work trails the life of Jeannette Walls and her family, from living together in impossibly poor conditions as near nomads, to moving out alone into a Park Avenue apartment as a journalist. She endures an alcoholic father, familial instability and overcomes the past through exposing the most traumatic and intimate moments of life in this compelling work.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) Mindy Kaling

A highly entertaining memoir written by the hilarious Mindy Kaling. The book has no concrete sequence like a typical autobiography, but instead highlights certain points and stories in her life that are sure to have any reader relating while laughing at the hilarious mishaps she has gotten herself into. A quick and funny read we would recommend to all Mindy Kaling and general comedy fans.

Love & Misadventure Lang Leav

A short read, tracing love from its passionate beginnings to the bitter end, leaving a hopeful message at the close of the book. Although the poems are telling one story in essence- they are different enough from one another that everyone can relate to at least one of the themes and moods Leav touches upon. The story is told through a series of very comprehensive poems that have an aesthetic quality to them. Leav’s whimsical and simple style is only a surface cover for the intricate and complex messages hidden beneath.

Sum David Eagleman

What happens when an author and neuroscientist ponders about the afterlife? A surprising slew of imaginative vignettes about the endless options of what happens after death. An enlightening and quick read, philosophy and religion is questioned and explored through radically novel scenarios. In the afterlife, you may find that you’re stuck in a purgatory with people who are trapped until the final person on earth who knows of their existence dies (sorry Shakespeare). Or, you may find yourself split into different ages where you must live with potential versions of yourself. Either way, the book is captivating for any reader, no matter what you believe in.

Us Conductors Sean Michaels

A longer novel by Giller-prize winning Sean Michaels, it traces the life of Lev Termen- the creator of the theremin. It takes place in Soviet Russia and elite New York in the 1920s as well as a brutal concentration camp. It encapsulates life from the most decadent to brutal moments with a love story running in the background through the entire novel. It is based loosely on truth, but is a wild exploration of life through this award-winning author’s imagination.

Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys writes in response to the colonial Jane Eyre, which famously exists as a canon feminist text for many young and old women alike. This is exactly why Wide Sargasso Sea is such a vital text for our present moment; it is crucial for anyone interested in feminist and/or post-colonial studies to read. The main character Annette is written as a response to Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre. Bertha Mason is written as a savage “lunatic” wife hidden in her husband’s attic. Rhys gives her a voice and a history- one of crucial importance to unpacking the colonial violence Bronte performs by writing Jane Eyre. To much regret, it is a short novel but the prose is powerful and the context much more so.

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