rhapsody (n.): a single-movement work that is episodic, free-flowing in structure, and features a range of highly contrasting moods.
To truly know someone is to know what books they love. To know a community is to know the culmination of books that impacted its members.
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
- “The book unpacks and uncovers essential questions about morality, justice, good & evil, privilege, jealousy, hatred, compassion, socio-economic status, poverty, wealth, legal systems, empathy, and grace. All this is the political and social upheaval of the 1820s in France. I guess the main reason I value this book so much is the central relationship between Jean Valjean and Javert. Can a person’s mistake (Valjean) be redeemed in the eyes of the law (Javert)? If we believe redemption to be possible, what does that mean for how we think about systems of justice? This begs other questions about fate and free will.”
- “I think that everyone should read one of two things. Either more about space, just because if you read nonfiction books about space they kinda help you zoom out in the world—I mean literally zoom out—but also realize that your problems are so small and [the] concern you have is so small and it’s kinda therapeutic to think about a bigger picture.”
- 1984 by George Orwell
- “It says a lot about society and what humans can do to other humans to keep power and control.”
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- (W): “The Hate U Give helps you understand things that are happening right now that people need to understand and learn from.”
- (X): “And it’s not only impactful for Black people. I feel like the message can resonate with all groups of people.”
- (X): “It was such a crazy experience reading that book. Like, seeing stuff that I’ve sort of experienced in a book, I was like Wow, this is crazy. It was very impactful.”
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- “It’s a really empowering story and it touches on something everyone can relate to even if they don’t relate to the main character directly.”
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- “The most well-written book I’ve ever read.”
- The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer
- Dear Medusa by Olivia A. Cole
- “One of the most…vivid books about dealing with trauma and a whole bunch of different topics that I think was a really beautiful read and I think more people should read it.”
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- Upstream by Mary Oliver
- “It’s really beautifully written because prose written by poets is just amazing. It really focuses on and helps you appreciate the natural world and draws lessons from it. It also offers a really cool perspective on the creative process. And you will cry when the spiders die.”
- Land of Stories by Chris Colfer
- “That really got me into reading. Every day, it was like fourth grade, I would come out of the car with a book in my hand just reading Land of Stories. And, like, that was what got me into adventure stories. That was my series. I love that series.”
- “I think everyone should read—I’m a big fan of biographies and, if you can, autobiographies because I think… I don’t know. I think it shows us…I probably read one biography a year, and I think it just shows us you never really know anybody’s story. One of the longest I’ve read recently was Ellen Berestin’s. The one I read before that was Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. Phenomenal. And, again, you see him and he’s so light, and airy, and so able to throw things off and intelligent and well-spoken and you read his story and you’re like Holy shit how is he able to do that. Or to become this person with so much stacked in his way every turn. So, I think—I love biographies. I really do. So I think everyone should read those.”
- Bridge to Terabithia
- Caste by Isabel Winkerson
- “Try at least one Shakespeare because you might like it. Because he was good. He was actually good, believe it or not.”
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio
- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Midnight Library
- “I like ‘life’ books where it gives me a greater perspective.”
- Citizen by Claudia Raeken
- The Hate U Give
- “Probably some really cool autobiography that will give you perspective on the world.”
- Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut
- “Reading is sometimes so boring. When you’re forced to do it, it’s really boring. But when you wanna read on your own it’s like, oh, this is like a cool little movie I can watch in my head.”
- The Magic Tree House series
- Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
- “When I was a kid I used to have a medical journal and I used to read every single page of the medical journal. And it was like before WebMD but just to have a basic understanding of first aid…I think that’s probably good for everyone…That was the beginnings of me becoming a little bit of a hypochondriac…But I think it’s important for adults or young adults to know the basics.”
- Frankenstein
- Pride and Prejudice
- Divergent
- Brave New World
- “It gives a really interesting outlook on the future and censorship and different ways of living.”
- Illusions by Richard Bach
- The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey
- “It tells you the mental way through sports.”
- Brief Questions and Big Answers by Stephen Hawking
- The Bible
- (L): “What is a book you think everyone should read?”
- (T): “Without religious context, probably The Bible.”
- Harbor Me
- “It’s one of the best books that I believe people should read because it has so many perspectives and experiences.”
- Please Look After Mom
- Norwegian Wood
- “I’ll meet you halfway. Everyone should read at least one novel by Toni Morrison. Everybody should read at least three different Shakespeare plays, one that’s a tragedy, one that’s a comedy, and one that’s a history. And everybody should probably read The Sneetches.”
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- (L.F.): “I think it’s a type of book that’s not normally read…it’s not written normally…you know, by most people in the world.”
- (L): “So it’s very unique.”
- (L.F.): “Yeah, yeah, it’s a unique book.”
- The Handmaid’s Tale
- Harry Potter series
- The Hate U Give or
- The Secret Life of Bees
- Convenient Store Woman
- The Giving Tree
- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
- “I recently read a book called Anxious People that had a lot of really good lessons about empathy and just…being a very good person.”
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
- “Les Misérables would be up there for me for one of the best books ever in terms of what it evokes and the story’s such a really special story. I feel like it touched me a lot and made me think about things that I hadn’t thought about before.”
- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- “For select people The Brothers Karamazov would be great.”
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- “It’s gonna sound odd because it’s against what I believe, but The Fountainhead I think is a right of passage for a lot of teenagers who are intellectual, thoughtful. It’s a very selfish philosophy that Ayn Rand proposes, but I think it’s a progression for…if you’re an intellectual young person, I think that’s a progression you have to go through. This very egotistical, it’s about me, but then you can get away from that. And once you realize yeah, that’s a really messed-up philosophy that she’s proposing, of such selfishness and such arrogance about some people are better than others, I think it’s helpful to see that.”
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
- “It’s a different perspective. I think it’s a light read but it talks about some in depth things. It’s a well-written book and I really enjoyed it, and you can hear his voice while reading it. For me, it’s about perspective meets comedy and it’s one of the best autobiographies I’ve ever read.”
- Percy Jackson books
- “I feel like they’re still very relevant. I think Rick Riordan is an author who’s gotten better over the years instead of worse. And he’s been involved in controversy, but he’s trying to make his books more diverse, which I think is the best way he could have gone with it.”
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio
- Holes by Louis Sachar
- The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
- Spy School by Stuart Gibbs
- “Those books meant so much to me. It was challenging for me when I was younger, but it kind of helped me get more vocabulary.”
- Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- “It tells so much in a short amount of pages. It’s very sad.”
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- (M): “It was so sad but…it was…I don’t know. I really liked it.”
- (L): “The way it talks about mental health is so different from some other books about similar topics that I’ve read. And it’s written brilliantly.”
- (M): “And it was real! It really felt like it was really from the perspective of a teenage boy, whereas I feel like a lot of other books that are from the perspective of a teenager, you can tell it’s written by an adult.”
- (L): “It was really honest.”
- (M): “It was honest. And I like when books are honest.”
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- “It’s about the importance of building small habits. I think that would help a lot of people.”
- The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- “It’s a classic, and it sparks so much joy.”
- Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
- “First book I’ve ever read that talks about the Asian experience, and it was pretty impactful.”
- American history books
- (J): “History books, American history, something like that.”
- (T): “I’m gonna agree with you, J–. That would probably be the best just to see how things have evolved, how things have changed. History, any type of history.”
- The Outsiders by S.E. Hilton
- Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- (M): “It reminds me of my own life. A lot of the things reminded me of my own immigrant mother. Even if they were really small trivial things. The amount of times I remember writing in the margins, Oh, my mom, oh my mom, my mom, my mom. And I think that’s really cool. I like being able to relate to things.”
- (L): “I think it’s really important that the MKA curriculum has books that people who aren’t white, male, heterosexual can relate to. I think that’s really important. And you guys are reading it for English? So that’s awesome that you have a connection to that book in that way.”
- Flowers for Algernon
- “I feel like it made me realize how much I like people and humanity and social things, and how they tie into things biologically.”
- Refugee by Alan Gratz
- “It was challenging for the age I read it at, but I still remember it to this day so obviously it left an impact. It really broadens your view of the world, because you get a better understanding of what other people have had to go through throughout their lives.”
- The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
- “It’s an in-depth history of the United States regarding enslaved peoples. And the author is incredible. She included poems and photographs that went with each chapter.”
- Hayao Miyazaki’s Memoir Series
- “I think it’s always good to hear about other people’s processes, especially if you’re going into that field.”
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- “I think everyone should read The Diary of Anne Frank because the loss of her wonderful mind and spirit are emblematic of the results of racism and hatred.”
- The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul
- “It turned me on to a way of thinking about the brain that has driven me to consider education and how I run this building differently ever since. The more people around here who read it, I believe, the better our school will become.”
- The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
- Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
- “I’m a womanist/black intersectional feminist to my core, and this book changed my life. Reading it was one of my first experiences of being seen and felt in a text. I could see myself in her words and understood the possibilities of my expansion. It propelled me out of the isolation of my own mind. I knew community through her words.”
- The World According to Mister Rogers by Fred Rogers
- “I find this book to be the well to drink from when I don’t know how to answer a question.”
- How Holocausts Happen by Douglas V. Porpora
- You’ll never look at your responsibility in the world the same way.”
- The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- “That hit me the hardest”
- Home Body by Rupi Kaur
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- Home Body by Rupi Kaur
- Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
- “It’s a really clever book in terms of the way it’s written. I think all of the characters are really unique and written really well. And, also, it’s a children’s book that doesn’t talk down to its audience.”
- A Book That Has Not Been Written Yet
- Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- The Kingdom by Jess Rothenberg
- “I think reading kid books every once in a while when you’re an adult are really good. Thelma the Unicorn is G— and mine’s favorite book and I really love it. And I think the message is more for teenagers and like social media and trying to be who everybody else thinks you should be or look like they look in their pictures and then you do that and you realize it actually isn’t who you are or what you wanna be or isn’t how it looks like it is. So yeah, I think people should go back and read kids’ books as an adult.”
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Shy by Max Porter
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