Five (More) Books to Rock Your World

I’m back (and better than ever) with five more beautiful books that will absolutely rock your world: there’s a reason it’s called LITerature. That said, let’s take a dive inside my world.

1) The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. A coming-of-age novel grappling with the problems of becoming a woman, specifically in an impoverished Latin neighborhood. It grapples with the hard questions in a series of visceral vignettes: What is sexual assault? Who gets money? What is privilege? What does it mean to be a man/woman? What does it mean to grow up? Thought-provoking, poignant, and beautifully crafted, it does what all good literature should.

2) Wild Hundreds by Nate Marshall. A collection of poetry rooted in Chicago with a breakbeat style. The collection reads like a love song, filled with details ranging from food to violence to school, and explores the struggles someone faces growing up in the city. It rejects the tidiness of traditional poetry, and brings a whole new flavor to the poetic scene: you feel as if you are taking a journey in the shoes of the poet. One of my favorite collections of poetry to date.

3) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini . A novel that will bring you as much joy as pain. As much understanding as confusion: how can a world so beautiful be so simultaneously tragic? Set in both Afghanistan and the United States, the main character experiences violence, distrust, instability, and abuse. He must make, and live with, the repercussions of his decisions.

4) East, West by Salman Rushdie. A collection of short stories exploring the intimacy between the East and West. Although the stories are fictional, each serves to not only teach readers a lesson, but make them question the defining features of the East and West (the Orient and the Occident).

5) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. At surface level, this is a novel about Jacob Jankowski's time with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Jacob provides readers an inside look at the beauty, pain, and performance involved in the traveling show. The acts, filled with their glitz and glam, are a facade to the life of those who keep the shows running. Humorous, insightful, and engaging, it will surely be a book you can't put down.

Stay loving, stay kind.