- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nahisi Coates : This book is a written letter by the author to his teenage son about his feelings and realities of being black in the United States. Coates writes with a lot of emotion, and challenges the reader embrace his message.
- Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick: This book is an extraordinary view into North Korea in 2009, as portrayed through the lives of six ordinary citizens. There is nothing ordinary about these citizens lives.
- Hillbilly Elegy : A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance: This memoir talks about the Appalachian values of the authors upbringing, and how he feels it relates to the social problems of his hometown.
- Just Kids by Patti Smith: A memoir by Patti Smith, documenting her relationship with artist, Robert Mapplethorpe. A beautiful memoir about two kids devoted to their art and each other.
- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah: A story of two sisters in France, on the eve of WWII, and their struggle to survive. An absolutely heart wrenching tale of survival.
- The Fortunes by Peter Ho Davies: A novel telling four separate stories, dating from 1860 to present, inviting the reader to experience what it is like to be Chinese/American.
- Nutshell by Ian McEwan: A short novel best described as a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with the twist of Hamlet being an unborn child.
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders: A beautiful, sad and strangely told story about Abraham Lincoln’s visit to his deceased son’s mausoleum.
- Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast: A graphic novel memoir sharing the author’s humor and heartache in coping with being the sole caretaker of her aging parents.
- The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui: A graphic novel memoir tracing the author’s family journey from war-torn Vietnam to America, and their adjustment to American life.
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