I have a central reading list of a little over 510 books that I have been adding to and breaking down for almost a decade. Of that wrapping paper scroll of a list, I have randomly selected from a few categories to make my active reading list for the next 18 months. I am always looking to add more, so if you have any similar to the ones below, or just a book you love, don't hesitate to comment them, or you can add some of these to your own reading list if you so choose
TWs: some of these books do discuss some difficult themes such as death, violence, chronic or severe health conditions, various forms of maltreatment (mental, physical, and sexual), racism, and sexism. Please be aware of this before reading the summaries or the books themselves.
Where the Dead Sit Talking- Brandon Hobson
“Set in rural Oklahoma during the late 1980s, Where the Dead Sit Talking is a startling, authentically voiced, and lyrically written Native American coming-of-age story.
2. To the Lighthouse- Virginia Woolf
“The serene and maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the tragic yet absurd Mr. Ramsay, and their children and assorted guests are on holiday on the Isle of Skye. From the seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse, Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and women. As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph—the human capacity for change."
3. Thérèse Raquin- Émile Zola
“Set in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a dingy haberdasher's shop in the passage du Pont-Neuf in Paris, this powerful novel tells how the heroine and her lover, Laurent, kill her husband, Camille, but are subsequently haunted by visions of the dead man, and prevented from enjoying the fruits of their crime.”
4. The Well of Loneliness- Radclyffe Hall
“Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents—a fencer, a horse rider, and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer, and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.”
5. The Moon is A Harsh Mistress- Robert A. Heinlein
“It is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion of a former penal colony on the Moon against its masters on the Earth. It is a tale of a culture whose family structures are based on the presence of two men for every woman, leading to novel forms of marriage and family. It is the story of the disparate people, a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic who become the movement's leaders, and of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to the revolt's inner circle, who for reasons of his own is committed to the revolution's ultimate success.”
6. The Hunchback of Notre Dame- Victor Hugo
“Set in Paris during the 15th century. The story centers on Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral, his struggles with isolation and the treatment of a tyrannical guardian, Archdeacon Dom Claude Frollo, and his unrequited love for the beautiful dancer La Esmeralda.”
7. The Blood of Others- Simone de Beauvoir
“Jean Blomart, patriot leader against the German forces of occupation, waits throughout an endless night for his lover, Helene, to die. He is the one who sent her on the mission that led to her death, and before morning, he must ultimately decide how many others to send to a similar fate.”
8. The Beach Dogs- Andy Jennings
“Watership Down with dogs. A dramatic and stirring depiction of a community of dogs living on a beach in Thailand, told from the animals' viewpoint, in alternating chapters.”
9. Real Life- Brandon Taylor
“Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends—”
10. Peau d'Homme- Hubert et Zanzim
“Dans l'Italie de la Renaissance, Bianca, demoiselle de bonne famille, est en âge de se marier. Ses parents lui trouvent un fiancé à leur goût : Giovanni, un riche marchand, jeune et plaisant. Le mariage semble devoir se dérouler sous les meilleurs auspices même si Bianca ne peut cacher sa déception de devoir épouser un homme dont elle ignore tout. Mais c'était sans connaître le secret détenu et légué par les femmes de sa famille depuis des générations : une « peau d'homme » ! En la revêtant, Bianca devient Lorenzo et bénéficie de tous les attributs d'un jeune homme à la beauté stupéfiante.”
"In Renaissance Italy, Bianca, a young lady from a good family, is of marriageable age. Her parents find her a fiancé to their liking: Giovanni, a rich merchant, young and pleasant. The marriage seems to take place under the best auspices, even if Bianca cannot hide her disappointment at having to marry a man about whom she knows nothing. But this was without knowing the secret held and passed down by the women of his family for generations: a man’s skin! By wearing it, Bianca becomes Lorenzo and benefits from all the attributes of a young man of astonishing beauty."
11. Parable of the Sower- Octavia Butler
“In 2024, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future.
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.
When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed, and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.”
12. Northanger Abbey- Jane Austen
“The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy?”
13. Giovanni's Room- James Baldwin
“Set in the contemporary Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. James Baldwin's brilliant narrative delves into the mystery of loving with a sharp, probing imagination, and he creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the heart.”
14. Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines- Joseph Bruchac
After being taught in boarding school that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.
15. Baise-Moi- Virginie Despentes
“One of the most controversial French novels of recent years, a punk fantasy that takes female rage to its outer limits. Baise-Moi is a searing story of two women on a rampage that is part Thelma and Louise, part Viking conquest. Manu and Nadine have had all they can take.”
16. Il Decameron- Giovanni Boccaccio
“Dieci uomini e donne lasciano Firenze durante la Peste Nera. Rimangono in una villa per dieci giorni, durante i quali condividono un totale di cento storie per passare il tempo.”
Women in the Picture: What Culture Does With Female Bodies- Catherine McCormack
“Art historian Catherine McCormack challenges how culture teaches us to see and value women, their bodies, and their lives. Venus, maiden, wife, mother, monster―women have been bound so long by these restrictive roles, codified by patriarchal culture, that we scarcely see them. Catherine McCormack illuminates the assumptions behind these stereotypes, whether large or subtly hidden.”
2. Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction- Gary Wilson
“When high-speed internet became widely available a few years ago, growing numbers of people began to worry that their porn use was running out of control. Far from preparing them for fulfilling relationships, viewing an endless stream of porn videos led to unexpected symptoms. Gary Wilson has listened to the stories of those who have tried giving up internet porn and related them to an account of how the reward system of the brain interacts with its environment. And now a growing body of research in neuroscience is confirming what these pioneers have discovered for themselves – internet pornography can be seriously addictive and damaging."
3. Women, Race, and Class- Angela Y. Davis
"A powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. Davis shows how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of SA, reproductive freedom, housework, and child care."
4. Wolf Children and the Problem of Human Nature- Lucien Malson
“Malson carries one step further the assumption of behaviorists, structural functionalists, cultural anthropologists, and evolutionists that "human nature" is a constant. If the content of the analysis made by anthropologists is not affected by a "human nature" that lies outside of history, humanity to all effects and purposes, becomes its history. So-called wolf children are children abandoned at an early age and found leading an isolated existence. They are thus natural examples of complete social deprivation, and Malson explores their history in this study.”
5. Whipping Girl: A Transexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity - Julia Serano
“The powerful story of Julia Serano is that of a transsexual woman whose supremely intelligent writing reflects her diverse background as a lesbian, transgender activist, and professional biologist. Serano shares her experiences and observations—both pre- and post-transition—to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole. Serano's well-honed arguments stem from her ability to bridge the gap between the often disparate biological and social perspectives on gender. She exposes how deep-rooted the cultural belief is that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive and how this “feminine” weakness exists only to attract and appease male desire."
6. The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government- David K. Johnson
“In The Lavender Scare, historian David K. Johnson relates the frightening, untold story of how, during the Cold War, homosexuals were considered as dangerous a threat to national security as Communists. Republican charges that the Roosevelt and Truman administrations were havens for homosexuals proved a potent political weapon, sparking a Lavender Scare more vehement and long-lasting than the more well-known Red Scare.”
7. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee- David Treuer
“In The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes' distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. The devastating seizures of land gave rise to increasingly sophisticated legal and political maneuvering that put the lie to the myth that Indians don't know or care about property. The forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools incubated a unifying Native identity. Conscription in the US military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance.
8. Enduring Creation: Art, Pain, and Fortitude- Nigel Spivey
“Enduring Creation reveals the amazing power of art to console, to warn, to prepare the viewer for the harsher experiences of life, raising intriguing Can pain be beautiful? Do we always pity suffering? Are sainthood and sadomasochism linked? This compelling study concludes with a positive message of hope for the enduring human spirit.”
9. Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy- Heather Ann Thompson
“The first definitive account of the infamous 1971 Attica prison uprising, the state’s violent response, and the victims' decades-long quest for justice, including information never released to the public published to coincide with the forty-fifth anniversary of this historic event.”
10. A Male Grief: Notes and Essays- David Mura
“Through examining the relationship between child abuse, addictive family systems, and the adult male's consumption of pornography, this classic essay argues elegantly that this addiction to pornography is self-destructive, joyless, and unsatisfiable, a symptom of a consumer society rather than a natural urge.”
Until I Meet My Husband- Ryousuke Nanasaki
“Ryousuke Nanasaki married his husband in 2016 in the first religiously recognized same-sex wedding in Japanese history. This collection of essays follows Ryousuke’s search for love on the journey to his extraordinary marriage. From unrequited junior high crushes to awkward dating sites to finally finding a community.”
2. The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone- Olivia Laing
“What does it mean to be lonely? How do we live if we're not intimately engaged with another human being? How do we connect with other people? Does technology draw us closer together or trap us behind screens?
When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by this most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art.”
3. The Last Act of Love- Cathy Rentzenbrink
“With unflinching honesty and raw emotional power, Cathy describes the unimaginable pain of losing her brother and the decision that changed her family's lives forever. As she delves into the past and reclaims memories that have lain buried for many years, Cathy reconnects with the bright, funny, adoring brother she lost and is finally able to see the end of his life as it really was - a last act of love. Powerful, intimate, and intensely moving, this is a personal journey with universal resonance - a story of unconditional love, of grief, survival, and the strength of the ties that bind.”
4. The Book of Disquiet- Fernando Pessoa
“He attributed his prolific writings to a wide range of alternate selves, each of which had a distinct biography, ideology, and horoscope. When he died in 1935, Pessoa left behind a trunk filled with unfinished and unpublished writings, among which were the remarkable pages that make up his posthumous masterpiece, The Book of Disquiet. Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative.”
5. Notes From A Sick Bed- Tessa Brunton
“In 2009, Tessa Brunton experienced the first symptoms of myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome). She spent much of the next eight years unwell, in a medical holding pattern, housebound, and often alone. In 2017, she found a strategy that helped reduce her symptoms and soon began creating the first installments of a graphic memoir.”
6. Go Tell It on The Mountain- James Baldwin
“Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.”
