Autumn is my favorite season. The weather is perfect (and so is everyone’s hair), people start to care about pie again (I’m a pie advocate 356 days a year, but it’s nbd) and finally it is the best time to catch up on my reading because it’s so cold and dark all the time that all I want to do is curl up with a good book anyway. Seeing as how the Autumnal Equinox was just last week, I figured now is the best time to curate a snuggle-worthy book list for all you darling collegiettes!
Courtesy: Amazon
1. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai (with Christina Lamb)
I Am Malala chronicles the life of Malala Yousafzai as she grows up in Taliban-occupied Pakistan. The book shows how Yousafzai overcame oppression and fought for her right to receive an education. After being shot by members of the Taliban in 2012, Yousafzai has since become an internationally recognized advocate for children’s education and has become the youngest recipient of a Noble Peace Prize. A documentary film entitled He Named Me Malala starring Yousafzai is set for release in the United States on October 2, so now is the perfect time to read the book before you catch the movie!
Courtesy: Goodreads
2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
The Girl on the Train is Paula Hawkins’ debut novel and I am not lying when I say that I picked it up and did not put it down until I finished it four hours later. The Girl on the Train is set in the suburbs just outside of London where Rachel, a 30-something alcoholic divorcee lives and fantasizes about the seemingly happy couple she sees from the train window on her daily commute. The story follows Rachel’s obsession with the disappearance of the female member of the couple as she tries to solve the mystery and also unearth her strange connection to the woman. Train has been heralded as “The next Gone Girl” by USA Today and I have to say that I have never read a more accurate review. Train races and turns and you should never even kid yourself into thinking that you “know where this is going,” because trust me, you don’t.
Courtesy: Amazon
3. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari (with Eric Klinenberg)
Aziz Ansari, who plays everyone’s favorite entrepreneur, Tom Haverford, in the comedy Parks and Rec (I’m still in mourning), wrote a book. That’s right, a REAL book with PAGES and some that HAVE WORDS on them (I personally believe that Ansari would love this description of his book because CAPS). But, in all honesty, Modern Romance is like no other celebrity memoir I have ever read before, and I have read A LOT of them. Romance is 1/3 humorous anecdotes, 1/3 presentation of research (which Ansari and sociologist Klinenberg conducted together, for TWO YEARS), and 1/3 of me sobbing over the actual state of modern romance. Ansari makes relationship psychology incredibly accessible for the masses and has gone so far as to update (with Klinenberg) our understanding of how relationships function in a modern society. I am not kidding when I say that there is an entire section on Tinder profile photos and actual research on what types of pictures and angles make people look attractive to potential partners.
Courtesy: Slate
4. Between the World and Me By Ta-Nehisi Coates
This memoir has been denominating the New York Times’ Bestseller List for weeks, and rightly so. Coates’ memoir is written to his son in which he his attempting to teach his son about what it means to grow up black in America. Coates starkly sets the work in motion with his opening line: “Son, Last Sunday the host of a popular news show asked me what it meant to lose my body.” A large portion of the work roots itself in this concept: the subjugation of the black body by the white majority in America. Coates beautifully expounds upon centuries of racism in America and their effect on modern living for black Americans. Toni Morrison has said “This is required reading” and I could not agree more.
Courtesy: USA Today
5. Why Not Me? By Mindy Kaling
When asked what I want to be when I grow up, my answer is very simple: Mindy Kaling. Mindy Kaling is a bestselling author, the star of popular sit-com (The Mindy Project) and bad*ss fashionista. Therefore, she is perfect. I was already a huge fan of Kaling’s first memoir, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, so I had this book preordered months ago. As I have just finished it a few hours ago, I can tell you that it is even better than Kaling’s first book! Kaling opens up about her career, her fame, being a role model and how she became confident in this hilarious memoir. Bonus: there is an entire chapter on her friendship with B.J. Novak (#squadgoals) entitled “Soup Snakes” for all you fans of The Office!
Courtesy: Simon and Schuster
BONUS! All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The novel is the winner of the 2015 Pultizer Prize for fiction and took over ten years to write! This is one of the best novels I have read in a while, and that is all I will say because you will just have to read it to understand how magical it is!