With winter break fast approaching, you may be day-dreaming about what it will be like to not be up to your eyeballs in philosophy papers, accounting homework or science lab write-ups. Soon you will have over a month filled with family, friends, home-cooked food and finally, some well deserved relaxation. Once the excitement of holidays dies down, you’ll realize that you have some mythical thing you forgot about since you last encountered it in August: FREE TIME! While it can be tempting to hibernate with your dog until the end of January or binge watch a new Netflix series, you may want to use some of your time to read for pleasure. In my totally unbiased English major opinion, reading is one of the most valuable ways to spend your time. Unfortunately for many people, reading was spoiled by years of being forced to do required readings for class that they found dry and unappealing. Additionally, turning to Sparknotes at the last minute before a reading quiz has taken away from the joy from reading a book cover to cover.
Many of us don’t have a wide background in reading books by diverse authors because we have not been exposed to many. Most of the English curriculums in schools across the United States are lacking diversity. The same works are taught over and over again and while these works are meaningful and valuable to the literary canon, they are often exclusionary and don’t allow for newer and historically underrepresented voices to be broadcasted. That was a bit of a more flowery way of saying that most of what we read is by old (or dead) White men. While Shakespeare, Hemingway and Dostoevsky are tremendously talented and important writers, we need to strive to read a wider breadth of work. Why? Because what you read is a good indication of what you find valuable.
Below is a list of 10 recommendations for very valuable books not written by White men.
1. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Seamlessly flipping back and forth between generations of a Dominican-American family, the novel takes us from the shores of the Dominican Republic to the dining halls of Rutgers University. Junot Diaz’s Pulitzer Prize winning book traces out the life of Oscar De Leon: a self-proclaimed nerd living in Patterson, New Jersey. Oscar’s antics in his quest for true love and acceptance are sometimes cringe-worthy but only work to endear him as character. The novel is made complete by a set of colorful and intriguing characters closely tied to the Dominican Republic’s rich and complicated political history.
2. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Despite her literary accomplishments. Adichie’s mainstream recognition exploded after a voice-over from her speech “We Should All be Feminists” was featured on Beyonce’s 2012 single “Flawless.” When she’s not being a bad*ss feminist activist, she writes incredible prose. Americanah traces the story of a Nigerian woman who comes to the United States for school. The book was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 in the New York Times Book Review.
3. “The Story of My Teeth” by Valeria Luiselli
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0in;background:white”>This six part narrative begins with Gustavo Sanchez, a character who swindles the public by selling his old teeth under the guise that they belong to greats such as Plato, Virginia Woolf and Jorge Luis Borges. He uses his profits to buy a set of teeth that allegedly belonged to Marilyn Monroe. Misfortune befalls Gustavo and his true adventure begins. You will probably never read anything quite like this absurd tale filled with cultural references, laugh-out-loud funny lines and new wisdom on what we as humans value.
4. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
Feinberg’s transgender narrative was a truly monumental publication when it was first published in 1993. Years later, it is an enduring tale about what happens to those who don’t exist within binaries. The novel follows Jess Goldberg, a butch lesbian, from her troubled upbringing in a world that does not accept her, through her escape to a community of lesbians, drag queens and other people who were existing on the fringes of society at the time. The novel is heartbreaking but also hopeful as it tackles complex subjects like gender, police brutality, love, sex, identity and belonging.
5. Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay
“I am failing as a woman,” Roxanne Gay writes. “I am failing as a feminist … I am a mess of contradictions.” In her series of essays, Gay artfully maps out the ways in which people are flawed and the way in which pop culture intersects with feminism while discussing pertinent issues for women today such as sexual assault, abortion, education and racial stereotyping Her essays are funny, personal and complex as they illuminate Gay’s battle with her feminist identity and the flaws that are embedded within that identity and ideology.
6. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The first novel by Afghan-American writer Hosseini follows the friendship between two boys living in Kabul, the largest city in Afghanistan. Amir is a wealthy young man whose best friend is his father’s servant’s son. The story weaves the personal -relationships between fathers and sons, friendship and love- in with the political as it outlines the tumultuous history of Afghanistan. Beautiful and heartbreaking, the novel will truly leave you with a new perspective.
7. The Vacationers by Emma Straub
Snap yourself out of your dreary winter-time blues with the dysfunctional Post family who is forced into a two week vacation in Mallorca as they count down the seconds until they can retreat to their respective corners. The family is always teetering on the edge of entropy, but reading along is great fun. What keeps it from being just a pleasantly forgettable beach read is the heartbreaking hilarity that affects each and every character.
8. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Screw anybody who says that anyone who has left high school can’t read a young adult book! Great YA adult books are sometimes harder to come by, but for many of us, they were the books we actually wanted to read growing up. Eleanor and Park is a sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, but always beautiful story of two teenagers who exist on the fringes of their own life in 1980s Nebraska. The novel switches between the narratives of big-haired book worm, Eleanor and quiet comic book lover, Park. The two bond over superheroes, family tensions, and a mutual sense of loneliness. The book is exhausting in the best possible way and tugs at your emotions until the very last line.
9. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
The graphic novel turned insanely popular Broadway music follows Alison Bechdel’s complicated upbringing alongside a closeted gay father, an emotionally exhausted mother, two rambunctious brothers and the family-run funeral home. Alison suffers from identity tension as a child and is chastised, particularly by her father, for being a tomboy and not being intellectual enough. Once Alison heads to college, she is able to accept her identity as a lesbian and begins to learn more about the similarities and differences between her and her father.
10. Peel My Love Like An Onion by Ana Castillo
This uniquely written novel follows Carmen “La coja” (the cripple), a flamenco dancer nearly paralyzed by a case of childhood polio that has returned. Once a world traveling dancer romancing multiple men at once, Carmen finds herself struggling to make ends meet working at low-end jobs, loveless and in increasing pain by the day. Despite her physical and emotional agony, Carmen consistently finds a way to make things work for herself and the novel asks us to think about the layers that make up who we are, and who we think we are.