(so, in no particular order:)
1. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee —Dee Brown
For a girl who loves history and who studies the intersection of identity and politics, I am super uninformed about Native American history. I don't know what else to say about this book, other than that it seems like a good place to start learning.
2. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
The first time I saw this book (probably in elementary school), I thought that this was a World War I or II book that featured rabbits on the cover; needless to say, I wasn't very impressed with it then and was a little confused a few years ago when I found out that Watership Down was being marketed as a famous fantasy book. About rabbits. Rabbits? What the hell would that even look like? I wondered. I read the intro when I was thinking about getting it with some of my Christmas $$$, which actually made me more interested, but ultimately decided that I'd rather have it in paperback as opposed to my Kindle. (It has a map in the front.)
3. Understanding Comics — Scott McCloud
I was about thisclose to buying Understanding Comics earlier this week, and the only reason that there isn't a copy sitting and waiting for me on my bed right now is that my internet crapped out on me as I was in the middle of pressing the "add to cart" button.
Understanding Comics is one of those books that, if you're interested in comics (like me!) and art (also like me!), you can't really escape. It's cited by artists and writers (and non-artists and non-writers) as a super important piece of writing and analysis about comic books and comic techniques. Since I'm trying to "broaden my horizons" as a person or whatever, I figured that I should finally, finally read this book. This book isn't available on Kindle right now, but I figured that since I would probably get a lot out of it, I could live with having a physical copy of it on my bookshelf. (I know; my life is just so hard.)
4. The Arabs: A History —Eugene Rogan
So, I'm an International Relations major (in case you didn't know) with a focus on the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. Despite my junior standing, I always feel like I should know way more about the region than I do. I have a running list of "MENA books" that has a little over seventy titles on it that I've been meaning to read. I'm sometimes a little wary of books that proclaim to be histories of an entire ethnic group or society, but one of my professors last semester (whom I loved) recommended it, so I decided that this might be a good place to start some of my extracurricular reading.
5. My Uncle Napoleon — Iraj Pezehkzad
This is another book I found at my school library (seriously, bless you Beloit...), and I was first drawn to it because of its rad cover art. When I perused the back cover, my interest was totally piqued. My Uncle Napoleon is a hugely successful book in Iran, and even inspired a (super popular) television series. Napoleon is about a young man who lives with his extended family, the patriarch of which is his uncle, Napoleon. The narrator opens the novel by despairing over falling in love with his cousin, Napoleon's favorite daughter. Napoleon is an extended family drama that delves into post-colonial psychology as frequently as family conflict. I alllllllmost bought this book last semester, but demurred because I thought I was going to get it for Christmas. (spoiler: I didn't.)
I'm in the middle of a pretty serious nonfiction kick right now, so let me know if y'all are reading anything similar or what. I love love love love love book lists and book recs, so leave a comment down below!
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