Five Books Everyone Should Read At Least Once in Their Life

By: Vidhisha Wagle

1. To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird is one the applicable books of literature everyone should read. This book is still applicable to current events that happen around us. It’s relatable as the characters in the book are going through school and they are still finding out how the world actually works. Topics explored include racism and privilege.

2. The Book Thief

While many of us know or learned Nazism and their power, The Book Thief goes through the life of a young girl who steals to live. She starts to steal the books that are left behind my others, and trains herself to read. Her family is able to hide a Jew in the basement, and while she learns the cruelty in humans, she also learns kindness.

3. The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid’s Tale introduces the idea of women in serfdom from the patriarchal society. This book focuses on the idea of women gaining their independence and how these women have been subjugated. During this, the main character struggles to find her own freedom however has been restricted from totalitarianism from society.

4. The Help

The Help mainly focuses on a central issue that is very relevant to our modern society. This book underlines the theme of racism and how it’s not inherent to human nature, even though it is passed down from each generation, creating misconceptions and prejudices. It explores how racism has destroyed many lives and how many women would torture and suffer black maids, labelling black people as unclean.

5. The Diary of a Young Girl

This is one of the most famous books written under the Nazi regime. The book is a diary of a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl who fled the horrors of Nazi occupation and lived in the back of a warehouse coping with hunger and death. She recorded and talked about these events, a classical book bringing in the idea of courage and the struggle to live during this horror.

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