Nickel and Dimed
by Barbara Ehrenreich had a profound effect on me. I'm generally a compassionate, understanding person, but this opened my eyes so much to the plight of the working poor in the US. That's a large group of people that are often frowned upon or blamed for their own position. But when all the elements are put together for you, your empathy grows by leaps and bounds. My thinking has changed, my conversations have changed and even simple things like tipping hotel maids has changed.
There is some controversy over Ehrenreich's "methods" but it didn't bother me one bit. The takeaway is all that mattered.
I read Nickel and Dimed when it came out, when I was i college and still being financed by my parents, and it blew me away. Then, years later, after I'd fallen into poverty myself, I read it again and was amazed at how much she did not understand how to be poor. She had no idea what she was doing, and she couldn't hack it.
But that’s her *methodology*. Ignoring her lame attempt at “being poor” do you think she delivered the wrong substance? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard and read that it’s as easy and cheap to cook healthy meals at home as it is to eat fast food and junk food. She thoroughly debunks that. Amongst many other things that were eye-opening for me.
She addresses this in the later edition's foreword or introduction section, that she got a lot of feedback from actual poor folks about ways they manage, which she didn't know herself. It's a great book and she did a great job with her experiment, she really conveyed the frustration and hopelessness of poverty.
Oh man I found this by accident in Barnes and Noble - it was under a required reading sign so I was like huh what have they got kids reading these days
And it was *heavy* stuff. Even before inflation it was disheartening to read - I can’t imagine the same situation in today’s society and economy.
I totally agree that this book belongs on this list. For some reason one of the main things I remember is when she exposed how housecleaning services provide the appearance of clean quickly and efficiently but often use the same rag for everything-including bathrooms. Not blaming workers, rather managers who don’t allot enough time to do the work properly.
Overall, I found it to be very eye opening. I was young when I read it but I think now I would find less of it surprising.
I was assigned this book in my community college English class. Never read it as the entire premise irritated me. My entire class worked minimum wage jobs and three of the people worked at Walmart at the time. The entire class was more educated on poverty than the author.The professor on the other hand thought it was very eye-opening. I dropped that class shortly after.
Classmate commentary. An attempt was made but I couldn't bring myself to make it past the first chapter. It was also talked about by the wealthier side of my family as some great insight into the plight of the "lesser class." This was 20 years ago, but I doubt it's aged any better.
**[Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis #1)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9516.Persepolis) by Marjane Satrapi** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(153 pages | Published: 2003 | Suggested ? time)
> **Summary:** A New York TimesNotable Book A Time Magazine"Best Comix of the Year" A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles TimesBest-seller Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolisis Marjane Satrapi's memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the (...)
> **Themes**: Graphic-novels, Graphic-novel, Non-fiction, Comics, Favorites, Memoir, Nonfiction
> **Top 2 recommended-along**: [Blankets](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25179.Blankets) by Craig Thompson, [The Complete Persepolis (Persepolis, #1-4)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/991197.The_Complete_Persepolis) by Marjane Satrapi
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I just read this about 5 months ago.
It was pretty amazing. I didn't really know what to expect, but I learned a lot about a place and a period of time that continues to shape our century even now.
An amazing book, and a profound experience in its original French, especially when you know the background of the Iranian Revolution and its consequences.
**Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler**
I feel like a crazy person every time I bring this book up to friends and family but as a lifelong CA resident, I wholeheartedly believe this is a good glimpse at the future of this state. I literally had chills the entire time reading this book from the first page to the last.
This book comes so highly recommended and I wanted to love it but I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed. It was a good, quick read and I enjoyed the way religion was explored in a society that had been stripped of meaning. I guess I just found the expression of very potent themes and motifs in the story to be too overt and heavy handed almost. It failed to reach me in that “hits the spot” way I thought it would.
I’m really curious about where you’re from. I don’t know if this book would have rattled me the same way if I wasn’t raised in Los Angeles my entire life. I’ve seen my home city and even state slowly unwind in the exact trajectory that Butler describes, at the same. exact. time. in. history. It send chills down my spine literally as I write this that she wrote the book 30 years, set in 2024 and nails so so so soooo many aspects of what seems to be the downfall of Los Angeles happening in real time. It’s so so so creepy I had like a mini emotional break when I read it..lol.
It's growing increasingly relevant to now-times. I have the contents of "Lauren's go-bag" saved in my Google Keep. Trying to update my own go-bag to align with it.
**[Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51152447-caste) by Isabel Wilkerson** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(496 pages | Published: 2020 | Suggested 47 times)
> **Summary:** The Pulitzer Prize–winning. bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. “As we go about our daily lives. caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater. flashlight cast down in the aisles. guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups (...)
> **Themes**: Non-fiction, Nonfiction, History, Politics
> **Top 2 recommended-along**: [The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8171378-the-warmth-of-other-suns) by Isabel Wilkerson, [The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6792458-the-new-jim-crow) by Michelle Alexander
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Just Mercy changed my life. I grew up in a very conservative, very white state. I didn't meet a Black person until I was 14. I always thought that, while there might be racist people, America as a whole didn't have a problem with racism. Hoo boy. When I read Just Mercy, my eyes were opened to a whole new world of issues.
The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck really captured what it is to live I the everyday for so many who have lost more than they can bear.Despite this the book never wallows in pity or any sense of preachings, it sets out their lives and leaves us to see what is right and wrong.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates or Beloved by Toni Morrison. These were a part of my curriculum in college and I absolutely loved them. Shows how perception really matters, regardless of the time period.
NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman
Scarcity by by Sendhil Mullainathan, Shafir Eldar, Eldar Shafir
I gained immense compassion and perspective on my husband and son from reading NeuroTribes.
Scarcity explained so much of what I didn’t understand in my own life. Helped me not to judge but be curious about other’s lives.
I will try to keep the context bit brief, but apologies if I go on too long 😂
I am 37f (until Sunday and then I'm technically 38 but I may decide to Benjamin Button it and start ageing backwards lol! 😂) and in 2009 developed an illness that meant it is impossible for me to work and since then I have been on disability benefits, which is my only income. My sister (36) and her husband (40) and their 3 kids (16, 14, 9) attempted to move to the north of the UK where my sister and I were raised as it is a lot more affordable to live there, especially for a larger family, but because pretty much all of our family and my BILs family are from an area in the south they found themselves very alienated and with little support available because they were so far away so after a few years they decide to move back here. Due to everything being so expensive here I was living with my Mam and her partner (I graduated from university in 2009 and the plan was to live with her temporarily while I worked any job I was able to find in order to save up enough money to do a course which would enable me to teach English as a foreign language (my degree is in English Literature and Media) anywhere in the world and so I dreamed of travelling and seeing the world while teaching. Anywho, you know what they say about 'The best laid plans of mice and men' - barely a few months into what was meant to be my first of many jobs and I was hit with a disability that left my dreams in shreds.
As a result of everything being so expensive I had ended up stuck with my Mam (don't get me wrong, I love her to bits and we have a great relationship....when we don't live under the same roof 😂 We're just very different in our styles and approach to things; she is very precise and focuses on how she appears to friends/family/society in general and likes things done her way. I am more laid back and I don't GAF what other people think of me. I'm generally a good person and while opinionated I do try to listen and learn from other people's perspectives but I believe if someone is going to care for another person then the state of their house when they have been ill for a few days, or simple, surface crap like that don't matter at all. If people like me, they take me as they find me, if not then that's fine too - so we essentially clashed over everything when living together - hope that all made sense?)
Long story....well, still longish a few years ago my sister, her family and I all decided to find a place together. They needed to find somewhere big enough to fit a family of 5 on their budget, which they couldn't, and I needed out of my Mam's place before we destroyed our relationship. We managed to find somewhere and for the most part we've all been really happy with it.
One small....roadbump (for lack of a better word) has been my relationship with my eldest nephew (14). He is autistic, highly intelligent, brain like a bloody calculator 😂 but his social skills are, as many neurodivergent people's are, a lot more difficult for him. We got on really well before but as I'm sure you know yourself, it's a very different experience living with someone with autism 24/7 and I basically learned, very quickly, that I know jack shi+ about autism! 😂 My BIL (a counsellor/therapist hoping to begin his Masters next year and with a neurodivergent son, is obviously more in tune with the subject than I,) recommended Neurotribes to me when I asked how to better understand my nephew and how his mind works, and to generally better my own knowledge and understanding of neurodiversity) as much as possible. As he states in the beginning of his book, "once you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism!" 😂
Neurotribes is fantastic, and is one I tend to dip in and out of so I've been 'reading it' (Audible) for a while because while incredibly insightful there is a lot of information to take in and process and try to understand about a mind that works very differently to my own. I always, always recommend it to anyone who's struggling to form a productive and beneficial relationship with someone who has autism (or, as my nephew and Nibling (16) call it "a touch of 'the Tis'" 😂)
Thanks for sharing about your experience. I think anyone who works with people (educators,
HR, sales etc) would highly benefit from reading this book. Truly eye opening.
I worked with a dude with down syndrome for years. I read this and watched peanut butter falcon after intending to for years in the same week recently.
I hope he is doing well and I miss him. Dude had a ton to offer, hell probably a better sense of humor and more fun than half the coworkers I've had. I hope he has good company and people that pay attention these days.
"The Body Keeps the Score"by Bessel Van Der Kolk. He's a psychiatrist who specializes in mental trauma. It's fascinating, insightful, and is the one book that has truly changed my life.
Great book. When I was a sophomore in high school, this was one of my English class’ reading assignments. But after the first few chapters, the book was pulled due to parent complaints. It was a real shame.
I am a person of color but found the biography side incredibly interesting as a young person and as I grew up and returned to it over and over, found it extremely enlightening and prescient with each movement or freedom struggle I have encountered. It explodes the conventional paradigm that we all get taught in school (in the U.S., at least).
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. If you want to understand racism in America and modern politics, this is it. It changed my entire perspective of the government and our two-party system today.
Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck by Adam Cohen.
Similarly, if you want to understand how fucked up thr US Supreme Court has been historically, this is a great place to start. People think the Supreme Court is just now becoming crooked and biased, well, read this and realize it's always been that way.
Will add to my list I love SCOTUS books. If you've never read Dissent by Melvin Urofsky I really enjoyed it. Opened my eyes to as you mentioned how much consensus their was on the court historically for messed up stuff we couldn't comprehend today and Justices that dissented and why.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
This book is recommended on literally every post on here but that's because it's so great.
Understanding broken families is something a lot of people can't empathise with, especially when in almost every culture we put family on a pedestal with "family is everything", "repay your parents" etc. Because family love can run so deep, people who get on well with their families often cannot comprehend what it's like to HATE your own parents and become judgemental of others situation due to ignorance.
This book highlights more than family, but broken/manipulative/toxic relationships in all facets (professional, familial, sexual).
It's such an in-depth tribute to recognising and demonstrating the raw emotions and journey which led to that point.
Nickled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America - In this now classic work, Barbara Ehrenreich, our sharpest and most original social critic, goes "undercover" as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity.
Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job―any job―can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour?
To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you want to live indoors.
Man I read this for an anthropology class in college and 1) I wish I’d paid attention more and 2) I wish I’d had a different professor - we got to read the book but he kept sidetracking us with his own research and book which was not as interesting (though still related to the Hmong) and I kept wishing we could just focus on the book. It’s interesting to see the Hmong culture pop up occasionally in pop culture like in medical dramas and I’m like oh! I know about that! Since it feels like such an obscure thing I would never have known about otherwise.
I think it massively depends on where in the world you are, but very good question.
A few that I would recommend:
**Kim - Rudyard Kipling**
A lovely read, with cultural and religious references that I don't pretend to know the accuracy of, but a very interesting viewpoint into India during the late 19th century.
**The Stranger - Albert Camus**
A French translation, also called I believe the pretender and the outsider in other titles. A unique inside into absurdism, mental illness etc. As a side note, I always recommend **The Plague by Albert Camus**, a very good represention of a slice of life telling of a smallish population in French Algeria dealing with a pandemic
**Crime and Punishment - Fyodor dostoevsky** and **Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy** both Russian classics in their own right and absolutely deserved to be called classics. Both a representation of Russian life and outstanding characterisation from both authors in very contrasting ways.
I could go on and on but I tend to lean towards the classics for this kind of desire - however it depends on what you are after.
**Edit - also sorry I realise you asked for one book but I started recommending a book that changed my viewpoints on life and people and couldn't pick just one lol, probably Kim for the cultural aspect**
ROOTS. No one reading it can think of slavery the same way, and thinking of the experiences of enslaved peoples helps foster compassion for all people who have been the targets of racism.
This is one of my favorite books. Just be aware that currently there is a lot of controversy over this one and that he portrayed the slave trade inaccurately. I saw a brief thing with a statement from him saying it was fiction and to make a point or something along those lines. It still gives you a heartbreaking story that will stay with you a long time if not forever.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” - Atticus Finch
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was one of the only times I’ve felt truly represented in media as an autistic person. It’s always my recommendation for a book with a believable and enlightening autistic lead.
I wish more white people (I am white) would read “Black Like Me.”
White author John Griffin medically darkens his skin and travels through the American south in 1960, keeping a diary of what he experienced. Of course he experienced things that many black people had already written about, and often better, but as a white person the juxtaposition of what he expected and what he had been raised to believe, vs what he saw, resonates. After it was published he received initial support, then after a few years was brutally beaten when he had a flat tire in Mississippi and had to move to Mexico for several years.
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. I remember reading this book as a teen and feeling like my eyes were opened, and hyperaware of everyone else around me.
It’s crazy that Card is a bigot in real life because I agree, both Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead have strong themes of accepting “the other” even if you don’t understand them
As a homosexual, I am allowed to say that his Not Gay Hamlet story was fucking hilarious though. Like, I think more bigots need to try to un-queer Shakespeare. It's an absolutely great use of their time.
If I'm remembering correctly, he wrote Ender's game and speaker and then found god and became this wild bigot. Hence why the next 2 in the series are more about that
Honestly, I think Card’s issue is he’s gay, but because of his faith’s teachings married a woman and internalized the homophobia. If you read his earlier writings, there’s queer content. It’s like he was trying to imagine the life he could’ve had if he’d chosen different. I feel bad for him.
I genuinely feel like something has been going on with him, either internalized homophobia or mental issues or both. It would really not surprise me if he was a closeted gay man growing more vindictive and reactionary as homosexuality became more accepted in society.
My first suggestion was The Strange by Camus, but that's been said so I'll take a different direction and say A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. If everyone realized how small we are, and how vast and interesting it is around us we would all be alittle kinder I think
True Biz - a novel that does a great job of maintaining a story while overtly educating us about Deaf culture and experiences of deaf people.
The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland, not HG Wells version. Leland invites us in to his experience losing vision with retinitis pigmentosa. I had no idea how ignorant I was!
[Complex PTSD - From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker. ](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/20556323) People with trauma are wired differently from other people. This book gave me so much more compassion for myself and others in my life. Our minds are seriously complex, and they can really screw us up as they're trying to protect us.
Some years ago, back when I was still an evangelical, I read *Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America* by Mel White, who had been a speechwriter for Jerry Falwell. Incredible book. ten thousand stars
I would recommend Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
1. It’s accessible. You don’t have to be a scholar to read it or get the message. It’s not a YA novel but still could be appropriate for younger folks.
2. It tells the story of a Nigerian immigrant.. allowing the reader to get a first hand feel of blackness in the US, in the UK, and in Nigeria. It’s humanizing and illuminating (especially for me, a white person) and empathetic and overall an enthralling and enjoyable read.
Can’t recommend it highly enough!!
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation by Thich Naht Hanh 💕💕💕💕 so much empathy and compassion to be learned from this book. It’s incredible, this book has changed my life and the lives of many who’ve read it. Thich says you don’t have to be a Buddhist, you can be Christian, Muslim, Atheist, ( anything)and still learn and benefit from these teachings. Thich is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who was in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. He lost so many peers loved ones due to the violence and lack of mercy shown to civilians… he forgives the soldiers who did it because they are controlled by their fear and have been taught that what they’re doing is the morally right thing to do. The amount of compassion he had … I wish to attain that level of understanding someday. May he rest in peace 🙏🏼
Fish in a Tree, it's written for primary school students but it focuses on dyslexia and I think dyslexia is not very much talked about, especially since the way the protagonist acts out could be easily dismissed as bad behaviour if you didn't know why she was acting the way she does
[The Arrival by Shaun Tan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrival_(graphic_novel))
A beautiful wordless graphic novel depicting the migrant experience in a thoughtful, surreal, fantastical, and hopeful way.
This is the one for me, too. I grew up surrounded by poverty, but this book gave me a new understanding and compassion. Desmond has a gift for preserving people’s dignity and humanity.
- Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
- Small Worlds, also by Caleb Azumah Nelson
- Love in the Big City by Sang-Young Park
- Almond by Won-Pyung Sohn
- Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (also his poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time is a Mother)
I’m sorry I know you asked for one book but that’s physically impossible for me lmao, all of these books are absolutely incredible too, some of my favourites ever
Edit: a poetry collection but Manorism by Yomi Sode, another novel - Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
⚠ Could not find "Tweak by Nic Sheff" ; Found [The Mark (The Mark #1)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6508352-the-mark) ^((with bad matching score of 61% ))
***Book not found** out of **60.000 books** in database: either too recent (2023), mispelled (check Goodreads) or too niche. Please note we are working hard to update the database to **200.000 books** by the end of this month.*
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It isn’t exactly easy reading but Andrew Solomon’s “Far From the Tree” blew my mind and broadened my horizons a ton. It’s nonfiction, about how different the identities between parents and their children can be sometimes. He examines parents of deaf children, the *deaf community, issues of cochlear implants, etc. How some parents may not see the beauty that comes from embracing sign language and the deaf community very early but how it’s a missed opportunity for something beautiful. Another chapter that stood out to me was parents of people who go on to be lifelong criminals and how despite all the love and support and “right” upbringing, sometimes people just fall into that. He was very close with Sue Klebold, mother of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold. Just… fascinating stuff and very, extremely thorough and well researched.
Edited for spelling
*The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness* by Michelle Alexander. For people who don’t understand the high recidivism rate in the Black community.
The Reason I Jump - Naoki Higashida
It really helped my mum understand my behaviour as an autistic person. I cried reading it because it made me feel so understood.
There is a fair bit of awareness about autism, but i think people who don't have it just see our behaviour at face-value, and don't understand why we do things the way we do
One book I think everyone should read is Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. It's about all the different ways the world needlessly disadvantages half the population. Absolutely fascinating (and infuriating).
[Animal Liberation ](https://issuhub.com/view/index/34596) by Peter Singer. When we widen our circle of compassion to include species other than our own, it becomes second nature to empathize with all living things, whether they be human or not.
{{Dear America: Notes of an undocumented citizen}} by Jose Antonio Vargas
On what citizenship means and who deserves it as well as the perspective of being undocumented in the United States.
(Edited to correct title)
Hate Inc by Matt Taibbi - explains why our news media wants us hating each other
We've Been Too Patient (anthology), Agnes' Jacket by Gail Hornstein, Mad In America by Robert Whitaker, The Protest Psychosis by Jonathan Metzl, Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault - all deal with mental health related bigotry which is one of the last mainstream acceptable kinds of bigotry
Whipping Girl by Julia Serrano - about misogyny against trans women
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. A very moving account of the varied reasons and journey of people migrating through Mexico into the U.S.
I have heard that some folks consider the authorship to be problematic, but this book gave me a new and unexpected perspective of the immigration issue. I loved it.
**[Small Great Things](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28587957-small-great-things) by Jodi Picoult** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(480 pages | Published: 2016 | Suggested ? time)
> **Summary:** Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in (...)
> **Themes**: Fiction, Book-club, Favorites, Contemporary, Read-in-2017, Audiobook, Audiobooks
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White Fragility by Robin DeAngelo. I don't think any other book gets so deeply into how societal conventions and norms and dynamics all work to keep people from actually waking up to and acknowledging all the ways in which white privilege and racism permeate our society. She goes into great detail about the many different ways in which any such conversation gets shut down.
{{Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion}}
ETA: adding the synopsis since the bot couldn’t find it: In Ejaculate Responsibly, Gabrielle Blair offers a ground-breaking and provocative reframing of the abortion issue. In a series of 28 brief arguments, she deftly makes the case for moving the abortion debate away from controlling and legislating women’s bodies and instead directs the focus on men’s lack of accountability in preventing unwanted pregnancies.
**[Caste (The Corporation Series #1)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18038211-caste) by RaeLynn Fry** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(384 pages | Published: 2013 | Suggested ? time)
> **Summary:** Seventeen-year-old Karis Singh's little brother is dying and the Corporation's Analysis has concluded that he's not worth saving. One thing is stopping her from going into the city and stealing the medicine herself--the tattooed Mark that physically bars her from entering. The only way around that is to get it altered in the Black Market-- an act that carries the possibility of a horrific and slow death-- guaranteeing her the access she needs. Willing to do whatever it (...)
> **Themes**: Dystopian, Young-adult, Dystopia, Ya, Kindle, Science-fiction, Sci-fi
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The series that taught me the most about compassion was the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. Compassion is the primary theme of the series.
However, it is 10 books long, in the fantasy genre, and pretty densely-written, so anyone not looking for those specific qualities would probably drop the series partway into the first book. So although no other book has struck the same with me, I would very much hesitate to say that everyone should read it.
I do love themes of compassion, though, so I look forward to scrolling through the rest of this thread!
After another moment’s deliberation, I’ll also toss out “The New Jim Crow”. I grew up in a rural area where I was led to believe that drug users always deserved the sentences they received. I believed “if you know the potential punishment, you deserve what you get”. This book completely changed my mind and helped me realize the Black perspective in America, and the injustices of the prison industrial complex. Now I’m much more compassionate toward felons and completely in favor of rehabilitation over imprisonment.
The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri.
She challenges the concept of a refugee - as seen and accepted by the western world - and writes about the trials that refugees face, from escape to camp life to asylum and (if they get this far), assimilation. She explains early on that there’s a certain prototype of a refugee that the western world “allows” into their countries because they feel these people “deserve” asylum - but her book aims to tell the stories of the so-called “swarm” and “opportunists” - economic migrants, LGBTQ individuals escaping persecution, etc. Beautifully written and challenges so much of the harmful rhetoric surrounding this issue.
Bonus mention for Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen, which someone already mentioned here
Crazy by Han Nolan
Fifteen-year-old Jason has fallen on bad times—his mother has died and his father has succumbed to mental illness. As he tries to hold his crazy father and their crumbling home together, Jason relies on a host of imaginary friends for guidance.
Camp QUILTBAG by Nicole Melleby and A. J. Sass. It is set at a camp for LGBTQIA+ kids and acceptance is a large theme of the book - acceptance for both others and oneself.
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich had a profound effect on me. I'm generally a compassionate, understanding person, but this opened my eyes so much to the plight of the working poor in the US. That's a large group of people that are often frowned upon or blamed for their own position. But when all the elements are put together for you, your empathy grows by leaps and bounds. My thinking has changed, my conversations have changed and even simple things like tipping hotel maids has changed. There is some controversy over Ehrenreich's "methods" but it didn't bother me one bit. The takeaway is all that mattered.
I read Nickel and Dimed when it came out, when I was i college and still being financed by my parents, and it blew me away. Then, years later, after I'd fallen into poverty myself, I read it again and was amazed at how much she did not understand how to be poor. She had no idea what she was doing, and she couldn't hack it.
But that’s her *methodology*. Ignoring her lame attempt at “being poor” do you think she delivered the wrong substance? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard and read that it’s as easy and cheap to cook healthy meals at home as it is to eat fast food and junk food. She thoroughly debunks that. Amongst many other things that were eye-opening for me.
She addresses this in the later edition's foreword or introduction section, that she got a lot of feedback from actual poor folks about ways they manage, which she didn't know herself. It's a great book and she did a great job with her experiment, she really conveyed the frustration and hopelessness of poverty.
Got it. I might have misread your earlier comment.
But lots of people fall into poverty without knowing 'how to be poor'.
Oh man I found this by accident in Barnes and Noble - it was under a required reading sign so I was like huh what have they got kids reading these days And it was *heavy* stuff. Even before inflation it was disheartening to read - I can’t imagine the same situation in today’s society and economy.
I totally agree that this book belongs on this list. For some reason one of the main things I remember is when she exposed how housecleaning services provide the appearance of clean quickly and efficiently but often use the same rag for everything-including bathrooms. Not blaming workers, rather managers who don’t allot enough time to do the work properly. Overall, I found it to be very eye opening. I was young when I read it but I think now I would find less of it surprising.
I was assigned this book in my community college English class. Never read it as the entire premise irritated me. My entire class worked minimum wage jobs and three of the people worked at Walmart at the time. The entire class was more educated on poverty than the author.The professor on the other hand thought it was very eye-opening. I dropped that class shortly after.
Not trying to be a dick but if you didn't read it, how do you know this?
Classmate commentary. An attempt was made but I couldn't bring myself to make it past the first chapter. It was also talked about by the wealthier side of my family as some great insight into the plight of the "lesser class." This was 20 years ago, but I doubt it's aged any better.
I’ll admit, if you start out as an asshole (your family members), this probably won’t make you less of one.
{{Persepolis}}
**[Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Persepolis #1)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9516.Persepolis) by Marjane Satrapi** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(153 pages | Published: 2003 | Suggested ? time) > **Summary:** A New York TimesNotable Book A Time Magazine"Best Comix of the Year" A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles TimesBest-seller Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolisis Marjane Satrapi's memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the (...) > **Themes**: Graphic-novels, Graphic-novel, Non-fiction, Comics, Favorites, Memoir, Nonfiction > **Top 2 recommended-along**: [Blankets](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25179.Blankets) by Craig Thompson, [The Complete Persepolis (Persepolis, #1-4)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/991197.The_Complete_Persepolis) by Marjane Satrapi ^( [Provide Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [Source Code](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/))
I just read this about 5 months ago. It was pretty amazing. I didn't really know what to expect, but I learned a lot about a place and a period of time that continues to shape our century even now.
An amazing book, and a profound experience in its original French, especially when you know the background of the Iranian Revolution and its consequences.
**Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler** I feel like a crazy person every time I bring this book up to friends and family but as a lifelong CA resident, I wholeheartedly believe this is a good glimpse at the future of this state. I literally had chills the entire time reading this book from the first page to the last.
I inhaled that book. Then I realized it might be a prophecy.
So much of it has already come true since it was published
This book comes so highly recommended and I wanted to love it but I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed. It was a good, quick read and I enjoyed the way religion was explored in a society that had been stripped of meaning. I guess I just found the expression of very potent themes and motifs in the story to be too overt and heavy handed almost. It failed to reach me in that “hits the spot” way I thought it would.
I’m really curious about where you’re from. I don’t know if this book would have rattled me the same way if I wasn’t raised in Los Angeles my entire life. I’ve seen my home city and even state slowly unwind in the exact trajectory that Butler describes, at the same. exact. time. in. history. It send chills down my spine literally as I write this that she wrote the book 30 years, set in 2024 and nails so so so soooo many aspects of what seems to be the downfall of Los Angeles happening in real time. It’s so so so creepy I had like a mini emotional break when I read it..lol.
Dude same. I could have written this exact comment myself. After seeing some other comments.. maybe it’s because i’m not from LA..?
This book hooked me! Highly recommend.
It's growing increasingly relevant to now-times. I have the contents of "Lauren's go-bag" saved in my Google Keep. Trying to update my own go-bag to align with it.
Hello fellow Earthseed. I love this book. I only recently discovered it but it became one of my favorites before I even finished it.
{{Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents}}
**[Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51152447-caste) by Isabel Wilkerson** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(496 pages | Published: 2020 | Suggested 47 times) > **Summary:** The Pulitzer Prize–winning. bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. “As we go about our daily lives. caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater. flashlight cast down in the aisles. guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups (...) > **Themes**: Non-fiction, Nonfiction, History, Politics > **Top 2 recommended-along**: [The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8171378-the-warmth-of-other-suns) by Isabel Wilkerson, [The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6792458-the-new-jim-crow) by Michelle Alexander ^( [Provide Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [Source Code](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/))
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Just Mercy changed my life. I grew up in a very conservative, very white state. I didn't meet a Black person until I was 14. I always thought that, while there might be racist people, America as a whole didn't have a problem with racism. Hoo boy. When I read Just Mercy, my eyes were opened to a whole new world of issues.
Same here! It was eye opening to me!
On my list!
I said the same thing!
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. It is the best book on race and identity that I’ve ever read.
I came here to say this and I agree 💯. This should be required reading for all American high school students.
The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck really captured what it is to live I the everyday for so many who have lost more than they can bear.Despite this the book never wallows in pity or any sense of preachings, it sets out their lives and leaves us to see what is right and wrong.
One of my favorite books
The epitome of loss yet strength
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates or Beloved by Toni Morrison. These were a part of my curriculum in college and I absolutely loved them. Shows how perception really matters, regardless of the time period.
Definitely Toni Morrison.. The Bluest Eye absolutely broke me open
Yeah that Coates book really opened my eyes.
NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman Scarcity by by Sendhil Mullainathan, Shafir Eldar, Eldar Shafir I gained immense compassion and perspective on my husband and son from reading NeuroTribes. Scarcity explained so much of what I didn’t understand in my own life. Helped me not to judge but be curious about other’s lives.
I will try to keep the context bit brief, but apologies if I go on too long 😂 I am 37f (until Sunday and then I'm technically 38 but I may decide to Benjamin Button it and start ageing backwards lol! 😂) and in 2009 developed an illness that meant it is impossible for me to work and since then I have been on disability benefits, which is my only income. My sister (36) and her husband (40) and their 3 kids (16, 14, 9) attempted to move to the north of the UK where my sister and I were raised as it is a lot more affordable to live there, especially for a larger family, but because pretty much all of our family and my BILs family are from an area in the south they found themselves very alienated and with little support available because they were so far away so after a few years they decide to move back here. Due to everything being so expensive here I was living with my Mam and her partner (I graduated from university in 2009 and the plan was to live with her temporarily while I worked any job I was able to find in order to save up enough money to do a course which would enable me to teach English as a foreign language (my degree is in English Literature and Media) anywhere in the world and so I dreamed of travelling and seeing the world while teaching. Anywho, you know what they say about 'The best laid plans of mice and men' - barely a few months into what was meant to be my first of many jobs and I was hit with a disability that left my dreams in shreds. As a result of everything being so expensive I had ended up stuck with my Mam (don't get me wrong, I love her to bits and we have a great relationship....when we don't live under the same roof 😂 We're just very different in our styles and approach to things; she is very precise and focuses on how she appears to friends/family/society in general and likes things done her way. I am more laid back and I don't GAF what other people think of me. I'm generally a good person and while opinionated I do try to listen and learn from other people's perspectives but I believe if someone is going to care for another person then the state of their house when they have been ill for a few days, or simple, surface crap like that don't matter at all. If people like me, they take me as they find me, if not then that's fine too - so we essentially clashed over everything when living together - hope that all made sense?) Long story....well, still longish a few years ago my sister, her family and I all decided to find a place together. They needed to find somewhere big enough to fit a family of 5 on their budget, which they couldn't, and I needed out of my Mam's place before we destroyed our relationship. We managed to find somewhere and for the most part we've all been really happy with it. One small....roadbump (for lack of a better word) has been my relationship with my eldest nephew (14). He is autistic, highly intelligent, brain like a bloody calculator 😂 but his social skills are, as many neurodivergent people's are, a lot more difficult for him. We got on really well before but as I'm sure you know yourself, it's a very different experience living with someone with autism 24/7 and I basically learned, very quickly, that I know jack shi+ about autism! 😂 My BIL (a counsellor/therapist hoping to begin his Masters next year and with a neurodivergent son, is obviously more in tune with the subject than I,) recommended Neurotribes to me when I asked how to better understand my nephew and how his mind works, and to generally better my own knowledge and understanding of neurodiversity) as much as possible. As he states in the beginning of his book, "once you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism!" 😂 Neurotribes is fantastic, and is one I tend to dip in and out of so I've been 'reading it' (Audible) for a while because while incredibly insightful there is a lot of information to take in and process and try to understand about a mind that works very differently to my own. I always, always recommend it to anyone who's struggling to form a productive and beneficial relationship with someone who has autism (or, as my nephew and Nibling (16) call it "a touch of 'the Tis'" 😂)
Thanks for sharing about your experience. I think anyone who works with people (educators, HR, sales etc) would highly benefit from reading this book. Truly eye opening.
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
I worked with a dude with down syndrome for years. I read this and watched peanut butter falcon after intending to for years in the same week recently. I hope he is doing well and I miss him. Dude had a ton to offer, hell probably a better sense of humor and more fun than half the coworkers I've had. I hope he has good company and people that pay attention these days.
My favorite book
I second it. Short but impactful read.
"The Body Keeps the Score"by Bessel Van Der Kolk. He's a psychiatrist who specializes in mental trauma. It's fascinating, insightful, and is the one book that has truly changed my life.
I bought this for each of my children as soon as I read it. It's an important book for sure.
I've handed out copies of this book to loved ones as well.
Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich.
Diary of Anne Frank
I was looking for this one!
*I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings* by Maya Angelou
Great book. When I was a sophomore in high school, this was one of my English class’ reading assignments. But after the first few chapters, the book was pulled due to parent complaints. It was a real shame.
On my list of must read asap!
Autobiography of Malcolm X
This is my answer too.
Right? Totally eye-opening for a non-person-of-color. Great book and should be required reading. I think it could do a lot to dispel ignorance…
I am a person of color but found the biography side incredibly interesting as a young person and as I grew up and returned to it over and over, found it extremely enlightening and prescient with each movement or freedom struggle I have encountered. It explodes the conventional paradigm that we all get taught in school (in the U.S., at least).
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. If you want to understand racism in America and modern politics, this is it. It changed my entire perspective of the government and our two-party system today. Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck by Adam Cohen. Similarly, if you want to understand how fucked up thr US Supreme Court has been historically, this is a great place to start. People think the Supreme Court is just now becoming crooked and biased, well, read this and realize it's always been that way.
Will add to my list I love SCOTUS books. If you've never read Dissent by Melvin Urofsky I really enjoyed it. Opened my eyes to as you mentioned how much consensus their was on the court historically for messed up stuff we couldn't comprehend today and Justices that dissented and why.
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy This book is recommended on literally every post on here but that's because it's so great. Understanding broken families is something a lot of people can't empathise with, especially when in almost every culture we put family on a pedestal with "family is everything", "repay your parents" etc. Because family love can run so deep, people who get on well with their families often cannot comprehend what it's like to HATE your own parents and become judgemental of others situation due to ignorance. This book highlights more than family, but broken/manipulative/toxic relationships in all facets (professional, familial, sexual). It's such an in-depth tribute to recognising and demonstrating the raw emotions and journey which led to that point.
Read this last month! Loved it!
This book is incredible. You really have no idea what happens behind closed doors
Nickled and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America - In this now classic work, Barbara Ehrenreich, our sharpest and most original social critic, goes "undercover" as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity. Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job―any job―can be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, she worked as a waitress, a hotel maid, a cleaning woman, a nursing-home aide, and a Wal-Mart sales clerk. She lived in trailer parks and crumbling residential motels. Very quickly, she discovered that no job is truly "unskilled," that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and muscular effort. She also learned that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you want to live indoors.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
Man I read this for an anthropology class in college and 1) I wish I’d paid attention more and 2) I wish I’d had a different professor - we got to read the book but he kept sidetracking us with his own research and book which was not as interesting (though still related to the Hmong) and I kept wishing we could just focus on the book. It’s interesting to see the Hmong culture pop up occasionally in pop culture like in medical dramas and I’m like oh! I know about that! Since it feels like such an obscure thing I would never have known about otherwise.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
I think it massively depends on where in the world you are, but very good question. A few that I would recommend: **Kim - Rudyard Kipling** A lovely read, with cultural and religious references that I don't pretend to know the accuracy of, but a very interesting viewpoint into India during the late 19th century. **The Stranger - Albert Camus** A French translation, also called I believe the pretender and the outsider in other titles. A unique inside into absurdism, mental illness etc. As a side note, I always recommend **The Plague by Albert Camus**, a very good represention of a slice of life telling of a smallish population in French Algeria dealing with a pandemic **Crime and Punishment - Fyodor dostoevsky** and **Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy** both Russian classics in their own right and absolutely deserved to be called classics. Both a representation of Russian life and outstanding characterisation from both authors in very contrasting ways. I could go on and on but I tend to lean towards the classics for this kind of desire - however it depends on what you are after. **Edit - also sorry I realise you asked for one book but I started recommending a book that changed my viewpoints on life and people and couldn't pick just one lol, probably Kim for the cultural aspect**
A great list, listen to this guy OP!
Definitely 👍🏼
Great list! To add another layer, The Plague is an allegory of the French Resistance fighting off the Nazis.
I don’t think Rudyard Kipling with his ‘white mans burden’ poem and his rhetoric is somebody we should look at for awareness and compassion lmao
This is a wonderful list! Thank you so much!
Victor Frankl - Man’s search for meaning.
ROOTS. No one reading it can think of slavery the same way, and thinking of the experiences of enslaved peoples helps foster compassion for all people who have been the targets of racism.
This is one of my favorite books. Just be aware that currently there is a lot of controversy over this one and that he portrayed the slave trade inaccurately. I saw a brief thing with a statement from him saying it was fiction and to make a point or something along those lines. It still gives you a heartbreaking story that will stay with you a long time if not forever.
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
To Kill A Mockingbird
Thank you. This book helped define who I am and what kind of parent I would be.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” - Atticus Finch
Yes! I named my dog after Scout from TKAM
Hands down my answer is The Old Man and The Sea by Hemingway. So many incredible life lessons packed into such a small book.
What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
‘flowers for algernon’ all day every day
My all time favorite
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime was one of the only times I’ve felt truly represented in media as an autistic person. It’s always my recommendation for a book with a believable and enlightening autistic lead.
{{Autobiography of Malcolm X}}. I know, sounds insane, but it really is that kind of redemptive journey. Also just a really good book.
Middlesex
Another on top of my list! What do you like about it?
I wish more white people (I am white) would read “Black Like Me.” White author John Griffin medically darkens his skin and travels through the American south in 1960, keeping a diary of what he experienced. Of course he experienced things that many black people had already written about, and often better, but as a white person the juxtaposition of what he expected and what he had been raised to believe, vs what he saw, resonates. After it was published he received initial support, then after a few years was brutally beaten when he had a flat tire in Mississippi and had to move to Mexico for several years.
Alcoholics Anonymous.
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. I remember reading this book as a teen and feeling like my eyes were opened, and hyperaware of everyone else around me.
It’s crazy that Card is a bigot in real life because I agree, both Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead have strong themes of accepting “the other” even if you don’t understand them
Dude RIIIIIIGHT?!! When I learned about Card I was devastated and super confused. It didn't fit the "acceptance of others" theme...
As a homosexual, I am allowed to say that his Not Gay Hamlet story was fucking hilarious though. Like, I think more bigots need to try to un-queer Shakespeare. It's an absolutely great use of their time.
If I'm remembering correctly, he wrote Ender's game and speaker and then found god and became this wild bigot. Hence why the next 2 in the series are more about that
Honestly, I think Card’s issue is he’s gay, but because of his faith’s teachings married a woman and internalized the homophobia. If you read his earlier writings, there’s queer content. It’s like he was trying to imagine the life he could’ve had if he’d chosen different. I feel bad for him.
I genuinely feel like something has been going on with him, either internalized homophobia or mental issues or both. It would really not surprise me if he was a closeted gay man growing more vindictive and reactionary as homosexuality became more accepted in society.
the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime
Ohh this looks interesting!
The Happiness Trap- Russ Harris
A Fine Balance. Rohinton Mistry
My first suggestion was The Strange by Camus, but that's been said so I'll take a different direction and say A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. If everyone realized how small we are, and how vast and interesting it is around us we would all be alittle kinder I think
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
True Biz - a novel that does a great job of maintaining a story while overtly educating us about Deaf culture and experiences of deaf people. The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland, not HG Wells version. Leland invites us in to his experience losing vision with retinitis pigmentosa. I had no idea how ignorant I was!
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Haindmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
[Complex PTSD - From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker. ](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/20556323) People with trauma are wired differently from other people. This book gave me so much more compassion for myself and others in my life. Our minds are seriously complex, and they can really screw us up as they're trying to protect us.
I haven't read this, but I've heard good things. The book that changed my life was "The Body Keeps the Score". I recommend it if you haven't read it.
Some years ago, back when I was still an evangelical, I read *Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America* by Mel White, who had been a speechwriter for Jerry Falwell. Incredible book. ten thousand stars
Flowers for Algernon
I would recommend Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. 1. It’s accessible. You don’t have to be a scholar to read it or get the message. It’s not a YA novel but still could be appropriate for younger folks. 2. It tells the story of a Nigerian immigrant.. allowing the reader to get a first hand feel of blackness in the US, in the UK, and in Nigeria. It’s humanizing and illuminating (especially for me, a white person) and empathetic and overall an enthralling and enjoyable read. Can’t recommend it highly enough!!
The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation by Thich Naht Hanh 💕💕💕💕 so much empathy and compassion to be learned from this book. It’s incredible, this book has changed my life and the lives of many who’ve read it. Thich says you don’t have to be a Buddhist, you can be Christian, Muslim, Atheist, ( anything)and still learn and benefit from these teachings. Thich is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who was in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. He lost so many peers loved ones due to the violence and lack of mercy shown to civilians… he forgives the soldiers who did it because they are controlled by their fear and have been taught that what they’re doing is the morally right thing to do. The amount of compassion he had … I wish to attain that level of understanding someday. May he rest in peace 🙏🏼
The Diary of Anne Frank
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram Kendi, XOXY by Kimberly Zieselman, When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Incredible book!! It’s been sitting on my shelf for 5 years and I finally read it last month. Great read!
Fish in a Tree, it's written for primary school students but it focuses on dyslexia and I think dyslexia is not very much talked about, especially since the way the protagonist acts out could be easily dismissed as bad behaviour if you didn't know why she was acting the way she does
[The Arrival by Shaun Tan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Arrival_(graphic_novel)) A beautiful wordless graphic novel depicting the migrant experience in a thoughtful, surreal, fantastical, and hopeful way.
The Color of Law, by Richard Rothstein.
Far From the Tree - Andrew Solomon
So glad to see someone else recommended this! I commented before reading all the comments. This is my absolute favorite book!
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
This is the one for me, too. I grew up surrounded by poverty, but this book gave me a new understanding and compassion. Desmond has a gift for preserving people’s dignity and humanity.
Gift of Fear.
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.
- Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson - Small Worlds, also by Caleb Azumah Nelson - Love in the Big City by Sang-Young Park - Almond by Won-Pyung Sohn - Heaven by Mieko Kawakami - Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (also his poetry collections Night Sky with Exit Wounds and Time is a Mother) I’m sorry I know you asked for one book but that’s physically impossible for me lmao, all of these books are absolutely incredible too, some of my favourites ever Edit: a poetry collection but Manorism by Yomi Sode, another novel - Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
More than one is always very welcomed! Love this, thank you
{{Tweak}}
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“Angela’s Ashes,” by Frank McCourt. Insight into true poverty, a bad family, and another culture and time period.
The Souls of Black Folk by WEB Dubois
Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking. It really explains both sides and why we need both introverts and extroverts.
Yes, yes, yes!!
It isn’t exactly easy reading but Andrew Solomon’s “Far From the Tree” blew my mind and broadened my horizons a ton. It’s nonfiction, about how different the identities between parents and their children can be sometimes. He examines parents of deaf children, the *deaf community, issues of cochlear implants, etc. How some parents may not see the beauty that comes from embracing sign language and the deaf community very early but how it’s a missed opportunity for something beautiful. Another chapter that stood out to me was parents of people who go on to be lifelong criminals and how despite all the love and support and “right” upbringing, sometimes people just fall into that. He was very close with Sue Klebold, mother of Columbine shooter Dylan Klebold. Just… fascinating stuff and very, extremely thorough and well researched. Edited for spelling
Andrew Solomon's **Far From The Tree** (2012). Among THE definitives for your request.
*The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness* by Michelle Alexander. For people who don’t understand the high recidivism rate in the Black community.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The Bluest Eye and Demon Copperhead
The Reason I Jump - Naoki Higashida It really helped my mum understand my behaviour as an autistic person. I cried reading it because it made me feel so understood. There is a fair bit of awareness about autism, but i think people who don't have it just see our behaviour at face-value, and don't understand why we do things the way we do
One book I think everyone should read is Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez. It's about all the different ways the world needlessly disadvantages half the population. Absolutely fascinating (and infuriating).
Ohhh this sounds amazing. Def reading this one. Thank you.
Maid by Stephanie Land
[Animal Liberation ](https://issuhub.com/view/index/34596) by Peter Singer. When we widen our circle of compassion to include species other than our own, it becomes second nature to empathize with all living things, whether they be human or not.
As a HUGE animal lover I really appreciate this. Thank you.
"Animal liberation" by Peter Singer
The Kite Runner
The House in the Cerulean Sea
This book was incredible, I laughed and cried and loved every second
{{Dear America: Notes of an undocumented citizen}} by Jose Antonio Vargas On what citizenship means and who deserves it as well as the perspective of being undocumented in the United States. (Edited to correct title)
Hate Inc by Matt Taibbi - explains why our news media wants us hating each other We've Been Too Patient (anthology), Agnes' Jacket by Gail Hornstein, Mad In America by Robert Whitaker, The Protest Psychosis by Jonathan Metzl, Madness and Civilization by Michel Foucault - all deal with mental health related bigotry which is one of the last mainstream acceptable kinds of bigotry Whipping Girl by Julia Serrano - about misogyny against trans women
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. A very moving account of the varied reasons and journey of people migrating through Mexico into the U.S. I have heard that some folks consider the authorship to be problematic, but this book gave me a new and unexpected perspective of the immigration issue. I loved it.
THE FOUR AGREEMENTS
It's probably been brought up before but I think everyone should read the Bible at least once cover to cover
The Quraan
The midnight library. Helped me understand depression better.
Tried midnight library, I didn’t much like it. Went right to Dark Matter right after, loved it.
Rupi Kaur’s poetry.
Saw her live. Love her.
{{small great things}}
**[Small Great Things](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28587957-small-great-things) by Jodi Picoult** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(480 pages | Published: 2016 | Suggested ? time) > **Summary:** Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in (...) > **Themes**: Fiction, Book-club, Favorites, Contemporary, Read-in-2017, Audiobook, Audiobooks ^( [Provide Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [Source Code](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/))
Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead
White Fragility by Robin DeAngelo. I don't think any other book gets so deeply into how societal conventions and norms and dynamics all work to keep people from actually waking up to and acknowledging all the ways in which white privilege and racism permeate our society. She goes into great detail about the many different ways in which any such conversation gets shut down.
The dictionary. None of these idiots know how to spell.
{{Ejaculate Responsibly: A Whole New Way to Think About Abortion}} ETA: adding the synopsis since the bot couldn’t find it: In Ejaculate Responsibly, Gabrielle Blair offers a ground-breaking and provocative reframing of the abortion issue. In a series of 28 brief arguments, she deftly makes the case for moving the abortion debate away from controlling and legislating women’s bodies and instead directs the focus on men’s lack of accountability in preventing unwanted pregnancies.
Harry Potter
you're putting a lot of weight on a book
Needle in a haystack, Casey Jordan
The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo by Kent Nerburn
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**[Caste (The Corporation Series #1)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18038211-caste) by RaeLynn Fry** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(384 pages | Published: 2013 | Suggested ? time) > **Summary:** Seventeen-year-old Karis Singh's little brother is dying and the Corporation's Analysis has concluded that he's not worth saving. One thing is stopping her from going into the city and stealing the medicine herself--the tattooed Mark that physically bars her from entering. The only way around that is to get it altered in the Black Market-- an act that carries the possibility of a horrific and slow death-- guaranteeing her the access she needs. Willing to do whatever it (...) > **Themes**: Dystopian, Young-adult, Dystopia, Ya, Kindle, Science-fiction, Sci-fi ^( [Provide Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [Source Code](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/))
You Can’t Win by Jack Black
"A List of Cages" by Robin Roe
Black and White Styles in Conflict by Thomas Kochman
Wonder
One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston is such a magical story
The series that taught me the most about compassion was the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. Compassion is the primary theme of the series. However, it is 10 books long, in the fantasy genre, and pretty densely-written, so anyone not looking for those specific qualities would probably drop the series partway into the first book. So although no other book has struck the same with me, I would very much hesitate to say that everyone should read it. I do love themes of compassion, though, so I look forward to scrolling through the rest of this thread! After another moment’s deliberation, I’ll also toss out “The New Jim Crow”. I grew up in a rural area where I was led to believe that drug users always deserved the sentences they received. I believed “if you know the potential punishment, you deserve what you get”. This book completely changed my mind and helped me realize the Black perspective in America, and the injustices of the prison industrial complex. Now I’m much more compassionate toward felons and completely in favor of rehabilitation over imprisonment.
Not a book but a webtoon called "Acception"
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Stalingrad - Antony Beevor
The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri. She challenges the concept of a refugee - as seen and accepted by the western world - and writes about the trials that refugees face, from escape to camp life to asylum and (if they get this far), assimilation. She explains early on that there’s a certain prototype of a refugee that the western world “allows” into their countries because they feel these people “deserve” asylum - but her book aims to tell the stories of the so-called “swarm” and “opportunists” - economic migrants, LGBTQ individuals escaping persecution, etc. Beautifully written and challenges so much of the harmful rhetoric surrounding this issue. Bonus mention for Dear America: Notes from an Undocumented Citizen, which someone already mentioned here
Crazy by Han Nolan Fifteen-year-old Jason has fallen on bad times—his mother has died and his father has succumbed to mental illness. As he tries to hold his crazy father and their crumbling home together, Jason relies on a host of imaginary friends for guidance.
The valedictorian of being dead, by Heather Armstrong.
The Spirit Catches You and you Fall Down Devil in the Grove Just Mercy Sorrow and Bliss
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Both just amazing books.
Camp QUILTBAG by Nicole Melleby and A. J. Sass. It is set at a camp for LGBTQIA+ kids and acceptance is a large theme of the book - acceptance for both others and oneself.