Welcome to The Wild Grain’s first Outside Reading post!
In this series, we will be providing insights on books that members of the Rice community have been reading. This edition includes recommendations from your very own TWG staff; this month’s list features a range of works, from YA novels to Greek mythology. Here is Outside Reading: Books That Changed Your Life.
1. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Mitchell’s novel features six thematically connected yet spatiotemporally separate narratives. Each narrative presents a different protagonist and uses different generic conventions. When I first read Cloud Atlas, I thought it was an amazing book because it’s a highly unconventional and inventive text. I had never read anything like it before!
I wrote on the novel for my undergraduate thesis and it marked the first time that I felt really excited about my own academic work. I received a few awards from my undergraduate institution, University of California, Irvine, for my thesis, as well as funding to attend the David Mitchell Conference in 2017 (I’m on the far right in this photo) at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. I ended up meeting Mitchell himself at the conference and mustered up enough courage to ask him for a picture!
I also wrote my Master’s thesis at the University of Chicago on Cloud Atlas and a section of it became the writing sample that ultimately got me accepted into Rice’s English PhD program. My prolonged interest in Cloud Atlas seems kind of obsessive looking back now and I honestly don’t like the novel as much as I used to, but it definitely impacted my life because it was the first book that really sparked my academic curiosity.
– Karen Siu, TWG Associate Editor
2. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
The first time I heard of Celeste Ng’s book Everything I Never Told You was in high school. I woke up one morning, getting text bombed overnight by my friend who was screaming for me to read this book as she had stayed up all night reading it. I was skeptical as to how powerful this book could be until I started reading it myself, and it had changed my life as well as those around me.
The book unravels the nervous conditions of a mixed-raced Chinese American family through the death of the middle daughter, Lydia. Her death tears apart the delicate balancing act that has been holding the family together — to reveal the struggles and misunderstandings among family members. I was blown away by the ending that challenges our conventional expectations with a surprising twist.
This book later turned into a family reading, which helped my family communicate more effectively: to hear, but also to listen. I go back to this book every year and talk about the insights that this book provides to my friends and family. Rereading the book allows me to reflect on my relationships with my family and reminds me to be mindful of my surroundings.
– Tiffany Jin, TWG Assistant Editor
3. The Lightning Thief by Rick RIordan
Since the fourth grade, I have adored the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. My friend had borrowed the first book, The Lighting Thief, from her school library and read me the first chapter: I was instantly hooked. The mythology, world-building, and humor of a book about middle schoolers fighting ancient gods and monsters captivated me.
I’m not sure my friend ever finished the book, but for me, it kicked off a love of young adult fantasy books that continues to this day. After many reads over the last decade, The Lightning Thief still holds up as my most beloved book.
– Maggie Smith, TWG Assistant Editor
4. Combined and Uneven Development: Towards a New Theory of World-Literature by Warwick Research Collective
I’m going to mention a relatively recent publication, which is just to say that books are constantly changing my life! In 2015, the Warwick Research Collective (WReC) published Combined and Uneven Development: Towards a New Theory of World-Literature.
It’s a stunning work of literary criticism and theory that I value deeply for several reasons. First, it represents one of the most cogent attempts to reinvigorate postcolonial literary studies through an explicit engagement with materialist analyses of globalization, cycles of capital accumulation, and the always shifting political economic terrain of the contemporary world-system.
Second, the formal questions it foregrounds regarding “peripheral modernism” and “critical irrealism” are extremely compelling interventions into the recent “world literature” debates!
Finally, as a collaboratively written text, the book is also a model of politically embodied praxis. The WReC is a group of literary theorists connected to the University of Warwick in different ways.
I’ve recently been collaborating on a writing project with a dear colleague of mine, Dr. Stephanie Dimatulac Santos, and I remain inspired by WReC’s example. Take a class with me, and you’re almost guaranteed to read at least a few sections from Combined and Uneven Development!
– Dr. Alden Sajor Marte-Wood, Faculty Advisor
5. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Hold on! Let me defend myself before you judge me too harshly! All through elementary school and into the fifth grade, I never picked up a chapter book. I insisted that books were meant to have pictures, and generally regarded reading in general as a waste of time. In fact, I remember trying to argue to my parents that I didn’t even have to learn how to read, since it was going to be useless after a certain point. However, in the fifth grade, the teacher mandated that we choose a book from the library to read. I, trying to impress my friends, picked up the fattest book to check out (not to mention it had a dragon on the cover, and dragons are awesome).
I procrastinated reading it for a few days. I would just stare at the pages and pretend to read. Eventually, in a combination of boredom and curiosity, I flipped open to the beginning.
The next few weeks were a blur. I read every chance I got, and before I knew it, I was completely enchanted. I read late into the night, early in the morning, during recess, while I was supposed to be doing my homework, and at every other opportunity. I, to my own surprise, had fallen in love with reading — and the rest, if I may say so with a pinch of irony, is history.
Does Eragon have its faults? Definitely. But I think I will continue to think of it as the book that changed me because it is what gave me an enduring love for literature and language that has quite literally changed the course of my life.
– Hannah Hoskins, TWG Assistant Editor
6. Pride and Prejudice by Jane AUsten
As cliché as it may be to say this as an English major, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a book that’s been instrumental in my life. Before reading it, I had to overcome some of my own prejudices about “that one series my friend’s mom always watches when she’s crocheting” (my first exposure to the book) and experience it for myself.
As it turns out, this 18th/19th century novel about British society is a fascinating character study, an innovative and sophisticated piece of literature, and an absolutely hilarious collection of passive aggressive and witty retorts. My sister and I read it aloud together one summer each night, cozied up on the top bunk of our bed (often pausing to give our own way-too-detailed commentary), and we still reference our own inside jokes related to the book and think of it fondly because of this shared memory.
(P.S. I’m hyped to hopefully take Jane Austen’s Worlds in the spring!!)
– Sarah Darilek, TWG Assistant Editor
7. The Stranger by ALbert Camus
One of the more recent books that changed my life is The Stranger by Albert Camus. This book is about a man named Meursault who seems almost indifferent to the joys and horrors of his life. As a result, he’s condemned by society, as he refuses to conform to what’s expected of him even as the stakes are raised.
There is a funeral, death, romance, a beach, and a trial — all of it very dramatic. This was my first experience with existentialist literature, and to be honest, I probably wouldn’t have understood or appreciated this book nearly as much as I did if I hadn’t read it with my 12th grade English class. It was really interesting to be able to discuss this book with my classmates and to see just how far each of us would go to maintain our “to each their own” mindset.
Also, since we read this book with thoughts about college and the future looming over us, it definitely influenced how I began to see the function of freedom, decisions, and conformity in my life, especially amidst an ever-changing world. At the same time, I think it’s really easy to get caught up in theories and technicalities, so this book also just serves as a good reminder for me to take a step back sometimes and see the big picture.
– Grace Kwon, TWG Assistant Editor
8. We Are Okay and Hold Still by Nina LaCour
The book that holds the most meaning for me at the moment is tied between We Are Okay and Hold Still, both by Nina LaCour. Both books detail the tragedy of one’s early adult years — the beginning feelings of love and loss, and the heartache that accompanies these. I read the books throughout my high school and early college years, and both resonated with me at different times for the same overarching reasons. Growing up is tough to do, and to have someone voice that difficulty rather than try to paint over it can mean a whole lot to a young person who feels lost. The two books have been an ever-present comfort to me as I have felt the growing pains of adulthood stretch my legs; perhaps they will bring the same comfort to whoever is reading this.
– Anna Rajagopal, TWG Editor-in-Chief