Madeline
I like my fair share of fluffy books that don’t carry a huge weight. And then there are these books. Books that shifted my perception in a big way. These are the books that have changed me, in both big and small ways.
The Hate U Give
The Hate U Give taught me a single lesson about being a black youth in the United States today. As a white girl living in the United States, the police never scared me. The most I have ever feared is receiving a speeding ticket.
After this book, I realized that even though that was my default reaction, it’s not everyone’s reaction. In addition, my reaction would not work for all people. This book clarified to me what the Black Lives Matter movement means and why it is so important that is why this is one of the books that shifted my perception.
Such A Fun Age
Just like The Hate U Give was a book that shifted my perception in regards to the Black Lives Matter movement, so did Such A Fun Age. They both sparked a different emotion about the movement I was not previously aware of. The difference between the two is that The Hate U Give is about a very blatant prejudice. Such a Fun Age is the opposite, it’s about the subtlety that racism can carry but the big impact that subtlety could carry.
My Dark Vanessa
Going into My Dark Vanessa, I knew teacher student relationships were bad. I knew that relationships between a 40 something and a minor was bad. But I was never able to make tangible reasoning behind it. It was just bad.
Until My Dark Vanessa. That is when the intangible became way too tangible. So tangible that I cringed through the whole book. It made me realize that not only they were bad but why they are so manipulative and unfair to the underaged person. My Dark Vanessa is one of the books that shifted my perception on adult and teenager relationships.
Modern Romance
Who would have thought that of all possible people who could have written one of the books that shifted my perception it would have been Aziz Ansari, but yes, this author with this book has made my list. I wish I found this book when I was single. I know that this is first world problems, but still! It shifted my perception.
After reading Modern Romance, I understood why I was single for as long as I was. I understood why the guys I dated were such assholes (excuse my language). And I now understand why my single friends are having such a difficult time finding romance. Spoiler alert, it has to do with technology and the ability to reach just about anyone in the world rather than only a three block radius.
Night
As a practicing Jew growing up, of course I knew about the concentration camps, WWII, Nazis, and Hitler. Of course I had read Anne Frank’s Diary. But similar to My Dark Vanessa, this was all theory. No one had really detailed to me what it was like to be in a concentration camp. What it was like to be carted off like cattle. What it was like to be hunted down. Anne Frank talked about being hidden away, being scared but we never saw what happened to her after she left the annex, and to be frank (no pun intended) I’m okay with that.
It was not until my sophomore year of high school that I read Night and my world was turned upside down. This was the first book to describe to me what actually occurred in those concentration camps and how people in them were treated. It was the first book that really explained the hate the Nazis had for people who were not like them. It was the first of many books that shifted my perception of what it would have been like to be a Jew in Europe at that time. And as a European Jew, that is really scary.
