TheCoolist is a mood board for your headspace.

  1. TheCoolist
  2. Entertainment

Corrupting Power: 32 Brilliant Books Everyone Should Read

An educated person is a powerful person. It’s true no matter where you rank in terms of financial success or where you stand on the social ladder. The benefits of nonfiction are well known, as fact based works inform us about the world we live in, but recently fiction has been enjoying more admiration.

People who read quality fiction are less likely to be swayed by outlandish rhetoric, and their perspective is generally more rounded. Such readers are found to be more empathetic than the average Joe, and more compassionate. For emotional maturity, intellectual stimulation, and just general entertainment, pull these 32 brilliant books off the shelf.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Via splcenter.com

To Kill a Mockingbird addresses compassion and racism in America told in the voice of a precocious tomboy.

The Diary of A Young Girl

Via buildingstories.com

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl,  is the heart rending true account of a young Jewish girl in the Holocaust.

1984

Via photogram.com

Surging in popularity recently, 1984 is a dystopian novel about an authoritarian regime where truth is subjective and dissent is punished heavily.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Via mediaroom.com

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone started off a series that defined a generation. It is the quintessential David and Goliath.

Fahrenheit 451

If you still need convincing that literature is worthwhile, Fahrenheit 451 offers a glimpse of a world in which it is forbidden. Spoiler: it’s another dystopia.

Between the World and Me

Via theoddyseyonline.com

Between the World and Me is a letter written from a father to his son: two black men living in today’s America.

Jane Eyre

Via penguin.com

Remeniscent of the Gothic style, Jane Eyre tells the story of a strong woman in a time when women were supposed to be weak.

Animal Farm

Via amazon.in

Animal Farm is a short read, but a chilling tale wherein an elected government of pigs imposes a repressive regime on their subjects and supposed equals.

The Book Thief

Via bookwormsdiary.com

The Book Thief is narrated by death and follows the misadventures of the eponymous book thief, a German girl in WWII. It leaves readers with the enduring message that words can heal or destroy, depending on how they are used.

Huckleberry Finn

Via readers.com

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn tells the story of a runaway boy and slave, and their common humanity which overcomes societal bias and cruelties.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

Via bookshelf.com

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantastical children’s tale about resistance to oppressive regimes, kindness, and sacrifice of self.

A Tale of Two Cities

Via quoteson.com

A Tale of Two Cities is a realistic adult story that also tells of resistance and sacrifice, but delves into a darker scenario of brutality when the oppressed overtake their oppressers.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Via amazon.com

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a work of comic genius that puts a lighthearted sci-fi lense on existential impotence amid and against forces greater than onesself.

The Secret Garden

Via Amazon.com

The Secret Garden is a tale of love after loss, hope in times of darkness, and the renewal of gardens and souls. It is a hopeful story, and one that insists that time and effort are the keys to healing and growth.

A Christmas Carol

Via puffin.com

Shorter and cheerier than most Dickens, A Christmas Carol emphasizes generosity of spirit and kind actions as the keys to joy and happiness.

The Giver

Via amazon.com

The Giver explores a dystopia where all the memories of history are recalled by one man. It chills with its approach to the question of what happens when society forgets its past.

Catch 22

Via simonandschuster.com

Absurdist dramedy of surprising relevance, Catch-22 follows the bureaucracy and circular logic that afflicts a bomber unit from WWII.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Via giantbomb.com

The Handmaid’s Tale tells of another dystopian future in which religious zealots have regressed socity to the point that women are once again considered the property of men.

Wuthering Heights

Via simonandschuster.com

A classic of dysfunctional relationships, Wuthering Heights makes an important point about compassion and kindness by portraying characters lacking in both.

Anne of Green Gables

Via puffin.com

Anne of Green Gables is a kindhearted look at small town rurality, and demonstrates the importance of lucky mistakes and the love of a family.

Frankenstein

Via horrorhomework.com

Frankenstein is a seminal work in the horror genre, questioning the virtue of progress without thought of consequence.

The Color Purple

Via uncoveredclassics.com

The Color Purple gives an unflinching account of the life of an abused black woman. It is at times difficult to experience, but a deeply beautiful novel of both suffering and joy.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Via goodhousekeeping.com

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn highlights some of the gender inequality experienced by women over the years and the important pairing of having dreams and working to achieve them.

Alice in Wonderland

Via puffin.com

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carrol used the simple premise of a child’s sojourn through an imaginary land to address some of the nonsensical aspects of the real world in an unusual and thought provoking way.

Ender’s Game

Via pluggedin.com

A modern classic, Ender’s Game explores through a video-game like war lead by children the questionable virtue of conquest and the lines between devotion to one’s own and compassion for the Other.

Watership Down

Via watership-down.com

Watership Down is one of the most beloved fantasies of all time, telling a moving tale of community and the quest for home. It highlights appreciation for the strengths of others and compassion for the small and the ailing.

Les Miserables

Via simonandschuster.com

Les Miserables, Victor Hugo’s door stopper of the French Revolution, compels with its account of an escaped prisoner who must choose between letting go of his comfortable life, or regressing from the better person he has become.

The Scarlet Letter

Via simonandschuster.com

An puritanical account of slut shaming, The Scarlet Letter speaks to the psychological torture of hidden shame in juxtaposition with societal censure for sins revealed.

The Iliad

Via betterreading.com

Homer’s contribution to Greek mythology, beginning with The Iliad, shaped Western imagination more profoundly than any other story.

The Things They Carried

Via iccharbinger.com

The Things They Carried takes the reader inside the experiences of the foot soldiers of Vietnam, the things that were important to them, and the stories they had to tell.

Slaughterhouse-Five

Via alibaba.com

Slaughterhouse-Five explores the ideas of predestination and free will, and the cruelty of humans to one another.

The Jungle

Via likesuccess.com

One of the best examples of the power of prose, when first written The Jungle shed light on inhumane factory working conditions, actually leading to reformations in the federal laws governing food safety.