Next is “ The Night Watchman ” by Louise Erdrich. ” Lorde was such an incredible person, and everything she said and wrote is so very relevant to today - it’s just irresponsible not to read her work. Go read everything by Audre Lorde right now, especially “ Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. I could talk for hours about “ Her Body and Other Parties ” by Carmen Maria Machado - I won’t because I’ve already written an article about this masterful short story collection, but if you haven’t read it yet, get on that, ASAP. I’ve lost count of all the books I’ve read for my myriad of English classes over the last four years, but here are the highlights. I will be bringing these specific editions down with me, because I annotated them for my AP Literature class - I’ve come a long way by means of annotations. But, “ The Things They Carried ” by Tim O’Brien and “ The Importance of Being Earnest ” by Oscar Wilde have also made it. I’ve talked about “ Mythology ” by Edith Hamilton and “ Frankenstein ” by Mary Shelley before, so don’t be surprised to find them on the list.

There are many firsts associated with it, and it is precious to me. It’s also one of the first books I read in my freshman honors English class. While I hated reading “ The Grapes of Wrath ” and “ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ” as much as the next person, there were a few books - five, to be exact - that I am taking with me to the grave. The following are titles you will have to pry out of my cold, dead hands. So many that I’ve categorized them for you. This isn’t the first time I’ve been forced to “slim down” my collection, and something this process has taught me is that there are certain books I refuse to part with.

But even then, the winding stacks that make up the walls of my apartment are still towering. Miraculously, I was able to fill an entire bag of books that I’ll be dropping off at BAM sometime before I graduate. This weekend I began the arduous process of going through my things - you know the drill - putting everything I own into one of three piles: keep, donate and trash. Don’t say anything about this being the last Book club article I will ever write.

Zami book