The best books that keep us turning pages and thinking about the kind of world we're leaving to future generations

I loved this book. It made me laugh and it made me cry. Any book that does both is on my list of keepers, and Lydia Millet did both so well. She created characters I care about and put them in situations that kept me turning pages.

The plot revolves around a group of kids vacationing with their parents who were friends in college and have reunited for the first time. The narrator, a teenager, describes the adults in less than flattering terms, especially when a hurricane descends on their rented mansion.

Millet portrays the absurdity of ignoring what is right in front of us. She deftly leads us to the ending, which is somehow both heartbreaking and hopeful. It touched me deeply, and I have thought about it often.

This novel intrigued me because of Robin, a young boy who cares deeply about endangered animals. Powers uses the child as a device to make readers think about our earth and its inhabitants. I did the same with the character in my novel. Both children agonize over how to make adults pay attention to the crisis we face.

While the plot centers on a father’s intense devotion to his struggling son, Powers succeeds in portraying nature’s magnificence and its increasing fragility. I am in awe of his ability to create such a page-turning plot in a message-driven book.

Ishmael is one of the most unique novels I have read. Years after reading it, I still think about it. I’m sure it is one reason I am concerned about the impact of our choices on the people who come after us. Hard to imagine that a book about a gorilla who teaches a human using the Socratic Method could have such an impact on me. But it did. The gorilla wants to help humans understand why things are the way they are. (This is something I want to understand too.) All of this sounds philosophical, and it is. At the same time, the book was a page-turner for me. I read it one day. It entertained me and made me think.

This novel pulled me in quickly with its portrayal of a middle-class family hoping to spend a relaxing week in a rented home they could never afford to own. The family’s plans go awry quickly when the owners show up at door wanting to stay there as a refuge from the total blackout in NYC. Adding suspense to witty social commentary, Alam creates a sense that something very bad is happening, without ever describing what that bad thing is. I had a few ideas, but the author outsmarted and surprised me with the ending. I feel he captured a lot about modern life and the anxiety many of us feel about the future. Yet, it was entertaining and made me laugh a few times.  

Released in 1993, the dystopian story it tells begins in 2024. This grabbed me because back when I read George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1984 seemed like the distant future. I didn’t think anything in the book could happen in my lifetime. But history proved me wrong. Butler’s version of 2024 is overwhelmingly negative, and there are some elements that ring true now. But the plot is interesting and kept me reading even when the story was grim. I like Lauren, the main character, because she keeps looking for ways to survive and help others. She believes if we are willing to change and adapt, we can create a better future for those who come after us. I believe that too.