Tomorrow is National Read Across America Day! This “holiday” was established by the National Education Association (NEA) in 1998 to help get kids excited about reading — which is so, so important. Growing up I loved to read, but didn’t do particularly well at it in school. Reading out loud made me nervous — it still does — and so I would rush through whatever paragraph my teacher had asked me to read, making it seem like I didn’t quite get the whole concept of punctuation. In second grade, I had to go to special reading classes — and they bored the bejesus out of me. Frankly, I don’t know how I ever got out of those classes because I distinctly remember not actually doing the reading. But I’d go home and read at night, devouring the books I liked.

I went on to excel in English class and eventually be an English major in college, but even there I often found myself bored to tears by some “classics” I was supposed to read. My mind would wander and I’d struggle to get done the massive amount of reading I needed to do. Years of loving to read have taught me something: Kids, and even adults, would embrace reading more if we didn’t beat the love out of them by forcing them to read the stuff they hate. At Quiet Corner Communications, we believe this so strongly, we created an entire podcast about the binge-able books that we can’t put down. 

But we thought National Read Across America Day might be a good day to take a break from the marketing tips and share some of our favorite books with you. 

Theresa’s list of faves

• “A Prayer for Owen Meany” (one of the books we cover on Mid Lit) is the story of a friendship between two boys in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of them happens to be an “instrument of God.” Come for the anti-war rhetoric and stay for the charming, manipulative dwarf who is loved by all.  

• I read “Beloved” twice — once in college and once in high school — and it wasn’t enough. Toni Morrison’s classic is essentially a ghost story — a woman haunted by the legacy of slavery and the baby she killed rather than see her returned to bondage. It may be the great American novel and if you haven’t read it, you’re missing out.

• If you have ever wondered what “Stand By Me” would be like if it took place on a reservation, “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich is for you. It took me a long time to get around to reading Erdrich but now I can’t wait for the next book. Not only is “the Round House” an interesting look behind the curtain of life on a reservation, but it’s also a bit of a whodunnit and a coming of age story for a gaggle of lovable boys.

• It’s hard to pick one Barbara Kingsolver book for this list, but “Prodigal Summer” is the story that has really stuck with me. Three interwoven narratives of women making their way in Appalachia — including one who inherits a farm she knows nothing about. Honorable mention goes to “Flight Behavior” — the story of a smart woman whose life has been limited by her circumstances until millions of Monarch butterflies descend on her home and a bunch of scientists follow. The thing that interested me most about this book was Kingsolver’s attempt to juxtapose the lives of the rural poor to the academic elites who flock to her family’s land. 

Rebecca’s list of faves

• I didn’t read “Mrs. Dalloway” until graduate school, but from the first iconic sentence to the last, I was hooked. For something that is categorically considered “modern literature” and deploys many of its discursive devices, “Mrs. Dalloway” is a simple story contained in a single day. The plot is understated but beautifully rendered, redirecting focus to the emotional experience of the characters, and the act of reading itself. I often describe it as a hypnotic book – or a dark bedtime story about (and for) depressed adults – but it’s also a war novel, a snarky takedown of high society, and a sapphic romance. 

• I have many favorite writers, but the one I read most is undoubtedly Margaret Atwood. You know her for “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but I’m here to hype her “MaddAddam” trilogy. The three books (“Oryx and Crake,” “The Year of the Flood,” and “MaddAddam”) explore the events that led to a global pandemic – and, like most of Atwood’s canon, strikes a delicate balance between laugh-out-loud humor, extreme human depravity, and hope for a better future.

• If a trilogy is too much commitment, might I interest you in Naomi Alderman’s “The Power”? The premise is simple: all of a sudden, women start developing an extra organ that allows them to emit electric shocks through their hands. Power quite literally changes hands overnight resulting in chaos – and catharsis. Alderman was hand-picked to be Margaret Atwood’s protege, so expect the same dark feminist humor and resulting self-reflection.

• Speaking of self-reflection...check out “Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion.” I read this collection of essays by elder Millennial Jia Tolentino fully expecting to hate it – if you give this book to someone they will take it as a personal attack – but two essays in, I was texting all my friends telling them to buy it. Jia (I think she’d want me to call her Jia) takes on everything from #GirlBoss to the cult of athleisure and does her skewering in a sharp, relatable tone that makes me upset we’re not friends IRL.