Here's a list, in no particular order, of my favorite books! And here's a page of my thoughts on any books I feel like writing about.
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An Immense World, Ed Yong: a wonderful exploration of the different senses of different animals and how they perceive the world.
Discworld, Sir Terry Pratchett: okay, full disclosure, this is a series. A very large series. I don't think I've read all of them -- you don't have to read them in order of when they were written, and in fact I recommend you don't do that. There are graphics online that suggest which ones to read depending what you're looking for. I dunno, I love them. (GNU Terry Pratchett.)
A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There, Aldo Leopold: I don't actually know how to describe this one. An ecological treatise on a very personal level. His writing is elegant and evocative while maintaining familiarity -- this is a man you could go have a beer with. Definitely made me cry a couple times reading it. My favorite quote from it:
Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel. By virtue of this curious loophole in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree -- and there will be one. If his back be strong and his shovel sharp, there may eventually be ten thousand. And in the seventh year he may lean upon his shovel, and look upon his trees, and find them good. God passed on his handiwork as early as the seventh day, but I notice He has since been rather noncommittal about its merits. I gather either that He spoke too soon, or that trees stand more looking upon than do fig leaves and firmaments.
The House in the Cerulean Sea, TJ Klune: middle-aged man realizes that the system he's devoted his life to is unfixably broken, finds a family, and learns how to live. I loved this one. Linus truly believes in the personhood of the children he works with, and has to confront the fact that the system he's working within is designed to keep them as less-than.
Archivist Wasp, Nicole Kornher-Stace: a girl who's only ever experienced betrayal follows a ghost on his quest for closure in a post-apocalyptic world.
Hench, Natalie Zina Walschots: disillusioned woman works with the villains to bring down the greatest superhero in the city. Fun thoughts like "is goodness determined by your ideals or your impact?"
The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams Bianco: my grandparents gave me this book a Christmas or two after I came out, with a note in the front that said "becoming real is hard and painful, but we're behind you and we love you". It's the story of a much-loved toy.
Under the Whispering Door, TJ Klune: business executive dies, learns how he was regarded, and is given a timeline to figure out who he would have liked to be before he has to move on. Death is a major player in the book, and one of the themes I took from it is "the sacrifices we would make for our loved ones, versus the sacrifices our loved ones would let us make for them".
Nimona, ND Stevenson: yes, this one just got a Netflix movie. I haven't actually seen it, but I've heard it's very good. I read this one in freshman year of high school, and little egg me was captivated by shapeshifting and pushing people away because they can't hurt you and you can't hurt them if you never get close, coping with what you perceive as a betrayal, and how to make amends after doing significant harm.
The Little Prince, Antoine de St-Exupery: adult stranded in the desert thinks about what it was to be a child. This is one of my absolute favorite books, and it holds a lot of sentimental meaning to me.
Borrowed Time, Paul Monette: a memoir that centers around the AIDS epidemic and the extraordinary toll it took on our community.
This Is How You Lose the Time War, Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar: in a war that aims to conquer all of time, two soldiers find common ground. If you're familiar with the musical Wicked, it echoes the sentiment of For Good -- you have irrevocably changed my life and I am who I am in large part because of you. Was it for the better? Anyways it was for good.