When I was growing up, my parents read to me and my siblings almost every single night.

From Dr. Seuss, to the Narnia books, a little Mark Twain and Norwegian Christmas advent books, we were delighted nightly with stories of adventure and intrigue, and shown role models in these strong characters that faced all odds. In making this a constant in our lives, our parents gave us the kind of education you get not from direct lessons but by example. They also instilled in us a great love for the written word.

That love hasn’t dimmed. Though it can be too easy to get lost in the depths of the internet these days, I try as much as possible to read books – even just a chapter or two – every single day. There is so much to be gained from literature that you can’t always find in blog posts and articles and tiny bits of information found on Twitter. You get a viewpoint into humanity wholly different from your own and get to see a new situation that you may never come across in your daily life. You learn something about yourself depending on how you react to these stories. And more than anything, I’ve found reading to be a really good way to self-reflect and find some quiet in an increasingly frenetic world.

And so, without further ado, here are a few of the books I’ve been enjoying lately:

(1) Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls

Terrific book. Ms. Walls tells the story of her grandmother’s life through the perspective of her grandmother. So it’s part biography, part first-person narrative, a true story that’s been novelized. Her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, was awesome. A no-nonsense, take charge, independent woman who got things done and wasn’t afraid to be strong during a time in this country’s history when women were largely seen as necessarily dependent on men.

(2) All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque

I somehow was never assigned to read this book in high school or college, which is really a shame because it’s wonderful. Tragic, and heartbreaking, but such an important view for all of us to see. Remarque was a soldier himself in WWI, so though this too is a fictional account, it comes from a very real perspective and draws on some very real circumstances.

(3) The Lover’s Dictionary, by David Levithan

Wow. Seriously, just wow. Each page is formatted to resemble a selection from a dictionary. So for instance he’ll use the word “flux” but instead of writing the true definition of that word, he transfers a tiny bit of his relationship onto the page. The observations he shares on the course of a relationship are like poetry. And the timeline of the book is constructed in such a way that it’s not linear, but jumps around from the beginning of the relationship and how they meet, to the rockier moments. Beautiful, insightful, a quick read. You’ll want to re-read it right away, that’s how terrific it is. (Please go pick up a copy now, read it, and call me so we can talk about it. Go ahead. I’ll wait.)

(4) The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I’ve had a troubled history with this book. In high school, when it was assigned in class, I didn’t love it like my classmates did. I found it unsettling. So, I wrote it off as a book that I just wouldn’t ever care for. But then – many, many years later (ten years to be precise….man, where did the time go?!) – I decided that a book so lauded and treasured by the world deserved a second chance. Plus, Fitzgerald was BFFs with Ernest Hemingway back in the day (OK yes, I may have taken some liberties with history there a bit), and I l.o.v.e Hemingway, so it couldn’t be that bad, right? It wasn’t. I have a renewed respect for this novel. Just goes to show you that your tastes really do change with age. (For instance, I now like sauerkraut. My mom will be pleased.)

(5) Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen

Here’s another example of a book loved by the masses that I just couldn’t quite get. To be honest, I didn’t even finish it, deciding instead to set it aside about halfway through and take a little break. Don’t get me wrong, Franzen is really extraordinary in his crafting of story, sentence, and character, but this book is immense. And like many immense things, you really can only take it in small doses. I’ll let you know how it goes when I return. (Which, if history is in fact doomed to repeat itself, won’t be for another 10 years.)

And there you have it! What have you been reading lately?