5 Books to Read this Winter

You may have heard of the HULU original series Dopesick, but have you heard much about the book? Dopesick was written by reporter Beth Macy about the prescription pill to heroin epidemic in America. Macy does a great job of explaining how Big Pharma got people hooked on opiates and explains how they got away with it. Warning: this book may get you up in arms about how incredibly powerful these companies are, but you in return will have a greater understanding of the epidemic that has swept the nation.

If you have an American public education you must read this book! Stamped from the Beginning goes into major racial concepts and historical events that are embedded in American ideology; this book provides necessary information that my high school didn’t. This book may leave you questioning every piece of media that you have seen and also help you understand the stereotypes that are so ingrained in the American belief system.

Roxanne Gay’s book titled Bad Feminist left me a little confused about what I was getting myself into. I judged the book by its cover and guessed that I would be reading a little bit of theory and possibly some social commentary on how difficult it can be to be politically correct. I will say that it took a good third of this book to get some momentum, but after that I found Gay’s commentary to be at the very least entertaining, but mainly thought-provoking. Bad Feminist features everything from why 50 Shades of Grey is deliciously horrible to the excusatory attitudes that colleges have for sexual predators who also happen to be star athletes.

This is one of those books that I picked up and did not put down until I turned the last page. It was quirky, funny, heart-wrenching, and most of all a fantastic read. I won’t say anymore about this story because it truly was a even better without much context going in.

There’s a reason why Dune is a classic novel that always tops the Sci-Fi book charts. I won’t lie, it took two months for me to get through the first half of the book — there is a lot of world building and I was consistently turning to the back of the book to find some definition. However, once I got past this stage, it became one of the most interesting stories I have ever read. If you’re not interested in taking on the book over Christmas break, it may be worth watching the new movie with Timothee Chalamet. The movie sticks to the book pretty well and has some of the best shots I have seen recently!