STACKED: What’s on Sophie Madeline Dess' Shelf

I'm starting with a book that many may have read, but just in case, it's absolutely necessary. It's for anyone who's ever felt something real in their life. It makes you laugh through the pain, which is often the best way to feel anything at all. I highly recommend this book.

Anne Carson’s incredible translation of Euripides makes these plays, written over two thousand years ago, feel relevant and necessary. They deal with betrayal, passion, angst, and grief—fundamental human feelings that we experience all the time. All of these are encompassed beautifully, first by Euripides, and then once more in Anne Carson's most recent translation. I absolutely hope you get a chance to read this.

In this collection, there is the most articulate and heartfelt argument for why we have to read the Greeks. Virginia Woolf says it's the origin of human feeling. She can teach you so much in 140 pages. If you want to learn a lot about books in little time, flip through this collection. Read the whole thing—you won't regret it. It will save and change your life.

A novel about love, passion, despair, rage, and all the things we feel if we're truly living our lives as we should. It’s the most enchanting, beautifully written thing I’ve ever read. Some people just do it the best it’s ever been done, and that is certainly James Baldwin in Giovanni’s Room.