Being in college usually means you are away from family for the majority of the year, making it hard to know what they want or need. It also usually means they are starting to think about the “after college” life, which can be scary. Here are a list of books that the soon to be grad may appreciate.
THIS IS ON MY CHRISTMAS LIST. I haven’t read it yet. I am so excited though. Since I can’t give personal feedback, just read this tiny excerpt and you’ll be hooked too:
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Chubby for Life
I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t chubby. Like being Indian, being chubby feels like it is just part of my permanent deal. I remember being in first grade, in Mrs. Gilmore’s class at Fiske Elementary School, and seeing that Ashley Kemp, the most popular girl in our class, weighed only thirty-seven pounds. We knew this because we weighed her on the industrial postal scale they kept in the teacher’s supply closet. I was so envious. I snuck into the supply closet later that same day to weigh myself. I was a whopping sixty-eight pounds.
Some of the first math I understood was that I was closer to twice Ashley’s weight than to her weight.
“Don’t be closer to twice a friend’s weight than to her actual weight,” I told myself. This little mantra has helped me stave off obesity for more than two decades.
My mom’s a doctor, but because she came from India and then Africa, where childhood obesity was not a problem, she put no premium on having skinny kids. In fact, she and my dad didn’t mind having a chubby daughter. Part of me wonders if it even made them feel a little prosperous, like Have you seen our overweight Indian child? Do you know how statistically rare this is? It will then not come as a surprise to you that I’ve never been thin in my life—except the day I was born, when I was six pounds.
This books is incredibly funny. Like laugh out loud so loud you are a nuisance to those around you. Tina Fey tells her story of balancing her life, how balance doesn’t always work and how that’s okay.
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I adore Amy Poehler. Everyone loves Amy Poehler. Why shouldn’t they? Getting ready to graduate college, I feel a lot of doubt/insecurity/what the hell am I going to do if I’m not in class 5 days of the week that’s all I’ve ever known. Yes Please is all about confidence and overcoming situations that seem helpless.
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“Required reading for all young women.” – Huffington Post
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“Yes Please is a great story…because it is self-damning and hopeful at the same time.” – Los Angeles Times
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I read this book right when I was beginning to show interest in women’s issues. It was uncomfortable. Sometimes upsetting. Sometimes I vehemently disagreed with the author. But that’s what art is supposed to do. Not everything is neatly packaged and universal. That’s what Dunham’s piece is so great – it challenges you to think for yourself and form your own opinions.
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“Witty, illuminating, maddening, bracingly bleak . . . [Dunham] is a genuine artist, and a disturber of the order.”—The Atlantic
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“We are forever in search of someone who will speak not only to us but for us. . . . Not That Kind of Girl is from that kind of girl: gutsy, audacious, willing to stand up and shout. And that is why Dunham is not only a voice who deserves to be heard but also one who will inspire other important voices to tell their stories too.”—Roxane Gay, Time
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Every girl who loves Beyonce’s “Flawless” should read this extended version of Adichie’s Ted Talk that was featured in the song. We Should All Be Feminists helps define what the 21st century definition of “feminism” really is.
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The clothing sold on Nasty Gal perfectly reflects its creator, Sophia Amoruso: Sexy, bold, fearless. Here is a woman who went from shoplifting to creating a $100 million fashion retailer in ten years.
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“[#GIRLBOSS] is part memoir, part management guide and part girl-power manifesto. A sort of Lean In for misfits, it offers young women a candid guide to starting a business and going after what they want.” —The Washington Post
“It’s easy to get the sense, reading Lean In, that Sandberg is writing for women who’ve already made it. #GIRLBOSS is for those who haven’t, which means it is aimed at people who have nothing to lose, which makes it a much riskier and more enjoyable manifesto.” —New York Magazine
I'm Just A Girl 