Imago

Written by: Octavia E. Butler

First line: I slipped into my first metamorphosis so quietly that nobody noticed.

Why you should read this book: Although the Oankali have decided not to create any third-gender ooloi children until they can be certain about their stability, Johdas, one of Lilith's many children, is turning into a pleasure-bestowing, offspring-creating, DNA-storing ooloi anyway, and there's no way to stop its transformation. The Oankali want Johdas to go back to the ship, where they can watch over it, but Johdas feels that Earth is its home, and that it can never be complete without a pair of human mates. Like all its family, Johdas will take a journey that is sometimes lonely and painful, but sometimes joyful and crowded, showing humans, Oankali, and constructs, the future of the new species.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Not interested in ultimate pleasure.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Author: Mark Haddon

First line: It was 7 minutes after midnight.

Why you should read this book: Christopher Boone is gifted in math but crippled by severe autism: he cannot be touched, he cannot understand facial expressions, and he cannot abide anything yellow. He does like walking around in the dark, and when he finds his neighbor's dog stabbed to death with a garden fork one night, he undertakes a project to catch the killer and detail his findings as a mystery novel. The investigation carries him to places and revelations that he never thought possible and provides a reader with an intimate glimpse into the world of the autistic teen as well as an inspiring account of overcoming obstacles.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You only like proper novels with lots of complex metaphors and no tangents.

Slow Food: The Case for Taste

Author: Carlo Petrini

First line: In Bra, a small city in Piedmont on the edge of the territory known as the Langhe, a group of young people were involved in social issues in the middle of the 1970s.

Why you should read this book: Inspired by a group of left-leaning Italian youth intent on preserving the best of recreational culture and fired in the crucible of anti-McDonald's activism, the Slow Food movement is a radical expression only in regard to the radical degradation of modern global culture it seeks to cure. Based on an ideal of conviviality, Slow Food is a movement dedicated to the preservation of culture, flavor, and the environment through the recognition of promotion of exquisite, historical, local specialties, breeds, and cultivars. This book documents the history and ideals of the movement, showcasing the philosophy, literature, and above all, the work that emphasizes tradition and excellence in food production, which ought to be available to the entire world.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're working in your garden.

Five for a Little One

Author: Chris Raschka

First line: Smell is 1.

Why you should read this book: Raschka is the master of lively, rhythmic prose for youngsters, and this book tackles plenty of topics for little kids. It's a counting, book, a rhyming book, a book about senses, and a book about rabbits, full of rich descriptive language and funny, mixed-media illustrations. Observant kids will also note the little protagonist, a black and white bunny, is a perfect amalgam of its parents, one black and one white.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You just checked the menu, and it's rabbit stew tonight.

What Does Peace Feel Like?

Author: Vladimir Radunsky

First line: How interesting! The word Peace is beautiful in all languages.

Why you should read this book: The authors asked a group of international schoolchildren to describe their ideas of peace in terms of their five senses, and they told him that peace smelled like pizza fresh from the oven, looked like a loving mother, sounded like singing, tasted like ice cream, and felt like a cat's fur, among other things. It's a thought-provoking book for young ones. The last page of the book provides a list of how to say "peace" in almost two hundred languages, and two percent of the profits from book sales go to CARE, an organization committed to effecting peace by creating sustainable solutions to poverty.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're too busy praying for peace.