13 Powerful Books for Our Political Leaders

This is an essential text on the future of our planet and the future of the global economy. Naomi Klein argues that climate change can be an opportunity to radically transform our broken economic and cultural priorities.

Already beloved by millions of readers, this novel follows a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as they both try to survive the devastation of World War II. The breakout hit of 2014, this beautiful novel was a finalist for the National Book Award and it just won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. If you haven't read it yet, this one should be at the top of your spring reading list.

Funny, heartbreaking, and lyrical, The Distance Between Us poignantly captures the confusion and contradictions of childhood, reminding us that the joys and sorrows we experience are imprinted on the heart forever, calling out to us of those places we first called home.

This profound winner of the National Book Award, hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” explores the biggest questions about America’s racial history through the intimate lens of a father’s concern for his son.

For fans of “The Walking Dead”

While “The Walking Dead” hero Rick Grimes and his gang are keeping hope alive but losing their grip fast after a zombie apocalypse, STATION ELEVEN’s Kirsten Raymonde and her band, the Symphony, have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive after a mysterious pandemic has ravaged civilization.

This personal, eloquent, and unique essay offers readers a definition of feminism for the twenty-first century—and for the next generations—which is rooted in inclusion and awareness.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head after she refused to be silenced or give up her right to go to school. Her memoir is the remarkable story of a family uprooted by global terrorism. I Am Malala will make you believe in the power of one person’s voice to inspire change in the world.

A memorable novel inspired by a real midwife, Axie Muldoon, who became one of the most controversial figures of Victorian New York City by defying the law in the name of women’s reproductive rights. This story is sure to further conversations about women’s rights issues that have been the subject of debate for centuries.

Zak Ebrahim is an American boy who was raised by his terrorist father—the man who planned the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Ebrahim dispels the myth that terrorism is a forgone conclusion for people trained to hate. He shows that hate is always a choice—but so is tolerance.

In this beautiful and absorbing novel, a biracial American family raises three children who are coming of age in the Civil Rights era. This brilliant generation-bridging tale delineates the tragedy of race in America through the lives and choices of one family.

A luminous and savage depiction of post-9/11 America, as experienced by one young war hero attending a Dallas Cowboys game.

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, journalist Gary Rivlin traces the storm’s immediate damage and the efforts of New Orleans to rebuild itself. He recounts the storm’s lasting effects on the city’s geography and infrastructure, as well as on its psychic, racial, and social fabric.