Library

I believe good design and good storytelling cover the same kind of ground: making someone feel and experience something without showing all the work. I’m a sucker for both, and am on a constant mission to find literature that makes me cry. Here are a few all-time favorites.

Something borrowed

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Recommended for

Exhalation by Ted Chiang
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller
Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee
Dead-End Memories by Banana Yoshimoto
In the Distance by Hernán Díaz
The Door by Magda Szabó
Speaking Bones by Ken Liu
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
Playground by Richard Powers
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis
The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
Stay True by Hua Hsu
Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
The Gate by Natsume Sōseki