A lot happens in life before we turn the big 3-0. There's teenage angst, twentysomething mistakes, and three decades of trying to figure out exactly who we are and what we want. Here, I've included a mixture of literature that indulges the romance and glamour of staying out late drinking and listening to rock and roll, along with words that remind us that we're just now on the cusp of understanding, well, anything. There's discussion of gender identity, falling in love, trauma, sex, and experiences so relatable you'll find yourselves laughing and crying all at once. Below are 30 of my favorite titles, but feel free to add your own. Just remember to read.
1. "The Dream of a Common Language," by Adrienne Rich
2. "Native Son," by Richard Wright
3. "The Sun Also Rises," by Ernest Hemingway
4. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," by Milan Kundera
5. "A Collection of Essays," by George Orwell
6. "The Bluest Eye," by Toni Morrison
7. "How Should a Person Be?" by Sheila Heti
8. "In Watermelon Sugar," by Richard Brautigan
9. "Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar," by Cheryl Strayed
10. "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," by Michael Chabon
11. "The Flamethrowers," by Rachel Kushner
12. "Slouching Towards Bethlehem," by Joan Didion
13. "Hateship Friendship Courtship Loveship Marriage," by Alice Munro
14. "Pastoralia," by George Saunders
15. "On the Road," by Jack Kerouac
16. "A Room of One's Own," by Virginia Woolf
17. "Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
18. "Norwegian Wood," by Haruki Murakami
19. "White Teeth," Zadie Smith
20. "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," by Tom Robbins
21. "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kessey
22. "Just Kids," by Patti Smith
23. "Me Talk Pretty One Day," by David Sedaris
24. "Generation X" by Douglas Coupland
25. "Cat's Cradle," Kurt Vonnegut
26. "The Most of Nora Ephron," by Nora Ephron
27. "Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen
28. "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas," by Hunters S. Thompson
29. "Go Tell It on the Mountain," by James Baldwin
30. "The Picture of Dorian Gray," by Oscar Wilde
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