Interesting Books Written by Millennials
Check out the following books written by millennials that truly deserve a place on your bookshelf!
Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener
Anna Wiener is a famous American writer born in 1987 whose main genres include non-fiction and memoir. She is best known and is most famous for her 2020 memoir called Uncanny Valley that was published on January 14, 2020. It’s a memoir about Silicon Valley that primarily focuses on the writer’s evolution from the publishing industry to technology companies, where she had a series of jobs. The book gives us an insight into two different aspects of the world – a portrait of a bygone era and the story of the upcoming age.
“My desires were generic. I wanted to find my place in the world, and be independent, useful, and good. I wanted to make money, because I wanted to feel affirmed, confident, and valued. I wanted to be taken seriously. Mostly, I didn’t want anyone to worry about me.”
Anna Wiener, Uncanny Valley
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Eleanor Catton is a New Zealand novelist and screenwriter born in Canada in 1985. Her book The Luminaries is an ambitious inspiration of the 19th century that won the Man Booker Prize in 2013. She was 18 at the time, making her the youngest author ever to have been honoured with that reward. The book is set in New Zealand’s South Island in 1866 and features quite a complex structure grounded on the Western astrology system. It was published in August 2013. While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea given its complexity, it surely is one of the most interesting books written by millennials.
“We spend our entire lives thinking about death. Without that project to divert us, I expect we would all be dreadfully bored. We would have nothing to evade, and nothing to forestall, and nothing to wonder about. Time would have no consequence.”
Eleanor Catton, the Luminaries.
What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
Helen Oyeyemi is a British novelist born in 1984 whose main genre is fiction. One of her best works must be What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours which was published in 2015. The book is basically a collection of stories where there are a number of different characters from different religions, ethnicities, and sexualities. Every character happens to be searching and looking for something that is hard to find. The book repeatedly talks about ‘keys’ both in metaphorical and literal terms that are basically represented as various keys to unlock different elements and aspects of the characters’ lives.
“I remember Mum repeatedly telling us we had good hearts and good brains. When she said that, we’d say ‘thanks,’ and it might have sounded as if we were thanking her for seeing us that way, but actually we were thanking her for giving us whatever goodness was in us.”
Helen Oyeyemi, What is Not Yours is Not Yours.
On Earth, We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Born in 1988 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Ocean Vuong is a Vietnamese American poet, essayist, and novelist. His debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is an epistolary novel published in 2019 which has been written in a letterform where a Vietnamese American son writes to his illiterate mother. The book is both about having the power and strength of telling one’s own story as well as the pain of the silence of not being heard. The writer has managed beautifully to capture how people are caught between disparate worlds and asks thought-provoking questions like how people heal or how they help each other without neglecting who they really are.
“I am writing because they told me to never start a sentence with because. But I wasn’t trying to make a sentence—I was trying to break free. Because freedom, I am told, is nothing but the distance between the hunter and its prey.”
Ocean Vuong, On Earth we’re Briefly Gorgeous
Friday Black by Book by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is an American author from Spring Valley, New York, born in 1991. Ordinary characters placed in extraordinary situations, Friday Black is one of the most powerful books written by a millennial writer that will cause an explosion of emotions and feelings within you. The book talks about the painful absurdities, instances of injustice, and violence that so many black women and men have to face on a daily basis. Friday Black has been described as a ‘piercingly raw debut story collection’ that gives us an insight into what it’s like to black in America. The stories also talk about cultural unrest, racism, and how humanity is fought in a highly unforgiving world.
“Even the apocalypse isn’t the end. That, you could only know when you’re standing before a light so bright it obliterates you. And if you are alone, posed like a dancer, when it comes, you feel silly and scared. And if you are with your family, or anyone at all, when it comes, you feel silly and scared, but at least not alone.”
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Friday Black