The book that I pull out of my back pocket (figuratively speaking, although often literally) when soneone asks me to recommend a book for them is Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower.
Parable of the Sower is a scifi book for those who don't like scifi -- but is also greatly loved by those who do. It is a futuristic tale (though only by a few decades) of the U.S. in environmental, social and political decline and growing Christian extremism. It is narrated by Lauren Olamina, an eighteen-year-old Black woman who suffers from hyperempathy, a psychological condition that makes the "Sharer" experience the pain and pleasure others feel. This is an AMAZING book -- that is ridiculously hard to find in libraries and small bookstores. But I really do recommend it to everyone.
Parable of the Sower is a scifi book for those who don't like scifi -- but is also greatly loved by those who do. It is a futuristic tale (though only by a few decades) of the U.S. in environmental, social and political decline and growing Christian extremism. It is narrated by Lauren Olamina, an eighteen-year-old Black woman who suffers from hyperempathy, a psychological condition that makes the "Sharer" experience the pain and pleasure others feel. This is an AMAZING book -- that is ridiculously hard to find in libraries and small bookstores. But I really do recommend it to everyone.