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Of course, the classics have elements that you may think about now and then. Are there any lesser known books with themes, ideas or events that have stuck with you or inspired you?

I am reading The Heavens Before by Kacy Barnett-Gramckow for about the 50th time (exaggerating of course, but I have read it multiple times since my teenage years). As a Christian, I hold the same beliefs, but the Bible doesn't exactly describe the world as created and how it may have changed during the flood. I love this book in that it is a possibility. I love reading different fictional versions of Biblical and historical events.

How about you?

While I wouldn't consider myself particularly religious anymore, I've always loved books and video games that play on the themes and theology of the bible. From a pure action-oriented visual sense, there's nothing more badass than angels and demons locked in an eternal struggle for the fate of humanity. The book of Revelation is worth reading just for the visuals in my opinion.

Anyway, back to your question. For me, I'd say Ta-Nehisi Coates' We Were Eight Years In Power. It's such an illumniating look at the Obama years as well as his personal growth as a writer. He is such a smart writer. I read it a couple years ago, but I've thought about it with some frequency since. It's so good.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. It brings up topics that are probably relevant today: One character, a driver with a horse and carriage, couldn't make it to church on a Sunday because he was morally obligated to drive someone somewhere and he sort of wrestles with the notion that people will insinuate that he's a bad person because he didn't go to church. Merrylegs is a dapple grey pony that a family uses to "teach" children how to ride and if the children are misbehaving, he wouldn't buck them off, but would rear up and let them slide off his back. One lady helps to calm down a man who is whipping his pony because the pony tried to turn (at its normal place) when the man wanted him to go straight. It deals with the use of blinkers on horses at the time as well as some piece of tack (can't remember the name) that forced carriage horses to hold their heads up constantly, which impeded their ability to pull heavy loads uphill, for the sake of fashion. The impracticality of fashion in people, even today, is sometimes questionable. It talks about the importance of ignorance and how it can cause damage - to paraphrase, the lesson/question is that ignorance is the worst thing in the world next to wickedness. One example was a woman who gave her infant too much laudanum and ended up killing her own child. Philosophically speaking, or from a legal context and depending on what the definition of "wickedness" actually is, this is a very relevant topic even today.

Of course I have my personal favorites that I love to re-read, because they are fun. One of the more in depth books that has stuck with me is Narrative if the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. These have mad me appreciate what I have so much more. I will never be able to forget the things that happened to these people.

That would be Harry Potter

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole. This book series have left a deep impression in me. There is also the famous Harry Potter.

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo and Sibyl by Flora Schreiber. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.

100% the Noughts and Crosses series by Malorie Blackman. I first read it about seven years ago and it completely hooked me and I have never looked back. I just loved the way that she completely flips society on its head into a dystopian world where racism works the other way round. The way society works is so interesting to me, so this series really stuck with me, especially the first book, Noughts and Crosses.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

I read "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D Salinger my junior year of high school and it really stuck with me. The book is kind of depressing in my opinion but still one of my favorites.

Little Women and Great Expectations are the two books that have always stuck with me and I like to revisit no matter my age or current situation. I think for both books I keep thinking that something will change in them lol like all of a sudden the characters will do something different

The Pillars of the earth and The eagle has landed..Then, The day of the jackal..

The classic book Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I read and re-read the book and I've seen all of the movie adaptations. I feel that the way the characters behave is still similar to what we have today. It's amazing how we haven't actually changed much.

It happened to Nancy. Authors last name Sparks. Amazing book about a young girl who contracted aids when she made a poor decision and died at a young age. Also Chinese Cinderella sad but very good read.

Worldlines by Adam Guest.
The story features a multiverse concept. A young boy called Jackson Gary committed a terrible crime in a dream, yet a member of his family claims to have witnessed the crime. You may be wondering how? It is a book thank I can't take off my mind.