To keep your mind connected and use your free time as a way to keep your focus on training and knowledge, we chose 25 of the best books to read during that time.
1. Sapiens: A brief history of humanity, by Yuval Harari
In this book, the author makes a historical overview of humanity, from the coexistence of homo sapiens with other human species to the technological and political advances of today.
The author makes a mix of history, paleontology, anthropology and sociology, which puts the reader in contact with different sciences in an interdisciplinary proposal.
The book can make the student have a good reading of the path taken by humanity throughout history. In addition, some questions are debated or brought up for reflection.
2. Brief answers to big questions, by Stephen Hawking
The book is a collection of texts written by the physicist and astronomer Stephen Hawking, which answer some questions asked to him throughout his career.
God exists? How it all began? Can we predict the future? What’s inside a black hole? Is time travel possible? How will we shape the future? These are some of the questions found in the book.
3. Ideas to Postpone the End of the World, Ailton Krenak
The book is a compilation of ideas expounded by Ailton Krenak, one of the country’s greatest indigenous thinkers.
The central axis of the book is a critique of the perception of human beings as being separated from nature. For the author, this thought would make human beings feel superior to nature, being able to dominate and even destroy it, walking towards the end of the world.
The book proposes a new way of existence that perceives human beings as equal to everything that nature has already produced.
4. Essay on blindness, by José Saramago
In an essay on blindness , José Saramago, Portuguese writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, narrates the trajectory of an epidemic that causes white blindness in people.
The chaos caused by this epidemic causes the most harmful characteristics of human beings to erupt, creating an environment of pain, uncertainty and hopelessness. Only one character is given the power to see and observe the most wicked and cruel faces of people.
5. Lord of the flies, by William Golding
Another winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, which exposes the violent and chaotic nature of human beings is Willian Golding.
In Lord of the Flies , the author portrays the lives of teenagers who survived a plane crash, who are trapped on a desert island.
Throughout the plot, the freedom from lack of authority becomes a classic example of the Hobbesian state of nature of war against all.
6. Animal Revolution, George Orwell
Animal revolution, according to Orwell himself, is a fairy tale. In it, farm animals promote a revolution to free themselves from their oppressive human owners.
The plot shows the decline of the animal society. In a short time, the free and egalitarian environment, right after the revolution, gives way to a tyranny full of privileges dominated by a group of pigs, tougher and more perverse than before (human).
The book is a critical allusion to the revolutionary process that took place in Russia and Soviet socialism, which had a promising start with Lenin and his decline with the paths taken by Stalin.
George Orwell is also the author of one of the most classic books that portrays a dystopian future: 1984. In this book, the author created the concept of big brother, an omniscient entity that observes and judges everyone’s action, used by the famous reality show .
7. Brave new world, by Aldous Huxley
Brave new world, by Aldous Huxley, and 1984, by George Orwell, are the most classic examples of dystopias in literature.
Unlike 1984, where everything was forbidden and controlled by the State, in a Brave New World, there is an overvaluation of individuals who live in absolute permissibility and freedom.
This supposed freedom contrasts with a severe caste regime and a series of internalized and, therefore, insurmountable rules.
All this combined with consumerism and a drug, called “soma”, administered to citizens, which prevents them from experiencing suffering.
8. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury
Published in 1953, Fahrenheit 451 , it is a fiction that points to a (near) dystopian future. In it, there is a society based on the control of its citizens and repression, where knowledge and critical thinking are prohibited.
The main character is a government official responsible for burning books, called “fireman”. The name Fahrenheit 451 is a reference to the burning temperature of the paper (451º F or 233º C).
Along with 1984 , by George Orwell, it is one of the classic predictions of a future in which television plays an important role in the formation of understanding of the world, favoring the maintenance of the status quo .
9. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Tale of Aia is a multi-award-winning book, written by Margaret Atwood in 1985. It also presents a dystopian future, giving rise to the famous TV series of the same name (originally, The handmaid’s tale ).
In O Conto da Aia, the author describes a society based on religious, misogynistic and stratified fundamentalism, controlled by men, from the perspective of its protagonist Offred / June.
Offred is a name given by the system, of Fred would mean “of Fred” (Fred is the name of the commander who owned it). His real name, before the institution of the theocratic regime, was June.
In this place, women are divided into castes according to a pre-established social function. Offred, who is a maid (created, loves) of one of the system’s commanders, now plays an important role in resisting the regime.
10. Persépolis, by Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis is an autobiographical account in the form of comics. In it, the author Marjane Strapi recounts her life from six to fourteen years old, during the period of the Islamic revolution that occurred in Iran.
The book raises questions about the relationship between the government and its citizens, the repressions experienced and everyday events from the perspective of a girl.
Persépolis combines its beautiful illustration with historical reports, giving a dense and particular look at an era.
11. The origins of totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt
Philosopher Hannah Arendt makes a study on the development of anti-Semitism until the apogee and decline of the totalitarian regime in Nazi Germany.
In it, the thinker debates the idea of terror and violence as ways of controlling large populations and the construction of a political ideal based on the extinction of another people.
12. Anne Frank’s diary, by Anne Frank
The classic by Anne Frank, recounts the period when the girl lived with her family hidden in a hidden room in a building in Amsterdam.
During the more than two years of invasion, the girl documented in her diary the episodes that occurred with her and her family during the second war.
13. Maus, by Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman, a cartoonist in Maus, recounts his father’s experience in Auschwitz, a famous Nazi concentration camp, during the second war.
The book is in comic book format. In it, the Nazis are represented as cats, while the Jews are drawn as rats ( bad , in German) and suffer the horrors of the holocaust.
The author develops conflicting relationships with his father and the contradictions related to the sense of being a Jewish survivor of a concentration camp.
14. Small anti-racist manual, by Djamila Ribeiro
Philosopher Djamila Ribeiro seeks in her book to debate in a simple way various issues related to structural racism in Brazil.
The author aims to stimulate reflections on racism, evoking the thinking of authors who are specialists in issues of oppression and racial domination.
15. Casa grande e senzala, by Gilberto Freyre
Casa grande e senzala is one of the great classics of Brazilian literature. In it, sociologist Gilberto Freyre gives an overview of the formation of the Brazilian people.
The author shows Brazilian society being formed from a process of miscegenation between indigenous people from Brazil, enslaved African Africans and European whites.
The book is the target of countless debates, criticisms and studies about the formation of Brazilian society and racial democracy in the country.
16. The Brazilian people, by Darcy Ribeiro
The Brazilian people are the main work of anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro. It points to the formation process of Brazilian society, the presence of different “Brazils” within Brazil and the cohesion around an idea of nation.
In it, the author debates the form of occupation and urbanization present in the country, as well as the inequalities present in this system and the modes of development of a nation-people with their own national ethnicity.
17. Carandiru Station, by Drauzio Varella
The best-selling Varella Varella is a compilation of the reports of prisoners of Carandiru Penitentiary (Carandiru). They were collected during the period in which he worked as a volunteer physician in the prevention of infectious diseases within the prison system.
The storybook ends with the episode of the October 1992 massacre, in which 111 prisoners were killed during a rebellion, 102 of them by the São Paulo police.
The book gave rise to the film Carandiru , with the participation of Milton Gonçalves, Rodrigo Santoro, Lázaro Ramos, Wagner Moura, among others.
18. 1968: the year that has not ended, by Zuenir Ventura
The novelist and journalist Zuenir Ventura writes about 1968, one of the most troubled years of the 20th century. 1968 was a year of extreme effervescence in politics, like the mythical French ’68, in which demonstrations for freedom echoed around the world.
In Brazil, Zuenir Ventura portrays the year of hardening of the military regime, which culminated in the promulgation of Institutional Act Number Five (AI-5), on December 13, 1968.
19. The hour of the star, by Clarisse Lispector
The book A hora da estrela is one of the greatest works of Brazilian literature. In it, Clarisse Lispector raises existential and philosophical questions that lead the reader to dive into the heart of the main character, Macabea as well as the narrator, Rodrigo SM (who represents the author herself).
Issues related to life and death, to the meaning attributed to relationships and also to issues of migration within the country are constantly present throughout the plot.
The hour of the star is an essential reading for anyone interested in the classics of national literature.
20. Tropical nights, by Nelson Motta
For those who like books about music, the book by journalist and writer Nelson Motta is a trip behind the scenes of MPB.
The book goes back to the memory of countless moments of Brazilian music that occurred from the end of the 1950s until the beginning of the 1990s.
21. Women who run with wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Author Clarissa Pinkola Estés is also a Jungian psychoanalyst. In her book, she analyzes 19 myths, legends and fairy tales, to understand how the role of women in society is constructed.
The author’s objective is to rescue the feminine archetype by recognizing the processes of docilization and domestication of the woman’s wild nature.
22. The second sex, by Simone de Beauvoir
Philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir is one of the greatest exponents of feminism in the world. The second sex revolutionized the debate about the female condition and even today it is a must-read for anyone who wants to go deeper into the topic.
In it, the author discusses the objectified condition of the woman as a “non-man”, without the right to her own subjectivity and existence.
The term “men” as a synonym for humanity, shows itself as an unmistakable indication that male domination crosses several areas, including language itself.
23. Let us all be feminists, Chimamanda Adichie
The book is a challenge launched by Nigerian writer and activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of several bestsellers that address issues related to feminism.
The book is an adaptation of a TEDx conference. In it, the author talks about inequalities and the need to change the way we educate and act in the world, in favor of a fairer and happier world for both sexes.
This conference given by Chimamanda Adichie was adapted by the artist Beyoncé, in her hit, Flawless (2014).
24. Caliban and the Witch, by Silvia Federici
The author, Silvia Federici, is an activist and scholar of feminism. In Caliban and the witch, she conducts an associative analysis between the witch hunt and the beginning of a sexual division of labor.
For the author, this persecution of witches removed power from women and repositioned them as the basis of the exploitation system of capitalism. Unpaid homework has become a female responsibility making the structure of capital accumulation possible.
25. Debating capitalism, by Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi
The book is a debate between authors Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi about aspects of the contemporary world.
The themes revolve around economic, social, political and environmental issues and bring to light the importance of pointing out new paths in search of an ideal of social justice.
In the book, the superficial moralization of politics is discussed, which omits the common foundation of oppression of class and gender and the authors point to a possible future of capitalism.