We asked rising stars from the community to tell us about a book they’ve read and the impact it had on them. We’ve highlighted some of those responses below.

Edmund Milligan Marcus | Filmmaker

WAR IS A RACKET – by General Smedley D. Butler Living in a world that has been engaged in one war or another since time immemorial, it can be easy to take for granted the idea that humans will always be finding new ways to blow each other up. When my close friend Milo Imrie died by his own hand after serving in Afghanistan as a Marine, this kind of normalisation was shattered for me. Shortly before embarking on the process of making a documentary about Milo, a friend recommended a small book, a pamphlet really, called WAR IS A RACKET. Read more>>

Otto Lana | An unexpected baller and legend

I read the book “Apeirogon A Novel” by Colum McCann. It was so beautiful. A story born out of loss, pain, and hatred and ending with love, compassion, and understanding. It is a story how the most tragic loss, the death of one’s child, can make two men who are supposed to hate each other, find not only common ground in their loss but a true friendship. This story shows us we are not square pegs incapable of fitting into round holes but apeirogons, geometric shapes with a countable number of infinite sides. Read more>>

Kaitlyn “The Literary Lawyer” | Book Blogger (and Lawyer by Day)

My favorite book of the year thus far has been Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson. Set in a 1970’s logging town in Northern California, the plot centers around the environmental impact of logging on the ecosystem and the families who call the town home. Read more>>