When I first wrote about Frankenstein, I read Victor’s experiment through the lens of IVF—not as an attack on children conceived through technology, but as a warning to the adults who wield that power. Human life, in every form and from every origin, remains precious and completely beyond “product” status. The novel helped me name a deeper fear: that our age might perfect the techniques of creation while forgetting the unconditional love and responsibility owed to every person those techniques bring into this world.

East of Eden is a sprawling family saga set in California’s Salinas Valley that manages to be both earthly and biblical at the same time. Steinbeck slowly weaves the story of the Trasks and Hamiltons into a modern Cain-and-Abel meditation, asking whether we’re trapped by the sins we inherit or free to choose differently. It drags in places, but the payoff is a powerful vision of timshel—“thou mayest”—that has stayed with me ever since I first read it in high school.

Redeeming Love is, in my opinion, the most romantic book I’ve ever read—not because it’s sweet or tidy, but because it shows a love that keeps choosing the beloved when everything in her story screams “not worth it.” Francine Rivers drops the Hosea story into Gold Rush California and lets Michael’s steady, stubborn devotion slowly collide with Angel’s deep wounds and self-hatred. It’s a gritty, emotional reminder that “hurt people hurt people,” and that real covenant love is willing to stay long enough for grace to sink in.

“Man’s Search for Meaning” isn’t a tidy, step-by-step self-help book; it feels more like sitting inside someone’s mind while they wrestle with suffering in real time. Frankl’s witness drove home a lesson I first heard as a teenager: you can’t always choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you respond. The book’s power is in showing that this choice of attitude still holds even when almost everything else has been taken away.

“He Leadeth Me” is the rare book that quietly rearranged my spiritual life. I came to it asking God for a deeper connection; Fr. Ciszek answered by teaching me to find God in the hard, ordinary moments I already had. It’s the first title that comes to mind whenever anyone asks for my all-time favorite book.