Mahalia Solages on her 5 Favorite Books

Mahalia Solages’s fiction has been published by Kalyani Magazine, Momaya Press, and Almond Press; it's also appeared in a trilingual anthology So Spoke The Earth and at Writing Raw. Also a playwright, her play, A Tale Of Two Mommies was featured in Miami at the Centro Cultural de Espana. She is the author of two children’s picture books. She lives in Fort Lauderdale. Follow her on Twitter. She blogs at https://www.show-up-differently.com/.

Mahalia tells us about her 5 favorite books of all times:

We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver This story was intense. I felt embarrassed and couldn’t believe Ms. Shriver had me disliking a small child. This woman is so eloquent, she will have you reaching for a dictionary.

The Ties That Bind, by Chris Bohjalian I like books that weave stories that make you swear you read about it in the paper. He so effortlessly placed the disturbing twist at the end that it wasn’t until I felt the goosebumps and read through it that I realized what had happened. What? I had to go back.

Midnight, by Sister Souljah I loved how Ms. Souljah flowed me through the evolution of her character, Midnight. Recently, I walked along Canal Street and Chinatown in New York wondering if what she said in the novel was true. Unlikely, but she had me pondering the possibility nonetheless.

Room, by Emma Donoghue Scary. Creepy. Poignant. It is your worst nightmare, but I was cheering the world created inside the “room” for the sake of the child. Didn’t I read about this in the paper? Ms. Donoghue covered points that I never thought about in these situations, like learning how to go up and down stairs. Wow! Her imagination was inspiring.

My fifth choice is For Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange. But, (there’s always a but) because it is a play and because I really am having a hard time choosing between three other books (and I’m only allowed five), I’m going to squeeze them here: The Metamorphosis (Kafka), Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck), and Island Beneath the Sea (Allende).