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This week CRP staff members share their favorite that was assigned in high school or college. Let us know your choice in the comments below or on Twitter @ChiReviewPress. #CRPreads

I loved reading Animal Farm in eighth grade social studies class. I remember at first being pleasantly surprised that the book was actually about animals on a farm (How simple! This will be a breeze!). Then, once I finished it (and realized that no, there was much more to it than pigs and horses), I was struck by how such an easy read could also have such profound messaging beneath it, and what a clever way it was for George Orwell to get those messages across. It was probably the first book I read that had such strong political commentary, where I really benefitted from learning the historical context behind it too. –Caitlin Eck, publicity manager

I was just an English minor in college because I only wanted to take the English classes that looked like fun. I took one on detective fiction from around the world, another on science fiction by women and authors of color, and yet another on superhero narratives, where I got to read both mainstream comics and gritty graphic novels. Maybe my favorite, though, was a class called “Transnational Authors,” focused on the works of Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro. Munro’s got a collection of connected short stories called The Beggar Maid that’ll bring you to your knees, but the best book from that class was Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. Intricately plotted with a novel within the novel and time jumps between the past and the present, it tells the World War II–era story of sisters Iris and Laura, and it has a killer opening line: “Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.” –Geoff George, publicist

I almost feel like I’m cheating to pick a book I was assigned in college, because (1) you get to choose your classes in college, (2) I chose awesome classes that assigned some really great books, and (3) I was one of those nerds who loved almost all of what was assigned. If forced to choose, I’d have to go with Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I read it at the same time as Mrs. Dalloway (assigned in a different class), and Woolf’s ideas about sexuality, gender fluidity, feminism, et al, blew my mind. I quickly fell in love. Honorable mentions for Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Kindred by Octavia Butler, Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, and the Frederica Quartet by A. S. Byatt. –Ellen Hornor, project editor

I was lukewarm about most of the required reading that was assigned in high school—at least at the time I was required to read them—but Kindred by Octavia Butler was a definite exception. Not only was it my first introduction to Butler’s work, but the story left me in awe. While Kindred wasn’t my first fantasy novel, or even my first time travel-with-potential-grandfather-paradox elements, it was the first book that opened my eyes to the subversive (in an amazingly good way) nature of genre fiction to address social and political topics. In college, where you get to choose your own courses, I have a much more difficult time in choosing just one favorite required read. But if pressed, I’d have to say Dangerous Angels, a collection of the first five Weetzie Bat books written by Francesca Lia Block—this collection of post-modern, magical realist fairy tales enchanted me. And it still does. –Mary Kravenas, marketing manager

During my junior year of high school I read Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One for an elective English class and it ended up being my absolute favorite book. Growing up during apartheid in South Africa, Peekay confronts segregation and injustice, but learns how to overcome the hatred and sorrow with the lessons of a unique cast of characters—from Doc, an elderly concert pianist/cacti lover, to a feisty chicken named Granpa Chook. The characters are so well developed and special that my memory renders them as real people. –Emily Lewis, editorial & marketing assistant

Junior year at my Texas high school, my English teacher incorporated some Texas-y titles to our American Lit syllabus (to make up for the torturous The Scarlet Letter, I assume). We were assigned Lonesome Dove for summer reading (hell yeah) and during the school year we read Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. My teacher did a great job of balancing classroom debates over the crushworthy-ness of John Grady Cole with more literary-minded discussions about the meaning of quotation marks and incorporating Spanish dialogue. –Meaghan Miller, senior publicist

I loved reading Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, a wonderful takedown of consumer culture and unbridled business growth. It’s still one of my favorites. –Jerome Pohlen, senior editor

My favorite book assigned in high school, though I certainly didn’t realize it at the time, was Stendahl’s The Red and the Black. It was a huge brick of a novel set in 19th-century France; I’m sure I was probably dreading it. But I had a fabulous English teacher, Miss Angott, who used that book to teach us how to read closely, form a thesis, truly support it with textual evidence, and write a cogent paper. If “Miss” Angott is still out there…I thank her!   –Lisa Reardon, senior editor

While it’s tempting to pick something more challenging, if I’m being honest, my true favorite is Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird—a book not from college or high school but from middle school. We may think of it now as merely a lesson for the young about acceptance and fighting for your beliefs, but it’s actually a very enjoyable read. Moving and funny, it holds up and gains depth in adulthood. –Lindsey Schauer, project editor

One of my favorites was Stendhal’s Charterhouse of Parma, which I was assigned in a superb course at Princeton called The Romantic Quest, taught by Michael Jennings, along with other European masterworks like Goethe’s Faust, Byron’s Don Juan, Flaubert’s Sentimental Education, and Mann’s Doctor Faustus. Charterhouse became my favorite novel of all time, and kept that rank for years. I reread it two or three times, once in the original French. If someone were to ask me now what my favorite novels are, it would certainly still make the list. –Yuval Taylor, senior editor

All of the books featured in this blog post can be found on CRP’s Staff Reads bookshelf on Goodreads.

Fun Fact: This week our office has received 100+ boxes filled with a mix of spoons, binder clips, rubber bands, and clothespins. Check out our box tower on Instagram and stay tuned to find out what in the world is going on.