The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison)

Morrison's first novel, her Nobel-prize winning work about Pecola Breedlove, among other characters. Pecola wants nothing more than to have blue eyes, to fit the standard of beauty she sees in Shirley Temple and her own baby dolls. Why does a little girl not want a doll?, they ask. We pay good money for a plaything for her and she does nothing but destroy it, drag it by it's hair, rip out it's eyes. A powerful work that, of course, speaks to the heart of racism and African-American identity. But in a broader sense, Bluest Eye is about stepping outside of such standards to accept and celebrate the self. Morrison's descriptive talent can tell any story. My personal favorite is Jazz, worth checking out if you too are a fan.