Five books I can’t stop re-reading:

Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None. Though Christie is famous for writing around eighty mystery novels, this book is widely acknowledged as one of her best and is by far my favorite of the many I’ve read. The mystery seems nearly unsolvable and the plot is creepy enough to keep you up at night listening for unexplained noises.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. One of the most famous representations of New York City during the Roaring Twenties, it should be near the top of your list of books to read before you die. Fitzgerald’s prose reads more like poetry and the novel’s dark themes challenge a more simplistic understanding of the American dream.

Fr. Jacques Philippe, Interior Freedom. This small book is one of the most simple and straightforward spiritual works I’ve read, but it is full of powerful, practical insights. In essence, Fr. Philippe shows how our freedom increases in direct proportion to our growth in faith, hope, and love, and he offers tangible ways to rectify our attitude toward daily events.

Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. I’m not usually a fan of historical nonfiction because the writing often tends to be dull, but Larson presents the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair in a way that reads more like a novel than a textbook. The book interweaves the background and events of the fair with the frightening tale of serial killer H. H. Holmes, ending on a note of relief with his eventual arrest and execution.

C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces. It was difficult to limit myself to recommending just one Lewis work. His last novel and one of his lesser-known works, the novel retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche in a powerful allegory about our relationship with God, and it is deeper and much more difficult to unpack than his Chronicles of Narnia.

Alexandra DeSanctis is junior editor of Ethika Politika. A senior at Notre Dame, she serves as the executive editor of the Irish Rover. You can find her articles for Ethika Politika here.