Uzo Aduba's Reading List

"I read this book in Kindergarten. As a child born to immigrants, it reminded me that even though things can look different to the outside eye, in the end they are all the same, and all taste delicious."

"My tribe were the primary victims of this wretched war, and like most who have survived the sights of war, they don’t like to talk about it because they are hard, very real memories. I knew pieces of my family’s story during this time, but when I read this book, I felt like I suddenly understood who my parents, aunts, and uncles were and what part of their formative years had entailed."

"I read this for the first time my sophomore year in high school. This is where I fell in love with The Bard. The drama, and the incredibly powerful words Lady Macbeth is given to say were unlike any I had heard from a woman in literature at that time. It felt like a page turner. Even though it wasn’t. Cause, y’know, iambic pentameter."

"The first book that made me curious about a fictional character’s inner life. The whole thing was so psychological, he was so lost. And I think I realized that teenagers have always been this way—since the beginning of time."

"Whoa! From the very beginning, it is the original soap opera, and I loved every second of the drama! To watch a writer like Dickens yet again (I had already read Great Expectations ,) weave so many characters’ storylines together with one another… This book required you to pay attention to every character and every word and served to remind this: no person or thing is insignificant."

"I read it before I saw the movie. I thought it was funny and tragic, exactly where a new girl to a big city—like me—could see pieces of herself, when she’s trying to figure out her place in this concrete jungle. It was just good…that’s all."

"James Baldwin remains one of the most prolific and prophetic writers to have lived. Every page had been stamped by a genius. This autobiographical collection of essays moved my heart, expanded my mind to the larger, richer perspective of the black experience in Civil Rights America, and firmed up my opinion that, “There is more to being black than meets the eye.'"

"This is one of the most gripping books I’ve ever read. It’s inspiring to read the evolution of such an iconic figure in American history, and a sharp lesson on always going to the source if you truly want to know a person."