Gift from the Sea (Anne Morrow Lindbergh) *

The author writes about lessons she learned about life from a vacation on the beach, and uses shells to draw different analogies. Insightful, but kind of fluffy.

Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane) *

This is told through the eyes of a young boy and his experience through one battle of the Civil War. He goes through a range of emotions from fear, shame, pride, courage, embarrassment, etc. I'm not a war buff so I had to push through it, even though it's pretty short.