The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

This is a Parnassus "if you haven't read it, it is new to you" recommendation--I have to say that every time I think that I am an above average reader, something comes along to knock that sentiment right out of my head, and these recommendations that Ann Patchett and her friends make are almost 100% books that I not only have not read, but very often have not even heard of. This is a short, humorous and poignant novella that is ostensibly about Queen Elizabeth II developing a passion for reading after her corgis lead her to a mobile library, changing her worldview and disrupting the routines of the monarchy as she discovers the joy and subversive power of literature. The book follows her journey from a dutiful monarch to an avid reader, aided by a kitchen porter named Norman, much to the alarm of her staff, and explores themes of literature's ability to change lives and question the status quo. The subtext, for me, is about what reading can and will do to you if you spend enough time doing it--no wonder the alt right wants to ban all these books, because when yo read, your mind is opened up to all sorts of ideas and where you go with them is anybody's guess (parenthetically, you would basically have to ban all books in order to better control the thought pathways that people undergo when they read)--and this book is about the power and the danger in that.