This is one of those books that leaves a mark. Giovanni’s Room is spare, beautiful, and devastating. Baldwin tells the story of a man torn between desire, shame, and identity, and he does it with a kind of emotional precision that’s rare. The writing is gorgeous—elegant and intimate—but it’s the ache underneath it all that stays with you.

I picked this one for the collection because Baldwin doesn’t just write about love and loss—he writes about what it means to be human when the world won’t let you be. It's short, but it lingers.