Back-to-school season usually means new notebooks, fresh schedules, and figuring out which classes you’re going to rush to in the mornings. But if Xolo Books were designing a college syllabus, we’d make sure the reading list went beyond the traditional canon. For an introductory course in history, identity, race, and liberation, these are three books we’d put on the syllabus.

As a Venezuelan living in the United States, it's been heartbreaking to watch the devastation unfold from afar. Like so many in the Venezuelan diaspora, I've spent the past several weeks checking in with family, reading updates, and trying to find ways to support the people and places I love. The road to recovery will be long, and for many families, including my own, it will come with challenges that won't disappear overnight.

Pride Month is a celebration of LGBTQ+ communities, but it's also an opportunity to reflect on the power of stories. Books have long offered queer readers what the world sometimes could not: visibility, possibility, and the freedom to imagine themselves fully.