A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
By Dave Eggers

This is a love story, but not a typical one—it's a memoir about what happened to Eggers in his 20s, when his mother died one month after his father and he became the primary caretaker of his 8-year-old brother. Most people in that situation, I think, would have tried to find a way around that responsibility, but he didn't. My sister Maureen did the same thing when my mother died. Between going to college and working three jobs, she still found time to take a tremendous chunk of responsibility and help care for us. That's probably why this story touches me most.