# Min Jin Lee's 6 Books She'll Never Forget > The Pachinko author names the six books that shaped her, from a stuffed rabbit to Jane Eyre. - Title: Min Jin Lee's 6 Books She'll Never Forget · Woman's World - Summary: The Pachinko author names the six books that shaped her, from a stuffed rabbit to Jane Eyre. The books that change you are the ones read at the right moment… - Keywords: books, reading, min jin lee, classics, authors, Min, Jin, Lee's, She'll, Never, Forget, Woman's World - Source: Woman's World — https://womansworld.com/entertainment/books/min-jin-lee-reveals-6-books-that-shaped-her-life-exclusive - Author: Carissa Mosness - Published: 2026-09-12T00:00:10+00:00 - Read time: 2 min - Topics: books, reading, min jin lee, classics, authors ## Six books, one writer Min Jin Lee, the author of Pachinko, picked the books that shaped her for Woman's World, part of her collaboration with Spotify. The range runs from a nursery classic to Victorian doorstops. ## The one from childhood The Velveteen Rabbit, published in 1922, follows a boy set on making his stuffed rabbit real. One day the rabbit wakes up and the two go off on adventures. ## Love is what makes it real For Lee, the book is less about magic than about what a child's attention does to a toy. > It's a beautiful story about the relationship between a child and a toy, and how something becomes real by being loved. ## The one that made her write A House for Mr. Biswas follows a 46-year-old man shuttled between other people's homes, trying to get a roof of his own. Marrying into the domineering Tulsi family only sharpens his need to leave. ## Write what you know Naipaul's novel showed Lee what happens when a writer stops reaching for material and turns to the world already in front of them. > This book helped [me] recognize the power authors can have when they write about something they really know and love. ## The one to read again A Fine Balance opens in 1975, after a State of Emergency is declared. A student, a widow and two tailors fleeing a violent village end up sharing one cramped apartment. > Four strangers living together amid a global economic and political crisis. This story knocked [me] off [my] feet. ## The character who stayed In The House of Mirth, 29-year-old Lily Bart moves among New York's richest and plans to marry one of them. A rumor about a married man ends that, and she is pushed into exile. ## A woman out of step Lily taught Lee to read the machinery underneath the drawing rooms. > Lily was out of place in her time, and her character really affected the way [I] understood commerce, politics, marriage and the betrayals of a society that wasn't prepared for women. ## The one for everyone Middlemarch follows Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, two idealists stuck in bad marriages in an English Midlands town. George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans. > [I] recommend this book to everyone because [I] want them to see beyond themselves. George Eliot was writing about community, not just herself. ## The one for her younger self Jane Eyre traces an orphan's hard childhood through her work as a governess at Thornfield, where she falls for Mr. Rochester. Lee read it in her 20s and thinks that was too late. > [I] recall reading this in [my] 20s, but [I] should have read it in [my] teens and then revisited it in [my] 30s. ## What's next from Lee Her new novel American Hagwon follows the Koh family after a move to Southern California. It arrives Tuesday, September 29, 2026, and can be presaved on Spotify. ## Key takeaway The books that change you are the ones read at the right moment, so find them early and revisit them often.