I’m a casual but heartfelt Hayao Miyazaki fan—I haven’t seen all of his films, but the ones that I have seen have really stuck with me over the years. So I was interested in reading How Do You Live? because of the Miyazaki connection.

It’s a book with real heart and solid values that are as relevant now as they have ever been. I agree with my friend Garrett that it would make an excellent graduation gift. Yoshino’s awareness of the connections between people would be a good antidote to the individualist, “go out there and show ‘em how it’s done” messaging that a lot of grads hear (or at least, my fellow Millennials and I did).