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00000179-cdc6-d978-adfd-cfc6d7a40000The National Endowment for the Arts' "Big Read" looks to encourage literacy by holding community events around the country celebrating a single book each year. This year's book selection is Into the Beautiful North" by Luis Alberto Urrea, which follows a nineteen-year-old woman who travels to the United States to bring back seven men--including her father--to help defend her Mexican village from danger.Of course, the stories of people who come to this country are wide and varied, and many of those stories live right here in Wichita. Over the next few weeks, we'll hear some of those stories. Follow them below.-The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and bring the transformative power of literature into the lives of citizens. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and enlightenment.

Teresa Nguyen Saves 'Brave New World'

My name's Teresa Nguyen. I chose my favorite book, Brave New World. I based it on 1) I've read it more than any other book, and 2) I really like dystopian future societies. I feel like it's actually very similar to potentially what might be going on today.

For example I love 1984, but in it everyone is very aware of their oppression; whereas in Brave New World no one is aware but a few, and that to me is scarier than everyone being aware.

I feel like how they are desensitizing children at a young age in the book is happening today. People are distracting themselves with feeling good instead of dealing with, maybe, the realities of things, and I feel like that is very harmful for the human psyche. We need to go through being sad and happy and all these human emotions to really enjoy life.

I think it's important because it's a reminder of being artificially happy is not as great as maybe being a little sad here and there, but being able to work out your feelings and take what you do have with more gratitude. They're all content with their oblivious life and there's not any real relationships anymore in the future which I think is important for human interaction.

Is it better to be happy or better to have freedom?