As the school year comes to an end and summer approaches us, sometimes it’s hard to go from studying and working hard every week to having nearly nothing to pass the time. One way to keep your brain strong and stimulated over summer break while also being entertained is through reading! To quote the great Dr. Seuss, “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go.” Here are some book recommendations from some popular genres that you will hopefully choose to read over the summer! 

• Fiction
  • The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham: The Boys from Biloxi is a legal drama/thriller about two boys from immigrant families living in Biloxi, Mississippi. The story continues throughout these two boys’ lives as they become friends but ultimately end up on two sides of the law. This book is extremely invigorating and has a lot of unexpected twists and turns that make the novel extremely fascinating. 
  • Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah: This story follows two girls, Tully Hart and Kate Mularkey, who are best friends and have an unbreakable bond that ties the two of them to one another. As they continue to grow up, they experience both twists, turns, shocks, and surprised throughout their own lives and their friendship as a whole. This book is extremely beautiful, well-written, and heartfelt and it was an amazing book to read.

    

• Non-Fiction
  • Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez: This remarkable nonfiction book discusses how data fails to take into account gender within our society, and it treats men as the default and women as the atypical, which results in many women paying tremendous costs for this bias in numerous ways. As the author delves and explores deep within the root of gender inequality, we can see the world, ourselves, and others in a whole new light and I highly recommend this life-changing and extremely informative book. 
  • Night by Elie Wiesel: This non-fiction book features a tale of young Elie Wiesel and his survival of the Holocaust. Elie was just a teenager when he and his family were taken to Auschwitz concentration camp and later Buchenwald. This story is a record of his account of the terrifying life he experienced, following his memories of the death of his family, his own innocence, and the pain he and millions of others experienced in a very dark time in the world’s history. This book was gut-wrenching to read, knowing that it was a real-life account, but it is such a beautiful tale of perseverance and survival that allows us to learn history to make sure it never repeats itself. 

• Historical Fiction
  • Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix: This story follows the lives of three very different young women during the fight for women’s voting rights and ends with the disaster of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The women’s lives in the novel continue to intersect in many different ways as they eventually become friends and become stuck together in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. This book, which puts a face to many historical events during the time, allows readers to become hooked in a mere matter of pages. I absolutely adore this book and hope you give it a try!

• Mystery/Thriller
  • The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code is a thriller that follows a symbologist named Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder that occurred in the Louvre in Paris. They then uncover a series of codes that lead to a quest all over the world, trying to discover ancient secrets capable of monumentally disrupting human society. I was extremely hooked to this book throughout reading it and I highly recommend you give it a try!
  • Murder With a Cherry on Top by Cynthia Baxter: If you are looking to curl up with a book, this is the perfect novel for you. This cozy murder mystery novel follows the main character and ice cream shop owner Kate McKay, who discovers the dead body of her old frenemy almost instantly after she returns to town. Kate then goes on a wild goose chase to discover the true killer and clear her name, finding deeper and darker secrets than she ever thought possible as she nears close to the killer. Not only was this book a light and fun read, but it is a series of books that allows you to continue learning more about the main character and solving murders along the way!

    

• Fantasy/Dystopian
  • Dry by Neal Shusterman: This story, set likely within the next two decades, follows a teenage girl named Alyssa amidst a water crisis in California. The Drought, or the Tap-Out as everyone calls it, has been going on for several decades now, until one day the taps run dry. Nearly overnight, Alyssa’s neighborhood and the areas surrounding her become warzones of desperation and the drive to survive, everyone fighting to find water. This story not only raises awareness about the current state of our own environment and what we need to do to prevent something like this from happening, but it also taps into the dystopian side of writing and allows readers to become enmeshed in this amazing story.
  • The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer is a science fiction novel set in a time period where drug lords rule over a territory called Opium, and the story follows Matteo Alacrán, a clone of the drug lord El Patrón, as he tries to break free from him and learn about his own identity. This novel is extremely proficient in evoking questions on identity, ethics, power, and even the future. It was an incredible read and I definitely recommend you try it out!

• Romance

• • If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin: This heartstopping, incredibly beautiful novel follows two neighbors and best friends, both of whom go through their lives in love with one another but are too afraid to tell each other. As their lives progress and they increasingly become intertwined and unwind, both work towards admitting their feelings and embracing their hearts- yet they are too late. This novel was absolutely amazing and it is one of my favorite books of all time, so make sure you take a look!

    

  • The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares: While this book isn’t necessarily centered around romance, it does focus on the friendship of four teenage girls, all of whom are trying to navigate their friendships, home lives, and love lives as they pass around a pair of jeans that magically fits all of their unique bodies. This story is a story of hope, love, and the importance of the bonds of friendships in our lives. I have loved re-reading this book for years now, and maybe you have too, but take this as your sign to either start this book or even re-read it, because it’s worth it! 

Hopefully, these were some book recommendations that you will take into consideration as we head into summer vacation, but if nothing seems to strike your interest, feel free to reach out to me for more book recommendations. Thank you for reading!