Here Are 10 Novels To Read This Summer
In the day and age of the Coronavirus pandemic, it is hard to get out and travel to a lot of new places. There are travel restrictions in place, and catching COVID might be a risk depending on where you are going. There is also the factor of taking time off from your job (which may be hurting for workers), as well as what the requirement is for coming back after a vacation.
These past two months I have been trying to find things to do while on break for the summer. I have taken two trips already, but each time I do, it makes me nervous as I am coming back home and living with someone who is at high risk. I used to love to read, but being busy with school and a job (in the past), I did not have much time to do so. This summer, in between a class and this internship, I have found the time to be able to sit down and read. Now some of the books on this list are books that I have read in high school, but these books held a lot of weight for me and ended up becoming some of my favorite.
Each of the books on this list is so engrossing that all you will want to do is read through them and not put them down. While some of these books might take some time to really get into, I promise that it is worth it to stick it through until the good parts.
1. Night by Elie Wiesel
Born in 1928 in Romania, Elie Wiesel had a normal childhood. He had two parents who loved him very much, as well as two older sisters and a younger sister. In 1944 Wiesel and his family were moved into ghettos in their country, and later two different concentration camps. He recounts every single detail he remembers from the time that led up to it to when he and many others were liberated from their prison.
The title of this book is a play on what a lot of the Jews felt while they were in the concentration camps. During this time, these people lost hope that there were good things in life still available. It seemed that the rest of the world was unable to help, or simply that they did not want to. They did not understand why people could be cruel enough to treat others like they are nothing. They felt like machines and since they were treated as such, it was something they were unable to shake. People also dealt with a loss of religion. They were questioning that if God really did exist, how was he able to allow these atrocities to occur.
We always grow up hearing about the horrors of the Holocaust and hearing about Anne Frank, but no one ever talks about Elie Wiesel much and his experience of it all. There are so many emotions wrapped up in this book, and it was so hard to put down. Once I am able to find the book again (lost somewhere in my room), I will be rereading it and giving it to my future kids.
2. We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach
Not going to lie to you, I picked this book because I thought the cover was pretty and liked the idea of looking up at the stars. This book is so much more than its cover. All I will let you know is that it centers around high school teenagers all from different backgrounds, but they become friends and go on adventures before an asteroid hits Earth and ends life as they know it.
It is around 400 pages and throughout this book, it carries a heavy message that sticks with you even after you finish reading it. The teens the book centers around learned that life is precious and that they should live the way they want to. Some of the kids realized they were holding themselves back from what they wanted to do, so they ended up doing what they always wanted to. Others gave a middle finger to societal (and school) standards and ended up dating each other. As these teens got closer to each other in this terrifying time, they realized that not everything is as it seems and to never judge a book by its cover.
This book taught me to not take life so seriously. It taught me time is precious, and we never know when something will happen to us. It is important to live life the way we want to, and not to worry about what others around us think. The only opinion that matters is your own, and you truly have to live life for yourself.
3. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
This book is now a movie on Netflix, so some of you all might have seen it already and know the premise of it. This book (and movie) made me cry near the end, so if you are looking for a tear-jerker, I would suggest this book. Finch and Violet the main characters of this book. They live in Indiana, and both have a bit of trauma and mental illness. They get paired up to work together on a class project for school, and their friendship grows from there.
Finch has bipolar depression, and we see him struggle with it so much in the book. As Violet grows closer to him, she gets the chance to learn more about this illness and how it impacts him. She comes to recognize his patterns, and she also realizes when things go wrong (unlike others who thought it was part of his usual behavior).
I cannot speak much else on this book, simply because it is one that needs to be enjoyed thoroughly without any hints, but it is definitely one of my favorites.
4. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
This book focuses on a family of immigrants from Lithuania. They come to Chicago in the early 1900s looking for their own American Dream. Once they arrive in the United States though, their rose-pink tinted lenses fall off, and they soon see all the corruption and bad things that happen where they now live. It seems as though if they would have stayed in Lithuania, they would not have experienced all the bad things that they did.
Though this plot was never centered around a real family, the conditions that existed were real. Sinclair exposed the unsafe, unsanitary working conditions and environment, and it showed just how unsafe the meat was a lot of people were consuming. Former President Theodore Roosevelt read the book and became so disgusted with what he was reading that he sent officials into these meatpacking districts to see if it was actually true. When he found out it was, he created the Pure Food and Drug Act, which ultimately is what created the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).
Reading this in a high school English class was definitely an experience. A lot of people had queasy stomachs, and they could not handle a lot of gross details that were presented in the book. Even though this book is disgusting, it was one of my favorite reads that were required of me.
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Now, you may have seen the movie before reading the book, but the book is just as good. It follows Nick Carraway who just moved to New York City. He lives next door to Jay Gatsby, and across the river from his cousin, Daisy Buchanan. Written during the Roaring 20s, it encapsulates what life was like for wealthy people in the day. There is so much drama that happens throughout this book that you will not be able to put it down.
A takeaway from this book is that it is really difficult to fulfill your American Dream, and oftentimes it never happens. Jay Gatsby's American Dream included Daisy, but he falls short (big time). While reading the book you cannot help but root for Jay to achieve his one American Dream, and when he does not you cannot help but be filled with incredible sadness and feeling as though he deserved better.
Again, this book is one of my favorites now. The movie is also one of my comfort movies. Everything about this book, the characters, the drama, the symbolism, the timeframe, really has me hooked. Even though the Roaring 20s were not everything it seemed to be, it has made me want to experience it first hand, and though I cannot physically do that, this book allows me to mentally do it.
6. How to Make Friends With the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow
I am currently still reading this book, but I cannot get enough of it. 16-year-old Tiger loses her mom one evening when she is not home and is now overcome with the sensation of loneliness and feeling unwelcome anywhere she goes. She feels like she does not belong anywhere, and to top it all off, she has solved one of the biggest mysteries in her young life.
Everyone carries darkness around with them. Some people are better at hiding/ignoring it compared to other people. Some are more comfortable living with it than other people are. This book reminds you that everyone has something dark about them and that we are all just trying to survive and get past it.
This book is something that I look forward to reading, and you will always find me reading it in my free time. This young girl is an amazing person and it really invokes emotion when reading it. You cannot help but wish for the best for Tiger when reading it.
7. The Giver by Lois Lowry
This book is another one that was later adapted into a movie. In the book, we meet Jonas and his friends. They get assigned their role in their society, and Jonas is scared when he realizes that he was not assigned a role right away. He soon finds out he is the receiver of memories, a huge role in itself. Throughout the book (and movie), we see Jonas struggle with life as he knew it before getting the memories, and wanting to help his society gain the memories and morals.
Contrary to some beliefs, The Giver is not that much of a violent book. It is just like any other normal alternate universe-based type of reading. We see Jonas fight what is traditional in his community, and it expresses the need and fight for free thought and making a change/difference. Every kid needs to know that this is always an option for them and that they too have the power to change something they truly want to.
This book was one I read in middle school for my history class. I was really excited when I saw that it got adapted into a movie, and it is now one of my favorite ones to watch. I watched it with my family the other day and was able to explain everything thoroughly and thoughtfully.
8. Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind by Suzanne Fisher Staples
This book was one of the first that I read in my high school career. Young Shabanu lives in Pakistan with her parents and older sister. She sees her older sister about to get married to someone without a second thought and realizes that she does not want the same fate. She wants to be able to be her own person and find someone to fall in love with, not be forced to love someone over the course of their marriage.
Shabanu loves her camel, and she does not want to lose him, but he is part of her father's business. One day he sells her beloved camel against her wishes, which could symbolize her hopes and dreams being taken from her. Shabanu is not focused on marriage and does not want to be put in an arranged marriage. She wants to grow up and tend to animals. By her father selling the camel, it then reminds her that she will never be able to get her way and break out of the cultural norm.
This book opened a lot of discussion in my freshman English class and opened our eyes to the reality of what happens to some girls over in the Middle East. I never got around to reading the sequel (just from being so busy with projects and homework), but I thought about it many times.
9. Mindhunter by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker
This book was written by two former FBI agents that started the Behavioral Science Unit. The agents talk of their time in the BSU (before it actually was the BSU) and how much they went through while talking to the most notorious serial killers there was back in the 1970s and 1980s. They talked to people such as Edmund Kemper, John Wayne Gacy, Wayne Williams, Jerry Brudos, and so much more. This book was later adapted into the Netflix show (under the same name as the book), and even though the show starts off a little slow, it becomes really, really good.
I watched the show first before reading the book for one of the classes I took last fall. The class was serial killers as media stars, and it focused on the media's portrayal of the killers when in the spotlight. As soon as I found out that it was a book, I immediately went on Amazon and got it. Though I have not finished it, I was definitely invested in it and would tell my parents anything I learned from it.
10. This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
If you are looking for another rom-com type of book, look no further than this one. It fits in the day and age of online dating and meeting people through anything. A teenage actor sends an email by mistake to a teenaged girl living in a small town in Maine, and the two strike up a conversation that never really seems to end. He has the opportunity one day to go to the girl's hometown and ends up meeting her (after he swallowed his nerves of course).
Despite being very far from each other, these two teenagers still take a chance at forming a relationship (even when it could end in heartbreak). The biggest lesson from this book is that sometimes you have to take the risk and jump as you never know what something may lead to.
This book is so cute, and one of my favorite reads from years back. I have not touched it since I moved houses, but just looking at the book brings back a lot of present memories from it.
I hope that you end up reading these books through what is left of this summer, and even into the summers to follow. These are all good reads for when you are hanging outside by the pool, beach, or trees, or simply when you need a break from your phone and other stressors in your life.