This year I have taken it upon myself to read more books solely for the sake of fun! As the Mirror staff knows, I am also on a quest to read 54 books this year as my New Year’s resolution. I love reading and it is so easy to become so wrapped up in work and school during the academic year that it just slips my mind. So, this summer I plan on laying in the sun by the beach or the pool with a good book and I hope you will too! This list is five books that I think are perfect for summer reading and hopefully has a little something for every type of reader. The books are listed in no particular order:
- “The Matchmaker’s List” by Sonya Lalli
This book follows the main character, Raina, in her hilarious and heartfelt misadventures in love. Raina grew up in a traditional Indian family and agreed that she would allow her grandmother to set her up with a potential husband if she wasn’t married by thirty. Now, that time has come and it leads to a wild journey in understanding family, relationships and herself. The characters are funny and easy to fall in love with, making the reader even more invested in their, hopefully, happy ending. From Raina’s loveable best friend Shay and her traditional, loving and hysterically funny Nani, there is no short of people that the reader can relate to or recognize from characters in their own lives. This book has both the light-hearted fun that you can get in a rom-com and a deeper emotions that come along with a family drama. I loved this book and feel confident in recommending it to anyone looking for the perfect beach read!
- “Save Me The Plums” by Ruth Reichl
I was on a huge streak of reading books about cooking and restaurants, and this book was by far my favorite of the bunch! This book is the memoir of the last Editor-in-Chief of “Gourmet” magazine for ten years before the magazine closed its doors in 2009. This book allows the average person to gain a glimpse inside of what it is like to run a magazine, something that I had never heard about or learned about before. It was also interesting to learn about the food and restaurant industry in the lens of the press surrounding it, rather than just looking at the actual businesses themselves. “Save Me The Plums” is a highly personal story of the author’s life during the ten years that she was an editor and the struggles and triumphs that went along with that position. This book allows the reader to learn about a topic by making it familiar as a personal story of passion and loss as well as something educational.
- “Educated” by Tara Westover
OK, so I know that I said that these books were not in any particular order but if I had to pick a favorite, this would be it. I picked this book up from the library and read it in less than 48 hours because I simply could not put it down. This is the real-life story of Tara Westover, a woman who was raised by survivalist and highly conservative religious parents, who believed that everything that has to do with the government is inherently bad. This includes hospitals, doctors, taxes and most focused on in the book, public education. She and her family lived isolated in the mountains of Idaho for the majority of her life. Westover didn’t step foot in a classroom until she attended college, after teaching herself the skills to take the ACT. The book follows her journey into the world away from her secluded mountain and her family, the only place she has ever known, in search of knowledge and higher education. This book is also one of the best books about family that I have ever read, showing the complicated love of a family in high resolution and not shying away from the more negative aspects of that love. This book is incredibly worth the read!
- “Call Me By Your Name” by Andre Achiman
Now, I know I’m a little late to the party on this one but I stand by my feeling that a lot of people have only seen the movie and have missed out on an incredible book. One of my favorite memories from this school year is when a bunch of my friends who lived on my floor read this book around the same time as each other. We all loved it and would run in and out of each others room to talk, laugh and cry about our favorite moments. The story follows the whirlwind summer romance of Elio and Oliver while Oliver is a guest in Elio’s parents’ home one summer. “Call Me By Your Name” is also a perfect book to help celebrate Pride Month this June! This book not only features a deep romantic element to it, but it also shows a more complicated side to that romance. There is a sense of reality to this book, a feeling that everything does not always have to be perfect, that makes it even more connected to the reader’s own real life experiences. Also the setting of a summer on the Italian Riviera in a small beach town makes it the perfect book to inspire your summer travels or maybe even your own summer romance!
- “Turtles All The Way Down” by John Green
Again, I am late to the game on this one, but I read this book again this year and it still struck me as an amazing book about mental health. Even though it came out a little over a year ago, this book is still worth a read today. The book follows Aza, a girl in high school who is struggling with compulsions and anxiety. Aza works throughout the book to figure out the mystery of a missing millionaire in her town while working through her own inner struggles and relationships. This book describes a mental illness in a way that I had never experienced before, allowing you as a reader to see inside the actual thought processes of the character. I loved how Aza is not defined solely by her mental state, but by who she is on a whole. I found all of the ideas in this book fascinating and new, and I hope you will too!
I hope you find some inspiration here for your own adventures in summer reading and maybe even a new favorite book! Have a great summer!
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