Summer Reading Recommendations

When I was in high school, the phrase “Summer Reading” put me in a state of dread.  I have always loved to read, but I really hated the assigned books. We had to write dialectical journals for every chapter and at the beginning of the school year there would be a test. It’s not that I minded the reading, more that I wanted to spend my summer reading all those books I hadn’t gotten to during the school year.

As a graduate student, I still look at summer as a time when I finally get to read whatever books I want! A book is the perfect accessory when lying by the pool, on the beach or in your backyard. Last year, I brought The Help by Kathryn Stockett with me on vacation and devoured it in a hammock by the pool. When I was in college, the final Harry Potter book came out while I was in Rome, and I sat in the hallway outside my hotel room all night reading so I wouldn’t keep my roommate awake.

I’m going on vacation next week and have been trying to decide which books I want to bring with me on the trip. Right now The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins and What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen are the frontrunners, but I have a long list of books I want to read, so I’m sure a few more will sneak into my suitcase too!

If you’re looking for a good book to read, try one of my picks from last summer:

• In Dependence by Sarah Ladipo Manyika
• Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan
• That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
• This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• One Day by David Nicholls
• Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin
• Red Hook Road by Ayelet Waldman

As for this summer, here are a few I’m hoping to get to:

• Bossypants by Tina Fey
• Bumped by Megan McCafferty
• My Point—And I Do Have One by Ellen DeGeneres
• The Love of My Youth by Mary Gordon
• In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard
• The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson
• Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

Don't forget to stop by the library and sign up for our Summer Reading Program! We have some great prizes for participants and  a lot of fun events all summer!