The great thing about books is that someone else's words can explain what you're feeling. It makes us feel understood. Reading the right book at the right time can feel like a big hug.We read for a lot of different purposes. Sometimes it's out of curiosity about the world around us, other times it's for escapism. Sometimes we can tackle a dense classic, other times it's nice to just chill with a paperback YA novel. Here is a list of 5 hypothetical situations, and a book recommendation for each.
It's the end of the school year and you're stressed about what's next:
Alexandria Robbins has written several great books about the American school system and the stress students often feel to meet high expectations. The Overachievers is specifically geared at explaining how much pressure students feel to get into a four-year university. Though it is primarily geared at high schoolers, a lot of students at community colleges face these same struggles, if not more so as sometimes acceptance rates for transfer students into certain programs can be very low. I found this book to be extremely comforting as the author interviewed several college admissions officers to see what's actually important to the people who make decisions about who gets into college. As with her other books, in the end she writes suggestions to schools, parents, and students about how to make the college admissions process less stressful. It's a very informative read, and comforting as well.
You're crushing on someone a little and can't wait to see them again:
This is such a sweet love story! This girl August bumps into this girl Jane on a subway and spills her coffee (I know this is such an overdone trope but I think it's done really well in this book) and immediately falls for her. There's a twist though: Jane has been stuck on the subway since the 1970s, she's basically frozen in time. So throughout the book there's this suspense of "Is Jane gonna go back to the past? Is she gonna disappear?" that kinda sums up the feeling of crushing on someone and hoping you'll run into them again. All of the characters in this story are well developed, I love the "found family" aspect of this book. Characters are very supportive of each other, there's a subplot where they're all trying to prevent a small restaurant from being shut down. Though generally lighthearted in tone, this book will make you feel all the feelings. It's a great read.
You don't like summer:
Triple digit days aren't for everyone. Especially not me. I think we've all been conditioned to like summer because it was our time off from school for twelve years, but let's be honest; as a season it does not have much going for it. I like to read classics that feel like winter to try to trick my brain into thinking it's a different time of year. This cozy book set in February of 1841 definitely accomplishes that. It's super long, there are so many chapters and characters that it feels like going on an adventure. It's mainly about this girl Nell and her grandfather traveling through England to escape a creditor. I love those classics where the characters go to many locations and wacky things happen. Sometimes very bizarre, sometimes heartwarming, this is a great book to read in an air conditioned room with plenty of water.
You Want To Feel Inspired
This is a nonfiction book, I had to read it back in high school for a class and I feel like I see it everywhere now. It definitely deserves all the hype it gets. It's Tara Westover's memoir about living in very rural America and not being allowed to attend school. Her family does not believe in traditional medicine so the family was often in very dangerous situations. I would actually cringe at things that would happen in this book. I really enjoyed the part where Tara finally got to college. She had to teach herself the material to even get into college, and from there had to catch up with everyone else. And not just on academics, due to her isolated life she had a very narrow world view with a lot of misinformation. She goes from being completely uneducated to earning a PhD from Cambridge University. I could not believe this was a real story, I am beyond impressed.
You Just Wanna Chill and Read A Comic Book
We've all read so much this year, sometimes it's nice to enjoy and action-packed story without a lot of words. And I think books about pirates are perfect for the summer, being set in the ocean and everything. This series has been going on since 1997 and shows no sign of ending anytime soon. It's a funny series with a good balance between action and character development. One Piece consists of many different arcs (stories that happen in different locations with different recurring characters) which keeps the story from getting too repetitive. There's great world building with a lot of fun little notes from the author. A very engaging series that isn't too language-dense or hard to keep up with.
Hope you enjoyed!
Comment below if there's anything you'd add to this list.