Summer Reading 2024: Home

The Bell Jar is a novel by Sylvia Plath. It’s a timeless coming-of-age classic, following a main character labeled gifted as she struggles to decide what to do with her future. Featuring the famous fig tree analogy where the main character sees her future lives sprawling before her, painfully relatable, The Bell Jar is an ultimately hopeful narrative. Explore how social pressures impact our protagonist's mental health and how mental health was treated in the 1950s from a first person perspective. With a captivating storyline that's beautifully written, The Bell Jar is a classic for a reason, and a great use of your summer reading.

Content warning: Depression, Suicide Attempt, Brief description of sexual assault (but I will tell you the page number and I think that Sylvia does a great job talking about it, its not graphic and I think its really well done)

What do murderers, heart transplants and religion have in common? Should a dying man’s wish be granted? What if he’s a murderer? Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult balances right vs. wrong in a thought provoking novel about a man on death row, a young girl needing a heart transplant, the legal system and religion.

The Life of Pi is about a boy trying to survive at sea with nothing but a fading spiritual connection and a tiger. I believe this book is truly the whole package. With so many ups and downs it keeps you on your toes and keeps you guessing. I highly recommend it!

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous since it is one of the only books I've ever read where the author's voice feels incredibly unique and authentic. The novel explores sensitive topics like poverty, sexuality, and mental illness in a way that can be relatable for people of all backgrounds. It beautifully captures the human spirit and the strength of its capabilities.

Play As It Lays by Joan Didion tells the story of Maria Wyeth, a former actress living in 1960s Los Angeles. Recently divorced from a famous Hollywood director, the novel follows Maria through her mental health struggles through a series of flashbacks and stream of consciousness sequences. The novel contrasts the usual, glamorized view that is traditional for media set in Los Angeles and Hollywood and instead explores the idea of the city as a "broken paradise."

After June Hayward witnesses the death of renowned author (and her sort-of friend) Athena Liu, June steals Athena's unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the name Juniper Song. "Yellowface" follows the backlash against June's novel and publishing industry drama that ensues as a result while also exploring ideas of white privilege, the impact of social media in the 21st century, and themes of racial diversity and cultural appropriation.

Content warning: This novel references sexual assault. For a complete list, please visit storygraph.com which has user-submitted reviews and content warnings.

I personally chose this book because I read it a couple years ago and it's one of those stories that never really leaves your mind. Since the story feels so natural, it's easy to find yourself relating to the characters. It's raw, real, and filled with so many emotions that would be really investing to break down over a summer reading conversation!

Experience the thrill of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, a short yet fast-paced masterpiece that will keep you guessing with every turn of the page. Set on a remote island, this gripping mystery unfolds as ten strangers are hunted down one by one, leading to an intense and unforgettable climax. Prepare for a summer read that packs a punch in suspense and keeps you hooked until the very last sentence.

I chose this book because it is such a fun/witty murder mystery, and it’s way too good to be true. I also think this is a perfect read to bring some light heartedness in the coming election! This Book not only has AN AMAZING SEQUEL but Includes: Bikers, Murder, Found Family, and Obama and Biden fighting crime!?

I want to host The Hound of the Baskervilles for Summer Reading to share with Urban the thrill and joy of detective novels with one of my favorite classics ever! A digestible and fun read for all, I'd love my peers to come with me to 221B Baker St and the moors of Dartmoor this summer.

I chose Dune both because the 2nd part of the movie just came out so it is timely, and also because it is such a rich, complicated story with a ton of connections to the real world. While all stories and histories can help us understand the world around us and possible futures, I think that the universe in Dune is particularly well crafted, leaving room to make parallels to our world and think about the implications of how things play out in the book. Even though the book is over 50 years old, it is eerie how prescient some of the issues still are.

I chose to host Flaming Carrot Omnibus because of the surrealism and the statements it makes about comics as an art form. It rejects the perfectionism and "seriousness" that a lot of comic artists feel pressure to produce and it allows for stupidity and wackiness. I think it's a fun summer reading reminder to allow things to be unserious and to enjoy life. *this book is out of print, but available as an ebook*

Klara and the Sun is a book about an Artificial Friend (AF), and what is more relevant, especially this year, with AI seemingly appearing everywhere, than a book about an AF? I selected this book written by Kazuo Ishiguro because it truly made me stop and think about my interactions with technology and what I make time and prioritize in my day-to-day life when it comes to my friends and family.

Thomas Hobbes might tell us that in the State of Nature, Man's life is nasty, brutish, and short: but Hobbes never weighed in on the life of a beech marten. My Stupid Intentions is a rad little book that poetically engages with questions of knowledge, being animal/human, and the penchant of some to burn it all down. Also it's about cuddly woodland creatures being not so. Lighter fare with deeper implications!

I chose this book because I think it exemplifies the best of sci-fi: it has a ton of awesome concepts beautifully executed without overly focusing or over explaining them. I also chose it because of its unique format--the book revolves around a series of letters sent between two rival agents of time traveling factions, and the book is written by two authors so with each chapter and letter you can see two completely different characters and styles and it creates such a cool reading experience. My final reason was that it's punchy and relatively short--I know last year like half my group didn't finish our book because it was weirdly paced and not particularly engaging--TIHYLTTW is relatively short clocking in at about 50,000 words and also is beautifully engagingly written--and utterly devastating in the way some of the best books are--so i believe more people will be likely to actually finish it as well as remember it (and also just have a fantastic reading experience that doesn't just feel like homework).

​​I chose Crying in H Mart because I read it a couple of years ago and I thought Michelle Zauner's story and relationship with her culture and family were really interesting and unique. The book represents the difficulty that Zauner had connecting with her roots and her culture as she grew up, especially with everybody around her questioning it. I thought that it was a really heartfelt and intriguing perspective on family and how she continued to embrace her Korean roots through her mother and her grandmother's cooking, even after her mother passed away.

What happens when a town of 10,000 people unexpectedly has 6,800 people descend on it with no warning? This happened in the town of Gander, Canada immediately after 9/11, when US-bound planes were forced to land. I was deeply moved by the stories of generosity and mutual aid in this book, and continually wondered how I would react if I were in a similar situation.

When a nationwide revolution turns young Marji’s life upside down, she has to deal with uncomfortable situations, both literal and metaphorical. Persepolis is a graphic novel detailing a young girl’s life in Iran during the Iranian revolution. It delves into the impact that it had on her friends and family and the drastic changes that it brought. Persepolis is a humorous yet serious tale which teaches widely applicable lessons that everyone can learn from.

A planet of soup, a freeway to mars, in What If? 2 hypothetical questions like these, and more are answered. This book gives in-depth and humorous answers to some of life's sillier questions all accompanied by fun illustrations and characters.

If you have ever wondered what life was like in Cold War era East Germany, this book is for you. Merriman writes the very compelling story of a group of college students trying to help East Germans escape into the west in the early days of the wall. Their escape attempt is not only elaborate and thrilling, but was also fodder for some of the first televised coverage of the cold war. There is a companion podcast that can be listened to in place of reading the book.

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Palestine is, by any measure, whatever one's politics, one such place. Ruled by the Israeli military, set upon and harassed constantly by Israeli settlers who admit unapologetically to wanting to drive them from the land, forced to negotiate an ever more elaborate and more suffocating series of fences, checkpoints, and barriers that have sundered home from field, home from home, this is a population whose living conditions are unique, and indeed hard to imagine. In a great act of bravery, empathy and understanding, Ben Ehrenreich, by placing us in the footsteps of ordinary Palestinians and telling their story with surpassing literary power and grace, makes it impossible for us to turn away. Amazon.com