Summer 2020 is quickly approaching. I know I’m not alone in wondering what the Summer of 2020 will look like. Hopefully, Summer 2020 will include beach days, camping trips, bonfires, barbecues, and all the typical summer fun, but life’s been pretty strange these days, so who knows? One thing the COVID-19 crisis can’t stop you from doing is exploring our world (and worlds beyond this one) through reading.
In working with high schoolers, I am very familiar with the fact that many teenagers do not like reading, perhaps even hate it, but I’m also a firm believer that people who hate reading could come to love reading (or at least dislike it less) if they found a story that interested them.
Don’t forget the added bonus--forming reading habits will greatly benefit you, not just in your English classes but also when it comes time to take standardized tests like the ACT or SAT.
If you aren’t sure where to get started with your summer reading, take a look at some summer reading recommendations. The list spans several different “types” of books and includes a mix of classic literary and contemporary reads.
Adventure Reads
[Sometimes, when reading, we don’t want to think too hard. We just want to escape into another world or an exciting adventure. Here are some books that can help.]
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
The Seven Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima
The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan
Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
War-Adjacent Reads
[While the stories are mostly fiction, these stories are based around real events, such as World War II. Engaging with history through fictional and nonfictional stories can be an interesting way to learn more about specific time periods and events.]
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (for more advanced readers)
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (satirical novel)
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien (actually nonfiction)
The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
Girl at War by Sara Novic
Reads That Make You Feel Things
[While all well-told stories evoke emotion from the reader, some books seem to stir something in us more than others, making us ask the hard questions about our own lives and society.]
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Power by Naomi Alderman
The Circle by Dave Eggers
A Question of Freedom by R. Dwayne Betts (nonfiction)
Night by Elie Wiesel (nonfiction)
Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography by Mark Mathabane (nonfiction)
Quick Reads
[This list includes a mix of short novels, short story collections, and plays. The nice thing about a short story collection is that you can break it apart and read it in snippets at your own pace without worrying about losing track of the plot.]
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (103 pages)
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (107 pages)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (218 pages)
Different Seasons by Steven King (collection of 4 season-based novellas)
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (short story collection)
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (short story collection)
The Best American Nonrequired Reading series (collection of writing)
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (play)
The Crucible by Arthur Miller (play)
Dystopian Reads
[Dystopian literature explores our civilization’s future (usually pretty bleak); these books are often unsettling, but we can also find hope in humanity’s resiliency.]
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
1984 by George Orwell
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
The Maze Runner series by James Dashner
Legend series by Marie Lu
Romantic Reads
[Sometimes, you just need a good love story.]
The Sun is also a Star by Nicola Yoon
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becki Albertalli
Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Puzzling Reads
[Here are some mysteries and thrillers that may pique your interest.]
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
It by Stephen King (horror/thriller)
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin (psychological thriller/science fiction)
Quirky Reads
[This category is dedicated to the texts that remind us we are all unique with memorable quirky characters.]
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Papertowns by John Green (or really anything by him)
Geekarella by Ashley Poston
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Hefty Reads
[I used to live by a code that if a book wasn’t over 300 pages, I wouldn’t buy it because it would only last me a day (I suffer from an inability to put books down once I start them). The books in this category are dense and lengthy--I’m really selling them, right?--but they are also rewardingly rich.]
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Other tips for finding books you’ll love--
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Use your streaming queue for ideas. Right now, so many of the TV shows and movies you love are adapted from books. It may feel strange reading a book you’ve already seen on screen, but often the adaptations deviate from the original book, and you may find some surprises.
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Think of one book you really liked. Look for other books by the same author. Use the vast resources of the internet to see what similar books and authors are recommended.
Obviously, there are many, many more books out there that are well worth reading. What are books you’d recommend we should read this summer? Feel free to leave a comment below.
Happy Reading!