Life slows down in the summer. Students are off from school, and most people mix in a vacation or two before the leaves start to turn colors. In the midst of the lax pace, you need a good book to read for the summer. Quite honestly, you need a good book to read no matter what season of the year it is or what season of life you’re in. If you’re still in need of ideas for a text, I’m here to help. Below is a list of 10 books that make great summer reads:

1. "Peace Like a River" by Leif Enger

This is the first book on the list because, of all the books you could read this summer, this is the most urgent. It is the best piece of fiction written since the turn of the millennium. Enger does an incredible job at attaching images to the veritably real human emotions that words do not do justice to. I’ll whet your appetite just a touch: “A miracle is like the swinging of sword.” Chew on that for a while. Then go read the whole book.

2. "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom

It never hurts to read about and remember the past – even the darker moments of history. "The Hiding Place" is the grimly raw World War 2 Holocaust experience of Corrie Ten Boom, but the end offers hope and a powerful example of the magnitude of forgiveness.

3. "Confessions" by St. Augustine

Outside of Jesus and other Biblical figures, no man has shaped Christianity more than St. Augustine. Beyond the Bible, no book has affected the Christian faith more than "The Confessions." Thus, this book is a pretty big deal and absolutely worth the read. Even if you are not a Christian, Augustine offers insight into the nature of creation, human perception and world peace that is bound to alter your worldview.

4. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is the greatest American novel of all time. I receive a lot of backlash for this claim, but I stand by it. "The Great Gatsby" portrays the American Dream at its best, which is simultaneously its worst. The absurdly lavish lives mixed with irrecoverably flawed morals of the characters are the pinnacle of where American society was (and is?) headed. Fitzgerald calls readers to renounce this path and return to the simple, moral life.

5. "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston

Please read this in tandem with "The Great Gatsby"! The novel is set in the same time period and same country as "The Great Gatsby," yet is a world away. Hurston’s story provides a vivid foil to Gatsby’s frivolity. Following Janie – the protagonist – through the South teaches lessons on what it means to be a woman, the significance of poverty and what it means to be strong when you are utterly powerless.

6. "A Presocratics Reader" by Patricia Curd and Richard D. McKirahan

This is a lovely little collection of quotes by philosophers living during the Greek empire. Common themes include the mystifying dual and cyclical natures of life and the text’s one-liners give great snippets of wisdom by which to live.

7. "Scorecasting" by Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wortheim

This is a fantastic book for any sports lover. The authors set out to see if data supports commonly held sports adages. They explore if basketball players really get a “hot hand,” where home field advantage actually comes from and if the media is considering the right sort of statistics.

8. "The Office of Assertion" by Scott F. Crider

This is the most efficient book you will ever read. In a mere 100 pages, this book will enhance your writing, at minimum, three-fold. This book teaches you how to approach the writing process both compartmentally and holistically. With a new mentality, you will be able to wield rhetoric rather than let it wield you.

9. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee

I’m pretty sure you’ve already read this book as it is ubiquitous in high school English curriculum. However, it still deserves to be on the list. This American classic is just as good – if not better – on the re-read and is bound to improve any summer.

10. Choose a Random Book off the Library Shelf

This is hit and miss but can be really rewarding. Sometimes, the best books are just waiting for someone to take a chance on them. Why not spend the time to take a risk on a rogue title this summer? The worst that could happen is you get half-way through and decide it’s not worth continuing. The best is that you make a new best friend.

Regardless of if you taste any of these titles or not, I hope that you journey through summer with at least one good book as a companion. Not doing so would be quite a lonely venture.