I am an avid reader. Frequenting Barnes and Noble for a new book is a hobby of mine that never leaves me empty handed. With this summer, like every other, there is a lot of free time. Even if you’re busy with an internship, job, school, or whatever else, I find that there is always time to sit down and enjoy a great book. Here are four of my top favorites that I highly recommend for anyone looking to escape to a different place this summer, even if you’re not able to leave.

1. Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

I read this book last summer to review for my dad’s fifth grade students. This is one of the best books I’ver ever read; it’s filled with mystery, suspense, adventure, history, and childhood nostalgia. Taking place in the 1930s during the Great Depression, Abilene Tucker and her father ride the rails looking for somewhere to go for work. Abilene’s father sends her to Manifest, Kansas, her father’s childhood hometown and tells her to wait for him there. She is arranged to live with a former priest, her father’s friend, and when she arrives at his house, she starts to uncover relics in her room floorboards. The items tell a story that took place in Manifest during the first World War. Abilene is fascinated by the town’s history, but is even more curious about her father’s past there. No one in the town ever speaks of him and Abilene is left to wonder if he ever existed and grows impatient with her wait for him to return. Working for the town’s fortune teller, Abilene is immersed in the story about the mysterious relics and soon discovers they may hold some part of her father’s past as well.

This is one of my favorite books. It kept e on edge with its suspense and adventure. Written in beautiful prose compiled of similes and metaphors, you’ll feel you’re apart of Manifest, Kansas yourself. This is an easy and quick read, but it’s one you’ll wish never has an ending.

2. Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler

Another historical fiction story about two women on a road trip to Cincinnati, Ohio. Miss Isabelle, as Dorrie calls her loyal client, has asked Dorrie to drive her to Cincinnati for a funeral. With Miss Isabelle offering to pay for everything along the way, Dorrie feels it’s her obligation to take Isabelle to the funeral, though she’s never told who it’s for. But, Miss Isabelle has been getting her hair done by Dorrie for years and this funeral obviously means a lot to her, so Dorrie packs up and takes Isabelle on this journey. Along the way, Isabelle tells a story about her past: growing up in Kentucky in a segregated town, and falling in love with her mother’s house work helper, Robert, who is black. Their love is forbidden, but that doesn’t stop the two lovers from carrying on with their loyalty for one another. With this rebellion comes tragedy and hatred from Isabelle’s family. Dorrie is a black woman and feels closely attached to Miss Isabelle’s story. Although troubled with home matters of her own, Dorrie is moved by Isabelle’s story.

This is a heartbreaking story about two young lovers whose love is destined to never work out. This story will leaving you feeling angry, sad, and happy all at the same time. It’s historical context is worked into a story of fiction, but its draw to the reader is anything but fiction. This is a great summer read.

3. A Grown Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

This was one of the most interesting books I’ve come across in a while. This is a story about a three generation line of women whose fate is predestined to fall apart at age fifteen. Mosey is the youngest and on the brink of turning fifteen. This worries her grandmother about what will happen to Mosey when the cursed age finally catches up to her. Mosey’s mother has suffered a a brain dysfunction apparently influenced by drugs that has left her unable to communicate with her family and immobilized. When a shoebox of bones belonging to a baby are found buried beneath a willow tree in Mosey’s backyard, Mosey starts to question if she is actually the child of her mother or a stray child she picked up during her intoxicated days. Mosey is determined to figure out this mystery and possibly discover who her real mother is. Along the way, Mosey is faced with confronting some of her mother’s lost secrets that are still present in her town, even in her school.

A story with an interesting and original plot line, A Grown Up Kind of Pretty will keep you wondering what secret will be discovered next.

4. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

This is the first novel of a three part series. This is the book that got me back into reading three summers ago when I had nothing else to do. This book is unlike anything else. The author, Ransom Riggs, has written a captivating story complete with adventure and historical fiction around disturbing and curiously fascinating photographs. The central character, Jacob, is a teenage boy living in Florida with his parents that are not completely attentive to his teenage struggles of fitting in and feeling accepted. Jacob is close to grandfather and is intrigued by his past life in Europe. When Jacob’s grandfather mysteriously dies, Jacob is determined to find out the secrets of his past. Jacob travels to Europe with his father to a small island where his grandfather spent many of his years. There, Jacob comes across a cavern that opens up into a different point in time—He time travels back to the 1940s during the second World War. He finds an old house filled with contemplating photographs and Jacob soon discovers that the house is not as empty as it seems. Jacob meets a group of peculiar children with extraordinary abilities. These children were childhood friends of Jacob’s grandfather and Jacob comes to realize that his grandfather, and even he himself, are a little bit peculiar. Jacob learns about the peculiar world through his new friends, opening him up to secrets about his grandfather and finally finding a place where he feels he belongs. There’s an order of non-peculiars that are out to destroy the strangely talented peculiars of the world and this is the central theme of the series. Jacob and his new friends are set on a n adventure to rescue their gaurdian, Miss Peregrine, from the order against the peculiars. Jacob struggles to balance this new world and the world he’s used to. He wants to stay in Peculiardom forever, but knows that this is not practical. Jacob finds love, everlasting friendship, and a piece of himself that connects him and his grandfather more than he ever thought possible.

I absolutely love this series! Once you finish one book, you’ll rush to start reading the next. If there’s one series in today’s world that appeals to readers of every genre, this is it.

Be sure to check out the movie being released to theaters this December! I know I'm excited for it. :-)

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