Summertime is a time for many things: the beach, relaxing, hanging out with friends, bar nights, stargazing and more, like reading some good books. But what to read? The options are endless and it's easy to lose yourself for hours as you meticulously search. Here are five books that I would suggest for those long summer days as you lay out on the beach.

1. "The Fault in Our Stars"

This isn't one of those books where the main character has cancer and all you can see is death. This book makes you laugh with it's dialogue, aww and smile with the love story, cry during the tragedies and your heart lifts with the triumphs and it breaks ever so often as well, it's a roller coaster. But what I like most is this book? It's just about living and how important that is, even when it feels like everything will fall apart

2. "The Kite Runner"

"The Kite Runner" is one of those books people at my high school actually enjoyed reading. It's a powerful and thought provoking novel ("A Thousand Splendid Suns" was also a good novel).

3. "The Last Lecture"

If you're looking for a book to inspire you, this is the one to go for.

4. "House Rules"

Nothing is as simple as it seems. It's a story of how one family and the world tries to understand each other in the midst of tragedy and confusion. It shifts points of view between a police officer, the family's mother, older son, and younger son who suffers through Asperger's syndrome.

5. "Tuesdays With Morrie"

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Mitch Albom is one of those writers that I would read anything from, but this was one of the first novels I fell in love with by him. Through the stories of Morrie you learn more life lessons than you thought imaginable.