Reading for pleasure is such a difficult thing to do during college. It's easy to be overwhelmed with all the assigned reading for class and have no desire to pick up a book for fun. With summer break on the horizon, us collegiettes will finally have time to leisurely read. Picking up a book on the beach is a great way to relax and pass time soaking up the sun. If you're looking for some different books to add to your summer reading list, try these.
1. "Handle With Care" by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult is the bestselling author of many adventurous, humorous and life-like novels. Picoult simply writes about life events in such fine detail that the reader becomes emotionally invested in the story. This particular novel follows a family with a child who has been diagnosed with brittle bone disorder since birth. The story describes the family's relationship and financial struggles while they attempt to give their child the best life possible. When the family discovers that they will get financial benefits if they testify that they would have terminated the pregnancy if they knew their daughter would have had special needs, what is a family to do? Do they openly claim they wish their child had never been born?
2. "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult
Picoult takes her readers on another adventure when she follows a teenager with autism who has an infatuation with crime scenes. But when he gets framed for murder, and all evidence seems to point to him, what is his mother to do?
3. "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger
What do you do when your husband randomly vanishes into thin air without any warning? That's what happens to Clare Abshire who met her husband when she was a child ... while he was a grown man, visiting her from the future. Since Henry disappears into time without a warning, how can the two have a functional relationship?
4. "Before I Go To Sleep" by S.J. Watson
What if every time you went to sleep you forgot your identity? That's what happens to Christine. She has no memory of her life every time she wakes up, until she starts keeping journals that record her daily life. When she starts reading these journals, she starts to uncover the tragic mystery that happened to her.
5. "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
Rachel takes the same commuter train every day, but one moment she sees something so shocking she can't shake its effects. Rachel's life is officially changed forever.
6. "Sing You Home" by Jodi Picoult
Zoe always wanted a baby, but after many miscarriages and infertility treatments her husband, Max, has had enough. After he divorces Zoe, she soon realizes she is a lesbian. After the divorce takes place, her ex-husband fights to take custody of her frozen embryos. Since they are both equally hers and his, who gets them? This novel explores the difficulties of a same sex couple in the legal system.
7. "The Husband's Secret" by Liane Moriarty
Cecilia Fitzpatrick looks like she has the ideal life: a perfect family, career and icon in her community. When she finds a letter to be opened after her husband's death, she cannot help but read it. Cecilia's life is now upside-down trying to keep her picture perfect family together, while she tries to decode her husband's letter and his connections to women she has never heard of before.
