During the school year, I often find myself in reading slumps. I don't really take the little free time I have to read, and when I try to start one of the many books on my shelves, it never seems to stick. I find myself distracted and unfulfilled, no matter the book or my interest in the story. It's hard to read during the school year, especially on top of the piles of readings I have assigned. Reading is a cathartic experience for me, entrenching me in the world of the narrative in a much different way than other forms of escape I've sought. Below, I've listed five of my favorite books, in the hopes that they'll inspire you the way they inspired me.
1. "In the Woods" by Tana French.
If you love procedural crime shows like "Law & Order: SVU" or "The X-Files," then this is absolutely the novel for you. Part of a loosely connected series, "In the Woods" explores the nature of memory, partnership and what it means to be a murder detective. Rob and two of his childhood friends went missing in the woods; only Rob was found, gripping a tree in terror, wearing blood-soaked shoes, with no memory of what happened to him or his friends. Twenty years later, Rob is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and is handed a case eerily reminiscent of his childhood trauma in the town he grew up in. Not only is this novel gorgeously written, it's atmospheric and entertaining. You won't be able to put it down.
2. "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
Though this novel took me a little bit to get into, once I did I was captivated. Another gorgeously written, atmospheric novel this time set in the rural Midwest. For the majority of the year, I live in a town surrounded by farms and corn. In this novel, the corn is alive. It's magical realism and unlike any other novel I've read. It's romantic and heartbreaking and scary and ultimately triumphant, truly demonstrative of the rarely utilized Midwestern gothic genre.
3. "On the Jellicoe Road" by Melina Marchetta.
If you like young adult literature like John Green or Rainbow Rowell, you'll probably enjoy "Jellicoe Road," which explores what it means to be a parent, a daughter and a friend in several expansive ways. On one level, it's about a girl longing for her missing mother, figuring out her adolescence and her role in the world as she prepares to depart from her boarding school, which functions largely as a family microcosm. Additionally, it's a mystery, a romance, a tragedy; it's all these things and more. Really, it's the best kind of story: a story about life.
4. "The Basic Eight" by Daniel Handler.
I really feel like Daniel Handler, as an author, is slept on. Daniel Handler, if you don't know, is the real life Lemony Snickett. If you like "A Series of Unfortunate Events" you'll love this novel, which is full of smart, witty characters, sharp dialogue and one of the most shocking twists I've ever encountered in my breadth of reading. Handler is an exceptional explorer of the young female mind, and in this novel, the mind pushed to its extent.
5. "Winger" by Andrew Smith.
This book surprised me. I read it because it was there, really, and because I'd heard some interesting things. Ryan Dean West is not the kind of narrator I tend to enjoy reading. He's immature, a jock and a bit of an idiot. But something about the journey that he experiences, the friends that he makes, the lessons he learns and the ending really made this novel resonate with me, and I devoured it until I was in tears at the end. Illuminating, funny and smart, this story about a boy will move you in ways you wouldn't imagine.
