“Such is the power of books,” - Nina George
If you are anything like me, I have spent my summer buried in a mountain of books I have been saving for the season created for reading. Summer is a carved out space of time for readers young and old to divulge in all of the beautiful literature they’ve been meaning to read for months now. The books that we bought in the winter but had not a second to appreciate between work and school and family and friends. The ones cold on our desk, shivering under the layer of dust that a busy school year prompted. The ones we were recommended back in fall by a professor or our grandmother that have been just a title in our iPhone notes application until the sun shone June 1st and we finally had time to really read. I never meant to neglect my stacks of novels this calendar year, but between applying for college and finishing my senior year, reading slipped under my radar and became a hallway or cafeteria activity. Of course I’m always reading through the winter and the fall, but there’s something about the summer’s leisure and extra down time that made this particular summer filled with words and chapters and pages. I was able to find time for over thirty new titles from May to September this year and I am excited to share the top ten hottest books of my summer with you.
#1 “Love Letters to the Dead” by: Ava Dellaira
Synopsis: It starts out as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Protagonist Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just as May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more. She writes about starting high school, creating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the mystery and pain surrounding her sister May’s final days. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. Laurel’s notebook becomes the only way she can truly begin to discover her own path.
My experience: I purchased this book after doing some relatively dense reading in hopes it would be a quick summer “throw away” read (kind of like a summer fling but for books) and I certainly was wrong. Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, this piece of literature is absolutely stunning.
Quote: “The Universe is bigger than anything that can fit into your mind”
#2 “The Little Paris Bookshop” by: Nina George
Synopsis: Monsieur Perdu calls himself a literary apothecary. From his floating bookstore in a barge on the Seine, he prescribes novels for the hardships of life. Using his feel for the exact book a reader needs, Perdu mends broken hearts and souls. The only person he can’t seem to heal through literature is himself; he’s still haunted by heartbreak after his great love disappeared. She left him with only a letter, that he has never opened. Filled with warmth and adventure and set in France, Perdu goes on a journey to heal himself, one that will change him forever.
My Experience: I love Paris. I love Europe. I love books. I am a helpless romantic. This book was everything I needed and more.
Quote: “Perdu reflected that is was a common misconception that booksellers looked after books. They look after people."
#3 "Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookshop” by: Robin Sloan
Synopsis: A novel combining elements of fantasy, mystery, friendship and adventure as a way of juxtaposing the modern conflict and transition between new technology (electronic) and old (print books). The protagonist is a job less Silicon Valley tech worker who begins working at a dusty bookstore with few customers, only to start discovering one secret after another. The mysterious old books, along with the store's owner, lead to a 500-year-old secret society.
My Experience: I am normally not one for a book surrounding mystery or “secrets”, however the word bookstore was in the title so I purchased it without even reading the inside cover. This book really has something for everyone; the nerd, the romantic, the bibliophile, the scientist, the artist. Please give this beauty a read soon.
Quote: “Your life must be an open city, with all sorts of ways to wander in.”
#4 “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” by: J.K Rowling
Synopsis: Harry Potter has grown up, and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three young children. While Harry struggles with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a gigantic family legacy. As past and present blend together, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth about darkness.
My Experience: This is the 8th edition to the most legendary series EVER born. A PLAY ABOUT HARRY POTTER?! NEED I SAY MORE?!
Quote: “Be honest to who you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.”
#5 “Milk and Honey” by: Rupi Kaur
Synopsis: A stunning group of poems, split into four chapters, with each chapter serving a different purpose. Milk and Honey takes readers through a poetic journey of the most tragically bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness somehow in everything.
My Experience: I am infatuated with poetry. I picked up this book of poems coincidentally in Barnes and Noble thinking it was something else and i am glad I made the mistake. This is the best book I discovered all summer with soul smashingly gorgeous messages everyone deserves to discover.
Quote (can barely choose everything is worthy): “How can I write, if he took my hands with him.”
#6 “A Brilliant Madness” by: Robert M. Drake
Synopsis: The second genius book of poems I read this summer. Robert M. Drake brings readers on a poetic prose- style journey about the social collapses of the 21st century. Filled with questions such as: What has happened to us? Where has all the love gone? Have we become beautifully mad in a beautifully mad world?
My Experience: If you are willing to go on this dense, gorgeous, honest journey you must annotate generously. This beauty was a gift from a dear friend of mine who opened my world to the magic that is Robert M. Drake and his wonderful pieces of writing.
Quote: “You deserve at least one thousand suns… we all do.”
#7 “Hamilton: An American Revolution” by: Jeremy McCarter and Lin Manuel Miranda
Synopsis: HAMILTON: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION gives readers a view of both the historical and modern revolutions surrounding Mr. Alexander Hamilton. Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages traces the smash hit musical’s development from a performance at the White House to its incredible opening night on Broadway six years later.
My Experience: So clearly, I love Hamilton. I love Lin Manuel Miranda. But read this if you hate Hamilton. Read this if you have no idea what Hamilton is. Read it if you are a theatre kid or an athlete or if you are lost or if you are found. Reading this is reading passion. It is reading love. It is reading truth.
Quote: “The plan is to fan this spark into a flame.”
#8 “On Writing” by: Ernest Hemingway
Synopsis: A group of reflections on the nature of writing and the writer from one the greatest American writers of the twentieth century.
My Experience: Ernest Hemingway is on my list of my top five favorite authors to ever exist. He is so incredibly brilliant, and is also the person I would most want to sit down and have a conversation with if I had the chance. However, as that is impossible, I found this book a terrific way to get writing advice from the most incredible writer in my world.
Quote (and one of my favorite quotes ever): “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.”
#9 “My Brain on Fire: Paris and Other Obsessions” by: Leonard Pitt
Synopsis: Leonard Pitt’s memoir of growing up the misfit in Detroit in the 1940s and 50s. In modern day he would have been put on Ritalin and paraded before psychiatrists because he couldn’t pay attention in school. However In 1962, he took the ultimate cure, a trip to Paris. He thought it would only be a visit. He stayed seven years. In the City of Light, Leonard’s mind exploded. And it hasn’t stopped since.
My Experience: While down at the Jersey shore for my post-prom party I wandered into a bookstore midday and bought this book because I had forgotten to bring a book with me. Books at post prom you ask? Of course. A must have. (As crucial as keg stands and handles)
Quote: “My motto: find your inner maniac. All the fun goes to the obsessed.”
#10 “Extraordinary Means” by: Robyn Schneider
Synopsis: Up until his diagnosis, Lane lived a fairly predictable life. But when he finds himself at a tuberculosis sanatorium called Latham House, he discovers an insane world with rules, med sensors, and an eccentric yet utterly compelling girl named Sadie—and life as Lane knows it will never be the same.
My Experience: John Green meets Rainbow Rowell and it is fantastic. Definitely one of the better YA books I have read recently. Heartbreaking, hilarious, gorgeous.
Quote: “That's all you can do in this world, no matter how strong the current beats against you, or how heavy your burden, or how tragic your love story. You keep going.”
I hope to inspire all to read & comment below any new recommendations! Xo.
