1. "Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes

I can’t have a list of book recommendations and not put this on it, so let’s just get it out of the way early. It’s a movie that you can see in two hours, so why read the book? I’m not going to lecture you that books are always better—there’s no guarantee something with paragraph breaks is better than something with jump cuts. But there’s a little bit of controversy over the ending of "Me Before You" (which I wouldn’t dream of spoiling for you), and if you want to have your own opinion on Moyes’ treatment of disability, you should watch the movie and read the book (not necessarily in that order). Don’t blame Jojo for something that may have been changed to fit the film. Also, don't take it too seriously. It's just a book/movie.

2. "Please Stop Laughing At Me" by Jodee Blanco

After you read "Me Before You" and need to be dragged back down to the real world from a Cloud Nine in which Moyes wrote a different ending, hit up your library for a copy of "Please Stop Laughing At Me." I first read this book in seventh grade, and as an incoming sophomore in college, it still sticks with me. This book is a memoir about the author’s struggle with bullying all through her grade-school years. It is harrowing, it is haunting, it is horrifying to read about the things her "friends" would do. Jodee Blanco gives you the hard truth about how awful bullying can be, and she doesn’t BS you about it. Kids have the potential to be really terrible because they don’t have the parental support at home to know how wrong harassing their peers is, and kids have the potential to be irrevocably changed, traumatized, as a result. When I was 12, I sure didn’t know how to ignore them and not take it personally. But what didn’t kill Jodee (and I’m using that quite literally) made her stronger, and her growth—though forced through unfortunate circumstances—into an independent, capable, strong woman is nothing short of remarkable.

3. "Little House on the Prairie" by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The last two books, while very different, were both kinda downers, so rewind your internal clock to middle-school-you and read "Little House on the Prairie." Ideally, the whole series. They’re not that long, and in most copies, the print is pretty big. I’ve loved these books since elementary school, and I have the entire set of illustrated collector’s editions. I still go back and read them, particularly during the summer. When I sit outside and the wind is blowing, the grass is wisping around, birds are chirping, I feel like the Ingalls are going to drive their caravan right in front of me. One of my all-time favorite swoon-worthy male characters is Almanzo Wilder. Sometimes I’ll watch the TV show if it’s an episode with Laura and Manly. Call me crazy. Just read.

4. "Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free" by Héctor Tobar

This is a book for the beach, or the hammock in the backyard, or anywhere when you’re surrounded by a lot of open space. "Deep Down Dark" is the story of 33 men who were stuck underground for 69 days after their mine collapsed on top of them in 2010. If you’ve ever wondered just how much of life is all in your head—how far perseverance and grit will get you—read this book. Tobar will take you from the inherent danger in a typical mining operation, get your heart invested in the miners when you learn about their families, and inspire you to do amazing things when you learn about how they finally made it out.

5. "In the Heart of the Sea" by Nathaniel Philbrick

You may not have read "Moby Dick," but you probably know the story of Captain Ahab and his search for the white whale. That story is based on an actual ship, the Essex, that was sunk by a huge whale in 1820 (author Herman Melville was born in 1819, so the story was already a local legend by the time Moby Dick was penned in 1851). The Essex, out of Nantucket, Massachusetts, was a whaler (a ship designed to specialize in the catching of whales) searching for sperm whales, whose oil, called spermaceti, was used in cosmetics, and, most importantly, candle-making (since this is before lightbulbs, candles were pretty important). The crew of 20 men was stranded in the southern Pacific Ocean for 95 days, of which eight survived. The story inspired Melville to write what is now a pinnacle of American Romanticism, but was then a dud.

6. "I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai

If you don’t recognize the name, you’ll probably recognize this: the girl who was shot in the face by the Taliban. Well, this girl went from sneaking around Pakistan to avoid being killed because she wanted to go to school to winning the Nobel Peace Prize, starring in her own documentary, and writing a memoir about her life leading up to and immediately after her near-death experience. If you’ve ever thought, “What can only one person do to make a difference in a world with 7.4 billion people?” (or something to that effect), this is the book for you. Pro-tip: you can also learn about how bad the Taliban and other terrorist groups are, not just to us, but to their neighbors.

7. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

I first read "The Help" in high school as a summer assignment, and it turned out to be the best summer assignment I ever had. While this book is technically fiction, it’s the believable story of a white woman who writes about the trials and tribulations—the good, the bad and the ugly—of black maids in Mississippi and the socialites they work for. The book is great, the movie is great, and you’ll get some useful quotes out of it. It was the unofficial, Class of 2015-wide joke at my high school to frequently say, “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.” I wanted that to be our senior slogan (if the five looks like an ’s’, you could say “You 15 kind,” etc.). I’m not bitter that it wasn’t. Not at all…

8. "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon

*Cough, cough* Anyway, to top off your summer, you need something so removed from real life, it’s like school isn’t a few days away. With "Outlander," you’ll get that. A happily married woman accidentally travels back in time and is forced to marry someone else, a man who she slowly falls in love with. You might think I’m spoiling the whole story—trust me, I’m not (I’m pretty big on no spoilers, what with all the books I read). There is so much more to this book than just a simple love story. This book is the first in a series, and goes from a husband blindly searching for his wife, to a woman torn between two very different men, from post-World War II to 18th-century Scotland. Full of love and loss, swashbuckling and adventure, and everything you wouldn’t want to happen to you in these circumstances, "Outlander" is a book for the ages.

I’ve taken these books straight off my “read” shelf on Goodreads, so believe me when I say these are all really good books (in my opinion). They all get five stars from me. I’ve tried to include lots of different subjects, fiction and nonfiction, and I hope you can find at least one of them that sounds like a good read. Tell me what you think!