SUMMER READING RECOMMENDATIONS 📖

Our assistants have made some reading recommendations for you.

HAPPY SUMMER HOLIDAYS!!

Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (fantasy, fiction)

The protagonist is Pi Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry. After surviving a shipwreck, he floats on a boat for 200 days with a Bengal Tiger in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which leads him to an epic journey of adventure and discovery.

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe (history, African literature)

This is the story of Okonkwo, a leader of the Igbo community in Nigeria. The story is about the tension between African culture and colonization, and the relationship between tradition and change.

Dune, by Frank Herbert (science fiction)

This story takes place in the future, and it’s about a war between kingdoms of an interstellar society. The plot focuses on Arrakis, a desert planet that is full of mystery and danger. 

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros (fiction, novel)

This is the story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl, and her life growing up in Chicago. Esperanza grows up in a bad neighborhood, but writing poetry helps her change her life. 

A wrinkle in time, by Madeline L’Engle (fantasy, fiction)

This story is about a friendship between two children and three witches. Together, they travel through time and space looking for the children’s lost father. This story has adventure, fantasy, and a bit of science fiction!

Anxious people, by Fredrick Backman (fiction)

    A group of people are being held hostage after a bank robbery... Then they get to know each other and helping the bank robber!

God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy (drama)

This is a family drama novel writtem by Indian writer Arundhati Roy, a story about two fraternal twins living in 1960 in Kerala, India. It won the Book Prize in 1997.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (humor, adventures)

One of Mark Twain's best-known novels. It tells the story of young Huckleberry Finn's scape and his adventures down the Mississippi River together with the runaway slave Jim. 

Normal People, by Sally Rooney (fiction)

Two students go to secondary school in Ireland but will soon go to university. They like each other, but come from very different social circles, so they date in private. They split, but meet again in university by chance. They are on-again-off again throughout the rest of their time at university. This has been made into a TV series.

Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson (autobiography)

This is an autobiography (the author wrote it about himself) and all of it is true: A lawyer does free service in the United States for prisoners on death row. You read about some successful cases but also ones that he didn’t win. There is so much wrong with the prison system in the US and you read about much of it in this book. This has been made into a movie (it’s very different from the book but still amazing).

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas (novel, fiction)

A young black girl, Starr, starts attending a primarily all white school. She goes to a party with her former classmates and sees her childhood best friend, Khalil. Gunshots start, so Starr and Khalil get into Khalil’s car and drive away. They are pulled over by a police officer who kills Khalil. When she returns to school, she realizes how out of touch her white classmates are, especially when she has to start testifying to the police about what happened. The rest of the story is about what happens with the trial of the police officer. This has been made into a movie. 

Harry Potter by JK Rowling (novel, fiction, fantasy)

These are my favorite books and I’ve started reading them in Spanish to practice (if I can do it, you can do it). It’s some odd vocabulary because of the magic but a lot of different verb tenses are used while having simple conversations. This is a series of seven books and eight movies. You won't be able to stop reading!