Recently, I’ve been in the exact opposite of a reading slump. I’ve been flying through books every day and wearing down the corner seat in my local library. Of course, a good book is sometimes hard to find, but I’ve gotten lucky within the past month or so with the ones I’ve picked up. So, here are some of the books I’ve read recently that I definitely recommend to fiction lovers.
1. Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth
If you’re a fan of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, I highly advise you to read this book. It’s the perfect combination of a sapphic Normal People and André Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name. It’s set in the 1990s in an Irish village and tells the story of two young girls, Lucy and Susannah, as Lucy begins to realize, and live through, an all-consuming love for Susannah with the fear of rejection that society pushes onto her. I loved this book, and of course I’m always looking for a new sapphic read, and it’s just my luck that Sunburn has never left my mind.
2. The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
This book has definitely gained some popularity this year, and Poston has a decent amount of other books published. The Seven Year Slip tells the fictional romance of the main character, Clementine, who falls in love with her unexpected roommate. Of course, everything is perfect, except for when she finds out he lives seven years in the future and she’s stuck seven years in the past. I was unsure about this book and had it on my TBR list for a while before I picked it up, but I was very glad I did. Love is a matter of timing, and this book proves that.
3. How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
I stumbled upon this book somewhat randomly, and for me, it was one I was unable to put down. It’s a coming-of-age novel set in the ‘90s about 14-year-old Johanna Morrigan, who decides to turn herself into Dolly Wilde, the drinking, smoking, groupie who writes for a music magazine. She creates an entirely new person out of herself, but she’s forced to recognize the flaws she has built with her, and how maybe her vision of a perfect life isn’t so perfect after all. We also meet John Kite, the singer that Wilde becomes infatuated with, and of course, as most of us can relate to, being in love with a singer is a vital part of girlhood.
4. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
This was a book I picked up at my library because I was intrigued by the cover, and I really didn’t think I would enjoy it, but it ended up being so much more than what the small blurb described it as. On her ninth birthday, Rose Edelstein receives a gift, or a curse, where she can taste whatever people feel through the food they make. The emotions of the person become alive on her taste buds. This book, more importantly, is about family. Although the main character has this power, the story focuses more so on her life beyond this. It’s about her mother’s affair, her father’s emotional absence, her adolescent crush, and her brother who’s facing a struggle far larger than any emotion Rose can taste. This is a book I’ll think of for years to come, and I still have so many questions about the family involved.
5. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Of course, Sylvia Plath is a poetic genius, and her words capture parts of my mind that I never even knew existed. Although this is a semi-autobiographical novel from Plath, it’s definitely still one I had to include in my recent reads list, and can still fall under the fiction umbrella. Her novel, The Bell Jar, is a haunting and emotional story about Esther Greenwood, a beautiful, successful, and talented woman. Plath takes readers through her character’s downward spiral as Greenwood’s life unravels and breaks down in a way you won’t even remember happening. Reading this book is like falling with the character, and seeing the small, hidden parts of a person’s mind that can come out without realization. This book is a classic, and it’s a horror like no other. If you haven’t read Plath’s The Bell Jar, you must.
6. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
As I’m writing this, Sunrise on the Reaping has officially just come out today, March 18. Although I haven’t read this book yet, but am about to, I can already tell you it’s going to be five stars on my ratings. It’s the fifth book in the Hunger Games series, and finally gives fans the story of Haymich Abernathy’s life. I’m so excited to read this, as I’m sure all fans are, and I can’t wait to hear about the fight Abernathy gives in the Capitol’s 50th Hunger Games.
Happy reading, and of course for ratings and book recommendations, you can check out my Goodreads account.