THE HC TEAM WEIGHS IN: What We Read and Loved
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This week we’re talking about the books we read, loved, and wanted to tell you about! Books are hard to balance with all the assigned reading in college, but these books are worth sacrificing a rerun of The Rachel Zoe Project for!
So…tell us…what book did you last read and love?
Right now I’m treasuring True Prep by Lisa Birnbachwho wrote the original The Official Preppy Handbook. It’s a total tongue in cheek-love my monograms and seersucker-where’s my G&T-read.
– Carlene Helble, Contributing Writer, James Madison University
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I didn’t think I’d like a book about the circus, but the love story between Marlena and Jacob is beautifully tragic and real and I just had to keep reading about it.
– Gabriela Szewcow, Contributing Writer, Elon University
Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. Although I’m not a political science major, I’ve always had an interest in politics. I was afraid the book might be dry and boring, but it is the most fascinating thing I’ve read in a while. It is a real page-turner!
– Katie Chen, Campus Correspondent, Wellesley College
I just read the Hunger Games series (there are three books in all) by Suzanne Collins. They’re awesome. I think they’re “young adult” books but are definitely worth reading no matter how old you are. I read the second book, literally, in one sitting because I didn’t bring enough money to the bookstore to buy it in hardcover. They’re really quick reads and are uber-engaging.
– Jessica Goldstein, Contributing Writer, University of Pennsylvania
The Help by Kathryn Stockettwas the last really great book I read. I’ve read at least ten books since I put that one down, but it keeps standing out in my mind. The characters are so easy to relate to, and it gives a really interesting perspective on life: one that many of us are not familiar with. I read the book for pleasure after my aunt and two of my friends told me not to pass it up!
– Colette Maddock, Campus Correspondent, University of Montana
I just finished Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,a book I’d recommend to anyone with a sense of humor and a patience for weird Yiddish vocabulary. Fun to read and amazingly well written, you’ll find yourself chuckling at the clever ways Chabon views the world. (Bonus: This is also a paperback your boyfriend can borrow, not one of those pink books about chocolate or marriage that you’re too embarrassed to read on the subway.)
– Rachel Beck, Contributing Writer, Barnard College
I just wrapped up my last summer read, Sloane Crosley’s I Was Told There’d Be Cake. A New York-based writer, Crosley delivers absolutely hilarious, laugh-out-loud content, and this series of autobiographical essays is no exception! It’s light and fun — the perfect dessert book.
– Kelsey Mirando, Campus Correspondent, University of Missouri
The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks.I loved this book because, one I am a huge Sparks fan and also this book was so good and a bawl fest. I could relate to Ronnie on a lot of things and I felt like I was going through all her experiences with her. I also have had too much sickness in my family so I could relate to the book in that sense as well. And plus, who doesn’t love a good cry?
– Nicole Lumbreras, Campus Correspondent, University of Iowa
The last book I read was At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks. Starting this past summer, I’ve made it a personal mission to read every single one of his books. I love them all but specifically to this one, I love that it was a sequel and that it wasn’t so utterly predictable!
– Rachel Petersen, Campus Publicity Correspondent, James Madison University
The last great book I read was Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut.I went on a Vonnegut-reading spree over the summer and this was one of my favorites that I read. I don’t think I ever appreciated Vonnegut’s style of writing in high school, but now that I am reading him for pleasure, he’s really growing on me. Hocus Pocus is told through memories of a veteran as he looks back at his life while he awaits his trial for an initially unspecified crime. I loved Vonnegut’s humor, wit and insight in this book, but what I loved the best was the ending — it wrapped things up so nicely, yet in a non-traditional way, and gave me chills! I definitely recommend it!
– Valentina Palladino, Contributing Writer, Syracuse University
Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler.I just love her stories and humor. She is so relatable to different girls in so many ways that it is hard not to love her!
– Krista Evans, Campus Correspondent, Simmons College
In my Detective Fiction class, we just finished reading Raymond Chandler’s classic novel The Long Goodbyeand it was phenomenal. It takes place in the late 1940’s and follows the famous detective figure Philip Marlowe. The writing is just remarkable and it gives a great perspective into the post-war suburbs of Los Angeles. It’s a social satire on people who look great on paper, but really, the hot housewives are secretly murdering men in the neighborhood and popping prescription pain killers like candy, the cops are all corrupt, and the narrator just gets drunk on gin at 9 in the morning and then goes out to figure out whodunnit? Great stuff.
– Joanna Buffum, Contributing Writer/Campus Correspondent, Bowdoin College
I am OBSESSED with Adam Davies’ The Frog King. I read it over the summer and was amazed at how much I loved it. It’s a love story that (spoiler!) doesn’t have a happy ending, but Davies managed to get even a hopeless romantic like me to accept it and, what’s more, like it. Also, the wordplay he uses, mixed with the snappy dialogue, just make this book impossible to walk away from. I’m determined to buy all of Adam Davies books now.
– Jen Kach, Campus Correspondent, Penn State