School’s out, and final exam grades are in. As the calming relaxation of summer vacation sinks in, you’ve found yourself lying on the couch aimlessly watching 90s reruns on TV with the A/C cranked all the way up. Instead of letting your mind go to waste, grab a beach towel, pick up a book and lose yourself in the brillantly composed words of today’s most popular authors. Here are the top five books everyone should read this summer:
Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann
Beginning with tragedy and heartbreak, 17 year old Eveline Auerbach is growing up in the Hamptons in the 1970s. With these preliminary events consuming Evie’s mind and shaping her life, she falls in love with a dark and brooding man. Both a love story and an exploration of finding one’s place in the world, Hamann’s novel follows Evie from her high school years into adulthood in the high-pressured Manhattan of the 1980s.
Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois
Inspired by the Amanda Knox trial, duBois’s Cartwheel will take readers on a suspenseful mystery of an American foreign exhange student arrested for murder. Lily Hayes arrives full of wonder in Buenoes Aires for her semester abroad until her roommate, Katy, is brutally murdered. Drugs, sex and a foreign romance will keep readers enticed as the case takes shape with Lily appearing as the prime suspect in the eyes of the media, her family, the man who loves her and the man who seeks her conviction.
The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks
It’s almost unbearable to think of a summer without the romance of a Nicholas Sparks novel. In his latest romance, the life of an elderly widower, haunted by the ghost of his beloved late wife, becomes entwined with the life of a sorority girl and her own personal love story with a cowboy. These two couples, separated by years and experience, will remind readers how our decisions can take us on an incredible journey, beyond death and despair, to the deepest crevasses of our hearts.
Wonderland by Stacey D’Erasmo
Fourty-four year old, washed-up, indie rock star Anna has a shot at a second chance at stardom. We meet her in her Wonderland, a place of time travel and possibility. She has loved, and she has lost. She sleeps with the wrong guys or maybe the right men. She remembers what she was while others remember who she became. Most importantly, she imagines what and who she might have been had she made different choices. She’s only getting older, and Anna is running out of choices.
Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
Told through diner napkins, motel receipts, postcards and traditional narrative, is the story of Amy Curry’s journey to find herself. After her father’s death in a car accident, Amy’s settled life in California gets uprooted when her mother decides to move the family across the country to Connecticut, and it’s up to her to drive the car there. Driving with her is Roger, a family friend and a stranger to Amy, who comes with plenty of his own baggage, as well. As they drive, Amy discovers that sometimes you have to get lost in order to find your way home.