My Summer Reading List #2

Summer, for me, is the time of the year when I read the most books. I don't have school, so I instantly have more free time, and one of my favourite ways to spend this is reading. I wrote a post last month which told you about 3 books that I wanted to read over the summer, and it was well-received by my readers. Since there are quite a few more books that I plan on reading this summer, I thought I'd share them with you now.

Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn

Andrew Winston Winters is at war with himself. He’s part Win, the lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy. The guy who shuts all his classmates out, no matter the cost. He’s part Drew, the angry young boy with violent impulses that control him. The boy who spent a fateful, long-ago summer with his brother and teenage cousins, only to endure a secret so monstrous it led three children to do the unthinkable. Over the course of one night, Andrew battles both the pain of his past and the isolation of his present. Before the sun rises, he’ll either surrender his sanity to the wild darkness inside his mind or make peace with the most elemental of truths - that choosing to live can mean much more than not dying.

I'm really looking forward to reading this book as it is supposed to be a gripping psychological thriller aimed at young adults. I first heard about this book when Regan from the Youtube channel PeruseProject mentioned it, and since then I've heard lots of good things about it. This book is said to have aspects of fantasy and mystery within it, which I'm really excited for and can't wait to see if it portrayed well. There are only about 250 pages in this book so it'll probably be a really quick read, but I'm looking forward to it none the less.

Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan

"No one tried to get involved with me, and I kept to myself. This was the place where everything was supposed to be safe and easy. How could Evan Mathews unravel my constant universe in just one day?" In the affluent town of Weslyn, Connecticut, where most people worry about what to be seen in and who to be seen with, Emma Thomas would rather not be seen at all. She’s more concerned with feigning perfection while pulling down her sleeves to conceal the bruises - not wanting anyone to know how far from perfect her life truly is. Without expecting it, she finds love. It challenges her to recognize her own worth - but at the risk of revealing the terrible secret she’s desperate to hide.

This book was sitting on the shelves of my local library for months, and I often picked it up and considered borrowing it. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I properly read the blurb and decided that I wanted to read it over the summer. The novel is about the different struggles that Emma Thomas goes through during her teenage life, and also the hope and optimism she has for the future, which I am looking forward to reading. It is supposed to be really powerful and a lot more emotional than those I usually read, but the concept and plot-line sounded too intriguing to leave behind.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The place: a small town in the south of the United States. The time: the early 20th century. A black man is accused of raping a woman, and an idealistic lawyer gets to defend him. We start watching the reasons that make his defense far from easy; and that's mostly because nobody in this town seems determined to believe in the guiltlessness of an accused negro.

I don't usually read classic novels, although this is definitely something that I'd like to change, but To Kill a Mockingbird is on the syllabus for my English Literature and Language GCSE's. As a class, we read this earlier on in the year, but I really want to revisit it over the summer. This is a very powerful novel set in the early 30s, focusing heavily on the prejudice and racial inequality in the town of Maycomb. Despite being a bit skeptical and unsure about it when I first started it, this has grown to be a book that I really love and will read often.

I hope you enjoyed hearing what books I'll be reading this summer, and if you have any more recommendations or suggestions then I'd love to know what they are. If you've read one of the books mentioned here and want to share your opinions, without spoilers of course, then make sure you let me know. Thanks for reading and I'll see you soon with a new post.

Images from Goodreads, edited by me.