So exams are over, academics are done and I have found myself with an abundance of time on my hands with nothing to fill it.
But luckily I remembered that I am an English Lit student that actually adores reading, and can now actually read for pleasure with no academic guilt in the background. So without further ranting, I present to you, my summer book list, which is also basically known as my “Long list of books that I have been dying to get to for ages but have never gotten around to reading because there was always an assignment in the way.”
Heartstopper Series
If you haven’t been living under a rock I am going to assume that you have seen the absolute abundance of wholesomeness that is the show Heartstopper. After finishing college and binging the show twice over, I am now in the mood to allow my booklover side to enjoy that same wholesomeness. The graphic novels chronicle the love story between Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson, two young boys, who end up falling for each other while their friendship blossoms. It is said to be an incredible story that encompasses all the sweet innocence of a teen romance and the turbulence of being LGBTQ+ in the same novel.
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
It has always been my dream to brag about all the cool, classic immensely sad books I have read as an English student but after seeing quotes on quotes of heartbreaking realisation from Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, I have completely forgotten my superiority complex surrounding this book and cannot wait to get my summer freedom teeth into it. The novel is forever praised as one of Plath’s most profound works, one that has never seemed to lose its touch or got out of date, and one that I have been dying to use as a summer read.
Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race – Reni Eddo-Lodge
A book bought so long ago I forget what year it was, that has been sitting on my shelf and collecting dust, this is one I have been meaning to get to for ages. Described as the handbook for anyone who wants to understand the race relations in Britain, it is an important staple of serious reading that I have been meaning to get to.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time– Mark Haddon
Again, another book was bought and another one that has been collecting dust for the last Covid year of my life, this novel has been so immensely praised by everyone that has read it. Written from the perspective of Christopher Boone a fifteen-year-old with Aspergers Syndrome, the book is said to be one of the most captivating and interesting murder mystery novels ever written.
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
A book I was in fact assigned to read in my first year of college but never did, has now captured me as one of the most phenomenal pieces of feminism from the early Victorianism era, speaking on the disappointment of being a woman in a world that was not constructed for them, it is now a novel I believe I should’ve read in the first year and listened to the lecture about.