With summer break inching closer and closer, it’s time to put down textbooks and pick up your favorite summer reads. Here are four CHS students recommendations for books you should indulge in this summer. Whether you’re reading by the beach or in the comfort of your own room, these books are sure to keep you hooked until the very last page.
CHS junior Ellena Biermann’s favorite genres are romance and fiction. She likes these two because many books she’s read in these genres have felt like an escape from reality for her. She can get absorbed in the world of whichever book she’s reading and momentarily, anything bad in her life seems to disappear. She recommends “Deep End” by Ali Hazelwood as the perfect summer read. This sports romance is about two college athletes — a competitive diver and a world championship winning swimmer — who are forced to fake a relationship after a well guarded secret slips out. While at first it’s just formality, soon it turns into a whirlwind of love, heartbreak and everything in between.
“I would recommend this book because it’s fun and uplifting which makes it perfect to read in the summer,” Biermann said. “It doesn’t make you think too hard because everything on the page is fairly straightforward. Reading a book like this at the beach is exactly what I plan on doing this summer.”
CHS freshman Lacey Neilsen has always enjoyed reading books in the fantasy and mystery genres. She loves how these genres give her the ability to figure out the plot as the characters figure it out for themselves. She has three recommendations for this summer. These include the Cinder series written by Marissa Meyer, the Enola Holmes series written by Nancy Springer and “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” written by Holly Jackson. The Cinder series follows a young girl named Cinder trying to save a dystopian world. The Enola Holmes series focuses on Sherlock Holmes’ sister Enola who follows in his footsteps of solving mysteries. “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” is arguably the most popular read among the three. It follows highschooler Pippa Fitz-Amobi in her journey to solving a mysterious murder in her small town.
“These three book series are really good because they will keep you hooked the entire time,” Nielsen said. “I hate when a book gets boring midway through and that definitely doesn’t happen with these three recommendations.”
For CHS freshman Eva Hiltz-Perron, there isn’t a specific genre she fully sticks to. Hiltz-Perron likes to read everything because she finds herself getting bored if she doesn’t switch it up from time to time. Her book recommendation for this summer is “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood.
“It’s a very intense book,” Hiltz-Perron said. “I think everybody should read it once in their life because it changes your perspective on a lot of things. I also feel like some of the things that happen in the book are relevant to things happening in the world right now which is interesting.”
Poetry books have always spoken to CHS sophomore Jaz Jennings. She has always appreciated the variety of themes and types of poems that each book comes with. To her, poems are never black and white, rather they are a spectrum of colors with each color having a different meaning and a different weight that it carries. Similar to Biermann, Jennings has recently been liking more light-hearted novels. One recommendation she has is “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series. This series is about a love triangle between high schooler Isabelle Conklin and two brothers. The book takes place on summer break in a coastal beach town.
“This series is engaging but not too stressful,” Jennings said. “It’s also fun to choose between the two love interests and debate which one you think is a better fit for Isabelle Conklin. The series reminds me of sunshine and sea foam, and that’s all I need to be thinking of this summer.”
If you’re in need of a good read this summer, try out these CHS student’s recommendations!
