Every spring break, I go to Burlington, Ontario to visit my aunt and uncle for the week. I’m the girl carrying a huge suitcase through Logan Airport for a one hour flight and a ten day vacation. Of course, only 30 percent of it is clothes, with the other 70 percent being books. I get it, it’s incredibly difficult to find motivation to read for pleasure after the sheer exhaustion of reading academically for the entire semester. However, over break I read myriad books of different genres that went by super quick and were, for the most part, excellent.
So, if you can take some time for yourself to read something fun, read on and enjoy! There’s something for everyone (in no particular order)!
The 7 Secrets of Awakening the Highly Effective Four-Hour Giant, Today
READ IF: You love slightly immoral humor.
ETA: Quick read
This is a self-help book by the cast of the FXX show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, written entirely in character. I know what you’re thinking: Aren’t all the characters on that show inherently terrible? Yes! That’s what makes the book so great. It’s helpful because they’ll help you realize that you’re so much better than certain people just because you’re average.
The John Lennon Letters by Hunter Davies
READ IF: You love The Beatles and sentimental stuff.
ETA: It will take you some time.
This is a compilation of letters John Lennon wrote to the people in his life from birth until death. Hunter Davies was a friend of The Beatles who has written multiple books about them. He went around the world tracking down letters Lennon wrote that have been lost, traded and sold through the course of Beatles history. For somebody who loves The Beatles (don’t we all, though?) or somebody who just wants to peer into the mind of a genius, this book is perfect.
The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
READ IF: You love intricately woven storylines.
ETA: You can knock this out in a few days.
There’s nothing I love more than a family-oriented novel, especially when there are multiple characters and storylines to follow that come together in the end. Of course, it gets even better when the family is mad dysfunctional. In this novel, a family of grown adults spend their whole lives waiting for a hefty inheritance they are promised when the youngest sibling turns 40, only to realize they have to give most of it to their piece of sh*t older brother without recompensation. Along the way we meet the siblings, their kids and the people they interact with. The book is unique because it’ll introduce a character randomly and reveal their importance later.
Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
READ IF: You want your heart to break and feel fulfilled all at once.
ETA: You won’t be able to put it down until you’re finished.
In the world of cliched stories where a student-teacher relationship results in a pregnancy and ruins the woman’s life forever, this one stands out. We never meet main character Ingrid, yet we get to know her through a series of letters she writes to her husband right before she disappears, presumed dead. It switches back and forth between the letters and the point of view of her younger daughter Flora, whose rose-colored glasses have altered her view of her terrible family and painted it in a better light. This is a book club book if ever there was one, and you will have many questions and discussion topics afterwards.
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
READ IF: You love romantic comedies.
ETA: Once again, you won’t put it down.
This is a romantic comedy in book form, only 100x better. If there’s one thing I hate about films and books, it’s when the conflict stems from miscommunication. In this book, the main characters Lucy and Josh communicate incredibly well—in fact, they’re sometimes too honest with one another—and yet the story still finds conflict in other, less easy-way-out ways. You have never encountered two people you want to fall in love more than these two. It’s incredibly sweet, funny and full of love.
We’re All in This Together by Amy Jones
READ IF: You want deep, well-written, relatable characters.
ETA: Give yourself a week.
This is another book about a dysfunctional family reuniting after the matriarch survives going over a waterfall in a barrel (yeah, I know, but trust me it’ll all make sense) and goes into a coma. Suddenly, siblings and cousins must come together and patch up broken relationships. It’s written in a very natural way, as if you’re walking side by side with each character and experiencing what they experience. It’s not overdramatic or exaggerated the way The Nest could be at times. This is a normal Canadian family with characters we should hate but will fall in love with.