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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at STCU chapter.

Books, book, books. When you think about it in the literal sense, books are just a bunch of pages with words communicating a story. However, when you really look at it, books open up an entire world outside of our own boring world. Below I have listed a couple of books that were hard to put down because of their content and the incredible writing skills of the author.

 

Romance: Josephine by Beverly Jenkins

I don’t like war stories, especially historical fiction ones, but when I tell you this book will make you swoon, I am not kidding! Set during the civil war, Josephine is a young Black woman who not only finished college, but runs her own business as a hairdresser at the same time that the civil war is going on. There is always something that is bound to happen. This book is funny, adorable, cute and perfectly written to the point where you feel like you are living during that time period.

 

http://www.beverlyjenkins.net/web/books/josephine/

 

Fantasy: Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

I read this book over the summer, and quite honestly, the first few chapters could have been better, but the rest of the book is marvelous! Unlike, the first book mentioned, this book is set in the future where skin color does not divide people, but the color of their blood does. There are people who have silver blood; they have superpowers such as levitation, extreme strength, and many other incredible powers. The rest of the people have what used to be normal red blood; these people have no powers at all and are the futuristic slaves for the silvers. The main character, Mare is a red blood, but what happens when she develops powers in the most unexpected way? Follow her journey filled with pain, shock, and bone-chilling betrayal.

 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22328546-red-queen

 

Sci-Fi: The Thousandth Floor by Katharine Mcgee

About ten minutes ago, I finished the third and final book of this trilogy. The first one, The Thousandth Floor, is so well written and beyond anything I could have ever imagined to the point that I contacted the author on Instagram. She is the sweetest person ever! The series is set a hundred years in the future where the entire city of New York becomes a building with 1,000 floors. The books follow five main characters whose lives are completely different from each other. One of them is a genetically engineered perfect girl who lives on the thousandth floor; she is hiding the biggest secret of her life. Another is a boy who created a brilliant computer that he implanted in his brain that hacks nearly every computer system in the world. The third is a girl who lives on the 32nd floor, she is poor and an orphan, but gets a scholarship to attend a private school on the upper floors. The next girl is a con artist who travels the world with her mother and comes to New York for yet another con, but what happens when people find out who she is? The final girl is the best friend of little miss perfect from floor 1,000. She too battles with the biggest secret of her life. In a world with advanced technology where people have their phones in their head literally sending messages with their eyes and answering calls with a movement of their head, follow these five when an unexpected twist brings them all together and connects them all to the biggest secret of all.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Thousandth-Floor-Katharine-McGee/dp/0062418602

 

Young Adult Fiction/Sh*t That’s Going on NOW: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Now that this novel became a movie, a lot of people know about it, but many don’t know that it was first a novel. The number of times I had to take a break from reading was uncountable because of how angry I became thinking about the countless families across the nation that are going through the same thing right now. Angie Thomas portrayed beautifully the battles Black men face every single day as they put their lives at risk for just being alive. During these times of turmoil, this book is both a refresher and a sad reality. It is refreshing to see representation and a novel speaking about the inequalities that are going on in the world, and sad because it is the cold, hard truth. If you haven’t read or watched this, then I highly recommend you do so!

 

https://www.amazon.com/Give-coraggio-della-verit%C3%A0-Italian-ebook/dp/B074G1G23B

 

Spiritual/Religious: Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed

Written by a world-renowned instructor of the Islamic sciences, Yasmin Mogahed’s book focuses on different aspects of her life that have made her stop and reflect. It is filled with hundreds of anecdotes, the book taught me the power of reflection. Although the main purpose of the book is religious guidance, the biggest gift Mogahed has given me is the ability to sit back, clear my head and relax. This book took me forever to finish because after every chapter, I had to sit and meditate and reflect.

https://www.amazon.com/Reclaim-Your-Heart-Yasmin-Mogahed/dp/0990387682

 

Well, my beautiful readers, this is the end of my top books I am entrusting you with. Below is a list of all the other books I recommend as well!

 

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (entire trilogy!)

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles

Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Sula by Toni Morrison

Gone by Michael Grant

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han (entire trilogy!)

Being Nikki by Meg Cabot

 

 

Fardosa Kadar is an undergraduate student majoring in nursing. Aside from her health studies, Fardosa enjoys reading, writing and watching international dramas.
Andrea Duarte-Alonso is a grad from Saint Catherine University where she received her bachelor's of Art in Political Science, Women's Studies, and English. She founded HC STCU in order to include voices that are hardly ever represented in media. Andrea is a storyteller, writer, and a political enthusiast. Her areas of interest lie in writing (check her website storiesfromunheardvoices.com that was created for her community), traveling, and fighting for social justice issues.