5 summer reads booklr can’t get over
It’s almost officially summer, which means if you hate the cold like I do, you’re more than ready to stop daydreaming about warm nights on restaurant patios and random Fort Collins festivals with friends, and start living them.
Except, of course, that it’s now impossible to turn these dreams into reality given that it’s 2020 and we’re all living through a global pandemic. And although local governments are allowing restaurants and outdoor activities to open back up, we all know that the morally responsible thing to do is to still stay home as much as we can help it.
So, for those of you who want to live vicariously through others and continue daydreaming about summer days, jobs and flings, check out these books that the booklr community on Tumblr cannot stop obsessing over.
1. The Unexpected Everything
This 2016 book from Young Adult legend Morgan Matson is timeless. And by timeless, I mean that I have an annual re-read of it during the gray depths of February because, even though I can’t feel it outside, its sunny, joyful adventures bring me all the warmth I need on the inside.
The novel follows Andie, a rising high school seniors, who has had all her perfectly-planned out summer goals turned on their head due to a financial scandal with her politician father. Stuck at home, she learns how to navigate her first real job (as a dog walker!), her first real fights with her friends and — you guessed it — her first real love.
2. Pride and Prejudice
Alright, yes, recommending Jane Austen is maybe a bit of a cliché, and her work can definitely be difficult to get through. However, by reading this you’ll not only be able to hold your own in a snot-off with some preppy English majors, you’ll be able to thoroughly enjoy the movies, the remakes (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, anyone?) and the pining.
So. Much. Pining. Seriously. Darcy and Elizabeth pine for each other like we’re all pining for a pandemic-free world. So, a lot.
Not only do you have the book to pine over, you have the Pride and Prejudice (2005) movie with Keira Knightly, you have the 2007 film “The Jane Austen Book Club” and you have a whole community awaiting you on Tumblr to gush alongside you and your Austen journey.
3. Red, White and Royal Blue
Remember that secret fantasy you had about falling in love with a prince, that’s never really gone away? Yeah, it’s back, thanks to author Casey McQuiston.
This book … this book has it all. British royalty? Check. Dramatic American diplomats? Check. Secret romance? Check. Enemies to lovers? A gay power couple to redefine all power couples? Acknowledgement that the British royalty, or any royalty, comes at a serious cost of innocent lives and a terrible history of imperialism? Check, check and check.
The second you finish this book, you’ll want to start it over. I promise.
4. Let’s Talk About Love
Confession time! I haven’t read this book (yet). I haven’t even purchased this book (yet). But when I picked this book up at Barnes and Noble some months ago to read the back, Claire Kann presented me with a gift: representation.
More specifically, asexual representation. All over booklr you’ll find people talking about and recommending diverse books, especially during major #BlackLivesMatter protests. Some of these books are the learning and unlearning, doing the work, anti-racism books, and others are just fun books that feature characters that look like us in ways we don’t get to see often.
This is so, so important. Because even though I’m not Black, like Kann and her main character, I am just another asexual girl trying to navigate college and her desire for romantic love.
Reading this book at 14 would have been amazing.
5. Anything by Sarah Dessen
If you’re not familiar with the Young Adult genre, you’ve probably never heard of Sarah Dessen. Or, you witnessed the ridiculous Twitter aggression she decided to start against a college girl who didn’t think her books were up to par for a college reading requirement.
Which, I both agree and disagree with. On one hand, YA romance is not “sophisticated literature.” On the other hand, Dessen’s books taught me about consent, domestic abuse and eating disorders when I was in middle school, and continue to provide life insight into relationships with peers, family and oneself, which is definitely important for college freshmen.
Regardless of Dessen’s own actions, she has got the YA formula down. And with 14 books to choose from, you’ll be preoccupied for all of quarantine. For those special summer vibes, I would recommend “This Lullaby,” “Along for the Ride” or “The Truth About Forever,” but “Saint Anything” and “Just Listen” are fantastic reads as well.
Even if YA books are not your cup of tea, the booklr community on Tumblr has recommendations for just about everything. I don’t think I would have read any of these wonderful stories if it were not for booklr, and I cannot suggest a better thing to do to pass away the COVID-19 daze.
