Quick Reads for your Spare Time

With schoolwork coming on in full force, it usually is hard to fit leisure reading time in. If you’re on the hunt for a novel that is a page turner and a great way to escape from the realities of the amount of snow you’ve slipped on in the past month, here are a few good, quick reads for your spare time.

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The Corny Romance Novel:

Yes, these are pretty easy to come across in the Young Adult novel world; but, what I find most enchanting about Gayle Forman’s Just One Day is not only the romantic whirlwind that her characters experience, but also the fallout of love and loss afterwards. It follows Allyson, a recent college grad who is studying abroad in Europe. One evening she and her friend decide to sneak away to a Shakespeare performance and meet one of the actors, Willem. On the day the girls leave they run into Willem on a train where he and Allyson decide that they want to take an adventurous one day in Paris together. I think that while it definitely has its fairytale aspects, it has a reality check in that true love doesn’t sweep you off your feet without repercussions both emotionally and physically. The Paris portion is only half of the novel, the rest is about finding yourself and what love actually means. You can read it on its own but you will probably be too hooked not to read the sequel, Just One Year from Willem’s point of view.

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The One that Makes You Think:

There are a lot of novels I could recommend here, but since I read this one last I’ll go for it. I just finished reading Everyday by David Levithan and kind of adored it. This novel is about a person named A who wakes up in another person’s body every day and lives their lives out for them. A is just a soul—not gender specified, not from a family, no natural appearance, but a personality separate from it all. When A inhibits the body of a boy named Justin who dates a girl named Rihannon, A falls in love and travels back to Rihannon’s town no matter which body A inhibits to get to know her. I felt like this was a great and original leap into the uncharted territory of a non-gender character and I appreciated how well it was done. It had its romance, sure, but it contemplated what it meant to be a person in society in a way I would have never thought about had I not stepped into A’s traveling mind.

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The Funny One:

If you’re a fan of The Mindy Project or The Office then you most likely know and love the talented Mindy Kaling. In her memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), Kaling talks about life as a comedienne as well as her childhood in the hilarious way you would expect. She gives advice but touts her “unqualified” nature hilariously. “I’m only marginally qualified to be giving advice at all. My body mass index is certainly not ideal, I frequently use my debit card to buy things that cost less than three dollars because I never have cash on me, and my bedroom is so untidy it looks like vandals ransacked the Anthropologie Sale section. I’m kind of a mess.” It’s a quick and fun read and I highly recommend it.

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The Sci-fi One:

I honestly just got done reading this one and I rather enjoyed it. It’s the new novel Pawn by Aimee Carter and it is the first in her very new dystopian series. Pawn is about 17-year-old Kitty Doe who lives in a society where everyone is judged by their numbered rank. She is a lowly III, bound to live a bad life after failing her aptitude test. But, an opportunity comes her way to become a VII and join the most powerful family in the country — if she is willing to give up her entire life. I swear it is less melodramatic than I just made it sound. I think this is a nice read if you’re on the lookout for a new Divergent-esque novel to sink into and it is a promising trilogy to get your hand on before it gets popular.

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The Spooky One:

I hate to bring up older books when I’m recommending, but this is a great scary one that you will not be able to put down. When I recommend The Forrest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan to people I describe it as the classiest zombie book you will ever read. It tells the story of Mary who lives inside a gated community within the Forrest of Hands and Teeth. Outside the gates infected “unconsecrated” humans lurk waiting to attack the living inside. When the fence is breached and Mary and her friends are forced into the infested forest, she finds that there is surprisingly more to the world than her little community. This one is scary, guys, but it’s worth it. You’ll devour it. And the rest of the trilogy.

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The Tear-Jerker:

I had to promote it, it wouldn’t be an article about books if I didn’t bring up John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. This novel is being turned into a movie starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort so, if you haven’t read the book or have been living under a rock and haven’t heard about it, read the book. It will blow you away. It focuses on two cancer patients, Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters who meet at a support group and fall in love. I don’t want to give you much more because it’s a beautiful novel that needs to be experienced without any spoilers. Get on the bandwagon before it hits theaters, you won’t regret it!

Let me know what other books I should add to my to-read list or if you have read and loved (or hated?) any of my suggestions above.