Falcon Four: Four mid-summer reads for July
By: Hannah Johnson
Happy July Falcons! At about the halfway point of summer break, now is a great time to check in on summer reading goals. Whether you’re experiencing a mid-summer slump or are looking for new recommendations to add to your summer shelves, here are four books, all different genres for different readers or goals, for July reading.
Classic: Dead Poets Society- N.H. Kleinbaum
If you enjoy reading classic style books, The Dead Poets Society is a wonderful, fast summer read. This shorter, yet compelling novel can get you right back into the swing of summer reading, get you an extra book on your summer reading list completed, or it can just be a general great read that packs its punches in its pages. This story follows a group of young boys and their teacher, as the boys discover and find blossoming beauty and growth in this art, as Goodreads puts it, as well as emphasizing that they’re also growing up, and outside society isn’t always kind, isn’t always supportive, isn’t always trying to hear or understand the message one feels so deeply through art. Influential and meaningful, emotional and heavy, Dead Poets Society takes the reader through all its emotions, packing a read that stays with you, even in its short length.
Sci-fi: Legend- Marie Lu
Marie Lu delivers lots of satisfying sci-fi and dystopian fiction and the first novel of one of her original trilogies, Legend, is no different. A tale of class, society, power and deception, two characters from two different ends of society are brought together, with the government becoming sinister, examining the people’s place in society and the position of the government, as Goodreads puts it. Marie Lu is, as always with her novels, bringing readers on a journey full of that classically loved sci-fi, dystopian charm.
Crime Fiction: The Healer- Antti Tuomainen
If you enjoy some enthralling, mysterious crime fiction, then The Healer is another fantastic, satisfying summer read. Also, relatively short (less than 250 pages depending on edition), The Healer combines both a suspenseful chase, as Goodreads puts it, with a meaningful commentary on the dire climate. Suspenseful, and also meaningful in a realistic and touching way, The Healer is one of those books you may not be able to put down this summer, following that curious mystery, scratching that itch, down each of its pages.
Historical Fiction: James- Percival Everett
If you’re looking for brilliant literature taking on American history this summer, perhaps looking for a read for the 4th of July, along that theme of American history and American scars, James is an incredibly powerful read. James is a retelling of maybe one of the most famous American tales of all time, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by American writer Mark Twain. This time, the novel is told from the perspective of James, (named Jim in the original, a slave). This novel follows his journey as he tries to save his family in perilous America. Ideas of family and the nature of perception of race in American society shatters this novel into all its brilliant and jagged pieces, painful and powerful. It takes a fresh look at America’s scars, from a new perspective, one that was previously erased, examining the real “land of the free” and what that really looked like at this time in American history.
The four reads above all provide some variety for different readers to be inspired in this mid-summer season. Happy reading.
