9 books everyone should read this summer

1. The Night Circus

“A circus and it’s set at the turn of the twentieth century. The circus is only there at night. There are these two magicians, and it’s really magic; it’s not sleight of hand. They have these young proteges — one is a female, one is a male — and they set up this competition between them, so it’s about how they both try to out magic the other person.”

— recommended by Ms. Traw

2. Sycamore Row

“Set in the south. This man kills himself. He hangs himself, and he’s a wealthy man who lived in a small town down south. He leaves all his fortune to his maid who is black, and it creates this huge conflict. So the question is why did he leave her his fortune, so it’s kind of a good mystery suspense book, if you are into that kind of book.”

— recommended by Ms. Traw

3. Cinder

“Cinder is about Cinder, who is kind of like Cinderella, not really accepted by her mom and sisters, but she fixes things in the market. Prince Kai comes and needs his phone fixed, so she starts working for him. Then begins having a connection with him. She falls in love with him, and he falls in love with her too, but there’re some issues keeping those two apart.”

— recommended by Ms. Anhalt

4. Ready Player One

“It’s about a video. It’s set in the near future; it’s like a virtual world, and so there’s this game, this virtual online world that is kind of taken over, and so the creator of the game who’s a multibillionaire dies, and in his will he sets these Easter eggs throughout the virtual world, and the person who finds them inherits his fortune. So you got these people playing this game, and our hero then discovers the first key. People who like video games would really like this book.”

— Recommended by Ms. Traw

5. Life After Life

“It’s a real interesting structure. The main character is Ursala, and it begins with her being born, and in the first chapter as she’s born, the umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck, and she dies as she’s being born. The next chapter the doctor gets there on time, and she lives. Throughout the book she lives different lives, and then maybe she’ll die in one chapter but live in the next. So there are all these paths where it shows in your life if you made a different decision what would happen.”

— Recommended by Ms. Traw

6. Calling Me Home

“One of those books you pick up and can’t put down.”

— Recommended by Ms. Lubs

7. Legend

“June just recently lost her brother who was murdered by somebody, and it looks like everything leads to Day having killed him. So June sets off to find Day. Little does she know she is going to fall in love with Day and has to deal with those issues of him maybe killing her brother.”

—Recommended by Ms. Anhalt

8. Second Chance Summer

“Set during the summer. Taylor’s family is going back to their summer house to relive and reconnect because they just learned their father is terminally ill, and he decides that’s how he wants to spend his last summer. Taylor goes back there, reconnects with an ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend that they didn’t leave on too happy of terms when they left, but she makes a connection with her again. Then Taylor’s younger brother falls in love with somebody that he meets. Taylor’s sister meets a really good friend. All the things that happen during a typical teenage summer.”

— Recommended by Ms. Anhalt

9. Dresden Files

“A series for people who like sci fi books. This book is set in modern day Chicago, but there’s this whole underworld of trolls. It’s about a boy who is a ‘supernatural detective’. It sounds really weird, but it goes really deep into character analysis.”

— Recommended by Ms. Rathe