Summer Reading Suggestions

You have required summer reading for English class, but summer is also a great time to read books that you never have time to read during the school year. Here are some suggestions: Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. How can you let the summer go by and not find out the fate of the characters that you've grown up with? What's not to like about such mindless & fun reading? Even though it doesn't come out until July 21, there will be plenty of time to read it before school starts. 

 The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien "The first complete book by Tolkien in three decades, this book reunites fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, Eagles and Orcs. This stirring narrative will return fans to the rich landscape and characters unique to Tolkien." -Publisher's description. Tolkien's son Christopher compiled various pieces from his father's unpublished works to create this book. If you're a fantasy fan, you can't miss this one. 

 The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky This is one of those classic books to read as a challenge to yourself. It's long, but it's truly a great book. It will definitely give you something to write about on a college admissions essay, or impress admissions interviewers if they ask you what you've been reading in your free time! I encourage you to give it a try. Here's a summary of the book: "Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel, The Karamazov Brothers (1880), is both a brilliantly told crime story and a passionate philosophical debate. The dissolute landowner Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is murdered; his sons - the atheist intellectual Ivan, the hot-blooded Dmitry, and the saintly novice Alyosha - are all at some level involved. Bound up with this intense family drama is Dostoevsky's exploration of many deeply felt ideas about the existence of God, the question of human freedom, the collective nature of guilt, the disastrous consequences of rationalism. The novel is also richly comic: the Russian Orthodox Church, the legal system, and even the author's most cherished causes and beliefs are presented with a note of irreverence, so that orthodoxy and radicalism, sanity and madness, love and hatred, right and wrong are no longer mutually exclusive."--Publisher's description.