Hub Bookshelf – Summer Reads
Hey UIS! How are your finals treating you? Are you excited for some R&R this summer?? We certainly are in The Hub. We’re already thinking ahead to all of the reading for pleasure we’ll be able to do now that we aren’t focused on our coursework. We thought we’d share our picks with you so that if you’re looking for a new book to check out, we might pique your interest!
Alyssa’s Picks
Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
I am excited to read this book because I am all about inclusion for movements and remembering to advocate for the “outside” group is so crucial. As a Women & Gender Studies minor, it makes sense that I would choose this non-fiction book that critiques the boundaries that mainstream feminism unintentionally creates. It is important to make the voices of ALL heard and this book dives into some potential solutions to combat this disconnect as well.
Daughter of Smoke & Bone Series by Laini Taylor
This book series is one that I was overly obsessed with when I read it back in seventh or eighth grade. I have not gotten the chance to read it since, nor do I remember most of the plot involved with the fantasy novel. However, I will forever share how much I loved this book, so I thought it would be good to return back to the novel and remember why I fell in love with it.
Cindy’s Picks
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman
Summer is a great time to focus on your own personal development, so you can show up for the next academic year with greater self-awareness and a broader skillset for managing the challenges of the college experience. Time management is a topic for which there are many books on the market, but the advice is usually something like, “Get up at 4 AM! Work faster! Make more lists!” This book focuses on the mindset around managing your time: accepting that you have a finite amount of time available, and the choice you get to make is what is important enough to give it your time. I actually listened to the audiobook version, and it was funny, thought-provoking, and inspiring.
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
Hilariously funny, poignant, and memorable, this story of a curmudgeonly retiree who likes his routines more than he likes people is an absolute “must read.” Readers follow Ove as he navigates the confusing tension between the comforting order of being alone and the chaos of loving others enough to let them into his life. It is an easy read, but so brilliant.
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
This collection of short stories and one novella offer insights into human relationships that Evans uses to highlight social issues such as race, love, grief and the history that haunts the American experience. The stories are sharp and unforgettable. It is a great collection to practice reading at both levels: the story and the broader story beneath the story.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
I have been begging readers and friends to pick up this book since its release in 2009, and I will not give up! Even my self-proclaimed “slow reader” or “not-much-of-a-reader” friends who have complied with my pleadings loved this book. Kostova weaves an epic narrative around the old vampire tales associated with Vlad the Impaler. It is deliciously page-turning, creepy, and thrilling. Read it at night and see if you don’t just creep yourself out and wish your summer vacation flight was booked for Romania.
Kate’s Picks
Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
As many of the book reviews allude to, this work of non-fiction might be just what everybody needs a dose of right now. Bregman’s text is pegged as a gripping pick-me-up presenting the oh so shocking idea that rather than humans being inherently bad and governed solely by self-interest, we are actually geared more towards kindness, cooperation, and trust. He explores some of history’s most well-known malicious events to showcase how it’s what got societies through the events that shows more to humanity’s character than what caused the events themselves. I first came across this book on Pinterest and promptly went to purchase it from B&N, and while it’s been sitting on my bookshelf for months, I can’t wait to soak up some summer sun and fact-driven optimism while sipping on a lemonade.
Kris’ Picks
The Institute by Stephen King
The Institute by Stephen King is what I have on my reading list for this summer. A snip-it from the book “In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis’s parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there’s no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents—telekinesis and telepathy—who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and ten-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, “like the roach motel,” Kalisha says. “You check in, but you don’t check out” (King) is what really intrigued me. Kind of Hotel Californiaish . . .
Kristin’s Picks
Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn
A non-fiction analysis of the history of women in medicine. It is an in-depth look specifically at Western convention and its habit of treating women as something othered or alien. It begins, like most Western-centered books, by tracing history back to the Greek and Roman days of the “wandering womb” and hysteria before tracking women’s mistreatment into modern day misdiagnoses and dismissals. A particularly interesting stop is the revisiting of the European and American Witch hunts, which often targeted well-educated women and midwives, those who had the best understanding of women’s bodies in regard to healing practices. Overall, this book is a fascinating if heavy look into where we presently are and how we got there.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
A fictional look at what happened to the pregnant African women thrown overboard from slave ships. Rather than both the mother and unborn child dying, the sea transforms the child into a new kind of being – wajinru. As the wajinru build their own traditions, the audience looks at the impact history and racial traumas can have on a group of people and the steps necessary to undo those effects. Rivers Solomon is the sole writer of The Deep, however they give a lot of credit to the three creators of clipping. who created the song that inspired Solomon to write this piece.
**Warning this is a vivid dive into difficult topics surrounding racial trauma and the book itself gets into topics such as murder and suicidal ideation.
Lisa’s Picks
The Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny
To me, summer means road trips – and road trips mean audio books. I have two basic requirements for an audio book: a good story and a good reader. The Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny excels in both categories. This series is set in the small Canadian village of Three Pines. The village is populated by quirky characters ranging from the eccentric inn- keepers to an elderly foul- mouthed poet whose constant companion is a duck named Rosa. I am generally not a huge murder mystery person, but this series is so much more. The character development and description of life in this small village make me want to move right in (despite the fact that someone always ends up dead). The villagers are always cooking for each other, sharing their latest painting or poem, or sipping on a scotch by the fire. Louise Penny is a wonderful story- teller and has created a full cast of characters that pull me in every time. I think there are 18 books in the series, but you do not have to read them in order. Trust me, once you have listened to (or read) one, you will be back for more.
Sarah’s Picks
The Magi Menagerie by Kale Lawrence
This is the first of a series written by my best friend since kindergarten. I read the initial manuscript, but haven’t yet had an opportunity to check out the fully published work. If you like period stories, magical realism, secret organizations, intrigue, and a diverse, multicultural cast of characters, this adventure/ coming of age story is for you! I can’t wait to see where the story has gone, and I know I’ll be sad when it ends and I have to wait for Book 2 to come out!
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer
I read VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, et al.) a few years ago, and then saw that he was speaking at an online festival about a year ago to promote his new book. As part of registering for the event, I got a copy of the text when it was released. I’ve been holding onto it for so many months now, it’s high time I cracked it open and saw what it was about. I honestly couldn’t tell you anything about the story – the intrigue for me is VanderMeer’s writing style and weaving of words to craft a suspenseful, uncanny, slightly uncomfortable world that I get to live in for a while. I loved the Southern Reach books, and I’m sure I’ll love this too.
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