The Leaving Cert is over and after a long and challenging year you deserve a break this summer before your next journey starts at college. And what better way to relax than sinking into a good book. Let yourself be transported into the world of words and the imaginations of the best writers. If you’re looking for recommendations we thought we’d offer you some of our favourite recent reads. So treat yourself to one or more of these 5 Summer reads before you start college.
5 Summer Reads Before You Start College
The Other Black Girl
Zakiya Dalila Harris
In The Other Black Girl, Zakiya Dalila Harris’ debut novel, Nella Rogers is an Editorial assistant at Wagner Books. Nella struggles with the isolation of being the only Black employee. That changes when Hazel starts working alongside her. Initially they develop a bond to Nella’s joy. But a string of uncomfortable events cause Nella to question her original judgement of Hazel. Nella’s problems start to grow and she questions Hazel’s actions as she feels her place at Wagner Books comes under threat Her suspicions are further raised when she receives notes on her desk telling her: LEAVE WAGNER. NOW.
A thriller full of twists and turns, The Other Black Girl will keep you up at night as its storyline effortlessly bounds from stake to raised stake.
The Startup Wife
Tahmima Anam
Award-winning Tahmima Anam’s fourth novel introduces us to computer scientist Asha. Halfway through her PhD, she has her future mapped out. But a chance meeting and whirlwind romance with her old high-school crush, Cyrus, changes everything. Together they create a new kind of tech company, WAI, “We Are Infinite” but as Cyrus starts to claim credit for the app, Asha feels ghosted and excluded. Anam writes with immense wit with a keen eye on the detail of power relations. The Startup Wife is a fresh and funny take on ambition, relationships and standing strong for what you believe in.
No One Is Talking About This
Patricia Lockwood
In Patricia Lockwood’s novel, a twitter star travels around the world to meet her adoring fans. In a headspin of disconnected voices and fractured echoes of isolated internet speak, Lockwood’s narrator swirls around in a stream of consciousness karate kicked into the internet portal until she is pulled back to reality when family call. Lockwood’s book struts its stuff through a blaze of treble twenty use of language and expertly interrogates online culture that ultimately seeks refuge in the human heart.
The End of the World is a Cul de Sac
Louise Kennedy
Louise Kennedy’s debut collection of short stories The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac is a wonderful concoction of broken lives bursting with pain. Kennedy takes us on a whirlwind trip through the lives and places of its characters and their stories – and it is a cul-de-sac so be prepared for a wallop.
Klara and the Sun
Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro is a Booker-winning novelist and author of screen plays and short stories. In 2017, the Swedish Academy Ishiguro was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His most recent novel, Klara and the Sun, is set in a dystopian future in which selected children are genetically engineered to be an Artificial Friend, or AF, designed to attend to the needs of teenagers. We follow the journey of Klara, an AF and our first person narrator, who is purchased by a woman for Josie, her chronically ill daughter. From here Ishiguro brings the reader on a beautiful, profound and moving journey that masterfully evokes considerations of love, life, mortality and what it is to be human.
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