The Midnight Library
by Matt Haig
"Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?" (APL Bibliocommons)
Breath
by James Nestor
"No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how resilient your genes are, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you're not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and wellbeing than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat 25,000 times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences."
Clap When You Land
by Elizabeth Acevedo
"Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people ... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance -- and Papi's secrets -- the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they've lost everything of their father, they learn of each other."
Klara and the Sun
by Kazuo Ishiguro
"From her place in the store that sells artificial friends, Klara--an artificial friend with outstanding observational qualities--watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara she is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans." (APL Bibliocommons)
Mexican Gothic
by Syliva Moreno-Garcia
"Set in the 1950s, Nebula Award-nominated Moreno-Garcia's (Untamed Shore) take on gothic suspense and horror is one wild ride, but it also highlights important issues of our times, including racism, classism, and sexism."
The Elephant of Belfast
by S. Kirk Walsh
"The Elephant of Belfast chronicles a seven-month period of time when the Germans unexpectedly bombed Belfast, Northern Ireland, also known as the Belfast Blitz. Through the lens of the Bellevue Zoo and one of its zookeepers, twenty-year-old Hettie Quin, the novel animates how the war irrevocably impacted and shaped the lives of Belfast's citizens in broad and intimate ways."
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Ask a Librarian
Contact Ms. Bartek (cbartek@sstx.org) or Ms. Andrews (mandrews@sstx.org) for more great summer reads.
Or visit your local library online or (hopefully) in person!
