summer readings ☆

Looking for Alaska

John Green • 2005

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Jeanette Winterson • 2013

"Magnificent . . . A tour de force of literature and love."—Vogue<br/><br/>"Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is raucous. It hums with a dark refulgence from its first pages. . . . Singular and electric . . . [Winterson's] life with her adoptive parents was often appalling, but it made her the writer she is."—The New York Times<br/><br/>"[Winterson is] one of the most daring and inventive writers of our time—searingly honest yet effortlessly lithe as she slides between forms, exuberant and unerring, demanding emotional and intellectual expansion of herself and of us. . . . In Why Be Happy,, [Winterson's] emotional life is laid bare . . . [in] a bravely frank narrative of truly coming undone. For someone in love with disguises, Winterson's openness is all the more moving; there's nothing left to hide, and nothing left to hide behind."—Elle<br/><br/>Jeanette Winterson’s bold and revelatory novels have earned her widespread acclaim, establishing her as a major figure in world literature. She has written some of the most admired books of the past few decades, including her internationally best-selling first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents, that is now often required reading in contemporary fiction classes.<br/><br/>Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a memoir about a life’s work to find happiness. It is a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in a north England industrial town now changed beyond recognition; about the universe as a cosmic dustbin. It is the story of how a painful past, which Winterson thought she had written over and repainted, rose to haunt her later in life, sending her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her biological mother. It is also a book about other people’s literature, one that shows how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, a life raft that supports us when we are sinking.<br/><br/>Witty, acute, fierce, and celebratory, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? is a tough-minded search for belonging—for love, identity, home, and a mother.

Bonjour Tristesse

Francoise Sagan • 2001

'That summer I was seventeen and perfectly happy ... '___

I'll Give You the Sun

Jandy Nelson • 2015

A New York Times bestseller • One of Time Magazine’s 100 Best YA Books of All Time • Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award • A Stonewall Honor Book<br/><br/>The radiant, award-winning story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, Becky Albertalli, and Adam Silvera<br/><br/>"Dazzling."—The New York Times Book Review<br/>"A blazing prismatic explosion of color."—Entertainment Weekly<br/>"Powerful and well-crafted . . . Stunning."—Time Magazine<br/><br/>“We were all heading for each other on a collision course, no matter what. Maybe some people are just meant to be in the same story.”<br/><br/>At first, Jude and her twin brother are NoahandJude; inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them.<br/><br/>Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways . . . but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor.<br/><br/>The early years are Noah’s to tell; the later years are Jude’s. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they’ll have a chance to remake their world.<br/><br/>From the acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere, this exhilarating novel will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.

Dearest Father

Franz Kafka • 2008

La muerte de Ivan Ilich/ The Death of Ivan Ilich (Spanish Edition)

Leo Tolstoy • 2013

T. S. Eliot: The Poems

Martin Scofield • 1988

Bones and All (French Edition)

Camille Deangelis • 2022

« États-Unis.. Contrainte de fuir à cause de ce quelle est, Maren, seize ans, sillonne les routes américaines en quête de nouvelles attaches. Et lorsqu'elle rencontre l'énigmatique Lee, elle se prend à rêver d'une vie à ses côtés... Une vie de bohême et de liberté.. Car Lee lui ressemble : comme elle, il ressent le besoin irrésistible de dévorer les êtres humains... Et si Maren n'était finalement pas aussi seule qu'elle le pensait ? »--Quatrième de couverture.