summer reads: eli's picks

Reading outside is best done in the summer months, and there's nothing so refreshing as lying in the shade of a tree with an engrossing paperback. As the school year winds down (or comes to a complete end, as is the case for most college seniors like us), it's finally time to kick back on a lazy hot day with that book you've been eyeing longingly for the past school year.

1. With My Body by Nikki Gemmell. Beginning with the dreary daily existence of a suffocating British housewife, the majority of this novel is composed of this woman's memories of her youth in Australia, particularly the summer of her sexual awakening. Her brief but exhilarating love affair with an English writer in an isolated old house is hauntingly beautiful, and the lessons about love and relationships that this novel offers make it a piece of astounding emotional weight.

2. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Heller's premier novel will whisk you off to the wilderness of Colorado, where protagonist Hig tries to maintain a sense of normalcy in a post-apocalyptic world where government no longer exists and most of the population has been wiped out by flu. While running regular surveillance flights with his dog Jasper in a 1956 Cessna, he hears a faint radio broadcast that sends him on a journey past his fuel point of no return.

3. The Ramayana by Valmiki. One of the most epic love stories, this sacred epic of India charts the love story of god Rama and Sita, who is kidnapped by the demon Ravana. Rama's epic quest to rescue his beloved with the help of Hanuman the monkey-god and others is a timeless classic and transports you to the beauty of India through its imagery and Hindu iconography.

4. Chéri by Colette. A charming classic from Belle Époque France, this short novel charts the affair of retired courtesan Léa de Lonval and young Fred Peloux, who is engaged to another, the young beauty Edmée. If you like the book you should see the film also, starring Michelle Pfeiffer.

5. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray. We actually recommend the entire Gemma Doyle Trilogy, but this first book in the series is incredible. Set in Victorian England, four misfit girls meet at the eerie Spence Academy for Young Ladies. One of them, Gemma Doyle, has a secret: she has visions of another world which she alone can open the door to. A darkly magical, absolutely addictive book - you won't be able to put it down!

6. That Was Then, This is Now by S. E. Hinton. All of S. E. Hinton's books were my personal favorites as a young teen, but in my opinion this one is even better than The Outsiders. It's a coming-of-age story of Mark and Bryon, whose small-town lives provide some inspiring lessons about life, family, and friendship.

7. Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen. One of the best books ever written on what it's like to be a teenager. A treatise on young love and friendship.

8. The Queen's Lover by Francine du Plessix-Gray. While I'm not a huge history buff, this biography of Marie Antoinette told through the eyes of her lover, the Swedish Count Axel von Fersen, is absolutely incredible. It sucks you into the decadence and gossip of the late 1700s, and provides a startling intimate look at the Queen during the darkest parts of the Revolution.

9. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. This book will break your heart. Whether or not you liked the movie, the book is better. Set in the Chicago area, it chronicles the unusual love story of a normal woman and a man who has strange epileptic attacks where he travels backwards or forwards in the timeline of his own life.

10. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. This is the one book in this list which I haven't yet finished - it's my summer 2013 reading. This story spans lifetimes and years of wars, slowly weaving together the lives of its brilliant characters.

Feel free to submit your own recommendations for summer reading! We'd love to know!

book picks: the dog stars & delicacy

In the past week I've finished two books, which is a pretty big deal considering senior year schoolwork and the like. The reason? These were both absolutely wonderful reads, impossible to put down once opened. They are similar only in their inherent theme of tragedy and adaptation. Beyond that, they could not be more different.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller takes place in a post-apocalyptic USA, where mankind has been practically eliminated by an outbreak of flu (or something flu-like). The protagonist Hig lives in Colorado, carrying on with no one but his dog Jasper and his crazy wilderness comrade Bangley. Bangley keeps himself sane (or semi-sane) by focusing all his efforts on fortifying the hanger they call home, while Hig tries to retain a sense of his past life by channeling his energy into fishing, farming, cooking, and scouting the perimeter in a 1956 Cessna (with Jasper as copilot). When Hig hears a broken transmission come through his radio from another airport, he decides to go beyond his plane's point of no return in search of some fragment of his old life.

The best part of this book is it surprising capacity for humor. Dark humor mostly, given the circumstances, yet I still found myself laughing out loud at some of the things that came out of Bangley's mouth. Even after Hig leaves Bangley far behind, the latter sticks with Hig in his mind's eye. The thoughts and imaginings of Hig are beautiful, heartrending, and poignantly human. In fact, what this novel ultimately seems to be about is the often unacknowledged moments that make up humanity.

Delicacy by David Foenkinos is a romance, originally French but recently released in the US in English. However, for its protagonist Natalie, it is a pseudo-apocalyptic tale. She has just become a widow in a tragically sudden accident. Young and now without her beloved husband Francois, she finds herself the object of male obsession in her office. Her (married) boss is very direct in his confessions of love for her, but Natalie has locked herself away.

In a surprisingly charming twist, it is her geeky coworker, a Swede named Markus, who finally starts to melt her aloof exterior. Apparently the book was made into a film with Audrey Tautou as Nathalie. I haven't seen it, but it's definitely on my list after reading this delightfully sweet little novel.