There are so many books out and it might be hard to find a book to start reading. But don’t worry APN staff got you. Our staff have listed their favorite books and are recommending them below.
NICKIE HAYES
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Roald Dahl is an author I will always recommend. He has written some of the most famous books including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Matilda” and “James and the Giant Peach.” However, one book of his that always brings me a sense of nostalgia is “The BFG.” I have not read the book in a long time now, but I cannot tell you how many times I read that book as a child. Written in 1982, the book follows Sophie, an orphan, and the big friendly giant who takes Sophie to his cave filled with human eating giants. However, as the BFG is different from the other giants. The reader learns he is a dream hunter, bottling up captured dreams for children to enjoy while sleeping. “The BFG” is a children’s book, but how could I not recommend this classic? I think reading books from Dahl is just one of those things in life everyone should do at least once, and it is always worth suggesting to those that have not.
SYDNEY HAKES
DEPUTY EDITOR
A book that I would recommend is “The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions” by award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen. In nine chapters, he takes the reader through time to explain and dissect the five mass extinctions that have occurred since the earth was formed.
Content alone, this may seem like a book for a niche group of science nerds. There are lengthy explanations on topics like fossil formation and how noxious bubbles of hydrogen sulfide wiped out most sea life in the Devonian era. However, Brannen’s engaging writing and transparent anecdotes of the far-fetched people he interviewed while writing this book balances out the science heavy aspects.
While the conditions of these mass extinctions are fascinating enough to fill the book, Brannen has another message rooted in environmentalism. Along with a plethora of experts in the environmental science and paleontology communities, he infers that another mass extinction event is expected – but not for another 800 million years or so.
ASHLEY ST JOHN
STAFF WRITER
Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies ever since I can remember. I started reading kids chapter books like “Charlotte’s Web” and “The Magic Treehouse” and I couldn’t get enough of it. Even though I’m much busier now I still try to find time to read. One of my all-time favorite books that I’ve read recently is “The Love Hypothesis” by Ali Hazelwood. “The Love Hypothesis” is about the relationship between Olive Smith, a PhD student and Dr. Adam Carlsen, a young professor at Stanford. Olive wants to prove to her best friend that she’s over her ex-boyfriend and Adam wants to prove to Stanford that he’s planning on staying there long-term, so they begin fake-dating. During their fake relationship though, real feelings develop. I had seen it all over BookTok and after seeing the countless videos about it I had to read it. It’s a pretty easy read and even though there is a lot of scientific and academic talk in it, it doesn’t tend to get confusing. I love the fake dating trope in books and that’s exactly what “The Love Hypothesis” is. It’s a fun contemporary romance in a college setting and it isn’t too long of a read. I’ve read five other books since “The Love Hypothesis” and I still can’t get it out of my head.
KIYANNA NOEL
STAFF WRITER
The book I would recommend is “Soft Thorns” by Bridgett Devoue. It’s a poetry book that goes through the different stages of love and heartbreak. Each poem evokes a different emotion inside about how she feels when going through a significant time in her life. “Soft Thorns” represents how life can be painful and beautiful at the same time. It shows both sides of love: the gentleness and the purity as well as the danger and the pain.
GABRIEL ABOSI
STAFF WRITER
The book I would recommend especially to young people is “Patrol Boy” by Jason A. Spencer. This book is about a boy named Andre who is a grade A student in school but wants to be popular but runs into trouble doing so and makes many mistakes. What infatuation with this book comes from the fact that it’s the first book I read in middle school where a black boy is the main protagonist. It was so relatable and it was such a different read from other things that I’ve read.
MELANIE LANZO
STAFF WRITER
You probably remember hearing about this book via Tik Tok, where the book randomly blew up after its publication in 2014. “We Were Liars” is a mystery fictional novel that’s a case study of a rich family that is dependent on family money, where it runs their lives and causes them to make mistakes. The Sinclair family have a private island that they go to during the summer. The story is told from the perspective of cadence, one of the members of the Sinclair family. Money becomes so dominant that violence starts to creep under the boujee life that cadence and her family enjoyed on Beechwood Island, and there’s an accident that leads to death. Cadence’s accident leaves her with selective amnesia of the last summer she spent with her family. She comes back to her family’s island for the first time since the accident, not know what happened last time, why her family has not responded to her emails for two years, and why they weren’t with her after her accident. But slowly, Cadence remembers as she spends one more summer with her family and secrets are revealed.
Katie Kallamni
STAFF WRITER
Picking just one book is so hard. Two books that I loved in every way are “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Charles Lebowksy and “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer.
I found the way The Perks of Being a Wallflower was written to be so intriguing. It was written as a journal entry from the main character Charlie. This book also dealt with a lot of serious topics that unfolded in a very entertaining way. While it may be basic, I consider this to be one of my favorite comfort books.
One other book that changed how I was thinking would be Into the Wild. This book kept me hooked the whole time, especially so, since it was based on the real story of Chris McCandless. In this book, McCandless decides to ditch all of his possessions and travel by foot, alone with no money to Alaska. One of my favorite quotes comes from this book and it has always stuck with me for years. Many times people isolate themselves or think they are better off alone, which can definitely be true at times, however, I think it’s important to remember as Chris McCandless said and discovered after his journey is that “Happiness is only real when shared.”
JEREMY BINNING
STAFF WRITER
I would recommend “Into The Wild” to anyone who feels lost in life or even just for a good read. I found this book from an outdoor writing class and was skeptical at first before understanding the background of the book. Essentially, the book is about a person named Chris McCandless who dropped everything materialistic in his life and decided to live in the wild. The story is intriguing to me because when I found out about the book I felt similar to how the main character did at that time in my life and the book definitely opened my eyes to things around me.
JOEL GARCIA
STAFF WRITER
“Can’t Hurt Me” is THE book I would recommend to everyone in college. It is simply a man by the name David Goggins, telling his tough life story and reaching a point to where he explains in many different factors, at what point do you begin to take action and decide enough is enough. Not wanting to live a mediocre life. This book is a strong guide to reframing how you look at yourself, how to be comfortable with yourself, and how to sharpen your mind through adversity and pushing yourself to your highest potential. It cuts out all the fluff and I would say that it’s a great perspective to see life under, but actually applying and telling yourself the lessons this book has taught me, you can completely transform yourself to become the person you always envisioned yourself to be.
KENZI MURPHY
STAFF WRITER
The one book that I would literally recommend to everyone is “The Invisible Life of Addie Larue” by V. E. Schwab. This book is actually one of the only books that has left me star-struck for days after reading it. It’s a book about a girl in 18th century France who gets cursed by the devil and now no one can remember her for the rest of her life. Every single person she meets will forget her the second that they walk away and her family and friends will cease to remember she exists. Until, one day 300 years later, someone remembers her. Some random guy that works in a book shop remembers her, and suddenly Addie’s life feels real again. This book really got me thinking about how time is so short and how we only have so much time to make our mark before everyone forgets us one day. It really is an eye-opening book and I would recommend it to anyone.
MICHAEL HLOPKO
STAFF WRITER
The book I would recommend to anyone is “The Talisman” by Stephen King and Peter Straub. Being a fan of horror/adventure novels, this perfectly encapsulates both of these throughout. It successfully manages to merge the feel of both a modern and classic adventure story while simultaneously utilizing the sometimes graphic horror imagery that King is so widely known for. It’s centered around the premise that our world exists in a perpendicular but alternate dimension to another world that mirrors the environment of any middle ages fantasy story.
PECULIAR JOSEPH
STAFF WRITER
One book I will recommend will be “The Atonement Child” by Francine Rivers. The atonement child basically tells a story of a girl, Dynah who got pregnant accidentally because she got raped. It discusses the dilemma that Dynah faced on whether to abort the child or not. She got dumped by her fiance when he found out she was pregnant and was confused about whether she would abort the child or not. Dynah struggled with what she wanted versus what her fiance, friends, family and society wanted for her regarding the abortion case.
I recommend this book because it illustrates in writing, what is currently going on in America to be precise Texas regarding the Ban on Abortion with some exceptions. This book helps us see in the perspective of a girl who is pregnant and under so much pressure rather than being in the perspective of a society member or hearer which is more usual.
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