9 Books to Read Over Spring Break

Whether you’re traveling to a beach or hanging at home, Spring Break is the perfect time to lose yourself in a new book! Fiction, memoir, mystery, romance, nonfiction, thriller, fantasy - any page-turner makes the cut. And we’ve got you covered! Scroll down for 9 great books to get lost in over Spring Break.

I’m linking to Amazon and bookshop.org today. The first is a wealth of reviews and commentary and the later is a great way to support independent booksellers. Of course most or all of these books can be found for free at your local library, either in paper or audio format (via the Libby App).

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Nine great reads for Spring break, in no particular order…

The Boys of Riverside, Thomas Fuller

When journalist Thomas Fuller first heard about the all-deaf high school football team from Riverside, CA, he quit his position with the New York Times and spent a year following the team. The players were having an historic undefeated season, but more than the stats, it’s the players, coaches, and families of this 8-man team from the California School for the Deaf that really make this story. There’s the student who spends most of the season sleeping in a car with his father in a Target parking lot. The player who doesn’t let a broken leg keep him from playing in a critical game. The dedicated head coach who, deaf himself, was sent away as a young child by a mother afraid of his deafness. The team is an underdog and one you can’t help root for. This book is a gem - a portrait of camaraderie, high school athletics, and deafness in America. If you love sports or a good underdog story, this one is not one to be missed!

Bookshop.org

The God of the Woods, Liz Moore

This one gripped on page one from the setting alone. It’s 1975 and we’re at a summer camp in the Adirondacks, full of wealthy campers and their counselors. Early one morning, a camp counselor wakes up to discover an empty bunk. The inhabitant of that bunk: Barbara Van Laar, the daughter of the summer camp’s wealthy owners. But this isn’t the first Van Laar child to go missing - her brother, Bear, vanished 14 years ago, never to be seen again. As the search for Barbara begins, we’re thrust into questions about Bear’s mysterious disappearance and the secrets of the blue-collar community that works for the Van Laars. This well-written mystery is full of complicated characters and is really, really hard to put down…also, I love the cover!

Bookshop.org

When the world tips over, Jandy Nelson

This quirky, magical read follows three siblings from a California wine family whose father’s long-ago disappearance deeply impacts each of their lives. There’s Frizzy, the 12-year-old who bakes cakes, sees spirits, and dreams of her first kiss. Miles, the 17-year-old whose beauty and athleticism are as striking as his brokenness. And Wynton, the 19-year-old musical genius with a destructive streak. When catastrophe strikes the family, long held secrets are revealed, and the siblings must come together along with a colorful cast of supporting characters: their chef mother, Sandro a telepathic dog, Felix a dreamy bisexual sous chef, and Cassidy, a rainbow-hair out-of-towner with a secret of her own. With rich, thoughtful characters and questions that will have you guessing to the end, this one is special!

Bookshop.org

House of Eve, Sadeqa Johnson

This historical fiction is beautifully-written and expertly told by Sadeqa Johnson! The book intertwines two stories, that of Ruby, a bright 15-year-old trying to escape poverty and become the first person in her family to attend college, and Eleanor, an Ohio transplant studying at Howard University in Washington DC. Both women fall in love and navigate ambition, color barriers, and societal expectations in the 1950s. Ruby falls for a white, Jewish boy and their taboo relationship jeopardizes her future. Eleanor falls for a medical student named William Pride, who hails from one of DC’s elite Black families. While Eleanor’s Ohio roots keep her from fitting into William’s world, she hopes a baby will change all of that. But having a baby isn’t always easy. This is admittedly a bit of a heavy read for Spring Break, but if you like historical fiction and well-developed female characters, this one is captivating!

bookshop.org

*Be Ready When the Luck Happens*, Ina Garten

Memoir

shop on Amazon

Be ready when luck happens: A memoir, Ina Garten

This one is on my Spring Break pick and I can’t wait to crack it open! From Amazon: “Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose.

From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.” Consider the audio version - Ina Garten narrates it herself and I’ve heard it’s fabulous.

bookshop.org

Just for the Summer, Abby Jimenez

This is a cute rom com and ridiculously fun! Justin is Reddit-famous for having a curse. Whenever he dates a women and they breakup, the next person the women dates is their soul mate. When a traveling nurse named Emma DM’s him with the same curse, they decide to date each other so they can breakup and find their soulmates. Emma and her best friend take assignments in Minnesota near Justin and they rent a cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka. But when their simple relationship is complicated by family and real feelings for each other, they have to decide what their future will look like. If you’re looking for a quick beach read that’s more fun than serious (but in a well-written, emotionally deep kind of way), this one is perfect.

bookshop.org

First Lie Wins, Ashley Elston

First Lie Wins is a suspenseful thriller that will have you staying up way past your bed time! Evie Porter seems to have it all - a loving boyfriend, great friends, and a house with a picket fence. The only problem - Evie Porter doesn’t actually exist. She’s an alias given to her by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, along with her mark: Ryan Sumner. But this assignment is different because she’s developed real feelings for Ryan and starts to imagine a different life for herself.

bookshop.org

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros

Rebecca Yarros’ Empyrean series is oh so addictive! This is a fantasy novel with a little romance sprinkled throughout and it was so captivating that it kept me up well past my bedtime multiple nights in a row. Here’s the synopsis from Amazon: “Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret. Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.“

bookshop.org

Mrs. Quinn’s Rise to Fame, Olivia Ford

This was such a sweet, coming-of-age novel about life’s possibilities. When Jenny, an octogenarian whose pleasant life with her husband Bernard is anything but unexpected, sees a commercial for Britain Bakes, she uncharacteristically applies. She wants a little something for herself. And as Jenny bakes her way through her favorite old recipes week after week, she gains new-found independence and dislodges a secret from her past that has the power to uproot her marriage. This is a sweet book with even sweeter baked goods and I guarantee you’ll fall in love with the characters. Thanks for the rec, mom!

psst: here are a few other vacation essentials to go with the books ;)