Summertime – when the days are long and school is out – presents an ideal time to engage in high-quality reading. We’ve gathered a summer reading list of diverse, nuanced books below for you to enjoy this summer.
Reading books, articles, and essays are powerful tools for self-education and literacy. Taking time to read a wide variety of authors and literature develops your ability to think critically and grow in empathy for other perspectives and ways of life.
Your SAT or ACT Recommended Reading List
Not to mention, reading across a variety of sources will also prepare you for any reading passage or grammar question you may encounter on the SAT or ACT. The more accustomed you are to digesting texts, the easier it will be to digest these passages.
Summer 2020 Reading List
If Beale Street Could Talk – James Baldwin
“Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions-affection, despair, and hope.” via Goodreads
The Brothers Karamazov – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, in social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.” via Goodreads
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country [Afghanistan] that is in the process of being destroyed.” via Goodreads
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
“Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person — no mean feat for a black woman in the ’30s. Janie’s quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.” via Goodreads
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
“In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son’s powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.” via Goodreads
Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel
“Set in the days of civilization’s collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.” via Goodreads
Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
“In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is heartbroken, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs—yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.” via Goodreads
Circe – Madeline Miller
“In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians.” via Goodreads
The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
“In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.” via Goodreads
To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf
“The serene and maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the tragic yet absurd Mr. Ramsay, and their children and assorted guests are on holiday on the Isle of Skye. From the seemingly trivial postponement of a visit to a nearby lighthouse, Woolf constructs a remarkable, moving examination of the complex tensions and allegiances of family life and the conflict between men and women.” via Goodreads
The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead
(Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
“As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is “as good as anyone.” Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is a high school senior about to start classes at a local college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future.” via Goodreads
Night – Elie Wiesel
“Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel’s memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man.” via Goodreads
How Summer Reading Can Boost Your ACT or SAT Reading Score
Further Reading:
Your SAT or ACT Recommended Reading List
Spring 2020 Reading List
Make Time to Read for Fun
How to Ace the SAT Reading Section
How to Ace the ACT Reading Section