While traveling and learning about different cultures is a bit difficult right now as we try to stay safe from COVID-19, here are some books to read this summer that take us through a mind-blowing journey of exploring stories about cultural restrictions, race, privilege, depression, addiction, schizophrenia, OCD, gender roles and our identity, helping us realize how important it is to embrace our true selves and treat ourselves with kindness and the respect we deserve.
The Place Between Breaths by An Na
An Na brings forth a dark and intensely moving story with nerve-wrecking twists and turns about a 16-year-old teen, desperate to find a cure for her mother who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and ran away in fear that she would hurt her loved ones.
Teach Me To Forget by Erica M. Chapman
Through the story of Ellery, whose grief over the loss of her younger sister takes her down a dark path, Erica explores the concepts of coping with loss and the journey to hope.
The Weight of Our Sky by Hanna Alkaf
This story takes place during historic race riots in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1969. The Weight of Our Story is about Melati Ahmad, a music loving teen with OCD, who has to survive on her own with the help of a few kind strangers until she finds her mother in the midst of all the chaos.
Internment by Samira Ahmed
A story set in a fictional future of the U. S., 17-year-old Layla Amin and her family are forced into an internment camp for Muslim Americans. Along with her new found friends, alliances and her boyfriend on the outside, she starts a revolution to fight for freedom.
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Such a Fun Age is a mind-blowing story about race and privilege. Emira, a young black woman, is apprehended for kidnapping the white child she is babysitting. Her employer, Alix, a feminist blogger with good intentions and the grandmother of the child, resolves to make things right. However, a surprising connection between them threatens to undo their whole concepts of self as well as how they view each other.
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor
Paul is a student in Iowa City studying queer theory and this story details his adventures. Paul is a shapeshifter who can change from Paul to Polly at will. Through this novel, Lawlor explores gender, identity and how we form relationships with ourselves as well as others around us.
Other Broken Things by C. Desir
Through this gritty and compelling novel about addiction and forbidden love, C. Desir writes about Natalie, who must put together all her broken pieces and fight for herself in order to live a different kind of life.
Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman
Author Akemi Dawn Bowman brings forth a story about a half-Japanese teen who fights social anxiety and her narcissist mother as she gets rejected from her dream art school. This heartbreaking story talks about one’s identity, family relations and the beauty that emerges from embracing our true selves.
This is Paradise: Stories by Kristiana Kahakauwila
In this omnibus by Kristiana Kahakauwila, “Wanle” tells the story of a beautiful and tough young woman who wants nothing more than to follow in her father’s footsteps as a legendary cockfighter. With striking versatility, the title story employs a chorus of voices — the women of Waikiki — to tell the tale of a young tourist drawn to the darker side of the city’s nightlife. “The Old Paniolo Way” limns the difficult nature of legacy and inheritance when a patriarch tries to settle the affairs of his farm before his death.
