Your winter break book guide

You grab your favorite mug and fill it to the brim with steaming hot chocolate or coffee with a little too much coffee creamer. On your feet, you are wearing the fuzziest pair of socks you own and you continue to wear them even though you are constantly slipping and sliding around your hardwood or tile floors. Crackling in the living room is a warm, bright fire dancing in colors of reds, yellows, oranges and even blues at the hottest of spots. On this particular day, you have no obligations, no work. There is absolutely nothing keeping you from diving into a new book and swallowing it whole.

If you love the classics

When you think of classic literature boring titles may flash through your mind in a blur, books your English teachers made you read and analyze to their very core. Was there one about a mockingbird? Was there another about Huckleberry Finn? Or was it Huckleberry Fish? Although some classic literature books may have been assigned to us in high school and we convinced ourselves we hated every second of it, there are countless of books out there that are considered classic and are still very well loved.

As you can see by the countless scribbles and highlights, Gatsby is a book that is very well-loved

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is an all time classic. Fitzgerald writes in an extremely flowery and descriptive manner, making it possible to imagine the lights of the city or the oncoming blur of headlights, the sparkle of champagne or the relentless, longing of the flashing green light in your mind so effortlessly.

Beloved by Toni Morrison is a classic that is extremely unique. To not give too much away (for this book holds too many secrets and plot twists to count), this novel follows the story of Sethe, an escaped slave from her former plantation, Sweet Home. What makes this book so special is that its stories and events are jagged, raw and told completely out of chronological order therefore it is up to you, the reader, to decipher the story and message Toni Morrison is trying to convey. This book is rich with language and symbolism, heartbreak and controversy and it is a book about slavery that will make you rethink almost everything you have been taught. Equally tragic and inspiring, Beloved is a novel that will make you appreciate your English teacher and their choice in literature much, much more.

If you love a little drama and mystery

As a good reader knows, it is always important to ask questions. “Why did the author imply that message?” “What is the main character up to?” “Who killed Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick?” Kidding. In all seriousness, mystery and drama novels have the power to keep us guessing and guessing until their very last pages.

The Things that Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley is a fiction book filled with all-too-real images of an unhappy family and the unpredictability of the world around us. Centered around a a tragic crisis that throws the main character, her neighborhood and the world into a frenzy, this book will pull you in and just barely let you go.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is another mystery like the last but instead its backdrop falls upon post-war Germany and the ripple effects of the Holocaust. In the beginning of the novel, the two main characters quickly become lovers even though one is twice the others age. Unfortunately, their relationship is filled with arguments and secrets and is therefore extremely short-lived. When the two characters meet again many years later, one is a law student observing a case for a class assignment, the other is on trial for murder. What unfolds from this trial is the story of pain, suffering, and secrets worth keeping to the grave.

If you love thrillers

There is no better feeling than reading an entire book in one sitting. Whether you read it throughout a long travel day on airplanes, buses or cars, or you decide to ditch your homework and obligations and stay up until 3 AM with your fingers curled around the book’s spine, these books, their stories and frankly, their twisted authors have the power to draw you into the pages and keep you wide awake at night long after you’ve closed them.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn has become both a reader cult-favorite and a popular movie. It follows the story of a twisted couple who both know each other inside and out a little too well. What makes this story so impossible to put down is the way Gillian Flynn forces you with her words and characters to believe you have the mystery of where exactly the girl has gone all figured out until halfway through, she flips everything around and makes you feel like you were not paying attention at all.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is quickly on track to become another cult-favorite alongside Gone Girl. Again, this author’s way of telling a story is extremely dark, twisted and extremely foggy, leaving you guessing and changing your mind at the end of every chapter. Although the main character thinks she see a perfect family from the windows of a passing train each morning, it is not as it seems. This book is filled with seduction, secrets and revenge that will ultimately make you hate the characters for their actions but love them for their twisted nature at the same exact time.

If you just want something different

The main purpose of this book guide is to get you out of your reading comfort zone and to try books you never thought you would be interested in. If you only read mysteries, try a thriller or even a classic to switch things up a bit. And if you are like me and tend to read anything put in front of you, it is always refreshing to try an entirely different genre and author in general, even if the author happens to be anonymous.

Diary of a Oxygen Thief by Anonymous will have you hooked from the very first page. Following the journey of one lonely human being who gets his thrill from breaking the hearts of every girl he meets, this book can help you both relate to his love for pain as well as each of his victims’ affinity for heartbreak. Told by someone anonymous, this book will make you truly think about how we treat others and ultimately, who we decide to trust and love.

Books are incredible things. In seemingly 300, sometimes less and sometimes more pages, they allow readers to imagine themselves in worlds they have never experienced and in the shoes of characters they have never met. They are often rich with messages and teachings of the world around us and have the ability to change our point of view in an instant. As I read somewhere before, “readers live 1000 lives while non-readers live just one.” Take some time this winter break to sit down and read a good book and you’ll be surprised as to what tiny, paper pages can help you discover.

The options are truly endless (much like the stacks in Bird Library)