#thesummerreadingprogram

People bought and sold as works of art/furniture. Focus on perfecting the body, following the story of one girl

The Things that Keep Us Here by Carla Buckely

Everything seems quiet on Ann Brooks's suburban cul-de-sac. Despite her impending divorce, she's created a happy home and her daughters are adjusting to the change. She feels lucky to be in a supportive community and confident that she can handle any other hardship that life may throw her way. But then, right before Thanksgiving, a crisis strikes that turns everybody's world upside down. Suddenly her estranged husband is forced back onto her doorstep, bringing with him his beautiful graduate assistant. Trapped inside the house she once called home, confronted by challenges she never could have imagined, Ann must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where the simple act of opening a door to a neighbor could jeopardize all she holds dear.

The choices she makes will impact the lives of those around her irrevocably and linger in the reader's memory in this marvelous first novel, written with authority, grace, and wisdom.

So this summary makes it sound like an awful, boring book, but it's really really good! A pandemic of H5N1 breaks out across the world, and it has like a 90% kill rate and it's scary and heart wrenching and it really makes you think.

The Quiet Room by Lori Schiller

I picked it up in the hopes of learning more about schizophrenia, a mental illness I hadn't done much research on and I thought it would be really slow but once I got into it it was incredible and incredibly inspiring.

At seventeen Lori Schiller was the perfect daughter-the oldest child of an affluent, close-knit family. Six years later she made her first suicide attempt, then wandered the streets of New York City dressed in ragged clothes, tormenting voices crying out in her mind. Lori Schiller had entered the horrifying world of full-blown schizophrenia. She began an ordeal of hospitalizations, halfway houses, more suicide attempts, and constant, withering despair. But against all odds, she survived. In this personal recount, she tells how she did it, taking us not only into her own shattered world, but drawing on the words of the doctors who treated her and family members who suffered with her. 

Pantomine by Luara Lam

I don't even know how to describe this books it's so intricate and wonderfully written. 

If you're looking for a lgbtq+ book that incorporates the queer part of it easily and while also having an amazing story about magic and circuses and well rounded characters look no further. an intersex bi kid in the circus. there's romance and drama and it's very awesome.

summary:

UnLunDun by China Mieville

This book is surprisingly not well-known, but it's an amazing book with enough action and weirdness packed in it for an entire series. 

UnLondon is the shadow of the city it is named for, one of many abcities that collect the mildly obsolete detritus left behind by the citizens of London. UnLondon, and other cities like it, are places where the broken and neglected discover new purpose. It is a world in danger. The Smog threatens to choke the life out of every living thing it can find, to feed itself and drown the world in darkness. Enter Zanna and Deeba, two ordinary girls who find themselves in UnLondon after a string of events lures them there. Zanna is the abcity's chosen one, the Shwazzy, who will ultimately destroy the Smog and save UnLondon. Unfortunately, the Smog knows this as well as the good guys, and injures Zanna before she can fulfill her destiny. Deeba, the Funny Sidekick, takes on the quest meant for Zanna. Helped by an abandoned milk carton and talking book of prophecy, Deeba must save the abcity and get back to regular London before everybody back at home forgets she even existed.

Now before you write this off as too weird or confusing, just hear me out. I read this book when I was like 12, and I've been reading it a few times a year since then and I still catch new stuff every time. It has quirky characters and monsters that tumblr will absolutely love (an old fashioned diver suit filled with fish named Skool, a man who quite literally has a pin head, ghosts, man-eating giraffes, a villain named Smog, and funny little things called "Black Windows"), and more puns than you could possibly count. I got my first copy for free, but when I bought it for a friend it was only like 12 USD.