By Kara Parker

Features Editor

    When was the last time you picked up a good book? For some people they might have put down a book to pick up this paper, but others may not have picked up a book for months or even years. Whether you have a list a mile long, or don’t have any ideas for books to read, this is a list worth checking out. 

    However, there’s a disclaimer of sorts first. If you try these books and you find none of them make you really excited about reading, or none of them are really something you enjoy, don’t worry. Not every book is for everyone. 

    “Books should be windows we can look through and see the world around us,” media center coordinator Jo Higgins said. “That’s how we learn about other people. At the same time, books should be mirrors; they help us to look at ourselves differently. They help us to recognize ourselves in other people’s stories as well…[They] should also provide us with a sliding glass door we can walk through to become part of another world.”

    Now, for those who like adventure, friendship, mythology, and haven’t read it before, the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan might interest you. This series takes characters out of Greek mythology and places them in the current world. 

    “I would recommend reading Percy Jackson,” senior Book Club president Caroline Blackwell said. “If you’re going into English II or AP Literature, a background in Greek mythology is always nice to have, this can be helpful academically, but also culturally. I feel like there’s a lot of references to it, and there’s a lot of media literacy that can come from it. Percy Jackson’s a really fun and easy introduction into that world.”

    Turning away from mythology for historical fiction, mystery, and sometimes romance stories: there’s The Guest List by Lucy Foley, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series and The Reappearance of Rachel Price, both by Holly Jackson. There’s also the Apothecary Diaries series written by Natsu Hyuuga and illustrated by Touco Shino. These first three options are standard novels, or series’, but the Apothecary Diaries series has sixteen ‘light’ novels with a little over 200 pages per book. 

    “I find the world [of The Apothecary Diaries] really interesting,” sophomore Battle of the Books Club member Sachi Espina said.“It’s based on Ancient China, and the main character is an apothecary. So one day she’s kidnapped [and forced] into working in the rear palace where the emperor resides. Eventually she gets tangled up in a lot of mysteries and solving problems, and it’s really interesting.”

    People who are drawn to coming of age novels might enjoy Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. A novel about friends who work together in their own video game design company. It occurs over the course of several years, and considers how video games are more than a place to disappear when someone wants a distraction. 

    “One of the most memorable books I’ve ever read is Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” Blackwell said. “The characters were very complex, they both had very obvious flaws or virtues, and it was from a dual perspective, so it was nice to get in people’s heads and then see their character from another outside perspective.”

    While these are great for everyday reading enjoyment, Jenna Whitener, an English II and AP English Literature teacher here at R.J. Reynolds High School, recommends challenging your views. There There by Tommy Orange, discussing Native American culture; All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, taking place in France during World War II; Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, about two teens from Nigeria; and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, happening during the Black Lives Matter Movement, are some of her suggestions.

    “[Read] something that makes you uncomfortable, where your identity may be represented, but it’s prompting you to think about or read about things that help you to have a more holistic view of the world instead of being so central to yourself,” Whitener said.

    If this list has made you want to read more, there are groups here at RJR that can support you on your reading journey. One is the Battle of the Books club led by Higgins. This club reads books off of a list, which includes The Reappearance of Rachel Price this year, and competes against other high schools in Forsyth County to find which one knows the books best, in March every year. Another is the RJR Book Club which is led by Co-Presidents Bea Clark and Caroline Blackwell. Every month or so, they choose a book from that month’s decided genre and read it before the next month’s meeting where they discuss it and hang out.

    “My favorite part about the book club would be [that it] really helps me to keep an open mind and expand my ideas on what I might like to read,” Blackwell said.