By: PAIGE FOSTER
Staff Writer
With finals around the corner and the Christmas season in full swing, students are more stressed than ever. For many students, social media offers quick “brain breaks” throughout the day – but it also may harm mental health, encourage unrealistic perceptions or expectations, polarize political views, and dramatically decrease attention span. A healthier and equally enjoyable (yep, that’s right: enjoyable) habit to ease stress is reading. Below is a list of books I’m planning on reading for December:
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
Haig’s fiction novel follows the story of Nora Seed, a young woman who is caught somewhere between being alive and being dead. This in-between consists of a library with an infinite number of books, each which allows her to view what her life would’ve been like if she had made a different decision at any given point during her lifetime. She gets to undo her mistakes, pursue careers she always dreamed of, and, in the process, learn more about being alive by being dead.
I’m particularly excited for this read, not only because the plot is like candy for the brain, but also because I grew up on Matt Haig’s Samuel Blink and the Hidden Forest. I am hopeful that the whimsy and quiet poignance of his work persists.
Dead Wake by Erik Larson
This nonfiction account of the Lusitania’s sinking during the second World War is quite different from others about the time period. Many authors write about World War II out of a rich knowledge base and allow themselves the literary freedom to create plausible (but ultimately unreal) characters. Others record personal experiences. Contrastingly, Larson was neither present for the events he describes nor does he have the liberty of painting his own characters.
Instead, he clings vehemently to facts and quotes of people who were alive during the time, seamlessly blending them into a work that is both entirely historically accurate and uniquely narrative for a work of historical nonfiction.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s famous play, rich with politics of both family and state, remains on my reading list from the previous month. Mrs. Jolly’s AP Literature classes continue to struggle with Shakespeare’s flowery language and unnecessarily twisted family trees. Hamlet is about a young prince whose father (the king) dies when the kingdom is on the brink of war. The king’s brother takes over the throne instead of Prince Hamlet and marries his brother’s widow. The late king’s ghost then returns to haunt the castle, and Prince Hamlet is left to pick apart the mysterious circumstances of his father’s death and haunting, discovering corruption, deceit, and betrayal in the process.