Spring Holidays Fiction Reading Guide {The 2016 Edition}

Spring Fiction Reading Guide

We made our recommendations based on the holidays in Spring.

Earth Day – Apr. 22nd marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. To promote environmental awareness, read a dystopian novel that shows what it’s like when the World as we know it is destroyed, rendering the people and the environment hostile. My recommendation:

Pure, Julianna Baggot

Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Mother’s Day – May. 8th is a day of celebration for the women who take care of us. Read a book that features a kick-ass mom. My recommendation:

The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue never sees them–until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks to her. His name is Gansey, a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

Memorial Day – May 25 honors the memories of the people who died while serving in the US Armed Forces. It’s a bank holiday weekend, so why not get lost in an epic saga (500+ pages)! My recommendation:

NOS4A2, Joe Hill

Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”

One day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx.

Father’s Day – June 21. Read a book that features an unforgettable dad.

The Road, Cormac McCarthy

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.


Have you read any of these books?

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// Comments //

  1. I love this post! Recommending books for special dates is something I’ve never seen before, and it was super fun to read your recommendations, Tanya 😀

    I loved your pick for Mother’s Day because Maura in The Raven Cycle is such a great mom. I feel like she lets Blue be her own person and make her own decisions, but she is also willing to do anything for her daughter.

    The father in The Road was pretty amazing. I read that book AGES ago, and it was so different to anything I’ve ever read before. I don’t remember much about it except that it was pretty harrowing and sad.

    The dystopian novel you recommended sounds really awesome, so I might just have to add it to my ever-growing TBR pile!