As an English student, you'd think reading would be the last thing I would want to spend my summer doing. However, as someone who can rarely find the motivation to read everything on their university reading list, I was counting down the days until I could get cosy, sit down, open up a brand new book and breathe a sigh of relief. Reading for the pleasure of escaping real life, is very different from hastily reading a book that's going to help me achieve a grade and graduation credits. Throughout the year I've been accumulating more and more books to read over the coming months and today I thought I'd give you all a little insight into exactly what's on my shelf this summer.

I am a big fan of the movie (yep, I'm one of those people, movie first and book later, this will be a regular thing on this list) and now the next best thing is to finally read the book that I picked up at an Oxfam book store. This critically acclaimed novel is set in a psychiatric hospital and focuses on various different characters and how they interact with each other under these conditions. Its also rooted in Kesey's own experiences working as an orderly at a facility, where, like most authors do, he indulged in mind altering substances. The movie is dark and certain parts of it made me feel uncomfortable, so I expect the book will be exactly the same. But that's one of the things I enjoy about literature. I like how it takes situations that are not familiar to the average reader and makes us question why we're uncomfortable with certain events and settings, so hopefully I'll learn something about myself from reading this book.



I have to make another admission - I'm a literature student who hasn't read many of the classics. Although I do know the premise of Shelley's Frankenstein and know a little about her life from various lectures I've never actually read the novel itself, and I'm very tired of sitting in class, and having her name and novel referenced without truly understanding what's going on. So again, I grabbed this little gem from a second hand book shop and its time to get reading! I think everyone knows the main plot of the novel; the eponymous scientist creates a grotesque monster from different parts as an experiment. However there are a lot of different veins and elements that come together throughout the narrative and I won't bore you with the rest of the literary jargon!

I am a huge fan of Jonasson's novel The Hundred Year Old Man... and I've been eager to read the rest of his funny adventure novels since. Hitman Anders follows a large group of characters who somehow get involved in an elaborate scheme with disastrous consequences; so the same principle as the rest of his novels! As with all of Jonasson's books, its funny, gives intricate detail about his home country of Sweden, and will make you feel every emotion possible as you read it. I hope I love this one as much as the first.



I am a huge fan of King's work both in print and on-screen, so his books are going to feature a lot on this list. First of all, Salem's Lot which is a novel I'm not really familiar with, even though I know many people who are huge fans and I know its one of his most popular. The story centres around a writer who returns to his hometown and quickly realises that the people around him are turning into vampires. What I love about King's novels is that he doesn't cut out any detail, no stone goes upturned. We truly get the understand and relate to every element of these characters' lives, and yes his novels are long but they're engaging and that's why they're still popular today. A modern day vampire story that I'm sure will please any Gothic fan.



Being honest, I'm a sucker for pretty covers and this book's cover caught me hook line and sinker. However, the blurb and Irish interest are what really reigned me in. Donoghue's novel is based on cases of "fasting girls" that crosses centuries and continents, as they claimed to live without food. The novel explores fact, fiction, religious fanaticism and truth as it tries to uncover what is happening to these girls and why.





Drawn in by the title, blurb and similarity to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time I'm looking forward to reading this novel. The plot revolves around two young girls who explore their neighbour's mysterious disappearance during the British drought of the 1970s. It explores neighbourhood secrets and that you never truly knows what goes on behind closed doors. I hope I enjoy this as much as I did The Curious Incident...



The second of King's novel's on my list, Pet Sematary is one of my favourite films of all time. It makes me laugh, cry and curl up under the nearest blanket all in one go. It follows this family who move in to a house near an ancient Indian burial ground, a highway frequently used by trucks and the Pet Sematary. Immediately strange events begin to occur and tragedy strikes. The dead are buried in the Indian burial ground and start to return. It's creepy, scary and it will inevitably break my heart all over again.

I studied the first Game of Thrones novel in my first year of university and after that I rather ridiculously, went on to watch every series of the show, THEN come back and read the books. Its been a bit of a struggle with this novel as I've been trying to read it since last summer, so hopefully I can conquer this novel this summer. If you have no experience with GoT I'll not kill you with the details, but basically the second novel explores the aftermath of the first, the different realms of the kingdom and how they're about the head into war.



A couple of Christmases ago my uncle gifted me with this beautiful version of Lewis Caroll's classic Alice in Wonderland novels, however, since then they've just been collecting dust on my shelf. I'm going to assume that most of you are familiar with the premise of the novel either through reading it yourselves or through the numerous films that have spawned from the story. If you're not aware however, it tells the tale of young Alice who follows a white rabbit down the rabbit hole to a world filled with colour and creatures unlike anything she has seen before. It's utterly strange, vivid and brilliant.

I watched the film once upon a time ago with some friends and boy, is it heavy stuff. The novel is told from the perspective of Kevin's mother as she tries to understand what led up to her son become a high-school mass shooter. The movie tells the story through flashbacks, the novel through letters, and they jump back and forth making it kind of hard to follow along sometimes. The novel tries to rationalise and explain why Kevin acts the way he does and has committed such an atrocity, the relationship between children and their parents and how behaviour and environment can influence the growth of young children and the people they go on to become. If you're interested in psychology and similar themes, I could not recommend this book enough.



It's taken me quite a while to get on the Gone Girl hype, as it isn't really my kind of book but I saw it on sale in a second hand book shop and thought I'd take the plunge. The novel is split in half and told from two different and interlocking perspectives, a husband and wife, and it has more twists and turns than the Nile. A good old fashioned thriller full of unreliable information that leaves reader's questioning the most sanctimonious commitment of all - marriage.



Recommended to me by an old English teacher some years ago, this book has sat on my shelf for longer than I can remember. Studying Joyce in university has not been an unpleasant experience, but I just can't find myself relating to his work, instead reading his novels rather analytically. With that being said, many friends and lecturers have raved to me about this particular novel so what better to do with my summer than read it? Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories that depict Irish life, in particular around Dublin, in the early 20th century. Many of the characters also appear in Joyce's most famous work, Ulysses, and the stories are narrated by the young, old and in-between. If you want to gain an understanding of real Irish identity this is the best book to help you.



Again, this is yet another novel that was recommended to me by a fellow uni student that has long sat on my bookshelf. This collection of alternative fairy-tales and folk stories are dark, brutal and bloody. Each one varies in length and draws inspiration from a different tale that may or may not be familiar to some of you including Beauty and the Beast, Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood and they all seem to emphasise the role of women in these tales. I've heard nothing but praise for these tales, so this is definitely one I'll be reading on a rainy, summer afternoon.



Probably one of my favourite of King's stories, and one of the most famous, Carrie is the tale of a bullied high school girl who discovers that she has telekinetic powers and seeks revenge on those who have made her life hell, destroying her entire town in the process. It's both easy and difficult to sympathise with Carrie, as most of the novel is told through different news reports about the chaos she has caused, however at the end of the film I did find myself rooting for her to destroy literally everyone in her wake, particularly her religious zealot of a mother. It's another hard read, but there's just something very satisfying about seeing the underdog take control. Is it just me?


Since I started writing this list, I went out and YET AGAIN bought more books to add to my reading list, however since I had pretty much completed this post before then I won't include them. I hope I didn't bore you all too much with my long analysis of every novel and I hope you've maybe even found some new reads to sink your teeth into over the next coming months!

Until next time, 
Rachel