Books are a great thing to have with you when you’re lounging by the pool or relaxing at the beach. Let these 10 novels take you away for a while.

1. "The Kite Runner"

Settle down and let this novel transport you to the winter of 1975, in the midst of the Russians taking over Kabul, Afghanistan. Hosseini takes us to the middle of the Middle East in this adventure of a boy, Amir, from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. He and his childhood friend Hassan challenge kites around Kabul and share many secrets and hard times, along with times that Amir will never forget.

2. "Dreamland"

This novel is a bit more real. The main character, 16-year-old Caitlin, realizes that her 18-year-old sister Cass has run away, and no one knows where. Caitlin has always followed in her sister’s footsteps until she meets Robinson. She joins the cheer team at her high school, then proceeds to vanish from her family and friends right before their eyes. She comes home with bruises and refuses to spend time with her family, until one very unfortunate night which changes her life forever.

3. "The Book Theif"

This is a novel that has my heart for many reasons. Not only is this a moving motion picture, it is also a very moving novel. Little Liesel Meminger buries her little brother and then notices that the gravedigger drops something. "The Gravediggers Handbook," so what does she do? Just like the title of this hints, she steals it. This is the first of many. She is transported to a foster family while the Nazi’s begin their reign and stops at nothing to steal books and their words.

4. "Clockwork Angel"

This is a fun read if you’re into slaying demons and staring at cute boys with platinum hair to steal your heart. It is the time of the Great Queen Victoria, and a species called Downworlders are afoot in the streets of London. Tessa Grey is on the search for her brother when she is caught by The Dark Sisters who opens a world of a secret organization called the Pandemonium Club which consists of demons, vampires and warlocks; otherwise known as Downworlders. This opens a door to Tessa in which she can transform into other people. She is on the hunt for her brother but is also being hunted.

5. "Cat's Cradle"

Kurt Vonnegut’s crazy novel centered around an apocalyptic time. Our main character, John, is out to write a book called "The Day The World Ended." He accomplished just that. His novel is primarily about the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Little does he know, he opened a world that his family hid from him and things they never thought he'd find out. But everything the books says is a lie. Or is it?

6."Incarceron"

Now this one is a real mind-bender. Catherine Fisher starts her novel off with the idea with a prison but not any ordinary prison. This prison is so vast, it contains forests, seas, cities, but is there a way out? This prison is hiding many secrets, and Finn is out to seek a way out.

7. "The List"

Seven people have the mark. They know nothing of what it means nor do they know who else has one. Until they are all brought together and realize they all have something in common with one another; they are all marked and they all represent a famous person from your world history textbook. It’s a twisted history story full of suspense.

8. "The Hunger Games Trilogy"

Not only is this a phenomenal movie series, the book series provide much more justice. A young girl saves her small family by volunteering herself instead of her younger sister for an annual, yet mandatory, blood fest. Katniss Everdeen, a young girl in District Twelve, teams up with an unlikely bread boy named Peta to battle others from districts as a sport in an arena. While battling a love triangle and trying to feed her family, Katniss does whatever it takes to make sure her loved ones are safe.

9. "The Giver"

Lois Lowry gives us utopia but then flips it into a dystopia before our eyes. Jonas, our main character lives in a world where everyone is the same, there is no “better” or “smarter” or “faster”. Those words don’t exist and haven’t for years and years. At the time when a student turns 12, they attend a Ceremony of the Twelve where each student is given a career which has been predetermined. Jonas has been given the career of “The Reciever of Memories.” In this career, it is Jonas’s job to interpret old or lost memories from the world before it was new. Jonas begins to understand a little about why he loves his best friend and a little more about what the world used to be. But does he want the power of this information?

10. "Just Listen"

Another by Dessen, in this novel, Annabel Greene starts her junior year ostracized from almost everyone in her small high school. Annabel and her sisters are all model gorgeous, and they all have careers in modeling. Her oldest sister Whitney is battling an eating disorder, and her other sister Karen goes to school in New York after modeling didn’t work out. She is left with her overbearing mother. That is until Owen shoes up. He’s a music fanatic and has a show at the local radio station. Annabel isn’t the type to tell people what she thinks, but when her only friend has terrible taste in music, she must tell him. Through friendship drama’s and court cases, Annabel will have your attention throughout the whole novel.