1. A Visit from the Goon Squad

13 chapters that act as 13 individual short stories that are interrelated and have characters that all connect to one character, Bennie Salazar. Bennie is a record company executive. The story is set in the late 1960s and shifts to the present and even the future. The book follows characters who are sent into the unknown and are learning life one step of the way as they grow older. It won many prizes, including the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The book does a beautiful job of depicting the crazy twists and turns life takes while growing up in the digital age.

2. Thirteen Reasons Why

The reader initially meets Clay, a high school age boy, however, the story is mostly about the life of one of his former classmates, Hannah. Hannah is a girl who recently took her own life and is now ready to explain why. In the book, you follow Clay on his journey of 13 tapes and 13 reasons why Hannah did what she did. The story is very compelling and honestly, I could not put it down. Many of Hannah’s “reasons” are very relatable to an average high school teenager. I think being a teenager who has gone through some of those things on a lesser scale helped me relate and feel sympathy for Hannah. It is definitely a page turner but can be sensitive to some readers. With this in mind, it is greatly written and definitely worth the read.

3. One Million Lovely Letters

A story of an author. She was diagnosed with a life-threatening condition and wrote a reflection on her time on this planet. The entire story is mostly background that leads up to her being admitted to the hospital and the real seriousness of her condition being announced. She reflects on a lot of things by writing letters, like writing her grandmother a letter in heaven. As someone who loves writing, I enjoy this book over and over. I think it is beautifully written and one of the most encouraging books I have read to this date. It gives the reader faith, faith to believe in themselves.

4. Impulse

A very compelling story shoved into about 600 pages. I personally love Ellen Hopkins as a writer and love her stories even more. Three people’s lives intersect in one mental health facility. It starts off by explaining each character and how they got there, then moves on to explain how they each form bonds. This book can be very touchy for certain people, much like Thirteen Reasons Why. Hopkins produced a tragedy that somehow gives the reader hope and keeps them thinking long after the last word on the page.

5. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Twenty-two-year-old Cheryl Strayed thought she was at a dead end in life. She believed she had lost everything, her mom, her marriage, her family as a whole. She had nothing to lose so she decided to hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. She starts at the Mojave Desert and ends up going through California and Oregon to Washington State. What would make this even crazier? She wants to do it alone. This story touches people deep in their soul, it tells about bravery and nearly giving up but preserving through the worst times. I was simply blown away by the author’s writing style and story line.