In the beginning of my fall semester, a friend was in my room and she asked me “What was the last book you read?” I quickly answered with a book I had read at school. Not for leisure. I racked my brain for a response and I honestly couldn’t think of one. I have absolutely no excuse except school. When the semester starts, finding a balance between working, school work, leisure activities and the tons of problems that arise for college students; it is impossible for me to find time to just read. So I made it a goal of mine to read this summer. I wanted to read an array of books ranging from health to lifestyle. Below I have compiled a list of books that I will be reading this summer.

1. Salt by Nayyirah Waheed

I've read this book once before. It is a book of short poetry and because of that, I flew through the book. A lot of the messages went over my head because I did not take the time to digest the meaning. This summer I plan to do a guided reading with this book; this time taking the time to analyze the messages within the text. This is a book I feel that everyone should have in their arsenal because the different poetry can apply to you at different times in your life.

2. How to Communicate like a Buddhist by Cynthia Kane

I heard about this book through another artist by the name of Alex Elle. She posted excerpts of this book on her Snapchat and the words resonated with me. I have recently been in situations where I was forced to communicate with other people in situations where I would have rather shut down. Whether you are trying to become a better communicator or learn the importance of communication, you might be interested in this book.

3) Sistah Vegan by A. Breeze Harper

I have been on a journey to a plant based diet since the beginning of 2016. I have become more educated on the topic by reading other blogs, watching Netflix movies and listening to Podcasts. However, there is no better way to get information than an actual book. I love that this book is a collection of short stories from different women on their journey to veganism (It gives me "Chicken noodle soup" for the soul vibes).

4. Milk and Honey by Rupi Kapur

This book is also a book of poetry. However, the poems are divided into sections such as "the healing", "the hurting" and more. This is a book that speaks of loss, love, abuse, and ways to overcome tough life situations. Although I have never been great at writing poetry, I appreciate it in all forms and I feel that this is a book of poetry I will be able to relate to.

5. The Defining Decade by Meg Jay

The title of the book says it all. Transitioning to your twenties is difficult because it is a time where you move from young adulthood to adulthood. I have felt the effects of "adulting" lately and while it has it's perks it is a challenging and scary time. While I know only life can give me this transitioning experience, I am looking to this book as a source of guidance as I spend my last few months as a teenager.

6. When We Ruled by Robin Walker

Funny story. I was assigned this book as a textbook for one of my spring semester classes and barely made a crease in the book from not using it. This is in no way a shot at the book but rather an effect of my heavy workload for the semester. This textbook discusses the origins of the human species, the historical phases of Ancient Kemet and altogether the legacy of Africa. It is a dense read but an interesting one nonetheless and I plan to read more of this text this summer. It's hard to know where you're going if you don't know where you come from.

What are your summer reads?