The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares- This is the story of four friends growing up, told entirely in summers. This book embodies everything I love about summer, and it’s a great beach side read.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart- This is a deliciously absorbing girl-power book, about Frankie Landau-Banks, a 15-year-old mastermind who is tired of being excluded because she is a girl.

The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson- This is the story of a girl trying to move on after her sister’s death, and the boy who helped her do it. This is a sweet, funny, and sad book.

Paper Towns by John Green- Margo Roth Spiegelman has always been the object of Quentin Jacobsen’s love form afar. But after Margo and Quentin play a series of complicated pranks together and Margo disappears, Quentin sets out to find her. This is an exciting, funny and touching book.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell- This is a story about two completely different teens who reluctantly fall in love over a series of morning bus rides. Eleanor has a terrible home life, bright red hair, and is fat. Park is skinny, a music and comic book-lover, a disappointment to his father, and the only Asian in his school. This book is great, and one of the few books in which the fat protagonist doesn’t spend the entire book trying to get skinny.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld- This is the story of a girl living in a dystopian society in which every teenager undergoes a surgery to become a “pretty” at the age of 16. This book is thrilling and creepy, and the main character very relatable.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel- This is the story of a boy who’s family dies in a shipwreck and must survive on a lifeboat for moths with only a tiger for company. This book is about life at it’s simplest, and the human mind.

There Is No Dog by Meg Rossof- What if god is just an impatient teenage boy who thinks he is the center of the universe? This is a funny and thought-provoking book,

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini- The story of a girl in Afghanistan forced into an arranged marriage with a cruel and hateful man.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak- This is the saddest book I’ve ever read. It is the story of a girl living in Germany during the Holocaust, told from the perspective of death.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling- If you haven’t heard of this book before, you have either been living under a rock, or willfully plugging your ears every time you hear the phrase “the best book ever”. This is the story of a young wizard named Harry Potter, and it is a fantastic book.