Pre-College Summer Reading

Last summer, I wrote this post with some updates about my summer reading. So, for this summer, I wanted to give another update about what I’ve been reading and what I plan to read until college starts! 

DISCLAIMER: This post does contain spoilers, though I attempted to make them as vague as possible. However, if you have not read the books and want to be very careful, skip the third paragraphs of each section for now and come back after you’ve had a chance to read the books! 

The Horse and His Boy 

My family likes to listen to audiobooks in the car on road trips. And shockingly for a homeschool family, no one except my dad has read through the whole Narnia series. Combined with the fact that The Horse and His Boy was on my brother’s book list for school this year, it was a perfect choice for a summer road trip.  

The Horse and His Boy is the fifth book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. It revolves around four characters: a girl, a boy, and two horses. The two runaway children find the talking horses and together set out from their unhappy homes to Narnia, a place they have heard is fair and beautiful. Along the way, they face many challenges, but they also grow from naive children into wise young adults.  

C.S. Lewis uses this sweet book to paint a picture of how God will use every circumstance in your life to shape you into who He wants you to be. He also reminds us that we don’t know anyone else’s story. We only see how their stories affect ours, but we will never know everything that anyone else goes through. But we can rest assured that our stories are perfectly written, even if we can’t see how in the moment. And, if you find someone with whom you quarrel often but make up with easily, you might just get married.  

A Tale of Two Cities 

This is my second time reading this book, and I love it so much. I read it first for TGC3 in ninth grade and I fell in love with both the book and its author, Charles Dickens. When I did a book exchange with some of my friends around Christmas and received a (much less beat up) copy of A Tale of Two Cities, I decided it was time for a reread. So, I have actually been reading this book since about February and allowing myself to take it slowly.  

A Tale of Two Cities unfolds around the life of Lucie Manette, her father (Dr. Manette), and her husband (Charles Darnay). There are also a few side characters, including the business-minded but kind-hearted Mr. Lorry and the slothful but loving Mr. Carton. The story follows these characters as they deal with the painful and bloodthirsty results of the French Revolution that seems determined to follow the family and friends and will not leave them alone without first taking one of them.  

This book is rich with symbolism. Between the wine of the revolution, the barber known as Madame la Guillotine, and the sacrifice that resembles the sacrifice Christ made for us, Dickens was a master at getting his point across without using a lecture or a history book. Despite one bigger sacrifice that wraps up the book, there are many smaller yet meaningful sacrifices along the way. Necessary sacrifices considering the atmosphere of a group of bloodthirsty Jacques, crazed women, and a merciless revolution. And through it all, Dickens unfolds a beautiful story of sacrificial love, quiet courage, and changed lives. Please don’t miss this masterful book.  

The Idiot 

At the beginning of this summer, some of my friends asked a group of us if we would be interested in joining a book club that would be going through The Idiot by Dostoyevsky over about 10 weeks. This was my first time reading any book by Dostoevsky, so I was excited to give a try. Now, we are about halfway through the book, and I still have no idea how the story is going to end.  

The Idiot follows the life of Prince Myshkin (aka Lev Nikolayevich), and his interactions with the Yepanchins, Ardalionivichs, and of course the ever-intriguing Nastasya Filippovna. Everyone in The Idiot goes by at least 2 or 3 names, and there are a lot of characters that take turns being main and side characters, which can make the names a little hard to follow. However, the most important characters, such as Myshkin and those involved in his love triangle (or perhaps octagon is a better shape for this), are fairly easy to follow as they come up quite often. The plot is divided into four books, and so far, I have made it through two of them. The book is named The Idiot after Myshkin, so called because of his epilepsy, which interfered with his schooling, and his innocence.  

Myshkin is quite an innocent character, though as the story moves along, he does become shrewder. He has a knack for reading people’s faces and discerning their character, even if he has never met them before. But he can also be easily deceived, especially in the beginning. He faces near bouts with death by allowing himself to be too trusting. But through the whole story, it is clear that Dostoyevsky is attempting to create a sort of perfect character- one whose soul is truly loving, kind, and beautiful. Interestingly, this book reminds me of Jane Eyre, which I read last summer, but also has some similar themes to A Tale of Two Cities.  

The Green Ember: Ember Rises 

The Green Ember is turning out to be one of my favorite middle grade series. There are four books in the main series, three in a side series, three in a prequel series, and now there is a sequel series that is coming out. So far, I’ve been working my way through the main series, but I have also read the first book in the side series. Ember Rises is the third book in the main series, and very well may be the most action packed one yet (though they all have their fair share of action). 

The Green Ember series revolves around the lives of Picket and Heather, two adolescent rabbits, with each book being split somewhat equally between the siblings’ points of view.  Caught in a world where the king of the rabbits fell to the alliance of the birds of prey and the wolves, Picket and Heather find it up to them to restore peace and lead rabbit kind to the “mended wood”, place where falcons and wolves are absent, and the bunnies no longer have anything to fear. This book specifically addresses the peak of the war between the predators and prey, the rabbits’ final attempt to liberate themselves once and for all… or face total enslavement and likely death. 

Written by S.D. Smith, a Christian author, this series is not only clean but also has some Christian symbolism and themes. For instance, the main theme of the book is the idea of good vs evil, light vs darkness. There are also numerous scenes that show the love between family members. The rabbits also face betrayal, both from close friends and family, and from outside sources, and they must learn to conquer their own hurt feelings for the sake of the mended wood. The idea of the loss of loved ones is certainly not foreign to this book, but the rabbits fight bravely on, knowing that they have the opportunity to stop others from having to feel the same pain they have gone through. Finally, the bunnies frequently sacrifice themselves for others (or at least are willing to), demonstrating the true love that Christians should have for each other. I have become very invested in these bunnies’ lives, and I cannot wait to read the other books that take place in their world.  

What’s Next 

I still have not finished the last three books on this list, so I intend to keep reading those. And since we are in the process of moving, I don’t have access to many of my other, unread books right now. However, I brought along The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis, which I haven’t read yet, and I recently bought a book called The Watsons, Lady Susan, and Sandition by Jane Austen, which is apparently a collection of her lesser-known stories. I’ll choose one of those to read next, likely alongside one of my friends. Since we read Murder on the Orient Express together last summer, we decided to keep the tradition alive and choose another book for this summer.   

What have you been reading this summer? Feel free to leave a comment below, especially if you’ve read or want to read one of the ones on this list! Happy reading!