We hope you love our recommendations! Some may have been sent as samples, but all were independently selected by our editors. Just FYI, BuzzFeed and its publishing partners may collect a share of sales and/or other compensation from the links on this page.
1. The Vanishing Half: A Novel by Brit Bennett, which tells the story of two identical twins who grow up in a small, southern black community but run away when they're 16. One sister ends up back in the town with a daughter of her own, while the other sister secretly passes as white and is married to a white man who has no idea about her background. Their stories and lives meet again in the next generation, where complicated questions and truths come out.
2. A book called Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner that examines the complexities of female friendships. After two best friends have a huge fight that results in them not speaking to each other for six years, one of the women reappears to ask the other to be her maid of honour — and what follows is a story of friendship, failure, and figuring out what matters.
3. If you want to understand more about systemic racism and how white people dodge discussion about and responsibility for it, try White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. The book explores the counterproductive reactions that white people have when confronted with assumptions about race.
4. You could also read Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad. This book will walk you step-by-step through the work of examining your own white privilege, what allyship really means, changing the way that you view and respond to race, and how to continue the work to create social change.
5. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) by Suzanne Collins, which takes a look back at the tenth annual Games and how the future-president Coriolanus Snow aimed for his chance at glory. The book explains a lot of the history of the original Hunger Games series, and provides insight into how Snow turned into the person he was later in his life.
6. A true story called Beyond the Trees: A Journey Alone Across Canada's Arctic by Adam Shoalts that might just soothe your need for adventure. In 2017, the author left Eagle Plains, Yukon Territory, for his destination in Baker Lake, Nunavut, and he chronicled all 4,000 kilometres of the wonder-filled journey in this beautiful book.
7. The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner, which is a novel that focuses on Austen's hometown in the aftermath of World War II. A group of strangers that couldn't be more different from one another come together to preserve her home, her works, and her legacy, all for the love of literature.
8. A novel called All Adults Here by Emma Straub, in which a mother suddenly realizes she might not have been quite the parent she thought she'd been to her three children, who are now adults. But she wonders how much apologies really matter, which lapses might have resulted in certain outcomes, and how to use the new information.
9. Rodham: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld that reimagines Hillary Rodham Clinton's life if she had turned down Bill's proposal. Instead, she trailblazes her way through politics and comes across Bill again and again as they both find their way.
10. A novel called The Hidden Beach by Karen Swan that tells the fictional story of a young family whose lives get overturned by a secret that comes out. What do you do when your secret husband that was in a coma suddenly reappears in our life?
11. The World: A Brief Introduction by Richard Haass, which gives you an overview of the essential history of the planet that'll help readers understand current events better. It explains the interconnectedness of the world, and how globalization can be either good or bad, but that opting out of it is not an option anymore.
12. Beach Read by Emily Henry, which tells the stories about two writers living in neighbouring beach houses who are both fighting a case of writer's block. They strike up a deal to help each other out where everyone will finish a book, but no one will fall in love.
13. New York Times' bestselling author and psychic Laura Lynne Jackson is back with a new book called Signs: The Secret Language of the Universe. She shows readers how to recognize and interpret messages from loved ones and spirit guides on the Other Side.
14. The Oppenheimer Alternative by Robert J. Sawyer, which takes a fictional alternative to the aftermath the Manhattan Project and the devastation of the first atomic bomb. The scientists involved in creating the bomb set about on a project to try and redeem themselves and save the planet from an environmental catastrophe.
15. Jack McEvoy, the hero of Michael Connelly’s New York Times bestselling novels The Poet and The Scarecrow is back in Fair Warning to solve the murder of a woman he had a one-night stand with. If you're a fan of crime novels, this terrifying book that's described as "unputdownable" should be next on your reading list.
16. Hideaway by Nora Roberts, a suspense novel about a long line of Hollywood royalty. It has abduction, betrayal, a great love story, and vengeance, so it has basically everything you need for an afternoon of reading on the couch.
17. Doc: The Life of Roy Halladay by Todd Zolecki that chronicles the life of the Hall of Fame pitcher from his younger years to pitching for the Blue Jays to his untimely death in 2017. It also features interviews with his wife, Brandy, and his friends, family, coaches and teammates.
18. And lastly, a novel called The Last High by Daniel Kalla, which explores the dangers of fentanyl as an ER doctor finds herself slammed with teen patients who either took drugs on purpose or who took them unknowingly. She teams up with a detective to get to the root of the matter, and along the way they grapple with crime, greed, and the epidemic of addiction.
Actual footage of you ignoring your responsibilities so you can read:
