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While frequent lockdowns in the coronavirus pandemic enabled a more vast reading audience, they were also a significant contributor to people giving up on reading “Dalgona Coffee” recipes, much less a novel. It’s understandable. It seems far more effortless to begin an endless Netflix binge than to jump into the great unknown of a new book. Thankfully, every weekend brings new opportunities and new books to traverse.

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While there may not be a way to prevent reading slumps, more books are always available to cure them. With new bestsellers launching every week, it might be hard to keep track and identify what suits you best, but there are countless lists on the internet brimming with recommendations to quench your thirst for sure shot slump terminators.

‘Vicious’ by V.E. Schwab

As college roommates, Victor and Eli recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. Brilliant, arrogant, and lonely, they shared research interests in their senior year as a result of adrenaline, near-death experiences, and events that seemed supernatural. But things went south when they shifted their thesis from academic to experimental. Now ten years later, they’re on the search for each other. Driven by betrayal and loss, the arch-nemeses are set to gain revenge.

In a riveting tale, Vicious uncovers a world where superpowers don’t translate to heroism and a time when allegiances are called into question.

‘Six of Crows’ by Leigh Bardugo

Ketterdam is a bustling corner of international trade where for the right price, everything is achievable. And if there’s someone who knows it inside out, it’s criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. When he is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams, there’s no reason to say no. Except … he needs a team of six dangerous outcasts, himself included, to accomplish the mission. His team members are the only force standing between the world and its destruction … if they don’t kill each other first.

Now a series on Netflix, Six Of Crows is a fantasy that will have you feeling every emotion a human can experience.

‘We Were Liars’ by E. Lockhart

A summer. A private island. A group of four friends – the Liars. A rebellion. A mishap. A mystery. Cadence and her mother are headed to her grandfather’s private island like every summer vacation. But this year, things seem different. Cadence is ill, and her family seems … odd. They’re harboring a secret, and when it comes out, the waves in the ocean won’t be loud enough to cover the screams.

A riveting tale that will grip you by the collar and make you want to jump into the ocean for answers, We Were Liars is a novel that everyone should read once in their lifetime. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just lie.

‘Malibu Rising’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Set in 1983, Malibu Rising is the story of the Riva family. Four siblings: Nina, Jay, Hud, and Kit. They all have secrets of their own, secrets not even their closest confidantes, their siblings, know. Can this family, built on a rocky foundation by their parents, survive the volcano making its way to them?

Shifting between the 1950s and 1980s, the story jumps between the history of their parents’ relationship and the lives of each Riva sibling. The book is a riveting mystery that will break even the most brutal slumps.

‘People We Meet on Vacation’ by Emily Henry

Poppy Wright is the exact opposite of what Alex Nilsen is. She’s a wild child; he’s as cool as Portland on its coldest days. She’s an insatiable wanderlust; he wants nothing more than to curl up with a book. Still, since a car share home from college many years ago, they’ve been inseparable best friends. They live miles apart, but they’ve been taking vacations together every summer for a decade. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t been in touch since.

A heartwarming childhood-friends-to-lovers, People We Meet On Vacation is a perfect beach read and is probably the best fiction book to get back into reading.

‘The Bookish Life of Nina Hill’ by Abbi Waxman

The only child of a single mother, Nina’s life is everything she could ever want: a job at a bookstore, an immaculate trivia team, an elite planner, and a cat named Phil. If she ever wonders what’s more to life than books, she just shrugs and finds a new book to read. But when her father – the one she didn’t know existed – dies, and she’s surrounded by countless sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina can’t find a place dark enough to hide.

A poignant novel about a bookworm, The Bookish Life of Nina Hillis an effortlessly funny and emotive read.

‘Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine’ by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant is fine, and that’s all she needs her life to be. Struggling with her subpar social skills, she tends to say exactly what’s on her mind. Nothing is missing in her timetabled life until she meets Raymond. He is a profoundly unhygienic IT guy from her office, but when they together save Sammy, the three rescue one another from the lives of seclusion they had been living.

With quirky characters and a memorable storyline, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine will get you out of a reading slump in no time.

‘Where the Crawdads Sing by’ Delia Owens

For as long as she can remember, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove. But Kya Clark is none of those things. She’s carefree and wild, maybe even a little unfit for polite society, so when the famous Chase Andrews is found dead, the first suspect on everyone’s list is her. But Kya wants none of that. After years in isolation, she wants to be loved, but what happens the unthinkable strikes.

A tender coming-of-age tale, Where the Crawdads Sing critiques how isolation impacts the demeanor of a young woman, who, like all of us, has the inborn disposition to belong to a group.

‘Circe’ by Madeline Miller

Silence strikes when a daughter is born in the mightiest’s house. But Circe is a strange offspring – she’s not powerful, like her father, nor viciously enticing like her mother. However, she possesses the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she’s grown stronger, mightier than ever.

Circe is the feminist retelling of the legend of the Greek goddess Circe, who is powerful enough to challenge gods and titans, but must make a choice: whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or the mortals she has come to love.

‘Such a Fun Age’ by Kiley Reid

Alix Chamberlain always gets what she wants. She has made a living with her confidence-driven brand and trains other women how to do the same. So when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, a young black woman, is harassed by the security guard of a local high-end supermarket one night, watching the Chamberlains’ toddler, Alix resolves to make things right.

With compassion and soul-piercing social commentary, Such A Fun Ageexplores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it really means to consider someone family, and the intricate web of reality that entails being a grown-up.

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