Anywhere is a good place to read. Now that summer has arrived, your family is probably planning a summer picnic. This is another opportunity to block out the noise, eat great food, and have your eyes on a new genre or book. Here are five books from the YA fiction, short story, poetry, contemporary and science fiction genres we recommend you bring in your picnic basket.

Young Adult Fiction Genre

1. The Sunday Lunch Club by Juliet Ashton

Let’s start off with a book that focuses on having lunch. These special lunches bring out the best and worst of this family. Read on for a thrilling fiction mystery, family, and drama.

The most important rule of this book: Do Not Make Afternoon Plans.

Every few Sundays Anna and her extended family and friends get together to have lunch. They reminisce, laugh and bicker amongst themselves. Sometimes there are misunderstandings, other moments there are things kept unsaid.

When Anna’s ex husband and new lover are in the same table, she is trying to grasp how she is a pregnant forty year old. Her grandma is becoming more ancient by the day, her flamboyant brother and promiscuous sister are here. A memory that she still has difficulty processing, comes to fruition when a letter arrives from the person she scarred years ago. Will Anna be able to reconcile all of this and put the pain of the past to rest?

Short Story Genre

2. You Will Never be Forgotten: Stories by Mary South

Ready for an alluring, dark twisted ten stories for your picnic?

Here are stories that are provocative, funny and edgy collection of short stories.

These stories reveal the selfish intesity of needing love and acceptance. The author shows how technology can bring connection and alos destroy us. These stories will have you stare into space, pause, gasp and go ‘awww’ for the tender moments.

Poetry Genre

3. Take Me With You by Andrea Gibson

Want poetry that grips at your heart and has you inhaling the deep scent of the outdoors? Try this heartfelt poetry collection with themes of love, gender, poltitics, and sexuality.

This poetry collection embraces the unique differences in three captivating sections: love, the world, and becoming. With provoking one lineers, couplets, phrases and long poems.

Enjoy the illustrations by Sarah J. Coleman.

Contemporary Genre

4. True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us by Danielle J. Lindemann

If you enjoy contemporary and want to get analytical while laying on a picnic blanket, try this read.

Lindemann is a sociologist who sees how television reflect our reality and every day experiences. We may see televion as a way to escape the chaos of the real world, but Tv is socially constructed. Our opinions and the way we see the world revolve around television.

No matter what type of show you are interested in: mystery, sitcome, comedy, romance, science fiction, or reality tv. Tv teaches us how to view family, school, gender, race, class, sexuality and politics. This guilty pleasure shows how we cling to what is ‘real’ and look at ourselves. Lindemann is here to help break down these layers of television.

Science Fiction Genre

5. How High We Go in The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

This mind blowing science fiction book will have you looking towards the sky for brief moments, wondering to yourself what you just read.

It’s the year 2030 and grief stricken archeologist is heading to the Arctic Circle to finsish her dead daugther’s work. Batagaika Crater is a research facility in the Arctic. When researchers discovered a preserved young girl’s body, a virus is unleashed onto the world. This drastic shock forces humanity to protect itself. From different perspectives of story:

A theme park employee falls for a mother who wants to protect her infected son

A heartbroken sciecntists who tries to find a cure, suddenly has a test subject, a pig, who can learn to speak.

A widow and her teenage granddaughter try to locate a new home planet in a cosmic journey.

With these stories they express human spriirt, dreams, and heartfeld mind-benders that shows how all beings are connected.

I hope out of all these genre options, you choose the best fitting for your summer picnic! For more on book recommendations click here.

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