Photo Credit: Den Echoes archive[/caption]Reading a book should allow you to escape the real world and dive into a foreign and exciting land. A study by consultant firm Mindlab International at the University of Sussex showed that “reading reduces stress” and “subjects only needed to read, silently, for six minutes to slow down the heart rate and ease tension in the muscles.” In fact, subjects of the study had lower stress levels than before they started. So, in short, reading is amazing, you just have to find the right book to get you started.
Have you ever had to read a book in class for a grade and absolutely hated it? Have you bought a book thinking that it would be a page-turner, but you can’t get past the first chapter? What if you had a few recommendations? The following two books will leave you wanting more, and you may even end up reading them multiple times.
The Lovely Bones is American author Alice Sebold's first novel. The story is narrated by Susie Salmon, a fourteen-year-old girl who has been raped and killed by her serial killer neighbor in suburban Pennsylvania. That's right, Salmon is telling her story from the afterlife. She weaves back and forth in time from the date of her death in 1973, remembering her life, peering into the mind of her killer, and watching the loved ones she left behind. It's a gruesome and horrifying story, but also one of hope and renewal.
The Best Of Me by Nicholas Sparks is a love story that will leave you in tears. Amanda Collier and Dawson Cole are from opposite sides of the tracks: she's a well-to-do girl with the world at her fingertips; he's from the feared family of sleazy, violent neighborhood thugs. Cut from different cloth than his clan, Dawson breaks free to live in the garage of an old mechanic deep in the woods. Soon Amanda and Dawson cross paths and find themselves smitten, certain they will see happily-ever-after. Reunited after decades apart, they struggle with whether to finally give in to their love or continue their current lives without each other. Despite an obvious ending, the love is so heartwarming that it doesn't seem to matter.
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