The Leader Staff’s Summer Reads

Lydia Avery

Arts & Culture & Multimedia Editor

Title: “Once Upon a River”

Author: Diane Setterfield 

Genre: Mystery, Historical fiction & Magical realism 

Set in Radcot, a town along the Thames during the late Victorian period, “Once Upon a River” grips you from chapter one. It opens with the mystery of the little girl who drowned in the river and appears to come back to life only hours later. We are introduced to three families who believe the little girl is theirs, and a beautifully complex and strange story unfolds.

Diane Setterfield creates an intersection of many genres with this novel and it makes for an intriguing read. From chapter to chapter, you follow unique storylines but each piece intertwines into the greater mystery. My absolute favorite part of this book is that the Thames River is an entire character in the text, it connects and interacts with other characters and is the thread between each storyline throughout.

Kevin Brassil 

Assistant News Editor

Title: 1984

Author: George Orwell

Genre: Science Fiction 

I chose this audiobook because I have read the novel before, and I wanted to hear this version that, read by famous actors like Andrew Garfield and Tom Hardy. I love this book because it tells the story of a man who works for the government of his country. He talks about the government’s overreaches and how their citizens are being controlled.

Tyler Ptaszkowski

News Editor

Title: 1919 The Year That Changed America 

Author: Martin W. Sandler 

Genre: Nonfiction

If your search for the perfect summer read has proved fruitless, I’d like to recommend historian and author Martin W. Sandler’s “1919: The Year That Changed America.” Sandler’s account of 1919 quickly proves that what may initially sound like an assuming and uneventful year is one of the most tumultuous in the history of the United States.

Sandler separates what he views as the most integral and contentious themes of the year — including women’s suffrage, racial tension, resentment toward communists and anarchists, and prohibition — into six chapters, allowing him to explore each one in greater detail. Even then, Sandler frequently intertwines these topics — such as when explaining how many voters were disenfranchised based on both gender and race — to illustrate how they all culminated in what has supposedly been referred to as “the year our world began.” Timelines at the end of each chapter reveal the advancements and setbacks the nation has experienced since.

I believe that even people who don’t consider themselves history buffs — myself included — can find enjoyment in this memorable read.

Eve Hvarre

Chief Copy Editor

Title: Goodnight Punpun

Author: Inio Asano

Genre: Coming-of-age, Drama, Slice of life

Punpun Punyama wants to save the world, go away with his love, and win the Nobel Prize. Normal 11-year-old stuff right? He’s an average kid doing average kid things. When new girl Aiko Tanaka shows up, Punpun knows he is in love. As things begin to fall around him, Punpun is faced with some life problems that an average 11-year-old has no idea what to do with.

This seven-volume series follows Punpun into his 20s as he navigates life and the dark hardships that can come with it. Its use of dark humor and exploration of many harrowing and devastating topics blend together to provide a very realistic but comedic conversation on the darker parts of life. This mature, explicit manga series is hard to read at times, but leaves a lasting impact and outlook on everyday life. (Check trigger warnings before reading).

Lily Morgan

Editor in Chief

Title: The Thursday Murder Club

Author: Richard Osman

Genre: Mystery, Crime Fiction

“The Thursday Murder Club” is a book series about four senior citizens living in a retirement care village who are brought together by their shared love of true crime. Some of them, due to their past careers in law enforcement and espionage, and others due to their zest for life. When the man who owns their retirement village is murdered in front of them, The Thursday Murder Club has the chance to do some real investigative work of their own and meets a cast of lovable (and unlovable) characters along the way.

This series, currently at four novels with a fifth on the way, is the perfect read for anyone who likes mysteries but is looking for something more lighthearted. These books are the perfect Sunday morning reads when you’re looking to curl up with a good book and watch the sunrise as you enjoy your first cup of coffee for the day.

Richard Osman is a masterful writer. He makes these characters feel so real and distinct and places them in plots that are so fantastically convoluted that you can’t help but keep reading because you’re so enthralled to see where the characters go next. Sometimes authors rely on a lot of heavy plot twists to trick the reader and keep the identity of the true antagonist a secret until the end, but Osman doesn’t do that, because he doesn’t have to. The nature of the stories he crafts are good enough on their own that he doesn’t have to rely on shock value — which is what makes these books such enthralling reads.

Eric Lutz

Staff Advisor 

Title: “When the Clock Broke: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990s” 

Author: John Ganz

Genre: Nonfiction

It’s been a wild summer of politics, and John Ganz’s eye-opening history of the early 1990s sheds light on how we arrived at this tumultuous moment. It is, as Ganz writes, a “history of the losers” in their time—David Duke, Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and the like—but who laid the foundation for the angry, dangerous reactionary politics of the last decade. It’s not a beach read, exactly, but it’s almost novelistic in the way it tracks these various grifters and cranks.