Summer Reading 2021: Favorite Movie

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with a squad comprised of his school's hopeless misfits. His biggest problem could be the centuries-hibernating girl from interdimensional space who he rescued – perhaps the catalyst for an interstellar war millions of years in the making.

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with the Meduse, an alien race that has become the stuff of nightmares.

Seconds before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor. Together, this dynamic pair began a journey through space aided by a galaxyful of fellow travelers. Lots of pure silliness, too many English references for U.S. readers, but fans of absurd deadpan parody will happily flip through this book and extract many fine giggles.

A dust storm strands astronaut Mark Watney on Mars and forces his landing crew to abandon the mission and return to Earth in Weir’s excellent first novel, an SF thriller. Watney, injured by flying debris and presumed dead, is alone on Mars with no communication and limited supplies. He is, however, the mission engineer, the fix-it guy, and with intelligence and grit he goes to work to stay alive. Meanwhile, a desperate NASA team concocts a rescue plan on Earth.

Meg and Charles Wallace set out with their friend Calvin in a search for their father. His top secret job as a physicist for the government has taken him away and the children search through time and space to find him. They are are guided through the universe by Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which and Mrs. What -- women who possess supernatural powers – and traverse fictitious regions, meet and face evil and demonstrate courage at the right moment.

Tina has been living on the streets of Sangui City in Kenya since her mother's murder at the home of Roland Greyhill, her mother's employer and the father of Tina's half-sister, Kiki. Recruited by the Goondas, a gang of orphans and street kids, Tina is the only girl trained to become a foot soldier. As Tina gets closer to exacting revenge for her mother's death, she discovers that she may not have all the facts in this fast-paced thriller.

Jess hadn't seen her survivalist, off-the-grid dad in over a decade. But after a car crash killed her mother and left her injured, she was forced to move to his cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness. Just as Jess was beginning to get to know him, a secret from his past paid them a visit, leaving her father dead and Jess stranded alone in the unforgiving Canadian wilderness with only her father's dog for company. Jess is determined to survive. She has to. She knows who killed her father and she wants revenge.

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. Sixteen-year-old Jacob, having traveled to a remote island after a family tragedy, discovers an abandoned orphanage. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who lived there may have been dangerous and quarantined for good reason - and may also still be alive.

A collection of curious creepy incidents—13, naturally—for unsuspecting readers. A friend mysteriously vanishes. A kid runs into the devil on the way to school. The figures on a street sign change places. Paper-towel dispensers produce ominous messages. Someone’s missing marker is used to make art that brings to life a new invasive species. Even the shadows get bad ideas. For everything, there’s a price or a consequence.

In the not-so-distant future, the world has turned into a very bleak place, but luckily there is OASIS, a virtual reality world that is a vast online utopia. For Wade Watts, playing OASIS certainly beats passing the time in his grim, poverty-stricken real life. Wade dreams of finding three keys left behind by the now-deceased creator of OASIS and the richest man to have ever lived. The keys are rumored to be hidden inside OASIS, and whoever finds them will inherit a fortune. But finding them will not be easy. And there are real dangers in this virtual world.

Enzo is a dog. And he belongs to Denny: husband, father, customer service technician. Denny's dream is to be a professional race-car driver, and Enzo recounts the triumphs and tragedies—medical, financial, and legal—they share in this quest, the dangers of the racetrack being the least of their obstacles. Enzo ultimately teaches Denny and the reader that persistence and a cheerful enjoyment of life will see them through to the checkered flag.

Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died--although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can't handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. Matt's snagging fifteen bucks an hour – not bad. But everything else? Not good. Then Matt meets Lovey. Crazy name, and she's been through more crazy stuff than he can imagine. Yet Lovey never cries. She's tough. Really tough. Tough in the way Matt wishes he could be. Which is maybe why he's drawn to her.

Evan Hansen, a teen crippled by anxiety, starts each day by writing a letter of encouragement to himself. When loner Connor Murphy finds one of the letters at school and dies by suicide days later, his parents deliver the “Dear Evan Hansen” to Evan, who lies about being Connor’s best friend. As the Murphys embrace Evan, his lie goes viral, giving comfort to the grieving family and making him a social media darling. But as the lies build, Evan’s guilt forces him to admit the truth. A stage-to-page adaptation of the Tony Award–winning musical.

Known to him/herself only as "A," the narrator of this philosophically electrifying novel wakes up every morning in the body of a different person. This constant, inexplicable change -- A is usually around the same age but has experienced different genders, ethnicities, personality types, etc. -- has made A unusually circumspect, mature, and careful not to alter anything that would impact the lives of those whose bodies s/he's inhabited. It makes for a lonely existence...until A falls in love with a girl named Rhiannon and breaks those rules, just to see her again.

The monster in Conor's backyard is not the one he's been expecting -- the one from the nightmare he's had every night since his mother started her treatments. This monster is ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. It wants the truth. A monster spirit visits Conor to tell him three stories before Conor must tell him a fourth--the story of his recurring nightmare.