Zodiac Book Club

Today's post was suggested by Chelsea and will serve as proof that I really do read your comments, review your Google form submissions and listen to your ideas when you come live with me for a week. I'm suggesting summer reads based on the ancient art of astrology because who can go to the beach with less than 5 books?

Before we get to the good stuff I want to throw in a few handy tips to improve your beach reading experience. After years of practice reading in cars, at restaurants, under the covers, at parties, in the tub, at the pool, on the beach and everywhere in between I haven't made many friends but I have learned some tricks.

• You want to stick to books at the beach, magazines at the pool. The thickness of books stands up better to an ocean breeze and it's better for a magazine to get hit with an accidental splash than a book.
• That being said, don't be that jerk who takes a book/magazine to the pool and gets mad when it gets wet. There are kids at pools. Kids splash. It's their vacation too. Live and let read. 
• DO NOT fool yourself into thinking you can leave your book in your beach chair if it's by the water. The tide will wait until you leave it unattended and then claim that book for the sea. Mermaids gotta read too.
• Beware of reader's tan. You're going to get some awkward stripes from holding your book up. If you're the type of person who is easily embarrassed by having arms that resemble a popcorn box, you should hire someone to hold your book up for you to mitigate this.
• You're going to want to avoid any books that feature sharks while on summer vacation. Just trust me.
• Sand makes for a terrible bookmark.

Aries - The Bold
Literary Character - Four, Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth
Book - Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
You love adventure and Krakauer's firsthand retelling of the 1996 Mount Everest Disaster delivers just that. I was assigned this book for a class in college so I totally read all of it. I laughed (when the professor asked the class if we'd all finished the book 2 days after he assigned it), I cried (when I realized he was serious), this book has it all.

Taurus - The Generous
Literary Character - Jean Valjean, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Book - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
A true taurus will appreciate this tale of 2 women who stick together and use selflessness as a means of survival against seemingly impossible odds. Just make sure to have tissues nearby to avoid rubbing your eyes with sandy beach hands. I'm not entirely sure my mother has forgiven me for loaning her this book without a tissue warning.

Gemini - The Expressive
Literary Character - Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Book - Looking for Alaska by John Green
Geminis appreciate characters who don't hold back and Green's Alaska Young doesn't know the meaning of the word reserved. A daring young adult story filled with famous last words, teenage antics and semi-requited love. When you're done reading this you can borrow the rest of John Green's books from me. 

Cancer - The Nurturer
Literary Character - Mary Anne Spier, The Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin
Book - The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Your caring nature will soak up this novel about mothers, daughters and the stories we keep from each other. It's like the book version of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Except that movie was already based on a book.

Leo - The Confident
Literary Character - Massie Block, The Clique series by Lisi Harrison
Book - Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket)
As a confident leo you love seeing others come into their own. In this book, narrator Min recounts her courtship with Ed and finds her voice. Although the title leaves little to the imagination regarding the ending this book is full of surprises, none bigger than Min and Ed getting together in the first place.

Virgo - The Practical
Literary Character - Ashley Wilkes, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Book - Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
It's 2016 and as a virgo you know that the dating game has changed. In this book, comedian Ansari does real research (with science and graphs and everything) and the results are real funny. Get ahead of the curve by taking your online dating cues from Aziz. Unless he's single right now, then ignore everything he says cause what does he know?

Libra - The Fair
Literary Character - Atticus Finch, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Book - Crossed trilogy by Ally Condie
As someone who values justice and fairness, these books will make you reconsider what that means. Think of it as a libertarian awakening. What decisions should the government make for us? What makes our lives meaningful? Longevity & health or the unpredictable joy that comes from our rashest decisions? 

Scorpio - The Intense
Literary Character - Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride by William Goldman
Book -  The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
If you're comfortable with the intense, try this piece of historical fiction that examines the worst genocide you've never heard of. Meds Yeghern saw roughly 1.5 million Armenians marched into the Syrian desert to die during World War I. This story will make you heartbroken that humans were subjected to this and furious that the governments of only 29 counties recognize it as a genocide.

Sagittarius - The Independent
Literary Character - Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Book - Girl Walks into a Bar by Rachel Dratch
As someone who likes doing things for yourself, you will enjoy Dratch's memoir of her career in comedy and newfound motherhood. From always succeeding on her second try to vacationing alone, Dratch isn't the typical hit-after-hit, constantly-surrounded-by-famous-friends SNL alum and that's what makes her story so endearing. It's a lot more relatable than Taylor Swift's Instagram. 

Capricorn - The Focused
Literary Character - Cath, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Book - Grace's Guide: The Art of Pretending to Be a Grown-Up by Grace Helbig
Capricorns are always focused so you can appreciate this book from YouTube's Helbig that gives adulting advice in the form of ridiculous acronyms. It'll make you think "hey I can handle living on my own and getting a job" and it'll make me think "hey, I could write a book".

Aquarius - The Bright
Literary Character - Hermione Granger, Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Book -The Golden Cage by Shirin Ebadi
You love the pursuit of knowledge and this novel will fill your head with so much information it's practically a textbook. The story of 3 brothers told by their sister as they all choose different paths in revolutionary Iran from Nobel Peace Prize winner Ebadi. Shirin is Persian for "sweet" but this account of political turmoil is anything but shirin.

Pisces - The Peaceful
Literary Character - Beth March, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Book - If I Stay by Gayle Forman
If you've already seen or heard of the major motion picture you're probably thinking "what could be peaceful about a story of the lone survivor in a family car crash?" and that's fair. But there's an eerie stillness to this young adult novel that allows the reader to focus on the relationship between narrator Mia and Adam. After you finish you'll be dying for the sequel written from Adam's perspective. Spoiler: it's just as good as the original.