People love to read in their spare time and more people are getting into reading, whether because of quarantine, movies, or just growing interest. Some people find reading relaxing or informational. It brings people together with better communication. Let’s see what people are reading this month.

Of course, everyone is reading different things, but two big reading genres are romance and realistic fiction.

“Right now I’m reading ‘How To Money’ by Jean Chatzky and Kathryn Tuggle because I don’t have any money and I would like to earn some,” Jean Charles said.

“I like realistic fiction, I don’t really have a specific favorite author or book,” freshman Lyric Jean Charles said.

“I like reading thriller and romance books. My favorite author is Chloe Gong and my favorite book is ‘Violent Delights’ by her,” freshman Isabella Vaz said. “I got into reading during quarantine because of boredom”, Vaz said. “ I am currently reading “The Institute by Stephen king”.

“I like psychological thrillers, so characters where you go into the mind stuff like that,” junior Eva Pappas said.

“My favorite author is Patricia Highsmith and my favorite book is ‘Sweet Sickness’,” Pappas said. “‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ is another book that she’s known for. It’s about this kinda crazy dude basically, he’s kind of like a serial killer but not really. I don’t really know, I haven’t read that series yet,” Pappas said.

“I think I was in sixth grade and they made us do a test. They always gave me books that I didn’t like and then one time on the test they let us pick a book whatever we wanted to read and I found a book. That I read and I was like damn, this is pretty good,” Pappas said.

“Right now I’m actually reading a neurology book,” Pappas said. “I saw the movie called ‘Awakenings.’  It’s based on a true story and it’s not like a story. It’s about a doctor, Oliver Sacks, who helps catatonic patients and researches this thing called encephalitis lethargica.”

“My favorite book to read right now is ‘Refugee,’” senior Italo Abranches said. ”This is my favorite book because it shows me how lucky we are to be in America and not have to go through crazy adventures that may lead to death, starving, and violence.”

“It shows a family traveling and most books I’ve checked out aren’t like that,” Abranches says. “They show one person’s adventure or a duo adventure. This was different because it was a family surviving together. I want to read books similar to ‘Refugee’ because it is good for practicing reading and learning ways to survive that you wouldn’t usually think of.”

“Right now, I’m reading a mystery called ‘One Of Us Is Lying’,” said freshman Fatima Cruz. “This book is really popular. Honestly, I hear about it everywhere. I know a few other people in my grade are also reading it right now too.”

“My English teacher recommended it to me because I just finished my other book. I asked her for some suggestions and she gave me that book,” Cruz said.

“I’m only a few pages into Chapter One but it’s honestly really good so far. I enjoy mystery stories a lot because it keeps me entertained and hooked in. It’s fun trying to guess who did it and stuff like it could be anyone you never know until you finish the book so that’s why I often find myself finishing mystery books faster than any other genre because of how entertaining it is to read, my eyes are always glued to the book.”

One big thing we’ve noticed around EHS is a lot of teachers and students are reading the same thing.

“I love to read fiction, fantasy, science fiction, comic books–I read it all except nonfiction, I do not like nonfiction,” English and graphic novel teacher Mark Lent said.

“My favorite author is Neil Gaiman. I have too many favorite books, I would say my number one favorite is Fahrenheit 451 but I have too many others,” Lent said.

“Animorphs, the series Animorphs, was a book series that was out when I was a kid and I started reading those and I loved them, I could not get enough of them,” Lent said.

“I’m currently reading a nonfiction graphic novel book called Wonderful Women of the World,” Lent said. “It’s a series of photographs about different influences throughout the world and throughout history and I’m reading it because that is a blind spot in my knowledge, I just wanted to learn more about influential women.”

EHS librarian Mary Puleo loves mystery and thriller books. “My favorite local author is Malinda Lo. From a very early age, my mom used to take me to the public library and she would take me to the children’s library first. I’ve always liked reading but it was always hard for me to read. I’m currently reading ‘The Words We Keep’ and ‘When the Angels Left the Old Town’,” Puleo said.

Which books might you pick up now?