With the spring season and AP test season upon us, reading has become relevant to many, whether for pleasure or knowledge. In case you are one of those many, here are some stand-out spring reading recommendations, from light-hearted and romantic to dark and intellectual.
“The Secret History” by Donna Tartt
Published in 1992, Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History” follows Richard Papen, who transfers to a small, elite college in Vermont, where he becomes captivated by a small, cult-like group of students who study ancient Greek and their charismatic professor. As Papen becomes entangled in their tight-knit group, their shared obsession with ancient ideas, beauty and intellectual superiority reveals a dark secret that ties them irrevocably together.
Papen’s hyper-aware but slightly detached narration reveals the book in a controlled, almost clinical way that draws the reader into unknowingly realizing that something is deeply off. At the same time, the novel slowly unveils the careful teetering of beauty and darkness coexisting.
Tartt’s visuals of a dark academia spring in the ivy-covered walls of Hampden College create a unique ambience perfect for the season.
“Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett
Late afternoon light, windows open and a soft voice telling a story while something is quietly growing outside, Ann Patchett’s 2023 novel, “Tom Lake,” is the embodiment of a soft, romantic and reflective spring.
During a break from school, Lara Nelson’s three college-aged daughters come home to their family cherry farm. While picking cherries one evening, the girls beg their mom to tell them the story of her past relationship with a now-famous actor, Peter Duke. As Nelson recalls her time performing in a summer theater production of “Our Town” with her lover, her daughters begin to re-evaluate what they understand of love and the choices that shape who a person becomes.
Patchett’s narration of Nelson’s memories flows nonlinearly, where certain moments are sharp, and others foggy or selectively described, leaving readers with a feeling of nostalgic yearning.
“The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s children’s story, “The Secret Garden,” is simple to understand and an easy read, but layered with metaphor and a deeper message. Most modern children’s books paint a child as the main character as a hero in a world that is against them, whether that be their parents or teachers. But Burnett’s character, Mary Lennox, who is born to neglectful and rich parents, is initially described as a horrible, spoiled and almost sickly little girl, making her an unlikable protagonist.
When Lennox’s parents die of disease, she is moved to Yorkshire, England, to live with her uncle, where she meets Colin Craven, a young, imperious and gloomy boy who is pale and bed ridden because he has convinced himself he will die, and Dickon Sowerby, a boy a few years older than Craven and Lennox who tends to the land elsewhere on the property and teaches them how to care for the garden.
The story focuses on the transformation of both Craven and Lennox, as they plant seeds and tend to the earth, with metaphors for Lennox’s realization that she does not like the person she is and her ability to change, as well as Craven’s growth in tending to something greater than him that helps him get over his fears of illness and rich entitlement.
The garden setting symbolizes their emotional transformation, as what begins as something neglected and closed off slowly becomes alive again.
“Normal People” by Sally Rooney
“Normal People,” a 2018 contemporary fiction novel by Sally Rooney, is one of the most emotionally precise and unfiltered novels written. The book takes place over the course of Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan’s high school, college and early adult lives, where Sheridan is a quiet, bookish outsider and Waldron is a well-liked athlete, yet despite this and a wealth gap between the two, they find each other.
Rooney’s writing reads almost like a character study, her words carrying you through the mental processes that lead to miscommunication between the couple in a way so immersive and painfully realistic, you forget that you are reading a work of fiction.
Rooney’s prose cuts deep into the characters’ psyches, refreshingly so for modern literature. Where most modern romance novels follow a familiar arc of conflict, separation and the “makeup kiss” scene where everything is resolved, Rooney constructs an almost “plotless” plot. By the end of the novel, the residue of the inner conflict feels so intense while simultaneously very little actually happened, capturing the realistic, often unremarkable nature of everyday life.
