A Book for Every Occasion

Jayna Rohslau, ‘22

January 2020

As finals week approaches, the heart of each BHSEC student is sure to swell with dread.  Or another emotion. In any case, it is important to have many methods of procrastination prepared.  Browsing the web, taking long naps… or maybe reading.

If you are stressed about a final you haven’t studied enough for:

The Poppy War by R.F.Kuang is a fantasy book set in an alternative version of medieval China.  It is about a girl admitted into a prestigious school for future war leaders and the struggles she has to go through in order to survive there.  These struggles include getting up at dawn and studying so hard she has to burn herself in order to keep awake. This book is sure to make you realise that BHSEC isn’t so difficult after all.

If you wish you had picked an easier school than BHSEC:

The Magicians by Lev Grossman is another fantasy book, set at a magical school called Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy.  The main character, Quentin, is a highly intelligent but otherwise normal kid from Brooklyn who picks Brakebills because it promises to be different from an ordinary college.  However, over time he comes to discover how hard and dangerous magic can really be. Essentially, this is BHSEC but with the added elements of magic and creepy monsters lurking in the shadows.

If you’re just about ready to kill your annoying classmates:

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence is yet another fantasy book, this time set at a magical convent.  The story follows Nona Gray, a eight year old girl, who is being trained to become a warrior nun.  Throughout the story, she has to steel herself to become the best assassin possible -- while hiding her dark past.  And again, when the story begins she is only eight. If she can become an assassin, the story reassures, you can pass finals week with flying colors.  If only you could stop wasting time.

If you are suffering from burnout:

Bunny by Mona Awad is not a fantasy book, at least not at first glance.  It is set at a small New England university, where an outsider must deal with the other members of her fiction writing cohort.  They are smiley and saccharine and tightly knit, calling each other by the pet name “Bunny,” while our main character, Samantha, floats alone.  Samantha struggles with returning to writing after a disastrous first year. That is, until the Bunnies induct her into the supernatural and her entire life changes… This book is darkly funny and can give BHSEC students hope that everything will be alright even if finals week takes a turn for the worse.

If you are exhausted from pulling an all-nighter

Don’t read a book you fool.  Sleep.