Comfort is reading in bed with a constant supply of tea. I love curling up after a long day at work, shutting out the world to read. If my eyes are too weary, I plug in audiobooks. On the rare weekend that I’m not occupied with my sporting pursuits or any other obligations (ie. overtime work or tutoring), I love immersing myself in fictional worlds without interruption. That’s what comfort is to me: downtime spent reading.

With 4th of July in full swing, the US is celebrating Independence Day. Since the the only American I know of in my family was my great-great-great-grandfather (so I’m only 1/32 of American descent), this day has never been of much significance to me. What I do relate to are celebrations — Christmas, birthdays, New Year’s Eve, when I was younger St. Martin’s Day and Fastnacht (German for Carnival; equivalent to Mardi Gras) and now Lunar New Year and Eid al-Fitr, even if my family didn’t adopt these customs.

What better books to read in summer than contemporary ones? As much as I have recently fallen into the pits of fantasy, sunny days make me wanna curl up with books that add to the summery mood.

This week’s theme had me completely stumped. Hopeless romantic? That’s not a phrase anyone would use to describe me. I was hard pressed to think of any books with romance as the central theme that I loved. There are many I’ve loved where romance was the subplot but when romance is the primary plot, that’s almost an automatic reduced star rating from me.

We fear the unknown. What is more unknown to us than death? I might not have read Vicious or Shadowcry yet but I know they have one thing in common with The Raven Boys. All three books begin at graveyards.