As the weather shifts from balmy to chilly, we find ourselves being locked away from the outdoors. Being lazy teenagers, we decide to binge watch a show on Netflix. However, after the show is over we find that we have no purpose in life, so we continue to watch another show. The cycle goes on and on. Soon you find yourself watching rather crappy sitcoms or cheesy comedies and not engaging your mind, so why not save yourself from hours of watching an unstimulating television series and instead indulge yourself in the art of literature?
My Sister’s Keeper By Jodi Picoult 
http://jodipicoult.com/my-sisters-keeper.html
In my opinion, Jodi Picoult is an amazing author. Her books make you feel the emotions of the characters. My Sister’s Keeper is a great twist to another cancer story. It is a story of parents who have a two daughters. One daughter, Kate, is diagnosed with Leukemia and her parents are told that they would need a faithful marrow donor in order to save her. Her parents, in turn, created a “designer baby”, Anna, who would have the same DNA as Kate to act as the donor. Fast forward to the present, where Anna has taken care of her sister from the day she was born. However, Anna sues her parents for exploiting and using her body without her permission. While reading this book you will go through so many emotions because each chapter is told by another character. If you have seen the movie, I suggest you read the book because it has a way better ending.
The Da Vinci Code By Dan Brown
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code
If your looking for a book that leaves your mind blown at the end of each chapter, this one’s for you. The Da Vinci Code is a fast paced and informative novel. It revolves around the idea of secret societies and is about a symbologist who gets caught in the middle of a murder of a prestigious member of one of the aforementioned societies. The protagonist and a cryptologist are forced to go on a journey to find the Holy Grail of Christ. However a church known as Opus Dei is also on the hunt for the Holy Grail, as it might expose their religion. This book is pure genius and completely mind blowing. It will make you question everything that you learn.
Red Queen By Victoria Aveyard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_(novel)
If your looking for a fast-paced, thrilling dystopian story, then this book is for you. This book takes place in world where their are two types of people: those who have red blood (the less fortunate), and those who have silver blood (the royals who have superpowers). The protagonist, Mare, finds that she has red blood, but also holds a superpower. To protect their throne, the royals capture Mare and treat her like a silver. However, their secret comes out and it threatens their control. Now Mare must save the ones like her and also save the people of her world. This book is highly addicting and is in a series. The first and second book are out and the third is coming out in February.
The Chemical Garden Trilogy By Lauren Destafano
http://theliterarymermaid.blogspot.ca/
What if you knew exactly when you would die? In this dystopian world, women die at age 20 and men die at age 25. Humans shortened their life spans in order to avoid acquiring cancer or other fatal diseases. However, now that people know that death is close they have stopped trying. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems: her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement, her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape–before her time runs out?
After all the above suggestions, next time you find yourself drifting off to the rather ugly side of Netflix, stop and grab a book. Or even find an ebook/pdf online, because not only will reading strengthen your vocabulary, but it will also increase your creativity.
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