Jake’s biggest interest is music, and he has a mental arsenal of anecdotes about his favorite rock stars, so I imagine that much of his bookshelf is stocked with biographies and memoirs on music icons, such as Heavier Than Heaven by Charles R. Cross (a Kurt Cobain biography), John Lennon: The Life by Philip Norman, and Just Kids by Patti Smith. He’s very interested in musical history, so I think he would have a lot of books detailing the backgrounds of various genres, such as How The Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music by Elijah Wald and Jazz: A History of America's Music by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns.
Since Jake is also politically-minded, he would have books touching on sociopolitical issues too, such as Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich and The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs.
For leisure reading, I think Jake would be really into dystopian novels. It’s alluded to that he read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood for a school assignment, and I think he would have kept a copy of it, plus sought out other similar books like 1984 by George Orwell and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
Hannah Harrington is the author of Saving June.
‘If she’d waited less than two weeks, she’d be June who died in June. But I guess my sister didn’t consider that.’
Harper Scott’s older sister has always been the perfect one so when June takes her own life a week before her high school graduation, sixteen-year-old Harper is devastated. Everyone’s sorry, but no one can explain why.
When her divorcing parents decide to split her sister’s ashes into his-and-her urns, Harper takes matters into her own hands. She’ll steal the ashes and drive cross-country with her best friend, Laney, to the one place June always dreamed of going California.
Enter Jake Tolan. He’s a boy with a bad attitude, a classic-rock obsession and nothing in common with Harper’s sister. But Jake had a connection with June, and when he insists on joining them, Harper’s just desperate enough to let him. With his alternately charming and infuriating demeanour and his belief that music can see you through anything, he might be exactly what she needs.
Except June wasn’t the only one hiding something. Jake’s keeping a secret that has the power to turn Harper’s life upside down again.