That scene in “The Lion King” where Mufasa appears in the heavens and Simba runs after him, shouting at him to come back, to not leave him, always makes me want to reach out to Simba and tell him, It’s okay, Simba. It’s okay. Cry because you’re sad, cry because you miss Mufasa, cry because there’s a hole in your heart that you know you can never fill. But never cry because you feel abandoned, because you haven’t been. Mufasa never left you, and he never will.

Now that I am officially on spring break (yes!) I want to start making headway with the list of books I am dying to read. This semester, I’ve taken to reading during my commute to and from my internship. I get a lot of reading done that way; I’ve almost finished George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire just from reading while commuting (and that’s a pretty lengthy book!). Still, as I have two 12+ hour train rides and a week of relaxing on a beach ahead of me, I wanted to get input as to what books I should add to my spring break reading list.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

• The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
• The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray
• Kosher Chinese by Michael Levy
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

I’m not fully committed to reading all of these books over break, but these are the ones I had in mind to add to my Kindle. What else should I add?

I woke up this morning and for one glorious, glorious moment I thought it was Saturday morning.

Then I realized it was Thursday (not even Friday!) and I lost all willpower to even open my eyes, let alone get out of bed.

It’s been that kind of week.