Planning a summer vacation? We’re making a summer reading list to help you pick some really good books to delve into during your free time. Last week we spoke to Hilary Thayer Hamman, the author of "Anthropology of an American Girl." We also asked you about what’s on your reading list for this summer. Calypso, from Oklahoma, wrote in to our website with his suggestion: A romance/mystery novel called "Paper Towns" by John Greene. A good thriller always delivers, too, and author Justin Cronin’s new book "The Passage," is getting a lot of attention for its apocalyptic twist on the vampire theme.

The story follows two FBI agents assigned to a top-secret government experiment that goes horribly awry. That leaves the world creeping with virals, or vampires, and eventually the reader settles in to follow a small colony of survivors trying to figure out how to eke out some kind of existence under the constant threat of these fiends. It’s ultimately a tale of post-apocalyptic survival. Cronin says the inspiration for the book came from brainstorming with his 8 year old daughter Iris, and that it's no coincidence that children play a big role in driving the 776-page novel.