Happy Pi Day! Here Are the Best Books with Nerdy Characters
> Discover > Articles > Happy Pi Day! Here Are the Best Books with Nerdy Characters
Share
Can you recite the full numerical value of pi by heart? That’s okay, neither can we. (Well, no one really can because it’s an irrational number, which means it technically never ends or repeats. So you couldn’t ever actually recite the whole thing.) But we still love a reason to celebrate, and Pi Day!
You could spend the whole day committing pi’s value to memory (short version: 3.14; longer version: 3.141592653589793238 . . .). Or you could chow down on some delicious pie. Heck, you could bake a pie (or multiple pies—oh, wait, how about 3.14 pies?!) and invite some friends or family to feast on your yummy creations. Of course, you could devote the day to the study of mathematics, whether you’re pursuing some extra credit to boost that GPA, catching up on math homework, or studying for the SATs. (This might be the most responsible option, just sayin’.)
But our absolute favorite way to celebrate Pi Day involves reading (obviously). Why not spend March 14 cuddled up with a good book that features at least one character who would totally revel in the nerdiness of a holiday devoted to a mathematical figure such as pi? That’s right, we’re talking about books starring smarty-pants characters!
Need some inspo for your 3.14 reading selection? Check out our round-up of the best YA books for Pi Day starring super-smart, maybe-a-little-bit-nerdy characters below!
From the bestselling author of the Brown Sisters trilogy, comes a laugh-out-loud story about a quirky content creator and a clean-cut athlete testing their abilities to survive the great outdoors—and each other. These days, there’s nothing between these two ex-best friends other than petty insults and academic rivalry. But when they both sign up for a survival course in the woods, they’ll have to trudge through not just mud and dirt but their messy past. As this adventure brings them closer together, will they find that too much time has passed . . . or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship?
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin delivers a gripping romance about two teens: a certified genius living with a diagnosed mental disorder and a politician’s son who is running from his own addiction and grief. Don’t miss this gut punch of a novel about mental health, loss, and discovering you are worthy of love.
“Pretty Little Liars meets The Breakfast Club” (Entertainment Weekly) in this addictive mystery about what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive.
Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead.
When it comes to romance, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to play games. A fun YA romcom full of fake dating hijinks!
Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she’s grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.
Riley can’t waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.
But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan’s Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn’t require as much acting as she would’ve thought…
A sapphic enemies-to-lovers retelling of Jekyll & Hyde, this dark academia thriller follows two roommates who must solve an infamous cold case of serial murders on their campus after an arcane ritual gone wrong prompts another death.
Ten years ago, four students lost their lives in the infamous unsolved North Tower murders at the elite Carvell Academy of the Arts, forcing the school to close its doors.
Now Carvell is reopening, and fearless freshman Lottie Fitzwilliam is determined to find out what really happened. But when her beautiful but standoffish roommate, Alice Wolfe, stumbles upon a sinister soul-splitting ritual in a book hidden in Carvell’s library, the North Tower claims another victim. Is there a killer among them . . . or worse, within them?
Exploring possession and ambition, lust and bloodlust, femininity and violence, The Society for Soulless Girls is perfect for fans of The Secret History, A Lesson in Vengeance, and The Grimrose Girls.
A riveting, swoon-worthy teen romance centered on two high achievers fighting for the title of high school valedictorian and falling in love along the way, from debut author Danielle Parker.
Sasha Johnson-Sun might not know everything—like how to fully heal after her dad’s passing or how many more Saturdays her mom can spend cleaning houses. But the one thing Sasha is certain of? She will graduate this year as Skyline High’s class valedictorian.
At least, she was sure before the principal calls Sasha and her cute, effortlessly gifted ex–best friend, Ezra Davis-Goldberg, into his office to deliver earth-shattering news: they’re tied for valedictorian and the scholarship attached…
This outcome can’t be left to chance. So, Sasha and Ezra agree on a best-of-three, winner-take-all academic bet. As they go head-to-head, they are forced not only to reexamine why they drifted apart but also to figure out who they’ve become since. With her future hanging in the balance, Sasha must choose: honor her family’s sacrifices by winning (at all costs) or give her heart a shot at finding happiness?
