2016 Summer Reads Week 5 Update

Here we are, the last week of June and 2016 Summer Reads Week 5. As always, I am trying not to freak out about the passing summer, but it’s not working. Why must the nice weather go so fast and the bad weather last so long?

I heard Ishmael Beah on a podcast (pretty sure it was The Moth), and knew I had to add his book to my summer reads list. I figured it would be a “good for me” book to read, and maybe a challenge to get through. It was the first book I purchased, but I put off starting it until this weekend. I expected it would take a week or two to read, but I completed it in just over a day. It is honestly the best thing I’ve read so far this summer. Yes, it’s graphic, but not unnecessarily so. He is a storyteller, and his writing really pulls you in. I think that, instead of having high school students read Shakespeare, every student should have to read this book (now, I am not saying a student shouldn’t read Shakespeare, but just that given the limited time perhaps there are more important things they could be reading as required texts. Like this book, which is a fine example of storytelling prose as well as inspirational. We all need to try harder to make the world a better place, so that what happened in Sierra Leone, what is happening in Syria, what happens all over STOPS happening). Anyhow, I highly recommend this book. And I will be picking up his next book, Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel by Ishmael Beah, to read. 

You might recall from my last post that I was going to read As Close to Us as Breathing by Elizabeth Poliner. And I did read it this past week, before the Ishmael Beah book. I just got through it really quickly, so I wound up getting two done in a week. It was a good, solid novel. The story was told in an interesting way; the ending is stated right away, and the novel works backward to the day of the incident. It qualifies as a beach read because it takes place at the beach. I did enjoy it, and I think my Mom will too so I am passing it on to her next.

I’m halfway through the Summer Reads 2016 list already. I wound up ordering a book not on the list that I am reading this week – 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works — A True Story by Dan Harris. Harris was an ABC News anchor who had a panic attack on live national television; I read an article about this book and it sounded like a good read.

Here is my Summer Reads 2016 list:

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

As Close to Us as Breathing: A Novel by Elizabeth Poliner

Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos: A Novel by Dominic Smith

Honeydew: Stories by Edith Pearlman

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin

The Light of the World: A Memoir by Elizabeth Alexander

Bettyville: A Memoir by George Hodgman

Added in Progress:

10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works — A True Story by Dan Harris.

Like Summer Reads? More here:

2016 Week Four Update

2016 Week One Update

2016 Summer Reads Introduction

2015 Summer Reads Introduction

2014 Summer Reads Introduction