Summer Reads 2016 Update

It is already time for our Summer Reads 2016 Week One review, and we are already down a book! This year, I started with Bettyville: A Memoir by George Hodgman. It was beautifully written. I love a book I can enjoy word for word, sentence for sentence. Mr. Hodgman’s writing allowed me to feel like I could see his surroundings and know his family. My favorite line from the book: “Kindness may be the most difficult of virtues, but when I have encountered it, it has meant everything to me.” As I review my life, I feel much the same and I endeavor to be more kind every day. Somedays I am successful. Most days I am not. But I am working on it.

I just can’t even stress how beautifully written it is. And I did cry on the last page, mostly because the book was over. Highly recommend this book, especially if you are into the written word and like memoirs. I suspect I’ll hold on to this one, to read again in the future.

Next up on my reading list is A Manual for Cleaning Women. 

In retrospect, I’m not sure I added any really fluffy, good-feel beach read books so I may wind up sliding one in the middle somewhere. What are you reading this summer?

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

As you know, I love to have a good book going. While I did get some reading done this winter (Kathleen Alcott’s Infinite Home; Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You and After You; Kate Morton’s Lake House; Christina Baker Kline’s Orphan Train; Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train), I never get as much reading done as during my summer reads from Memorial Day through Labor Day. I wound up reading all eight books in 2015.

As always, I picked the books from The New York Times Bestseller list, my amazon.com recommendations and Maureen Corrigan’s Best Books list for 2015.

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

What are you reading this summer?

Previous Summer Reads

2015

2014

Can you believe we are entering week eight of the Summer Reads 2015? I have finished another two books, and am working through another. First up was American Ghost by Hannah Nordhous. It’s basically a book detailing a genealogical search, though one that does make use of psychics and a drugged state of mind. If you’re not a serious history buff, or not interested in research, this book is not going to be to your liking. I did enjoy it, but it wasn’t much of a beach read.

Which is why I immediately finished it up with Mary Kay Andrews’ Beach Town. It’s a fast read, and is redeeming only because it’s a light beach read. Sometimes you need that. I do think her editors stopped at the last quarter of the book though, as I found missing periods and extra commas.

Right now I’m reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. It’s a heavy read, and very strange. I love the writing style, though. I’m suspecting this one will head to my sister’s house after I finish it. It sort of reminds me of an adult version of the Holly Black triology.

Summer Reads 2015

These are the titles I’m planing on reading this summer:

What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir by Abigail Thomas

The Bone Clocks: A Novel by David Mitchell

American Ghost: A Family’s Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest by Hannah Nordhaus

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Anthony Doerr

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

The Wishing Thread: A Novel by Lisa Van Allen

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Beach Town by Mary Kay Andrews

I sure have been enjoying my summer reads this year. I still haven’t finished Michael Pollan’s Cooked, but have completed We Were Liars and The Last Summer of the Camperdowns.

We Were Liars – loved this book. Loved it! Mom read it after me, and April at work is going to read it next. You must get it and read it.

Just finished The Last Summer of the Camperdowns this weekend. The writing was wonderful…I love her vocabulary and the way she constructs sentences. It was a good book, interesting story, and worth reading.

Next up is The Swan Gondola. Four more weeks in the summer reading 2014 series.

Summer Reading List 2014

• Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
• Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan
• High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing (Voice of Witness) by Audrey Petty
• The Lover by Marguerite Duras
• Box Girl: My Part Time Job as an Art Installation by Lilibet Snellings
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
• A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
• The Last Summer of the Camperdowns: A Novel by Elizabeth Kelly
• The Swan Gondola: A Novel by Timothy Schaffer

Added in Progress

• The Long-Shining Waters by Danielle Sosin
• Bellman & Black: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
• The Book of Life: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
• Reflections – An Oral History of Twin Peaks by Brad Dukes

Favorites Revisited

• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Completed

Since the last update, I’ve completed A Hundred Summers, which was just okay, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which was excellent. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas could be read in a couple of hours and is a new way of looking at a specific topic. You should totally check it out.

In Progress

I started Cooked by Michael Pollan and it’s a slow read for me for some reason. I put it down to pick up some others in the meanwhile. I need to be in the right mood to read it, I guess. Next up is We Were Liars, added in progress.

Summer Reading List 2014

• Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
• Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan
• High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing (Voice of Witness) by Audrey Petty
• The Lover by Marguerite Duras
• Box Girl: My Part Time Job as an Art Installation by Lilibet Snellings
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
• A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
• The Last Summer of the Camperdowns: A Novel by Elizabeth Kelly
• The Swan Gondola: A Novel by Timothy Schaffer

Added in Progress

• The Long-Shining Waters by Danielle Sosin
• Bellman & Black: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
• The Book of Life: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness
• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Favorites Revisited

• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

So, as you know I do a summer reads each year, from Memorial Day through Labor Day. We’re now on week 6, which seems insane. Can you believe it’s nearly the Fourth of July?

It seems every year as the summer progresses, I add more books to my list. I’ll read someone else’s summer reads list and find something that looks good. Or I’ll think of an author I haven’t read in awhile and see they have a new book out. I can’t help myself. Then there’s those favorite old books that I haven’t read in some time that I’d really like to read again. Summer reading is the best. It always takes me back to trips to the library or bookmobile. Mom would take us at least every two weeks.

Recently Completed

So, there is a difference between “I didn’t like this!” and “It’s not good!” This book has won an award. In the case of The Long-Shining Waters, I just didn’t like it. The book goes back and forth between the years 1622, 1902 and 2000. I would have enjoyed a more specific time frame, though starting out each chapter. I’d like to know how much time has passed since we were last with the character, or if indeed it is instantaneous and you’re reading all three stories at once. I didn’t find the characters particularly sympathetic or endearing. In fact, the one in modern times irritates the hell out of me with all her smoking. It’s all she does, every other sentence. In some places, the author really does a great job of calling attention to detail, like rain that has clung to a window screen and filled in the little squares in the mesh. But the whole thing is written in a weird tense, and there are these weird filler pages that I just didn’t understand. I finished it. But I didn’t like it.

In Progress

I just started A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams. It is a perfect beach read and I’m falling right into it. I love books like that!

Summer Reading List 2014

• Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
• Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan
• High Rise Stories: Voices from Chicago Public Housing (Voice of Witness) by Audrey Petty
• Cat Food for Thought by Warren Dotz
• The Lover by Marguerite Duras
• Box Girl: My Part Time Job as an Art Installation by Lilibet Snellings
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
• A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams
• The Last Summer of the Camperdowns: A Novel by Elizabeth Kelly
• The Swan Gondola: A Novel by Timothy Schaffer

Added in Progress

• The Long-Shining Waters by Danielle Sosin
• Bellman & Black: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
• The Book of Life: A Novel (All Souls Trilogy) by Deborah Harkness

Favorites Revisited

• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

What are you reading this summer?