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