Summer Reading Preview

Let's assume you read last August's Summer Reading Wind-Up.  11 books finished, 2 started but abandoned a few chapters in.  Do you find yourself wondering why we never sporadically post book reviews throughout the rest of the year?  

I didn't pick up so much as a Sunday paper from September to February (unless you count buying one on Christmas for the day-after ads).  Fall is birthday season in our house, followed by the holidays, which means I need to be in the game even more than usual, and reading for me can be very all-consuming.  For instance, I just finished The Hunger Games trilogy in six days on Lindsay/Jenn/Patty's recommendations--I could not put them down.  I chose to forgo sleep, missed a meal or two, in favor of Peeta and Gale. 

Anyway, no fall/winter reading, and then when the sun came out for a day in March, it happened to be a day where I felt "in need of escape" so to speak (also, our shows are on some kind of spring hiatus).  I decided to start summer reading early.  So far I've finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Heidi W. Durrow, Candace Bushnell's Sex In The City (which I must say was a real disappointment compared to the show--maybe I'm not New York enough or upper class enough to "get it"...or maybe it's poorly written drivel with too many names to keep track of and not enough substance), and the aforementioned Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins.

Currently I have three in progress, destined to remain "in progress" unless I have a real literary dry spell and get desperate: My Life In France by Julia Child, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, and Brava, Valentine by Adriana Trigiani.

And here's what I hope to accomplish in the next four and a half months:

• Sookie Stackhouse Novels 3-11 by Charlaine Harris
• The Help by Kathryn Stockett
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
• We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
• Stephanie Plum Novels, at least 1-4 of 17, by Janet Evanovich
• Parenting The Strong-Willed Child (a recommendation from our pediatrician)

And three extra if I actually blow through all of those:

• Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes (because I love the movie)
• The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy
• Three Junes by Julia Glass

Lindsay and I will be reading at least the Sookie books and the Stephanie Plum series together and comparing notes.  We'd love to know what's on your summer reading list!  xo