Saturday, June 25, 2011

Summer Reading


Thank goodness summer has finally arrived. The flowers are blooming, birds are singing and life is good again.

I love to read. On any given day of the year, you'll catch me with my nose in a book, but there's something about summer reading that gives me the ultimate reading pleasure. Maybe it's because I can sit outside in a comfortable lounge chair with a frosty glass of iced tea and occasionally glance up from my book and see the garden or the lake.

This summer I'll buy books new and used, and borrow books from friends or libraries. There will be no vampires or werewolves between the covers and definitely no winter settings. I prefer lighter themes in the summer, and of course, I'll still read biographies and self-help books.

I just finished Susanna Kearsley's The Rose Garden. By far, it's her best novel since Marianna and sales are doing well in Canada. The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite books and I usually dig it out each summer. I love F. Scott Fitzgerld's old-fashioned settings and colourful characters.

I have a pile of books awaiting my attention, but no hurry, I have all summer. I'm looking forward to reading The Pillars of the Earth although it's quite different from Ken Follett's other novels, which reminds me that I've been meaning to re-read Eye of the Needle again.

Mauve Binchy doesn't write as prolifically as she used to, but any of her books would satisfy my summer reading needs, especially the ones set in Ireland or Greece.

Jean A. Auel has finally published her sixth installment of Earth's Children, The Land of Painted Caves. It takes her ages to research and write each thick tome. Twenty years ago I was reading Plains of Passage when I met Tom. On our tenth anniversary, Auel released her next novel, Shelters of Stones and here it is ten years later.

Some current novels on Publishers' Weekly's bestsellers' list are, Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks. The story takes place in 1665 Martha's Vineyard, about a young Native American who graduates from Harvard and mixes with the world of Puritan men and women. It's based on a true story.

Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews is about three women (all with problems, of course) who spend a month in North Carolina's Outer Banks. The setting alone is enough to make me buy the book.

The Kitchen House has been on the shelves at Chapters for months and I've been biding my time, waiting for it to go on sale. The plot takes place in 1790 and is about a young girl, separated from her family while travelling by ship from Ireland to America. She has no memory of her prior life and is put to work in a plantation kitchen, where she becomes close to the family.

Those are just a few of the books I have lined up to read during the next couple of months. So what's on your summer reading list?

Cynthia

1 comment:

  1. Hello Cynthia (from Jeff)
    Thanks for the post. Ah yes, -Summer reading! It takes on real significance for me as a teacher because, all of a sudden, I have much more time off. However, it doesn't automatically mean more time to read, but I intend to keep the reading slots sacred.
    Right now, I'm part way through Anna Karenina (an audiobook, so I'll probably pick that one up again in the Fall). A guilty-reading pleasure, which I'm really enjoying is The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (The third in the series by Stieg Larson). I also have a new collection of short stories by William Trevor and I'm working my way through a non-fiction 'Home' by Bill Bryson - a fascinating and funny history of all things related to the places we live. I don't have a plan yet for the big Summer reading focus. I usually have one that I'm saving, but this year, I trust that something will come along and catch my attention.

    Jeff

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