I noticed that this photo on Pinterest has been getting a lot of action…as everyone gears up for SUMMER and dreams of relaxing with a good book…..ahhh SUMMER…..I LOVE reading, but like many things I adore and swear I will do more of…, the habit of reading has fallen to the wayside…LAST summer I MADE a concerted effort to get back on the reading wagon. I chose a number of John Green books because Phoebe WAS also reading them which GAVE us an opportunity to share what we have liked…not liked…read together….
Phoebe is a HUGE John Green fan from his History Study Guides, (I cannot say enough about how helpful these are..and FUN!!!) Phoebe had already read “LOOKING FOR ALASKA” and loved it…so without further ado…
The following books I successfully finished last summer….my favorite was FAULT IN OUR STARS…though I lost a lot of water weight in tears with that one……ALL are great SUMMER or anytime READS!!!!
SOMEDAY, SOMEDAY MAYBE – BY LAUREN GRAHAM
I am and was a HUGE Gilmore Girls fan, and so when I heard that Lauren Graham had written a debut novel, I ordered it right away! I am about half way through and I LOVE IT. (FINISHED IT..LOVED IT) It is bringing back so many memories of my NYC days, pounding the pavement, auditions, directors, friends, agents, answering services…all of it…the story and relationships are wonderfully written…I highly recommend! (maybe a further TV series?)
The remaining books on my list I have not cracked yet, so I will give you a brief, AMAZON>COM synopsis…please chime in if you have read any of these, but no spoilers please!!!!
LOOKING FOR ALASKA – BY JOHN GREEN
“Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter’s adolescence has been one long nonevent – no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends. Seeking what Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps,” he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school’s rich preppies. Chip’s best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love.” amazon.com
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS – BY JOHN GREEN
TIME Magazine’s #1 Fiction Book of 2012!
“The Fault in Our Stars is a love story, one of the most genuine and moving ones in recent American fiction, but it’s also an existential tragedy of tremendous intelligence and courage and sadness.” —Lev Grossman, TIME Magazine
“Quentin Jacobsen, 17, has been in love with his next-door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, for his entire life. A leader at their Central Florida high school, she has carefully cultivated her badass image. Quentin is one of the smart kids. His parents are therapists and he is, above all things, “goddamned well adjusted.” He takes a rare risk when Margo appears at his window in the middle of the night.” amazon.com
AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES – BY JOHN GREEN
“When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy–loving best friend riding shotgun—but no Katherines” AMAZON.COM
and ….BOOKS FROM LAST YEARS LIST WHICH I STILL AM EXCITED TO READ!!!
NO ONE COULD HAVE GUESSED THE WEATHER – BY ANNE-MARIE CASEY
“When Lucy Lovett’s husband loses his job, she is forced to give up her posh life in London and move their family to a tiny apartment in Manhattan, where her husband has managed to secure a lowly position. Lucy finds herself living in the center of cool and hip. Across from their apartment is a trendy bar called PDT—whenever Lucy passes by, she thinks, Please Don’t Tell anyone I’m a middle-aged woman.
Homesick and resentful at first, Lucy soon embarks on the love affair of her life—no, not with her husband (though they’re both immensely relieved to discover they do love each other for richer or poorer), but with New York City and the three women who befriend her.” amazon.com
THE SILVER STAR – BY JEANETTE WALLS
“It is 1970 in a small town in California. “Bean” Holladay is twelve and her sister, Liz, is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, a woman who “found something wrong with every place she ever lived,” takes off to find herself, leaving her girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that’s been in Charlotte’s family for generations.” amazon.com
THE ENGAGEMENTS – BY J. COURTNEY SULLIVAN
“Evelyn has been married to her husband for forty years—forty years since he slipped off her first wedding ring and put his own in its place. Delphine has seen both sides of love—the ecstatic, glorious highs of seduction, and the bitter, spiteful fury that descends when it’s over. James, a paramedic who works the night shift, knows his wife’s family thinks she could have done better; while Kate, partnered with Dan for a decade, has seen every kind of wedding—beach weddings, backyard weddings, castle weddings—and has vowed never, ever, to have one of her own.” amazon.com
THERE IS ONE MORE I HAVE ADDED, at the suggestion of my cousin ….
“In that self-obsessed, hyperaware, and mordantly ironic way of privileged teens, Ethan, Jonah, Cathy, Ash, and her brother Goodman dub themselves “The Interestings” when they reconvene at their trendy creative-arts summer camp in the Berkshire Mountains. Jules, née Julie, Jacobson is both flattered and flabbergasted to be admitted into their little enclave, where she uses her sardonic wit to compensate for a lack of beauty, money, or social graces. To her surprise, golden-girl Ash adopts her as her best friend, while the dorky but brilliant Ethan becomes mired in unrequited love. After a tragedy affects two of their members in very different ways, the remaining group slogs their way into adulthood, embarking upon careers and relationships with varying degrees of success and satisfaction. Despite being rooted in a wealth of pop-cultural references, from Nixon’s resignation to the Moonies to Wall Street scandals and even the aftermath of 9/11, Wolitzer’s clique of narcissistic friends turns out to be not so interesting after all. –Carol Haggas –” FROM AMAZON.COM
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So there you have my spring/summer reading list. I was happy to read even a few of these wonderful novels last summer and hope I can meet my goal of ALL of them by the time my niece NINA starts my ALMA MATER – FSU (YAY NINA!!!!GO NOLES ) AND Tate AND Nina’s sister, my niece Haley begin their senior years of High School, gulp – how did that get here so fast? ..
…In LIFE and IN BOOKS ….I feel like I am embarking on a voyage…through time and space…into all of these lives and experiences…I cannot wait to get back to my books!!!
LOVE THIS READING NOOK!!!!
Do You have a summer reading list? PLEASE SHARE..LETS START A LIST!!!!
Perhaps we should keep a running list on this blog of our favorite books, books that we can read and our kids can read too…and books that are just for US…like the “Shades of Gray” series….
Happy Reading!!!!
Thanks for the recommendations! I LOVE curling up with a good book. Have you read the Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency? I love how simple the writing is on those.