Month: June 2014

Summer Reading List

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Summer Reading 2014
This year school summer vacation started on the actual first day of summer. Massachusetts schools start and end later than the schools in much of the country. This has been a week of adjustment and making plans. For me there’s still the day job, and I haven’t yet had time to settle into a summer routine. I most definitely have a summer plan, however, and as you might guess it includes lots of reading!

I thought it would be fun to share my reading list with you. Pictured above is the stack of the fiction and nonfiction I’m planning on delving into this summer. It’s a mix of adult, middle grade, and young adult books. Right now there’s no adult fiction on it, but I’ve been saving Just One Evil Act, the newest Lynley mystery by Elizabeth George, for vacation.

What are you reading? Leave a comment with a list or a link if you’d like to share your summer reading plans. I’d love to know what made your list!

In the Stack (top to bottom):
Smoke by Ellen Hopkins
The Thickety by J. A. White
Stitches by Anne Lamott
Views from a Window Seat by Jeannine Atkins
The Bagpiper’s Ghost by Jane Yolen
Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler
Women Heroes of World War I by Kathryn J. Atwood
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal
Cooked by Michael Pollan
Cooking with Fire by Paula Marcoux

On the Kindle:
The Real Boy by Anne Ursu
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
How to Talk to Girls at Parties by Neil Gaiman
Blast of the Dragon’s Fury by Andy Smithson

On Library Request but not yet arrived:
Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald.
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier.

Phew, We’ll see how I do. Happy Summer!

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

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Speak, Penguin Group 2010.

Anna is not looking forward to her senior year of high school. Her father has some crazy idea that she should broaden her horizons beyond Atlanta and spend her much anticipated year in Paris with strangers instead of at home with her friends. The City of Love is the last place she wants to be, but unfortunately for her, the American School had exactly one opening in its senior class and her father used his fame and influence to get her in.

When Anna learns that her negative assumptions about Paris are almost entirely wrong, she begins to enjoy herself. But nothing is simple. Her best friend seems to be taking over her life back home (including her mother’s and brother’s affections), she’s not sure where she stands with her almost boyfriend there or the incredibly cute, but absolutely unavailable, boy at school. Can Anna navigate the turgid emotional waters of her senior year abroad, managing local and long distance friendships, a foreign city, and first love?

Stephanie Perkins has written a book that put me immediately back into the mindset of a teenager. She captures the dithery angst of trying to discern the feelings of someone you’re totally crushing on without leaving yourself too vulnerable, the moral determination to remain friends with someone who’s involved with someone else, and the strain of trying to sort it all out while navigating life as a teenager. A lovely, but not entirely unrealistic, romantic read, great for the summer or any time you need a lift.