My Summer Reading List

It’s finally here, the time of year when I am absolutely free to read. It’s something that I feel that most people take for granted. When I hear that someone is reading in their spare time, or god forbid, is one of those teachers whose class does not warrant grading, so they spend their free time in the teacher’s lounge reading, it stirs such envy in me. Reading is something that I feel is a gift to me. So many people I know, and students unfortunately, hate reading. They can only read newspapers or magazines. They want the facts and that’s it. Books for me take me out of my world. They give me the chance to see someone else’s life from the luxury of my own couch. And they have made my life that much sweeter by helping me to appreciate simple things.

Sometimes during the summer I start off with a trashy novel.  Not necessarily a romance novel…. but rather something easy to read. You know, a pool book. The kind of book where you can be interrupted fifteen times by kids screaming for their moms to watch them on the diving board and still know exactly what is going on in the book. It’s like giving your brain a break. Instead, I’ve chosen a deeper book to begin with, one that I’ve been meaning to read for a few years: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.

It’s a nonfiction novel about the author’s journey through grief after her husband’s sudden death. It’s a book I gave my mom for Mother’s Day a few years back. I had written her a note on the inside that was a little bittersweet. Apparently this book was developed into a play that was on stage in NYC. I had intentions of going to see it with her the next year. We never did. I guess that doesn’t mean we still couldn’t….

Here is a list of my summer reading:

When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe, the story of  a Phillipino family in hiding during WWII.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. I loved her novel  The Blind Assasin and picked this one up in hopes it would be just as good.

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. This book was purchased for me by a professor while we were visiting Seattle. I never read it and it fell by the wayside. He said it was one of his favorite novels.

You Shall Know Our Velocity! by Dave Eggers.  This is another book that I picked up years ago and never read it. Since then I’ve become more familiar with Dave Eggers, though never having read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

If I get through all of these I think I am going to go back and read my two favorite books,  I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb

and Beach Music by Pat Conroy. Both are books that I adore but read so long ago that I need a refresher.