Summer Reading Wrap up

After Labor Day I generally try to squeeze in a few last novels to tide me over until winter break. I can feel scholarly articles and heavy scientific tomes creeping up on me and I'm diving for one last refreshing deluge of fiction. Oh sweet fiction.

With that in mind, I just finished a really moving, beautiful and too-quickly gone novel called Little Bee by Chris Cleave. It's part of the pact of the book that I can't tell you what it's about, except it did make me briefly rethink my plan to head to Africa next summer. I can also tell you it has nothing to do with honeybees, although that IS why I picked it up. I can also tell you it made me laugh out loud, and cry out loud too. In my opinion you cannot ask more of the written word.

So we have about two weeks left before school starts again. Maybe you have less? Make a little time for this one before Autumn is too far upon us. It's worth it.

Updated reading list

Here's the list of my completed summer reads as of September 1, along with my brief reviews

Not for me, thanks!
Lucy
Lucy just plain sucked. Don't bother, despite it's intriguing anthropological/horror set up, it's bad science and bad fiction. Ugh.

The Long Ships
The Long Ships was equally not for me. Reminiscent of Ivanhoe, written in a dry voice, and maybe better suited to middle school boys with a taste for Tolkein?

Anthropology Of An American Girl
The Kingdom Of Ohio
Father brown mysteries
I found all three of these to be a little boring. Meh. Disappointed by the promising titles.

Fabulous! Loved them!
Johannes Cabal: The Detective and Johannes Cabal: the necromancer
Steampunk Sherlock Holmes cum Faust. These were both funny and charming light reads.

64$ tomato and 52 Loaves
Although I vastly preferred 52 Loaves, these were perfect beach reading. Food memoirs are just sitting really well with me lately.

Animal vegetable miracle and the Lacuna
Kingsolver is such a luscious writer. I drank in every word of the fictional Lacuna Mexican setting, and was inspired by the non-fiction AVM. But again, this is my summer of the food memoir.

The Book of Lost Things
CHARMING. If you love Grimm's fairy tales, not the sticky gooey Disney kind, but the ones where women lose fingers to robbers and the villain is forced to eat hot coals as punishment, this is a great grown up fairy tale for you.


I've just started the Forgotten Garden and so far it's a win, but what I really want to devour are... some more food memoirs!!
Suggestions welcome, and solicited!!

Summer Reading list

I'm on vacation, and that means reading for fun (sadly, not for profit).

Here is my list of summer reads I intend to get through (those already finished are in red).

Am I missing some must haves? What are you reading this July?

What should I take on our anniversary trip to Hawaii?!

The list:

1. The Long Ships (in progress)
2. Anthropology Of An American Girl
3. Welcome To Utopia
4. 52 Loaves
5. Alice I Have Been
6. The Kingdom Of Ohio
7. The Lacuna
8. Father brown mysteries
9. Johannes Cabal: The Detective
10. Johannes Cabal: the necromancer
11. Island Beneath the Sea
12. 64$ tomato
13. Lucy
14. Animal vegetable miracle