My Summer Reading List

If I stop to think about it, I've read more than I thought this summer.  I thought I'd share!

ETERNAL ON THE WATER by Joe Monninger - this was a book I read for my book club, but Joe also happens to be related to a friend of mine and I've read several of his YA novels.  It's a wonderful and sweet love story.


PROPHECY OF DAYS by Christy Raedeke - I earned this book with my WIBIJ win back in June.  It's a fun, action-filled novel about a contemporary girl who finds herself chasing a ancient Mayan mystery. She emails, texts, had a hot guy friend and a pet monkey.  I'm looking forward to the sequel!

NATHANIEL FLOOD: BEASTOLOGIST by RL LaFevers- my daughter and I read the first two in the fun MG series and are waiting happily for the third to be out this fall. 

SEPTIMUS HEAP by Angie Sage - we've had this series on audio book in the house for the better part of August.  It's slower paced than Harry Potter and it's a more distant third person--omniscient narrator.  I don't feel like I know the characters really well--but it's a good story, with characters who are likable.  My precocious seven-year-old likes it--and the narrator Gerard Doyle is wonderful.

THE SISTERS GRIMM: FAIRY TALE DETECTIVES by Michael Buckley - we listened to this whole series (except #8) on audio CD as well.  The aforementioned 7 yo loved it--and listened to each book several times, but it was probably my least favorite book(s) of the summer.  I didn't love the narrator (he read with an almost sarcastic quality to his voice), and the subject matter sometimes delved darker than I was expecting fairy tale characters to go (addiction, pregnancy loss, death of Sleeping Beauty). 

WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON by John Green and David Levithan - this book seemed to be everywhere I turned for a while--I finally picked it up at the library.  It was sweet, poignant, and funny.  I loved it.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS by JK Rowling - I've had the audio book in my car all summer and have listened to it again in preparation for the movie coming out in December.  I find that I cry at different points every time I listen--this time the biggest cry fest came when Lupin announces the birth of Teddy in Shell Cottage, and when Percy comes out of the hallway in the Room of Requirement--and I cried for Snape for the first time.  Oh, and I always sob when Ron comes back--but then I'm a Ron fangirl. I just love Jim Dale's narration--and the story is so deeply satisfying and rich. 

So for someone who didn't have a lot of time to read this summer, I did pretty well.  There were bunches of books I didn't get to that are still on my table--I just cracked SETH BAUMGARTNER'S LOVE MANIFESTO by Eric Luper because parts of it take place on a golf course.  And LINGER by Maggie Stiefvater is waiting for me, as is HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins (I know, I'm the only one who hasn't read it yet.)

What have you read this summer?