Some Summer Reading Suggestions

I know I haven't written anything on this blog for awhile, but I've been so busy reading! The long, hot, days of summer are made for relaxing with a good book. So, if you are looking for some ideas on what to take on that vacation, here are some suggestions.

Two of the books I've recently finished were by authors I was introduced to through the book club. I read Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult, an author whose writing has a way of involving the reader in the characters' lives, people who seem real enough to be neighbors on the same block. This book took on the sensitive subject matter of a high school shooting in a relatively small town. The event exposes the frailty within human relationships, and the many ways our lives are intermingled. This book was hard to put down once I started to read it.

Another author, Bill Bryson, we had read as a group some time ago with the selection of A Walk in the Woods. This time I chose The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a book described as a memoir of the author. While it had some of the same sense of humor that made reading 'Woods' so fun, it did not have the same sense of adventure, and in the end I was a bit disappointed.

However, I had picked up a copy of Marley and Me, by John Grogan, a bestseller about "life and love with the world's worst dog." Who doesn't like puppies? Anyway, I had not seen the movie based on the book, but while reading it thought that I would like to. This was an engaging story, not only about the dog, but about the family that grows up around the pet, a pet that seems bent on creating disruption and havoc. You can expect some examples of love and loyalty within the pages of this book.

So, happy summer! happy reading!