Sunday, May 26, 2013

Sunday Salon: Summer Reading

Just about every written publication or book related organization is releasing a list of must read summer books. I personally just sat in bed and finished reading a list of this very sort. I do have a bit of a weakness for annotated lists, especially annotated lists about great books that I should want to read. And I thought, with summer's unofficial start upon us tomorrow, why shouldn't I throw my hat into the ring with my own list of books I'd love to get through this summer?  Unlike many lists, my list is composed of must read review books, randomly chosen new releases, and some oldies but goodies that I have neglected for far too long rather than books I've already read and recommend (well, that's a potential idea for next week's Sunday Salon, now isn't that?). So here's what I'm hoping to read this summer broken into categories:

Review and blog tour books:

A Half Forgotten Song by Katherine Webb
A Far Piece to Canaan by Sam Halpern
Big Brother by Lionel Shriver
Out Love Could Light the World by Anne Leigh Parrish
The Execution of Noa P. Singleton by Elizabeth Silver
The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy
The Exiles by Allison Lynn
This Is Paradise by Kristiana Kahakuawila
Race Across the Sky by Derek Sherman
The Book of Someday by Dianne Dixon
David by Ray Robertson
The Purchase by Linda Spalding
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck
The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell
Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
Someone by Alice McDermott
Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall
The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls
Sinners and the Sea by Rebecca Kanner
The House Girl by Tara Conklin

Book Club books:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Dancing to the Flute by Manisha Jolie Amin
The Innocents by Francesca Segal

Just because (sometimes with reasons):

**A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand (because this is the oldest ARC on my pile and the title alone makes it seem like I should finally get to it this year)
**Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline (because she took the risk of a paperback original and I like to support authors who do things like this to help out my wallet)
**Billy Budd and Other Tales by Herman Melville (because despite the fact that I'm not a huge Melville fan, it is the book that has been sitting around my house unread for the longest amount of time--it actually dates back to my high school days!)
**Happy Rock by Matthew Simmons (because these stories are set in Upper Peninsula Michigan where I spend a chunk of my summer)
**Then He Ate My Boy Entrancers by Louise Rennison (because I have a fondness for these fun and fluffy YA novels about the goofy Georgia Nicholson)
**Surprising Lord Jack by Sally MacKenzie (because everyone needs an entertaining romance to read over the summer)
**Topsy by Michael Daly (because summer is the perfect time to read about the circus and the true life weirdnesses surrounding it)
**Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde (because I've fallen far behind on this series and I want to catch back up since Fforde is genius)
**Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About by Mil Millington (because it has been on my recommended books that will make me laugh shelf for, literally, years)
**The Reluctant Matchmaker by Shobhan Bantwal (because I won it and I've never properly shelved it, always meaning to read it next and yet next just hasn't come yet)

Now we'll see if I manage to actually work my way through my whomping list (although I am giving myself from Memorial Day to Labor Day to accomplish this). Plus, it will be interesting to see what else squeaks in to be read and what just doesn't happen for me this summer. Do any of you make a summer reading list or do you just read by the seat of your pants?

6 comments:

  1. Great list! I have so many of the same on my TBR list.

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  2. You have inspired me. I must make my own summer reading list.

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  3. That's a lot of books! Good luck!

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  4. A very nice long list. Hope you enjoy a Half Forgotten Song, which I'm reading and really like. A Summer Affair sounds really good.

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  5. I am on the tour for Big Brother too and started reading when the book arrived this week - even those short snippets have pulled me in!

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  6. This is an ambitious list, Kristen!

    I love reading everybody else's lists, but I'm burned out right now on making my own - because I feel so obligated to stick to it, and it takes a lot of the joy out of my reading.

    Have a rockin' (and readin') summer!

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