My Summer Reading List: Style Me Bloggers Link-Up

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Happy Friday, gentle readers!

Today’s blog post is another link-up with my Style Me blogger buddies and we are talking books. One of my favorite subjects of all. Right up there with PC, my daughters and chocolate.

Alas, I am a slow reader. Well, slow reader when I am whisper reading to myself. I can read a picture book at record speed and sometimes, not even know what I read but still call all the words right. But if I am really trying to comprehend what I am reading, I have to concentrate and prefer a quiet space…like a library?…to read in.

When I was a little girl, I remember whenever I would fill my plate full of food that my mom would say my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Of course, I proved her wrong every time because this girl can EAT. Well, now I have a summer book list that is longer than is realistic for me to ever hope to read, over the next couple of months or the next couple of years!

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Well said, Frank Zappa, well said.

Let’s start with what I reading right now.

One of my goals each month is to read one adult book and one children’s fairy tale then to write a review for each on my blog. I have done pretty well about reading but haven’t been terribly faithful about writing up and sharing my reviews. I owe reviews for several books right now. Nobody’s Cuter Than You by Melanie Shankle is my grown-up girl book-of-the-month.

And earlier this month, I blogged about the summer slide, here, where children lose up to three months of the school year’s learning over their summer vacation. I am trying to read and review several children’s chapter book/fiction/novels in hopes of encouraging parents to read with their kids as a summer vacation habit. I have invited some of my teacher-librarian friends to join me in writing reviews. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine is my second summer slide, chapter book.

One of the things I love about my Nook is that I can download samples of various books I might be interested in reading and try them before I commit to buying them. Think of it as a smorgasbord where I can taste a little of this and a little of that, before I load up my plate.

These are (most of ) the books I have samples for.

Let me say that the majority of this buffet of books shares a central theme.

World War II.

Which brings me to the books I relished yesterday while volunteering at the El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center. I am adding all of the books in the museum library to the PastPerfect database and online catalog so I am handling every book there. I have cataloged all of the children’s collection and am working on the fiction section now. Oh, my gravy!

So. Many. Good. Books.

When I saw the Anita Diamant title yesterday, I was reminded that I also want to read her book The Red Tent. PC read it and highly recommended it to me. So forgive me just a moment while I download a sample of it and these other three titles to my Nook.

Okay, that’s done. But I just discovered I have 45 books on my To-Read shelf on Goodreads.com. I will only highlight a couple here but you can follow me at this link. And I guess I should download samples onto my Nook for all of these.

When I am not reading fairy tales, children’s chapter books or novels about World War II, I enjoy historical fiction like that written by Phillipa Gregory. I have read many of her books, among my favorites are The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen’s Fool.

I also like self-help or self-improvement books.

Always trying to work on being my best me.

Next Friday, I will be reviewing one of my all time favorite fairy tales, The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin.

I don’t want to say any more about the book right now but hope you will come back on July 3, to read my review.

So. So. Good.

Last but not least, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the books that are a part of my breakfast everyday.

My devotionals.

If you aren’t familiar with Jesus Calling, I would highly recommend that you check it out. The Message is a translation of the Bible in contemporary English for this spiritual novice. Devotions from the Garden is a book I am reviewing for BookLookBloggers.com. My friend and Style Me Bloggers buddy, Joy, introduced me to BookLookBloggers and Devotions from the Garden is my first book to review for them. Thank you, JOY! You can learn more here.

In anticipation of this blog post, I posed the question “What are YOU reading this summer?” on my blog Facebook page. You can reply (please?) here. My friend Mary J. was the first to respond. She wrote, “So far I read “The Silent Girls” by Eric Rickstad. It grabs you from page 2 and couldn’t put it down…big twist at the end…so good!” Of course, I had to run over to Goodreads to add that title to my To Read shelf and then over to Barnes and Noble to download a sample.

That might just be what I read next.

Thanks, Mary.

Please leave me a comment with what book’s by your bedside and what’s on your To Read shelf.

Please add your link below if you are a blogger posting about your favorite reads.

Please enter our give-away for a $200 GAP brands gift card.

But hurry, time is running out!

And then, check out the reading lists of my book-lovin’ blogger besties. I am heading over there now.