my summer in books

when i was growing up one of the first thing my older brother and i did every summer was sign up at our library for the summer reading program. i remember the journals we filled up with stickers keeping track of how long we had read and lists of the books we read. as we got older if you read over 200 hours you got invited to a meeting with our country freeholders and were presented with a special award. him and i would read and read and read at times it was all i did during the day.

i remember getting lost in my favorite books as i grew up it started out with madeline, nate the great, the american girl series, harriet the spy are you there god its me margaret?, or little women. when i read those books i was transported to a whole different world and i never wanted to leave. in high school my recreational reading slowed down because of great expectations, silas marner, hamlet, as i lay dying and many more books on endless required reading lists. even though at times the required books were painful (beowulf) there were some that stood out in my mind that i would appreciate for years to come including to kill a mockingbird, and jane eyre. as i approached college i looked forward to summers where i was free to read as i please. this summer was a perfect example of that. being the dorky list maker that i am, i read through my favorite blogs and compiled a list. every week this summer i’ve gone to the library and brought it along. although it has not been quite the summer i had anticipated, i really have enjoyed all the books i have read.
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so in a way this is a way for me to remember and look back on the ones that i http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhave cherished and adored to recall on future days. and also to share with you readers, if there are any book lovers out there http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifreading this i hope you appreciate these next few posts.


to start off i highly recommend anything by joshilyn jackson. this summer i read "gods in Alabama", "the girl who stopped swimming", and "between, Georgia". Jackson also has one more out called "backseat saints" which i havent had a chance to read. after one chapter i was immediately sucked into the stories and hoped they would never end. i think what i liked most was how simply written they were and how it was everyday life. the endings of the books and the plot is realistic, they weren't some silly chick- lit story where in the end everyone is happy and all issues are resolved. i think my favorite out of the three would have to be "the girl who stopped swimming" but all of them are enjoyable reads.