Summer Reading

I read Sarah's Key this spring and LOVED it. Heartbreaking...but really good.

Totally not on my top 10 list either...but definitely fun reads :).

I actually did not like Little Bee - it did not live up to the hype. Poorly developed.
The Help was excellent and I am enjoying The Lost city of Z.

Funny but my mom gave me both The Girl whith the Dragon Tattoo and Little Bee this weekend to read and I have Time Traveler's Wife on my bedside table. I also am working on updating Project Life (have pictures printed and need to organize). Funny when you read something that sounds like you could have written it yourself.

I am totally in love with "One Day" by David Nicholls. IT IS BRILLIANT. Really.

i picked up little bee too, and also have devil in the white city for this summer. my fave summer reads are always to kill a mockingbird and breakfast at tiffany's. i reread them all the time!

I read Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah a few months ago. One of the best I've read this year. Goes along with your theme of story this year.

I just finished Sarah's Key. I was quite emotional, and I learned a bit too. I'd highly recommend it. It was written interesting enough, even if I never did truly buy into the main character being an American expat.

I'm on the 3rd installment of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I love these books! I'm hoping to finish ready in on my vacation. Thanks for the other recommendations. I've heard The Help is really good as well.

I just finished reading "Her Fearful Symmetry" last week and I completely agree with you. It was an odd story, but I really needed to know how it would turn out. It sure made think about what I believe as far as eternal life and the afterlife. Plus...what a statement on people and the choices we make.
I read "The Help" last month and loved it! I'm on vacation for 2 weeks starting Saturday, so I need to stock up on some good reading. Thanks for the suggestions.

Lately I've fallen in love with an author named Richard Russo. I picked up one of his books a few months ago and realized that his style had similar qualities to the style I'm trying to achieve with the novel I'm currently writing (I'm on the first revision, 2nd draft).
Now I'm on my 4th book of his and really enjoying his great stories. I feel he's not afraid to become vulnerable as an author because he really exposes his characters and makes them so real. That's the most important thing for me when choosing books to read.

I just finished the 3rd book in the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo series! They are excellent and all three were sooooo very hard to put down.

I just reread To Kill a Mockingbird...it's as powerful as ever...and then I read Mockingbird, which is a biography of Harper Lee. Fascinating.
I loved The Help...and now I'll have to read Little Bee, after all these comments!

Karen Maezen Miller's Momma Zen is the best thing I've read recently. A lovely memoir that I'm glad I bought; I'll definitely reread. I think you'd really like Here If You Need Me too.
Fiction-wise, I just picked up Little Bee at a sidewalk Library sale, almost solely because I loved the cover;) I'll be starting it as soon as I finish Of Human Bondage, a favorite of my dad's that I've never read and am really enjoying.
I was also pleasantly surprised by The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I'd read mixed reviews but really enjoyed the letter format and historical context.
Lastly, ever since you mentioned that Anna loves "Goodnight Gorilla" I wanted to suggest "Ten Minutes to Bedtime" for Simon to read to her. It's about a little boy getting ready for bed, by the same author, with all sorts of inside jokes/tie-ins to Goodnight Gorilla. All my kids love it:)

I love to get new book ideas!!
I totally agree about Her Fearful Symmetry...just not as good as Time Traveler's Wife.
I recently read The Other Boleyn Sister...it was so-so.
The Help was amazing, a definite must read! I also enjoyed Little Bee.
I am going to start reading the Book Thief next and then I hope to pick up the Girl with Dargon Tattoo series. We saw the movie and liked it.

I'm within 100 pages of the end of Pillars of the Earth! I'm loving it and will be so sad when it ends. I happened to see that it is coming out as a miniseries this weekend on Starz...unfortunately I don't get that channel.
I also read Sarah's Key recently and really enjoyed that one as well.

I loved Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins have been flying around our camp staff this summer. Everyone has been finishing them in a day or two. SO GOOD! Can't wait for #3 next month!

We must be of like minds. Not only do I love Europe (I have not been to Italy-totally jealous), but I have Dragon Tattoo waiting on my nightstand. I just finished Sizzlin Sixteen by Janet Evanovich. LOVE her books. THey are so funny and easy reads.....all of them are worth reading!!

1. The puzzlebark Tree--I liked it even though it was a predictable love story!
2. Love in the Present Tense--LOVED THIS ONE! by Catherine Ryan Hyde....
3. The Stepmother by Carrie Adams--LOVED IT!
4. nearer than the sky--disturbing and sad, but pretty good.
5. have you read, STill Alice yet? about alzheimers, love love loved it!
6. my most favorite books ever read are: Sarah's Key, Whistling in the Dark, The Help, The Poisonwood Bible, The Thirteenth Tale, Those Who Save Us, The Kite Runner. these are all old faves, but if you haven't read them yet, SOOOOOOOO good!!!
7. the Last Summer of you and me by Ann Brashares.
okay, that's it for now!!! have fuN!
tara

I am currently reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, also. So far this summer I have read Merlot Murders, Still Life with a Woodpecker, Peter Pan,and The curious incident of the dog in the night-time.

One I recently enjoyed was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. Don't let the funny sounding title put you off. It is a good fictional story about the Guernsey islands after WWII, and it's written in letter form by many inhabitants on the island. I'm not doing it justice, but it's one my husband and I both read and enjoyed.

LOVED Sarah's Key, on my list of top faves!
tara

Recently finished the Help which I enjoyed and am reading (almost done with) Run like a Mother. Great book! :)

I loved Run Like A Mother too - totally inspirational and very real :).

So glad you mentioned "Sarah's Key" - it is heartbreaking but a wonderful story of the strength of the human spirit in the face of insurmountable tragedy. Also love Jodi Picoult, just finished "Change of Heart" - rather strange characters, but fascinating story. And then . . . . someone mentioned "The Pillars of the Earth" which I read a year or so ago and absolutely love it!
Thank you for the other great suggestions - for the first time in my life, I am living in an area (rural Indiana) where we do not have free access to a library. I've saved up my $100 to buy a library card for a year, so I am ready to go load up on some books for the rest of my summer reading!