Summer Reading 2017!

Reading has always been one of the joys of summer. As a kid, I relished the long days of swimming and reading, two of my favorite things. My reading time is shorter these days as I chase around an increasingly mobile kiddo of my own, but I still make time to do some summer reading. Here’s what’s on my list for the rest of the summer.

I just finished Madeleine L’Engle’s first book in the Crosswicks Journal series, A Circle of Quiet. The four books in this series were written mostly from her journal entries she kept while living at her farmhouse in Connecticut and apartment in New York. They cover the time period in her life I now find myself in, raising young children, trying to write and publish, and running headlong into the challenges and joys of both. I’ll probably pick up the other three journals throughout the rest of 2017. L’Engle always inspires and comforts me at the same time.

Next up is the middle grade adventure The Mysterious Benedict Society. I’ve read fellow Arkansas author Trenton Lee Stewart’s series before, but this time I’ll do a close read to see how he’s brought his multiple characters to life. One of my current stories juggles multiple characters on a similar adventure. The best way to figure out how to write your story? Learn from those who have already done it.

Then it’s on to a few non-fiction books for a little inspiration. I received Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic for Christmas, along with Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. I’m hoping one will inspire me to write and the other to dream big. You decide which is which! I just ordered Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s (yes, that Lindbergh) 50th anniversary edition of Gift from the Sea on the recommendation from my cousin that every woman should read this book. I’m sure it won’t disappoint!

Finally, I hope to get to a few books that have been on my list for awhile. Ta-nehisi Coates’ book Between the World and Me as well as Kwame Alexander’s Newbery winner The Crossover (basketball playing twins, yes!) and the follow up, Booked (this one’s about soccer. Woot!) Hopefully I’ll close the summer with Sherman Alexie’s new memoir You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.

I’ll be happy if I get halfway through this list and continue reading on it in the fall. What’s on your summer reading list?