Hello Summer

Summer weather is finally here--hot and sticky, in the nineties this week. Thank goodness for a/c! I'll be hibernating indoors if anyone is looking for me--not a fan of the summer heat or the yellow coating of pollen everywhere you turn. But, with a crazy stressful week ahead, I thought I'd take a moment to update the Summer Reading Progress before life slips into the insane lane.

I wasn't terribly impressed with my last two picks: Bruce Cameron's A Dog's Purpose and Frank Herbert's Dune. Dog's Purpose read more like juvenile, empty fluff for me. A dog's reincarnation into different lives and situations and the things he'd learned each life...Maybe it had some good potential there, it just didn't grab me. Then Dune...SciFi has never been my favorite genre (although I really love James Corey's Expanse series) Dune is so devoid of anything emotional to make you care two wits about anything that's going on in the book. That one also fell flat for me.

 

This week I began Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island and fell head over heels. Bill's writing reminds me somewhat of Dave Barry, maybe not as silly, but just enough humor to make me smile and giggle and I really need that right now! There's so much on my plate with life at the moment, this little escape into his crazy escapade through England has been the perfect pick me up this week. I love his writing so much, I've downloaded samples of everything else he's written into my nook for future reading. Love him!!

That only leaves two more books for the initial challenge and I'm adding a couple more for the extended challenge (a 2017 bestseller, plus another for extra credit) so stay tuned for those. And I've already pulled the remaining books together to finish my A to Z Challenge:

 

I'm definitely excited to begin this bunch and then...who knows? I really want to reread Game of Thrones and the rest of the Song of Ice and Fire series, but I'm also thinking I may reread Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth and World Without End before his new addition to this series, Column of Fire, comes out in September...So many books, so little time...

I've also cut myself off from buying any new books for the time being. Michael's surgery bills are rolling in, Tucker's surgery is on Thursday, the expense of school is looming for the fall...I've fallen so far short of trimming my backlist this year that I'm holding myself more accountable for the remainder of the year to stem any buying until I've made a significant reduction in my crammed bookshelf population. At least until some new coupons roll through...shhhhh!!

How's your summer reading going? Leave a comment below--I'd love to hear from you!