Day 33 – Elisa 43: Blackout

Day Two – Summer is meant for reading!

Every June I always post a photo of my summer book pile. I never read every book in my stack and every year the stack gets bigger. So, I went back through my lists from the last three years and made a master list of the books that I didn’t get to. None of these books made my 2014 list. I’m hoping if you’ve read some of these you might convince me to, or not to, read these:

1. Ophelia by Lisa Klein
2. When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
3. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
4. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
5. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
6. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
7. One Summer by David Baldacci
8. The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
9. Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
10. If I Stay by Gayle Forman
11. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
12. The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larson by Susin Nielsen
13. Every Last One by Anna Quindlan
14. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
15. Gifted by Marilyn Kay

This year, I’ve got BIG plans. But before I get to those, why don’t I give you a few recommendations. Let me tell you about my favourite summer read from each of the last three years.

Last summer I read A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. This was a gift from Savanna last year for my birthday. I have the whole box set, but I only read the first book. I have a tendency to do that, only read the first in a series. I also did that with Outlander, The Hunger Games and Divergent. Although I enjoyed these novels, I just never seemed too interested in what happened once the book finished. I love A Game of Thrones and now Glenn and I are watching the first season of the HBO show. I am very much enjoying the TV adaptation of this novel, so much so that I may even tackle the second book. I wonder if each season covers one book.

My favourite 2012 summer read was Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson. It was a psychological thriller with a fantastic twist that you’d never guess. I love a book that can surprise me, but I guess I love the predictable and sappy too!

In 2011 my favourtie summer read was The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. This is one of those epic historical fiction novels that I would recommend to any adult reader 16 and over. I’m not a big history buff, but I love, love, love most historical fiction and this one is one of my top five favourite historicl fiction novels.

Here’s the 2014 list:

1. The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
2. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
3. The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness (on pre-order, not in the photo)
4. For One More Day by Mitch Albom
5. This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
6. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
7. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
8. Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti
9. The Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers
10. Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
11. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

I’ve started reading The Interestings already and I’m really liking it, and I already know that The Rosie Project will be next because it’s this month’s book club pick. After that it won’t matter what I’m reading, I’ll definitely put it aside for The Book of Life as soon as it arrives. It’s the third in a trilogy, and although I haven’t had much luck with sticking with series lately, there’s no way I’m not reading this one! If you haven’t read the first, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, I highly recommend it!

I do have other goals for this summer, but reading and writing are at the top of my priorities, so expect to hear more about books.

Day One – This summer has 61 days

In 2011, I challenged myself to blog every day for the entire summer. I did it and surprisingly it left me feeling like I had the best summer possible. I remember, at the end of the summer, Glenn and I were at an outdoor concert at Officer’s Square and one of my colleagues was there and he asked me how my summer was. When I replied, “It was great!”, he was clearly taken aback, I even remember that he commented that he’d never heard that response before; he expected that standard, “Good,” or “Too short!” At first, I didn’t connect blogging every day with having a great summer, but looking back I can see that these two things clearly were dependent on each other. First of all, I spent a considerable amount of my time doing something I love to do–writing! I do love to write, and I so rarely make it a priority because with my job and busy family life it seems selfish to take the kind of time it requires out of my already crammed schedule. So writing daily was a treat for me and meeting my goal of blogging every single day, all summer, was satisfying. Also, I think writing every day kept me cognizant of how I spent my time. Even though I didn’t write about my day each time, I was more purposeful about how I spent my time, making sure that I had interesting experiences to share. At first I thought I had made a terrible mistake, counting down the days, when the end of the countdown meant I had to go back to work. However, as the summer wore on, I realized that feeling like I was achieving my goal and having a record of the best parts of my summer, mixed with my musings and poetry, left me feeling truly accomplished and satisfied. I tell you all this to explain why I’ve decided to do it again. I guess you could say it’s a bit of an experiment. My driving question is this: Is daily blogging directly linked to a having a great summer, or were the two once simply mere coincidences?

Even though a rainy one, today was a fantastic day for the first day of my summer. I slept in until 8:30 when the pounding construction started behind my house. I got up in time to see my guys off to work and then did my yoga in peace, took my coffee and book to the deck to read, all before breakfast. I firmly believe that EVERY day should start this way! Because she had the day off today, Savanna and I had a mother and daughter day planned. We did a little shopping, then went to see The Fault in our Stars, a movie based on the John Green book that we both read last year. Usually, I’m not thrilled with based on the novel movies. How can two hours do justice to a good book? There are so very few based on the novel movies that I ever think are even as good as the book that I really should stop seeing the movie, but when I love the book there’s no stopping me from seeing the movie too. I’m glad I did! The movie was equally as good as the book, right down to the tear jerking ending. Savanna even sniffled a bit, which almost never happens.

The end of the day brought the season premiere of Big Brother. We started watching this years ago with Glenn’s mother Sadie and now she watches faithfully every summer, so we do too. This summer she’ll be with us for eight weeks, essentially the whole summer starting this Saturday.

So, yoga, coffee on the deck with a good book (more about this and other books tomorrow), a movie with my girl and Big Brother. I’d say I’m off to a great start to a fantastic summer. Tomorrow brings a morning with my boy, lunch with a good friend and hopefully more time spent reading.

Summer Reading

I do this every summer. It serves as a visual goal for me. I never read every single one, but I always add more. They’re piled here in the order they looked the best, not the order I want to read them. Right now I’m finishing THE HOUSE GIRL by Tara Conklin and I highly recommend it. Next, I’m going to read ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE. You’ll notice that I have some adult and some YA fiction in the pile. As a high school English teacher I like to read good YA fiction so I can authentically recommend it to my students. What are you reading this summer?