2021 Summer Reading List

It's embarrassing to admit to, so I'll do it first.  Yes.  I watched Bridgerton season one on Netflix. Twice.  And when that wasn't enough, I found the books on Amazon in Trade Paperback (that's code for cheap) and bought them.  All.  From the first to the seventh.  

The order is only kind of important, the characters come to the forefront and fall back as needed and in the end, they are all old friends.  I'm looking forward to season 2 and when I finish with my "To Read" shelf, I may even read them again.  

They are different from Shonda Rhimes' Netflix adaptation (as advertised), easy to read period pieces and were just what I needed after this insane school year.  I wanted to not have to think.  I wanted to be somewhere else.  I wanted somebody somewhere - even if they were fiction - to have a happy ending.  

With along drive in front of me to state baseball playoffs in Niwot, CO, I went to Google Play in search of an audiobook.  After much searching, I came across this book and since I'd read the <entire> Bridgerton series (see above) and watched some of her How to Get Away with Murder series, I was interested in knowing more.  

This book did not disappoint.   She said yes to the important things in her life - children, health, difficult conversations and taking the risks that she could grow through.  I'm still digesting it.  Blog Post Review to come.  

I've been reading this book on and off for a while now.  It does not read like a novel, there's no story to follow and as such I can't go as quickly  through it as I have with other titles on this list.  I enjoy Bryson's style and I enjoyed A Walk in the Woods and The Road to Little Dribbling which led me to pull of this off an abandoned shelf.

Every time I read another chapter, as well as being struck by his easy conversational writing style, I notice how human understanding keeps changing.  And changing.  And changing again.  I'm curious about the progression of things and I won't pass a test about this book - but I know this, I don't have to understand it all.  God does.  And He's chuckling to himself at how we think we have it alllll figured out.  

After the carpet in our basement began to take on a peculiar odor and a leak was discovered, everything on that end of the basement had to move.  This book was on my husband's bookshelf and instead of relegating it to a book stack on the other side of the room during repairs, I brought it up the shelf.  I laughed out loud, I shook my head, and I knew I could not use it in school.  Still funny, still relatable, and maybe I'll find a way to use excerpts in Creative Writing next semester!

After listening to Michelle Obama read her Becoming in 2018, I knew I was interested in more of the story behind the Obama's.  So, when I found this copy of his first book in our local used book store during quarantine, I knew I wanted it.  

Insightful, well-written, and every bit the story of race and inheritance - I 'm glad I found it and included it in my summer reading.  This book is well worth the read for anyone interested in walking a mile in someone else's shoes.

During the '20-'21 school year students regularly identified their own issues with time management, focus and planning.  I tried everything I could think of to help but came up short again and again.  These two books looked practical and real and above all actionable.  They inhabited my Amazon Wish List and are next up on my reading shelf.  

Updates to come!

Paula Moraine