2019 Summer Reading Begins — Join the Club!

When Memorial Day comes around, my mind goes to two thoughts: gratitude for those who have given their lives to defend my rights and freedom, and summer reading.

The first book of the summer will combine both: Dogs of War, a graphic novel I discovered at my library.

After that is anybody's guess. Oh, I make a list, check it twice, and read some of the titles — but most summers, I stray from the list because the next new book captivates me, and I lose track of all of the books.

The best part? It's the beginning of the 2019 Summer Reading Club.

The Summer Reading Club lasts from the Friday before Memorial Day to the first day of autumn — so, this year, from May 24 through September 23.

To join the club, just send me a message or comment below, then read as much as you wish. Spend long summer days lounging with a book and a cold drink. I want you to be so immersed in your books that you forget about lunch. The club member who reads the most will receive a book from me. You get a book you like, I get to give it to you: that's a win-win!

In return, I ask that you give back. For every book read, I want you to pledge time or money: donate to the public or school library, little free library, or literacy program of your choice. Choose cash (a buck a book, or the cost of all books read, or even a copy of the books themselves) — or find out how your library or literacy program prefers its donations. Remember: volunteer hours are an excellent way to give back, whether it's to the library or another organization of your choice.

So, back to the matter at hand: books. Right now, I foresee a Summer of Sequels, which includes (in no particular order): 

• Of Blood and Bone
• The Map of Days
• Waking Gods
• Wolf Hall
• Lady Cop Makes Trouble
• Time's Convert
• The Bear and the Nightingale
• As Chimney Sweepers Turn to Dust
• The Map of Time (re-read)
• After the End of the World
• The Storm of Locusts
• Mary Poppins Opens the Door
• Peril in Paperback: A Bibliophile Mystery
• Probable Paws: A Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery

Oddly enough, I am not really a fan of book series. Under most circumstances, I rarely continue beyond the third or fourth book, especially if there seems to be no end to the series or there are large gaps between the installments. I will pretend I waited until now to start the Cromwell series because Hilary Mantel has a publication date for the final book of the trilogy; thank you for playing along.

Here are a few other titles on my nightstand I'll add to the mix:

• Severance
• No Visible Bruises
• Children of Blood and Bone
• Where the Crawdads Sing
• Small Great Things
• Empire of the Ants
• Gingerbread
• I was Anastasia
• One Day in December
• The Book of the Unknown
• The Lilac Girls
• We Were Eight Years in Power
• Behind the Scenes at the Museum
• The Keeper of Lost Things
• 4 3 2 1
  
• Anything is Possible
• Norse Mythology
• The Power
• Hamilton: The Revolution
• The Intuitionist
• Ready Player One
• The Book of Harlan
• The Lost City of Z
• The Gun Seller
• The Lowland
• And the Mountains Echoed
• Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter 
• The Sixth Extinction
• Bellman and Black
• Just Mercy
  

Warning: my "finished" list will most likely look very different than the list above. That's fine. Your list probably will, too. If you share your STBR (Summer To Be Read) list with me, I am glad to share it with your fellow clubbers — or you may post it in the comments below.

We are all friends here. We do not judge each other's reading choices or media. Enjoy your E.L. James or your Encyclopedia Brown. Listen, or look at a page or pixel. Your fellow readers may ask questions, maybe offer suggestions for other similar reads or good book resources, and we always appreciate reviews or feedback. Reader to reader, we can have fun. 

Best of all, no pressure! No matter how many books you read (or don't), you are still a reader and we're glad you're in the club.

So, who's in? Let me know!

Summer Reading: The TBR Stack Edition, or What Karen is Reading This Summer

I hope your summer reading is coming along swimmingly. 

If you are in the areas on the globe experiencing record rains and/or record heat, hopefully you can spend extra time indoors and get more reading done.

Intrepid Reader Karen has planned her summer reading carefully, and I see at least one or two books from her list that dovetail with titles I find interesting. Who among us has not salivated over adventure tales or time-travel stories? I rest my case.

So, without further ado, here is Karen's reading list (also fondly referred to as TBR, or to be read, stack):

1. Pope Francis’ Little Book of Compassion
2. Troublemaker 
3. Never Broken: Songs are Only Half the Story 
4. Outlander series books 1-8
5. The Case of the Green-Dressed Ghost 
6. Beyond the Fortune Teller’s Tent
7. Legend of the Jade Dragon 
8. The Pocket Watch
9. Holy Bible 
10. Morna’s Legacy 
11. The Ruby Red Trilogy 
12. Dragon Bones
13. Lost City of Z
14. The Source 
15. The Secret Scroll
16. Man & Horse: The Long Ride Across America 
17. Elixir: A Teen-Genius Medical Thriller 

I adored the Ruby Red Trilogy, and I have been meaning to read The Lost City of Z for ages. I read only the first Outlander novel, so maybe it's time to see what's up with Claire and Jaimie. And, frankly, who doesn't love Jewel?

So, what's in your TBR pile? Join the club, and win a chance at a new book! Post your list in the comments below, or send it to me and I'll share with the class!

Summer Reading: What's on my TBR List?

Summer reading is fraught with peril.

Choose the wrong books and you've wasted your summer reading bad books. Choose nothing at all, and you may read nothing.

Choose too many books and you could be paralyzed with fear at the tide of books you face, and the possibility that you may not finish. Choose only a handful of books and so many are left unread.

Choose books, then risk not reading those particular tomes because you stumbled across other books.

Okay, "peril" is a strong word — but you get my drift. With choice comes limitation, or responsibility, or paralysis. Or, in my case, failure.

Last year, I listed 45 books I wanted to read. Of the 26 books I read last summer, eight were on the original list. Some books have been on the list for years. Some books are pies in the sky. Some books will always be on my TBR shelf.

However, this year, I decided to take a different approach. Instead of rustling up gobs of books from my bookshelves, scouring my library and my wish lists, I simply looked at what was on my nightstand.

Well, "nightstand" isn't quite accurate: In March, my husband David installed the floating shelves my stepson Phil gave me for Christmas (left). That has lightened the load on the nightstand itself, but I keep a few there anyway so I can reach them for reading in bed.

More importantly, it gave me the opportunity to prune the books teetering on my nightstand. There are two ways to look at TBR stacks: opportunity or oppression. By thinning the stack awaiting me for nighttime reading, I could see them as the former, and enjoy them more.

So, here are my Upstairs TBR Bedroom books, in no particular order:

• Less
• Small Great Things
• The Divine Comedy
• A Man Called Ove

• Hamilton
• The Book of the Unknown
• The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
• Being Mortal
• Reading Dante
• Standard Deviation
• The Bear and the Nightingale
• The Lilac Girls
• The Fall of the House of Cabal
• March (books 1, 2, 3)
• Educated
• We Were Eight Years in Power
• The Keeper of Lost Things
• 4 3 2 1
• The Art of War Visualized

I have a few more books in the home library that I will include on this list — but only once I clear these books from my upstairs shelves.

This does not include the multitude of books on my Kindle and in Audible, which often (but not always) duplicate what I have on my shelves. Among those is:

• Norse Mythology
• Lady Cop Makes Trouble
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
• Differently Morphous
• The Power
• Welcome to Night Vale

Some of these books intersect with those to be featured this autumn at Fall for the Book, and the serendipity makes me smile. Others that have not yet been read will be, if not this summer, then at least before the October festival.

Those sentiments — home library, multiple books on multiple platforms, attending a major book festival — are steeped in privilege, and trust me, I know full well the privilege of purchasing and reading books. I share my good fortune when I can, and I hope those folks whose share my good fortune also spread the love of books and reading.

So, in a nutshell, that is what I hope to read this summer. I have heard from another reader, Karen,  whose reading list we will see in the coming days  — and yes, for ideas as well as for support.

What's on your nightstand or bookshelves that you plan to read this summer? Share your summer reading list in the comments below, or send it to me and I will share it with our fellow book lovers!

Summer Reading: Get With the Program

Summer reading means hot days and humid nights reading any book you darn well please.

Reading with friends makes it even better — so get with the Program!

That's the whole reason for the Summer Reading Program: to gather friends, make new friends, and READ.

The Summer Reading Program lasts from the Friday before Memorial Day and the first weekend in autumn. In 2018, that is Friday, May 25 through Sunday, September 23. 

If you read the most of anyone in our program, I will give you a book. (I know, right?)

So, to get in on this sweet deal, what do you have to do? Not much. Contact me directly or leave a comment below. 

We programmers can tell each other what we are reading, what we plan to read, what we actually read, and what we would read if we had way more time.

What kind of books count? All kinds! Mix a few graphic novels in with non-graphic novels, catch up on your comics, toss in some audiobooks, and front-load the e-reader of your choice. (We are equal opportunity here at the Summer Reading Program: Nooks, Kindles, tablets, phablets — all are welcome.)

Kickstart your reading with a treat: go to your favorite book source and pick up that book you have been promising yourself you will read. 

Is it trashy? Good. 
Is it short? Excellent. 
Is the cover bright? Perfect! 
Is it the next in your beloved series? Go for it!

Once I figure out how to easily put my photos on my computer (long story), I will share my reading list — which consists of books that are literally hanging around my nightstand.

Even if you don't join the reading program, I still would love to know: what's on your summer reading list? Tell me!chattingwithchris@gmail.com

And a special shout-out to the artists of this year's Summer Reading graphic: Beth Wilson and her DoodleCats!

Summer Reading: Get Booked!

I hope you had a good Memorial Day, stacking up your books on the nightstand or desk, putting them in order for —

Oh, maybe that was just me. 

Anyway, summer reading has begun, so get with the program!

Summer reading means long days and humid nights reading any book you darned well choose. We count books read between the Friday before Memorial Day and the first Sunday in autumn. In 2018, that is Friday, May 25 through Sunday, September 23.

I have an idea of what is going on my list, and I will share my TBR with you soon.

If you still are thinking about how to spend your summer reading, visit your library (public or private), your local bookstores and thrift shops, yard sales and online book suppliers, friends and family, and choose what books look like they need to be read this summer.

Join the Summer Reading Program and put yourself in the running for a new book. Read as much as you wish  — and if you read the most books during the club reading dates, you will win a book of your own. Seriously. I will give you a book.

To get with the program, just contact me directly or leave a message below. 

Then, at the end of the summer reading period, send me an e-mail or include your reading list in a blog comment. If you read the most, congratulations! If not, you still are a winner because you spent your summer reading. And who knows, you may win a book anyway.

I've already had a few e-mails from eager readers, and I can't wait to read your list!

Even if you don't get with the program, I still would love to know: what's on your summer reading list? Tell me!

And a special shout-out to the artists of the 2018 Summer Reading graphic: Beth Wilson and her DoodleCats!

Summer Reading: Karen's List

Summer reading has begun! Are you as excited as I am? 

The Summer Reading Club is in full swing. It means days full of reading books: hopefully good ones, of course, but take a risk from time to time. Go out on a limb and reach for a book that may be different from your usual fare. Try a different media: try recorded books, or print, for a change of pace.

Ambitious Reader Karen has shared her reading list with us, and I'm very pleased to see a couple of books she and I both own. I will have to make sure she and I synchronize our Kindles to activate extra fun reading!

Here are her summer reading books, in no particular order:

• A Second Daniel
  
• The Haunting of Ashburn House
• Stirrings in the Black House
• The Miniaturist
• The House
• Little Red
• Switching Hour
• Darcy's Ultimatum
• The Templar's Cross
• Georgianna Darcy's Diary
• Secrets and Sensibilities
• Indiana Belle
• Crossings
• Nothing to Croak About
• The Chocolate Cure
• Evil Librarian
  
• Rising Sun
• Wobble to Death
• Servant of the Crown Mysteries: Lost Innocents, Season of the Raven, Season of the Fox
• Tempest at Dawn
• Glorieta Pass
• Collide
• Tequila and Tea Bags
• The Passage
• Chocolate Shop in Paris
• Freedom's Sword
• A Spell of Trouble
• The Bees
• Troublemaker
• Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story
• A Night Without Armor: Poems
  
  
• Chasing Down the Dawn: Stories From the Road
• A Strange Beginning
  
  
• Beautiful Storm

Do you see any books that look good to you? Check them out from the library, or see if they're in your Kindle Prime or Unlimited reading bank.

By the way, did you know that Kindle Prime readers have some great options open to them for free reading? Check out the list, which includes modern classics 1984, Animal Farm, and The Handmaid's Tale.

If you don't want to make a list, that's cool, too. Just start reading — and feel free to drop me a line to let me know what pages you are turning.

Summer Reading: Making a List!

Summer means reading — and summer reading club! 

Remember back in the day, when reading came with rewards? In my local library, readers would have their names posted with the number of titles read during the summer. One year, I read 4o books. My librarian was skeptical — then she remembered how I sat in the library for hours at a time, reading. Forty it was.

Getting a shout-out on Hedgehog Lover may not be as cool as having your name posted on the Norwalk Library children's section activity board, but it's still not bad. 

Visit your library (public or private), your local bookstores and thrift shops, yard sales and online book suppliers, friends and family, and choose what books look like they need to be read this summer.

So here's what I hope to consume this summer between the Memorial Day weekend and the first weekend in autumn. This year, that date is Friday, May 26 through Sunday, September 24.

First of all, please take a moment to think about Memorial Day, and understand what it really means, 149 years after it began as Decoration Day in an Illinois town. May we strive for peace, and love, and the things that bring us together.  

In that vein, we may want to add a book to our list that reflects Memorial Day, and an article published by the Los Angeles Times may be a good place to start. 

My list is more a "wish" than carved in stone, but here it is, in no particular order:

1. Hamilton: The Revolution
2. Evicted
3. Anna Karenina
4. Lady Cop Makes Trouble
5. The Burning Pages
6. Dark Money
7. Map of the Sky
8. The Intuitionist
9. Ready Player One
10. The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books
11. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
12. Me Before You
13. Yesternight
14. The Fall of the House of Cabal
15. The Descent
    
16. The Book of Harlan
17. At the Water's Edge
18. Thank You for Your Service
19. The Glass Sentence
20. The Keeper of Lost Things
21. The Lost City of Z
22. Wicked
23. Bone Season
24. The Gun Seller
25. Wolf Hall
26. The Lowland
27. And the Mountains Echoed
28. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter 
29. The Sixth Extinction
    
30. Revival
31. Bellman and Black
32. Just Mercy
33. Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits
34. Redeployment
35. The Handmaid's Tale
36. The Case Against Sugar
37. The Magicians
38. The Unbanking of America
39. The Inexplicable Logic of My Life
40. Welcome to Night Vale
41. Hidden Figures
42. Speaking from Among the Bones
    
43. Ruined
44. The Bear and the Nightingale
45. Uprooted

I suspect this list will change. As soon as something looks or sounds good, it will be on the list. I can't help it!

Join the Summer Reading Club and put yourself in the running for a new book. Read as much as you wish from Friday, May 26 through Sunday, September 24, and if you read the most books, you will win a book of your own.

To join the club, just send me an e-mail or leave a message below. Then, at the end of the summer reading period, send me a message or include your reading list in a blog comment. If you read the most, congratulations! If not, you still are a winner because you spent your summer reading.

I've already had a few e-mails from eager readers, and I can't wait to read your list!

I make sure summer reading is beneficial to my community. As I have done in years past, I will  donate $5 per book I read to Main Street Child Development Center (minimum $150) (I know, no sweat, right?), and I will buy three new books for the Fairfax County Public Library from its Amazon Wish List. 

Hopefully, reading club members also will find a way to help their communities through their reading, or to help share the love of reading with their communities. It's not a requirement, of course, but it certainly is a worthy effort. It doesn't have to be financial support, either — think of what the community wants and needs. Every reader can determine what is within her or his power to bestow.

Even if you don't join the reading club, I still would love to know: what's on your summer reading list? Tell me!

Get Excited About Summer Reading in 2017!

Memorial Day is right around the corner, which means...

 ...summer reading!

If you're anything like me, you've been perusing your own bookshelves, reviewing your library wish list, pondering the bookstore inventory, and just thinking about books.

I also am pondering summer reading lists of the past. Every year, I come up with a list, and every year I veer off-course almost immediately. (I mean, 2016. And 2015!)

Want to join the fun? Join the Summer Reading Club! (You may even win a new book.)

The "rule" of the Summer Reading Club, if any summer fun can have real rules, is this: read as much as you wish from Friday, May 26 through Sunday, September 24. If you are the club member who's read the most book, you will win a book of your own. 

To join the club, just send me an e-mail or leave a message below. Then, at the end of the summer reading period, send me a message or include your reading list in a blog message. If you read the most, congratulations! If not, you still are a winner because you spent your summer reading.

I've already had a few e-mails from eager readers, and I can't wait to read your list! I will publish mine this month.

I make sure summer reading is beneficial to my community. As I have done in years past, I will  donate $5 per book I read to Main Street Child Development Center (minimum $150) (I know, no sweat, right?), and I will buy three new books for the Fairfax County Public Library from its Amazon Wish List. 

Hopefully, reading club members also will find a way to help their communities through their reading, or to help share the love of reading with their communities. It's not a requirement, of course, but it certainly is a worthy effort. It doesn't have to be financial support, either — think of what the community wants and needs. Every reader can determine what is within her or his power to bestow. 

Even if you don't join the reading club, I still would love to know: what's on your summer reading list? Tell me!

Summer Reading: Ghosts, Murder, and Audiobooks — Oh, My!

Well, as I expected, I have veered far from my proposed reading list this summer. 

I discovered two new murder mystery series: Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series involving cats, possibly magic and definitely ghosts; and the Bibliophile Mystery series involving murder in California wine country and a book restorer.

I also have managed to fit in a biography, a couple of titles from my back list, a boatload of children's books (thanks, Maddie!), at least two young adult novels and some historical fiction. Some of the titles actually were on my original reading list.

So far, my favorites have been the new mysteries, Ghostly Mews and Homicide in Hardcover. Who knew my inner Agatha Christie would re-emerge? 

In In the Shadow of Blackbirds, I discovered that 2016 is not that different from 1918, what with disease, xenophobia and mistrust ricocheting around our nation.

I have only one Joe Hill in my "read" stack, and at least one from Stephen King is waiting to join it: Revival or Mr. Mercedes? I wonder.

I've stalled a little on my audiobook adventure, but I can't wait to hear Jeremy Irons read Lolita to me. Or maybe Rosamund Pike with Pride and Prejudice. The possibilities are endless.

Now, what are you doing online? Get back to reading — after you tell me how your summer reading is going!

Summer Reads, Karen-Style

Hello, fellow readers and book lovers! I know you're thrilled to find out what everyone else is reading, so take a gander at Karen Young's award-winning Summer 2105 Reading List.

Karen, a founding member of the adult Summer Reading Program, kept her reading at rock star level this summer with more than two dozen titles in only a few months.

Without further ado, I introduce you to Karen's Summer 2015 reading list:

1. Divergent
   
2. Insurgent
3. Allegiant
4. Following Atticus
5. Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman
6. The Loop
7. Ice Trap
8. Ghost Hunting
9. Seeking Spirits
10. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
11. I am Haunted Living Life Through the Dead
12. Hollow City
13. The Trail of Painted Ponies
14. Naked
    
15. Holes
16. The Bridges of Madison County
17. Zoya
18. The Gift
19. Under the Sun
20. The Book of Matthew, New Testament, Holy Bible
21. The Book of Mark, New Testament, Holy Bible
22. The Martian
23. Steamboat Gothic
24. Special Delivery
25. The Old Man and the Sea
26. Ben Franklin's Wit & Wisdom
    
27. Epidemic!

As a reward for her epic reading, Karen selected Library of Souls, the final book in the Miss Peregrine series. (We will be reading it this winter — but more on that soon.) Karen also chose to contribute to a charity near and dear to her heart: Golden Harvest Food Bank. What a great gift for a worthy organization. 

Did you have an epic summer of reading? I posted my list recently. Share your list — either in the comments below, or send me an e-mail.

Are you planning your winter reading? What's on your list? Let me know!

Summer Reading, Had Me a Blast!

The summer whipped by so quickly, I was positive I hadn't read a single book. How in the world can anyone get into the pages or bits in the blink of an eye?

Well, I did manage to get one or 30 under my belt. Here is the definitive list of books I read between the weekends of Memorial Day weekend and the autumnal equinox.  

The list is heavily populated with thick, heavy books of fiction and non-, but it also is peppered with a couple of re-reads and shorter reads (juvenile fiction and short stories).  The way I figure, it all evens out.

1. The Borrower
2. The Dalai Lama's Cat
   
3. Prisoner of the Devil
4. Everything I Never Told You
5. Kindred
6. The Four Agreements
7. A Dirty Job
8. 52 small changes: one year to a happier, healthier you
9. Interred With Their Bones
10. The Cats in Krasinski Square
11. Daily Rituals
12. Earth (DK)
13. Stepmonster
14. the life-changing magic of tidying up
    
15. The Husband’s Secret
16. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows
17. Puff the Magic Dragon
18. Story of the Nile
19. Arcadia
20. The Light Between Oceans
21. The Real Thing: Lessons on Love and Life from a Wedding Reporter
22. Orphan Train
23. She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems
24. The Martian
25. Start Late, Finish Rich
26. Picturing Grace
    
27. The Death of Me
28. Divergent
29. As You Wish
30. The Three Monarchs
31. Moriarty
32. Station Eleven
33. Good Omens
34. What If

  
Favorites — My favorite reads of this list include Station Eleven (read on a Kindle, ironically), the life-changing magic of tidying up and The Martian.  I liked Divergent, but if the writer told me again how short the protagonist was, I was going to go find her and discuss the issue with great vigor. 

I discovered Octavia Butler through Kindred, and if you haven't read any of her books, this is a wonderful introduction. Kindred hearkens to The Handmaid's Tale with a common narrator (as opposed to an omnipotent one), which is a great option for any book, but particularly science fiction. I already have another of her books on reserve at the library.

Least — Among my least favorites are The Husband's Secret (too light and fluffy for its subject matter) and The Four Agreements (glossing across the top of the subject with no substance).

As always, my summer reading will benefit my community: I will donate $5 per book read to Main Street Child Development Center and I will buy three new books for the Fairfax County Public Library from its Amazon Wish List. (Update: I donated H is for Hawk, The Witches and The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up.)

So, my fellow readers, how did you do this summer? I've heard from Karen, but I am sure there are a few more of you out there who'd like to compete for a free book of your choice! 

Wait, what?

You — yes, YOU — can win a book if you read the most books this summer.

Please send your reading list by October 30 so we can compare lists and you can get your new book all that much sooner. (Of course you will win. You read a lot, didn't you?)  Remember, the time frame is May 22 (the Friday before Memorial Day) through September 27 (the Sunday following the autumnal equinox). E-mail your lists to me, or post it in the comments below. Good luck, and I can't wait to see what you read!

(Also, start you brain power on what you'd like to designate for the 2016 Polar Book Club. It will be here before you know it!)