One year ago I found a forgotten gift card… but instead of spending it on groceries or some other mundane necessity, I decided to treat myself to a bookstore visit.
And just this past weekend, we made another trip to McKay Used Books to sell a pile of books… and of course I came home with a few more. It’s hard to resist store credit!
Here’s a look at my summer reading stack from this year and last:
2016
I recently read the 75 Best Books of the Past 75 Years that Ann Patchett put together, so I had a list in mind of a few I’ve either been meaning to read for a while or sounded intriguing. (Side note: the list is definitely worth a click! I’ve only read a few of the 75 titles and it made me realize how often I shy away from “difficult” or “heavy” literature when choosing my next book to read, and while I certainly believe I’m entitled to read whatever I want, it also made me want to stretch outside of my normal reading comfort zone.)
Here’s the stack I came home with:
The only Atwood novel I’ve read is The Handmaid’s Tale but it has really stuck with me, and this blend of murder mystery and sci-fi sounds super interesting.
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The only Ishiguro novel I’ve read is A Pale View of Hills for an English course in college, and I remember it being intriguingly quiet but also challenging. Maybe this is the summer to finally attempt another.
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I’ve heard so much about Robinson’s more recent novels Gilead, Home, and Lila that it seems high time to visit Robinson’s debut Pulitzer-nominated novel about three generations of women to see what all the fuss is about.
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I’m a longtime fan of the SouleMama blog, and I love Amanda Soule’s passion for handmade, authentic mothering. This should be a great addition to my crafting library now that I’m looking forward to adding a child to the mix.
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And now for some Throwback Thursday action:
June 2015
One year later, these are all still on my bookshelf – a testament to how much I liked them! I also linked to my Reading Log thoughts if you want to know more about each one.
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I’ve actually read this one before as an ebook… but this is the special edition! It’s fitting that a story about fan fiction has real-life fan art on the endpapers, and there’s a ribbon bookmark as well. The best part though is the excerpt of Rowell’s newest book Carry On, the story-within-a-story that’s alluded to throughout Fangirl, now a real story coming out in October. So exciting… and I’ll probably end up reading this one again in anticipation of the semi-sequel.
My thoughts on Fangirl from September 2013 (the first time I read it!)
My BFF and I are going to reinstate our long-distance, two-person book club this summer and this is our first pick! I’ve heard so much buzz about this one that I couldn’t resist. Normally I would shy away from apocalyptic fiction (I blame it on my day job) but this one seems to transcend the genre.
My thoughts on Station Eleven from July 2015
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Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson
Graphic novels are a thing I would like to read, but I never really know how to get started. I’ve heard a lot of buzz around Noelle Stevenson’s comics LumberJanes, and when I heard that she wrote a standalone YA graphic novel about a shapeshifter, it sounded like a good entry point. My library doesn’t have it yet since it just came out this year, so I wanted to see if I could find it at the bookstore even though I was pretty sure it’d be too expensive. When I found that it was only $12.99, I snatched it up. It’s a quick read but so, so good! This is exactly the kind of thing I would’ve loved in middle school, and I loved it now too.
My thoughts on Nimona from June 2015
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Modern Log Cabin Quilting, by Susan Beal
I’ve had my eye on this one for quite a long time and I have been wanting to make a log cabin quilt lately, so when I saw this on the bargain table I was sold! One of my favorite quilt pins comes from this book, and I’m excited to dive into more inspiration. Somehow I never feel guilty about impulse buys when it’s a book.
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What are you reading right now?
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The Amateur Librarian 
thanks for the heads up on the 75 list – I’m going to take a look!
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