Favorite summer reads

What are your favorite summer reads this year? Check out staff favorites here on the blog, and add yours to the list!

It looks like we get three, so my favorites are-

1. The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector
2. Marta Oulie by Sigrid Undset
3. The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek

The Passion According to G.H. was just one of the best things I've ever read, and Marta Oulie was one of those rare books whose characters actually reflect real people as I know them instead of just reflecting other literary characters. I'm not going to forget The Piano Teacher for a while, if ever. It's starting to scar over though.

1. The Dalai Lama's Cat and the Art of Purring by David Michie (who is a LT author!). This is the second in the Cat series. Absolutely delightful!

2. While the World Watched by Carolyn Maull McKinstry about witnessing the Birmingham church bombing as a child in the '60's. Very moving to revisit those times and to read a first-hand account.

3. From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman. It is about the history of the Middle East. I am still reading this one. It will take a while, but it is excellent. It was recommended to me by several people of different backgrounds and I find it is pretty unbiased.

1. Come tell me how you live by Agatha Christie Her archaeological experiences with her second husband, shows Christie in a different light.

2. Dark Labyrinth by Lawrence Durrell Strange goings-on in Crete, still reading this one.

3. Hungry Hill by Daphne DuMaurier Family saga set in Ireland, quite different to her other novels.

Thought I'd read everything these authors had written, but missed on these - three damn good reads in very different ways.

I don't make a distinction between 'summer' reading and any other time reading, to me it's a weird concept, so are you looking for one here, or just books we've read during this summer that we really liked?

So far this summer my favorites are

Invention of Wings by Kidd
Wonder by Palacio
Written in My Own Heart's Blood Gabaldon

>5 Bookmarque: Same, it's always perplexed me.

>7 .Monkey.:, yeah, I keep feeling like I'm missing something. I try to pinpoint the differences between what I'd read at the beach and what I'd read next to a fireplace in winter and ... nope, nothing different. I've the same interests all the year round. Seems like a marketing gimmick to attract people who don't typically read all the time: "hey, it's trendy to read in the summer", yadda yadda.

I think it's because people have vacation and it's hard to do anything by the pool or on the beach but read. So for people who don't read much, this is when they do it. I did manage to read twice as many books in July than usual due to vacation. I tend to indulge in more escapist fare this time of year, but that rarely makes a list of my favorites. So far this summer, my favorites have been China Mountain Zhang and Northanger Abbey, but summer isn't over yet.

See, if I have a large free period, that would be when I read heavier things, as there is nothing else going on to disrupt me from it. So not only do seasons not inexplicably change my reading, but also if it being summer did have the sort of impact that seems suggested, I would do it opposite of the type that is implied.

>10 .Monkey.:, makes sense to me. I'm pretty same-level-busy all year round these days too, but I remember in high school I took that approach.

Yup. My husband, too, is in uni and is too busy to do very much pleasure reading (though he has plenty of classics and such for classes, as he's a language student), but over summer he can dig in and get to some of the more challenging/deeper stuff. :)

Yes, my list is not a specific summer read. It is just what I happen to be reading this summer.

Speaking personally I tend to read to a similar level all year round (depending on how busy I am at any given time and what mood I'm in). I have friends who aren't regular readers to the same extent (maybe a book or two a month) and they tend to like lighter fun reads when they're on the beach/by the pool - they don't tend to want to read anything that's going to make them cry or feel down or whatever or involve too much heavy thinking. Speaking personally - I probably don't get through as many books when I'm on vacation as I'm too busy going out and seeing things I don't get the chance to see at home, so I'm not one for reading by the pool and as I can't read in the car if anything I find myself with less reading time.

>13 krazy4katz: Same here, really. Though I do find that the types of books I feel like reading changes pretty dramatically between warm weather and cold weather.

My favorites this summer have been:

Euphoria by, Lily King
We Were Liars by, E. Lockhart
A Sudden Light by, Garth Stein
Written in my Own heart's Blood by, Diana Gabaldon

If anything, I seem to read less in the summer. Perhaps that will change when I retire (5 months!!) The type of book does not seem to change. I'll try anything in my never-ending search for the next book that sets off my "great read alarm". However, I do try to not read (or listen to) a sad ending while I'm in public :)

This year I only read four new books in July. However, I reread the first two All Soul's novels and am currently rereading the first two Magicians, to jog this old memory for the third of the trilogies.

My three favorites are an eclectic mix:
The Martian, Andy Weir
The Book of Life: A Novel All Souls Trilogy), Deborah Harkness
An Untamed State. Roxanne Gay

I too put The Martian on my list of bests. I listened to the audio version which was SO WELL DONE.
I just finished A Madness of Angels and would call it a tour de force in descriptions, inventiveness, humor.
I loved an oldie in June - The Motor Maid is a classic motoring romance.

It's been a good season, eh?

>17 bg853: Congratulations on almost retiring. I'm down to 2 to 3 hours a day right now, and as of the end of October it will be 2 to 3 hours a week. I don't know that I'll ever completely retire.

My last shipment of summer reads arrives from B&N today:

Summer Breeze: A Novel
Nancy Thayer

Sweet Salt Air
Barbara Delinsky

One Good Friend Deserves Another
Lisa Verge Higgins

The Traitor's Wife
Allison Pataki

The "Will you like it" thing says I'll enjoy every one of these books.

I haven't read anything in the last month that really qualifies as a "favourite summer read" - diving into the TBR pile, I could nominate:

Boswell on the grand tour - that should count as vicarious holiday reading, because it's too big and heavy to take anywhere much further away than my balcony, but I'm looking forward to enjoying the holiday Boswell took after his studies in Utrecht

Malena es un nombre de tango - foreign-language books are great for holiday reading, because you read them more slowly, and this is a good thick paperback at just about the level of difficulty I can manage in Spanish without a dictionary

Phineas Redux - it's about time I finished the Palliser novels, and I always enjoy reading Victorian novels on holiday

I'm planning to read Boswell's tour of the Hebrides next year sometime, but had no idea he wrote so many other journals.

17 and 18. The Martian is my favorite book of the summer, so far.

2/3 of the way through The Martian and I agree with 22, 18 and 17.
I'm predicting it will be added to my favorites list!

I am delving into some nonfiction for the summer; ie. 1776 by David McCullough ( good narrative history of the
revolution ), also,. I plan on starting Shelby Foote's 3 volume tirliogy of the Civil War next week ( just finished the Ken Burns version of the Civil War on DVD ). I have ordered the 1st 26 books in the Hamish Macbeth mystery series just for fun. Yikes, so much reading and so little time.

Two nonfiction and one really funny fiction:

1. Field Notes from a Hidden City: An Urban Nature Diary by Esther Woolfson

2. Let the tornado come : a memoir by Rita Zoey Chin

3. The Rosie Project: A Novel by Graeme Simsion

I got back into reading the Village School books by Miss Read (aka Dora Saint). I read the whole series years ago, and picked them up again this summer. They give a colorful picture of life in a small British village.

I do not distinguish between summer and winter reading--it just depends on what I feel like reading at the time.

I read The Mountaintop School for Dogs and other second chances by Ellen Cooney. It was a great read. She really has a heart for abused dogs. I read Their Mysterious Ways. My favorite stories were those where animals saved human lives and a story about a veteran and his dog. I also read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. This was an amusing fantasy book. I've read so much more than that this summer than the other seasons because I'm a teacher.

The Last Warner Woman by Kei Miller's This was great lit reading as it is tales within a tale but also an allegory of a society and an immigrant experience. Too cryptic for you? It is a book about Jamaica.

Callam an excerpt from Naughts and Crosses by Melorie Blackman

Gardens of the Roman World by Patrick Bowe

I tend to read books by authors I have met. So none of the books I read this summer are on the list, yet.

I totally enjoyed Rebel Traveler by Sally Walker Brinkmann. Not my usual type of book, but an interesting transition. I followed that with a book by Robert Yoho, Long Ride to Yesterday. I have never been a western fan, but he converted me. Then I devoured Burn Down the Ground by Kambri Crews. Interesting story of growing up poor with deaf parents.

Wile none of the New York Times Best Seller list they were all good reads.

Favorites?
1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
2. Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
3. A Grown-up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

By now, lots of readers know about The Goldfinch; a book to sink into; so satisfying. Brazzaville Beach, now another favorite by one of my favorite authors. A Grown-up Kind of Pretty, a wonderful summer surprise; a family mystery that keeps the reader in its grip to the very end.

Never have I cried more over a book than The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It was a brilliantly-conceived and beautiful piece of writing.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett once again showed me how lyrical prose can be.

My favourite crime novelist of the moment is Louise Penny. I enjoyed several of her books this summer, particularly How the Light Gets In.

My three favorites are YA with realistic characters and plots:

(1) Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy
(2) Just One Year by Gayle Forman
(3) Say What You Will by C. McGovern