Summer Book Club, here I come!

My normal reading material consists of US Weekly (I am loyal subscriber and therefore read it religiously every Thursday night), Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar (again, I wait for the monthly glossies to arrive in my mailbox), and catalogs (the husband hates that when we moved I was thrilled to get us on a mailing list for all home stores in the nation!). However, in the summer, I get serious about my reading. I try to plan my days off in accordance with the weather if at all possible, and lay out (on my front porch, someone else’s roof, my parents’ patio, wherever) for several hours per day and devour approximately a book or two per week. When I say devour, I mean it. I get completely obsessive about my books, the plots, the characters, etc. After my day tanning, I proceed to read at night, when I’m sweating in our sweltering third floor apartment. I get lost in the story to the point where (thank goodness) I forget about the heat and stay up for hours past the fi-fo-fum husband, who like clockwork, peacefully falls asleep before 10pm.

This summer, I decided to get really serious about my reading. After a lunch break spent pouring through the shelves at Barnes and Noble, and another few hours reading the backs of all the books at Target, I created my own personal summer reading list. Feeling quite pleased with myself, I took it one step further and invented MY OWN SUMMER BOOK CLUB. The husband (again, he is so ridiculous) says that you cannot have a real “club” if you are the only person in it, but as usual, I beg to differ. I am THRILLED about my club, however independent it may be! And, for being so negative, he actually turned out to be quite supportive, because he even bought me three books from Amazon! (By bought, I mean I clicked “Yes, use credit card on file” while I was ordering, and then asked him afterward. I LOVE stored account numbers like that!)

Since I (someday) want to write my own book, my reading list is rather memoir-focused. (See, this is why I can be the only person in my club, because the titles are all for my own personal benefit.) Here is what I have tackled so far:

“the best of friends” by Sara James and Ginger Mauney (an excellent read – two best friends wind and twist their individual tales and the span of their friendship through three decades)

“someday my prince will come” by Jerramy Fine (the true story of a girl searching for her prince, literally; incredibly candid and hilarious, it’s an easy and upbeat read that brought much joy to the few days it took me to read it!)

still to come…

“change of heart” by Jodi Picoult (not a memoir, but I love this author, and I’m sure this book – one of her earlier novels – will not disappoint; she is responsible for this summer's blockbuster, "my sister's keeper" as well)

“pretty in plaid” by Jen Lancaster (another memoir, by the same funny girl who wrote “Bitter is the New Black;” her writing style is supposedly quite “bloggy” so I think I will like it!)