So...whatcha readin'?

Mary: 
I love summer.  Not just because I can sleep past 5am and eat homemade blueberry cake for breakfast and eschew stockings and makeup most days - though all of those things are truly fabulous.  No.  I love summer because I have time to read.  (Insert blissed-out sigh here.)

Oh sure, I find or make time to read during the school year, but summer is different.  Summer means the kind of reading I love to do...the kind when I disappear into the author's world for hours or days at a time. I stay in my nightgown until 10am because getting dressed means taking a break from reading.  I eat lunch with a book open on the table next to me.   I feed my children pasta with butter because I'm too distracted to remember nutrition.  I stay up until 2am because I can't bring myself to put it down.  I dream about the characters.  I love reading of all kinds, but I really really love going all in. 

Erin: 
I couldn't agree more!  To give you an idea of what my summer reading looked like, here's a little story:  In July, I ventured to the fabulous Outer Banks where I spent almost every sun-lit minute sitting in the sand with my Kindle.  I'm sure there were lovely people on that trip.  I think I was related to some of them.  I know it would have been polite

Four books, seven days, one beach.

to talk a little more, to see some sights, maybe walk the beach...but this was my idea of a perfect vacation.  Uninterrupted hours knee-deep in another world.  After noticing my nerded-out bliss for the better part of the week, one twenty-something asked, "So, like how many books do you think you've read?  Like in your life, have you read a thousand?" At first I laughed at her inquiry, but she was serious.  All she had seen me do was: sit on the beach and read, sit on the plane and read, sit on the deck and read.  Didn't she understand?  This was what I had been dreaming of for weeks.  Before I had put a single item in my suitcase, I loaded my Kindle with books I had heard about - and not had the time to read - all year long.  It was heavenly.  And as much as I look forward to getting back to my students, what I miss most about summer is the time to read (and Mary's blueberry cake.)

And, perhaps more importantly, whatcha readin'? Please comment and tell us the best thing you've read this summer.

 

Mary's Summer Reading - so far
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

The Fault in Our Stars - John Green

The Best Man - Kristan Higgins (don't judge me)

A Long Walk to Water - Linda Sue Park

Holes - Louis Sachar

The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells - Andrew Sean Greer
The Selection and The Elite - Kiera Cass
Smile - Raina Telgemeier

Erin's Summer Reading
The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
Divergent - Veronica Roth 
The Astronaut Wives Club - Lily Koppel
Me Before You - Jojo Moyes
The Engagements - J. Courtney Sullivan
Life As We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeffer
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells - Andrew Sean Greer
Elsewhere - Gabrielle Zevin 

Mary & Erin

@mzcotillo @allinoleary