Summer break is over. All teachers and students have their nose back to the grindstone. Summer technically isn’t over, but the long languid afternoons are.
I didn’t do a monthly book list over the summer because I wanted to save them all up for this, and epic (or not so epic) summary of my summer break. Because really, this is what I do over summer break. I read books, take care of my garden, and drink tea. Occasionally I take a hike with my dog. Summer is glorious.
On to the books!
I read 24 books over the summer. 1 of them was a reread, and 1 of them I finished over the summer, though I started it a ginormously long time ago. The other 22 were all new books of varying lengths and genres.
8 of those books were nonfiction. This included a turtle book, a memoir, and three biographies.
My favorite biography was ‘Life in a Cold Climate’ by Laura Thompson. The biography was on Nancy Mitford, who was a fascinating author who lived during the world wars. Part of the reason I liked it so much was I could tell the author of the biography admired the person she was writing about. Her enthusiasm for her topic intrigued me, and kept me reading even when I didn’t like Ms. Mitford very much…
My least favorite biography was ‘C. S. Lewis: A Life’ by Alistar McGrath. Not because I don’t like C. S. Lewis. But because the author was a snooty academic holding forth on the only correct way to view C. S. Lewis. I swore I would never read anything by this author again.
16 of the books I read over the summer were fiction. 5 of those were fantasy, which included my two biggest books of the summer. First, we have ‘The Shadow of what was Lost’ by James Islington at 230, 584 words (according to Google), and then we have ‘Way of Kings’ by Brandon Sanderson at a whopping 383, 389 words. Yikes. Though, in all honesty, I did not read the entire ‘Way of Kings’ this summer. I read half of it, as I read half of it many months ago, ran out of time, then told myself I would finish it over the summer. Still, they were both very large books, and both are beginnings of a series of massive books. Oh dear.
I read one solitary mystery over summer break. ‘The Mysterious Mr. Badman’ by W. F. Harvey. The characters were more interesting than the mystery itself, but I did enjoy it.
8 of the fiction books I read were realistic fiction from all eras. I reread ‘A Room with a View’, finally read ‘Of Mice and Men’, and barely breathed all the way through ‘My Name is Asher Lev’. Asher Lev is beautifully, beautifully written. I would highly recommend it, especially to people who have careers in the arts. I think the greatest theme of the book is what it takes to create great art. What artists give up, and what they gain, in pursuit of great art. The ideas he unfolds throughout the book are thought provoking, whether or not you agree with them.
The last 2 books I read were thrilled romps in the YA section. ‘The Inheritance Games’ and ‘The Hawthorne Legacy’ by Jennifer Lyn Barnes. These books have looots of drama, a love triangle (full confession, I thought it was great, my enjoyment of drama has increased now that I live a peaceful life away from the chaotic hormones of the teenage years.), twists and turns, and a mystery our characters are trying to solve. I may have stayed up waaaay too late with the first one, and managed to finish it in one sitting. Did I regret it in the morning? Not much.
My least favorite book was ‘Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands’ by Heather Fawcett. This is a sequel, and I enjoyed the first one quite a bit. I was very excited for the sequel, and was disappointed within the first chapter. It very much felt like a repeat of the first one, just in a different place.
I think my favorite book was ‘Way of Kings’ by Brandon Sanderson, with ‘Lucia in London’ by E.F. Benson as a close runner up. ‘Way of Kings’ is epic, dramatic, and huge in scope. I don’t know how many named characters there were in the book, but there were enough I feel the end for a character appendix. I was completely invested in the characters, and wanted them to have good endings soooo badly. I still want them to have good endings, but this is a very long series… And after Mistborn, I will never trust Brandon Sanderson again.
‘Lucia in London’ is a very different book. It follows our wonderful heroine Lucia who finds herself, thanks to a rich great aunt, in the London scene. She decides to conquer it, and firmly begins moving herself up the social ladder. This is a comical look at the London high society at the turn of the century. Lucia is driven, talented, and willing to sacrifice almost anything to get to the tippy top of society. Meanwhile, her friends at home are seething with envy, and concoct schemes to show her they don’t miss her at all! Hijinks ensue.
All in all, it was a great summer of books. I enjoyed most of the books I read, and I found a couple new series to immerse myself in. Sometimes, in the heady days of summer, I worry I will run out of things to read. But will I? Will I really? My local bookstore, which I frequent to gawk at the books, doesn’t think it’s likely. Thank goodness.
I hope the end of your summer is wonderful,
Shaina Merrick
The Beauty of a Story 