Summer Reading

 

Well, it's that time again. Time for the summer reading stack picture. These seven books are most likely just the beginning of my summer reading, but hey...gotta start somewhere. Below are individual pictures of each book and a brief description and the reason it landed on my summer reading stack.

One thing you will notice about these books, is most of them are backlist titles. Meaning, they are not new, recent, or on the best sellers list. If you know me and my reading habits, you will know that I do not read best sellers, when they are currently best sellers. I do not get drawn in by hype, especially for books. I usually wait a while before I will read a best seller, and then I only read it if it is a story I'm interested in, NOT because it was a best seller and everyone raved about it.

Any woo. Here's the individual titles.

South of the Buttonwood Tree by Heather Weber. You may not recognize the author's name but if you remember my posts from last year, Ms. Weber's book Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe was my #1 book of 2020, and it was the only book I've ever given 5 stars on Goodreads. And remember the cover? 

Now this book doesn't have the delicious cover that Blackbird had, but the story draws you in just the same.  -Blue Bishop has a nack for finding lost things...no one is more surprised than Blue, however, when she comes across a newborn baby in the woods, just south of the buttonwood tree..Sarah Gracehas always tried hard to do the right thing but her own mother would disown her if she ever learned half of Sarah Grace's secrets...Both women must fight for what they truly want in life and for who they love.

It made my list mainly because I liked Blackbird so much, but the magical realism genre is my second favorite genre so this one is at the top of the pile.

I stumbled on this one recently from the Modern Mrs. Darcy website. It is a historical fiction story set in 1935. The lives of three women collide Labor Day weekend while they are all traveling to Key West by train. And oh, yeah there's a hurricane coming...

I've never read this author, but historical fiction is my number one genre. Also, I've neve been steered wrong by the Modern Mrs. Darcy site, or the What Should I Read Next podcast (both by Anne Bogel)

This one makes the stack because Key West has come up in conversation lately. I thought it too coincidental that I saw this title at the same time.

Another Modern Mrs. Darcy recommendation...and surprise anther historical fiction. Are you sensing a pattern here?

-A young widow restores a dilapidated mansion with the assistance of a charming, eccentric genius, only to find the house is full of dangerous secrets in this effervescent Gilded Age novel, set in 1875 New York.

I typically don't like gothic novels. I cannot get into all of the dark creepiness that permeates these types of books. It's not that they are scary, actually its quite the opposite. They seem too over the top to be scary usually. But the idea of a woman renovating a house in 1875 is just too intriguing. The library just happen to have it available so it made the stack.

This one has been on my radar for awhile. I'll let the description say it all.

Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. Baconians are trying to convince the world that Francis Bacon really wrote Shakespeare, there are riots between he surrealists and impressionists and thousands of men are named John Milton, an homage to the real Milton and a very confusing situation for the police. Amidst all this, Acheron Hades, Third Most Wanted Man in the World, steals the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and kills a minor character, who then disappears form every volume every printed. But that's just the prelude, Hades real target is Jane Eyre, who he plucks from the pages of Bronte's novel. Enter Thursday Next, Special Operatives renowned literary detective...

What?! Yeah, that's what I said when I read the description too. I'm not even sure I can put into words what any of it means, but its on the stack because I'm curious to see how it plays out and my interest is piqued. 

This is my classic pick for the summer, or least it is the first one. I have a feeling this will be a summer when I read more than one classic. A couple years ago during our reading challenge at school, I read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Around the World in 80 Days has been on my "to be read" list for some time now and it made the stack because I believe this summer, it is time.

This is the follow up to The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen, which I read last year. It continues the story of the main character from Innkeeper, and also some of the other characters from that story. It is set during the Regency era (same as Jane Austen). 

Its on the stack because I'd like to go back and finish the series. I've read other books by Julie Klassen and haven't ever been disappointed. What I enjoy most is that even though her books are set during a time when women weren't normally considered to be anything but mothers, wives and keepers of the home. Klassen's characters are a good mix of both the traditional and the modern, without leaning too much either way. 

This is the only non-fiction on the list, but I don't think it will be the only non-fiction of the summer. I've caught the biography bug last year, so it is just a matter of time before I find another I want to read.

This is a book about therapy, written by someone in therapy, who is also a therapist herself.

I'm not going to dwell on why I may have picked this book for the stack, but let's just say I saw a blurb about it somewhere, couldn't decide on anything else, and wanted something non-fictional on the stack for the summer.

So there you have it folks. My summer reading stack for 2021. You'll get my thoughts on each of these once I finish them. If I add anything else, or do a summer reading stack part 2, you'll be the first to know. 

Till then, happy reading!