Chapter By Chapter........

I started keeping a book journal about 3 years ago and wish I had been keeping one all my life. I have started my boys on this track this year and they enjoy seeing those books they have read, listed somewhere, just for the record.

Here is my list for June--some good ones, some bad ones this month..........

*The Breakdown Lane by Jacqueline Mitchard---I ended up liking this one better than I thought I would in the beginning. The one downer was the language used by the main character's teenage son. But surprisingly I ended up even liking that same son.

*The Ice Chorus by Sarah Stonich--kind of boring story dealing with infidelity, repressed memories and the fallout of all this. Too artsy for me....

*We Thought You Would Be Prettier by Laurie Notaro--I hesitate to mention this one as it can be kind of raw in places yet in so many other places it was laugh out loud funny to me. Heavy sarcasm abounds also.

*Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult--I like her writing style and the little twists at the end of her stories. This one deals with a father who kidnaps his daughter, 28 years earlier, from the mother in a divorce custody dispute and the repercussions of this when he is found out.

*The Bright Forever by Lee Martin---Another abduction story. This one is about the abduction of a child in a small town in Indiana and what that abduction means to different people in the town. Interesting writing perspective by author.

*The Orange Blossom Special by Betsy Carter---so/so story of a widow with a 13 year old daughter dealing with grief on both their parts. They move to Florida--story starts in 1958 and ends in the late '60s.

*The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs by Alexander McCall Smith----Hilarious, light read. Not what I expected and so different from his other series!

*Your Oasis on Flame Lake by Lorna Landvik--saga of two families in the time span of about a year as they deal with life changes and a couple of traumatic events that have trickle down consequences. I enjoy her writing style.

*The Quilt That Walked to Golden by Sandra Dallas---the history of quilting in America--but centralized mostly on the history of quiliting in the state of Colarado as it was pioneered and settled. Great pictures and interesting stories.

*Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith--another one in the lighthearted series of Dr. Igelfeld-the same main character in the previous one listed by this author above. These just gave me a chuckle!

My boys read:

Sam age 9:
*The Bear's Famous Invasion of Sicily
*The Wind on the Moon
*A Brother For the Orphelines
*Family Under the Bridge
(Currently he is reading one of the Unfortunate Events and Artemis Fowl)

Austen age 12:
*The Westing Game
*A Boy's War
*Alice in Wonderland
*Freckles (almost done)
*Artemis Fowl (He has read all but the new Artemis Fowl books but he is re-reading them before he lets himself read Opal Deception.)
*Incident at Hawk's Hill

I have such vivid summertime memories of getting deeply lost in a book, sitting on our front porch in the shade. Devouring books is what I did as a kid which I find rather interesing as I look back. Interesting because neither of my parents were big readers while I was growing up. They did not spend hours reading out loud to my sister and I. They did not help us pick out books at the library. In fact, trips to the library were pretty few and far between and I relied on my school library for the most part. Another childhood summer memory was being old enough to ride my bike to the library, stopping at the 7-11 on the way home for a slurpee....sigh....back when you could let your kids ride their bike somewhere other than just back and forth in front of your house.

The most wonderful summer of all was the summer of the bookmobile!! There was only one summer that there was one of those--before budget cuts, I an sure, brought that magical service to an end. Can you imagine anything more heavenly than a big truck that brought books right to you in your neighborhood. I wish they still had those--my boys would love it.
Happy reading.....everyone should have a good book or two going during the lazy days of summer!