Summer Reading Extravaganza - Day 1: Beach Reads

The Friendly Book Nook is hosting a Summer Reading Extravaganza this week, and inviting everyone to write about summer reading. They even have prizes! So you might want to take a look at their web site for the guidelines.

Summer reading is something I can get very excited about (see Summer Reading Review, Part Two). Well, those lazy hazy days of summer are just the perfect time to let everything else slide and get lost in a good book, right?

Today's topic is beach reads: "what's your favorite beach read or what's in your beach bag?"

Well, I won't actually be heading to the beach until the end of August this year, and I hope to get a lot of summer reading done before then. Katie Hickman's The Aviary Gate, and People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks are the books I'll be starting in the immediate future (this week, I hope).

I've also got the newest entry in Nancy Clark's saga of the Hill family (July and August) on order, and intend to plunge right into it as soon as it's in my eagerly waiting hands. I loved the first book, The Hills At Home (look for a review of that one as soon as I can make myself sit down and write it)– and I'm really hoping this new one is as good.

Last summer, my beach reads included The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home, by George Howe Colt, and Neil Gaiman's Coraline. The first book is just what the subtitle says – the story of the summer home Colt's great-grandfather built on Cape Cod back at the beginning of the last century. And Coraline is the spooky story of what happens when a little girl steps through a door in her house and finds another house just like hers, but also disturbingly different. Very different books, but they were both perfect for vacation reading.

When I do eventually make it to the seaside this summer, I'll probably have a few whodunits stuffed in my beach bag. Probably at least one of the Mrs. Murphy mysteries, by Rita Mae Brown (and her cat Sneaky Pie Brown). I'm reading Wish You Were Here at the moment, but there are over a dozen titles in the series, so I have plenty to choose from. Also on my list is one of the Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters, The Curse of the Pharaohs. I haven't read any other books in the series – this will be my first. But I've heard lots of good things about them and I always thought I'd like to be an archaeologist (or a Pharaoh – either one).

So, there's my short list – I'm sure I'll be adding to it over the next few weeks. Now if you want to participate in Extravaganza week, just write up a post on your blog about your summer reading and then visit The Friendly Book Nook to let them know about it. And then start your reading!