Summer Reading 2016

(Watercolour) Solitude, by S.E. Martin

Turns out I’m staring down a somewhat interesting summer…some things happened at work giving me, potentially, some extra time over the coming weeks to catch up on my reading. I have a variety of books to choose from, the piles at home are toppling over, my library wish list is sitting at over 1,000 and there are just so many books that I want to read! I’m just starting to look them over and process what kind of mood I may be in when I line up/stack the books to start burning through. Will that mood be one for the big, hefty reads? Will it be a mood where I need to focus more on “nice” reads and not the ones that are too heavy?

I’ve only just started compiling a stack from the ones I have here at home, and there is only one book I currently have “On Hold” for me at the library, so the list following is made up of those titles:

First up however, is the #SummerFictionBlogTour I signed on with Simon & Schuster Canada. 5 books in 5 weeks! Whew! But I’m chugging right through them, and have 2 left to read. The first of the book reviews goes up on June 17th, with the next following every week after. Those books are:

I’m doing another blog tour thing for Dundurn (and then I need to stick to my guns when we say we don’t participate in blog tours. The time constraint is just too much to tie myself down and I really want/need to read on my own time and not feel forced. (Not to say these books have been turn offs or anything! Not at all, I just want to be able to read at my own pace, choose the books I want to read. Know what I mean?)

So, this next book is for that other blog tour, but really is one I’m looking forward to reading right after I finish with the S&SC books. Doesn’t it sound great? (Click on the cover for the Goodreads synopsis.)

Then there is the one I’m waiting for from the library. Liz Moore, author of (the very beloved) Heft has a new one coming out and that meant throwing an immediate hold on it so I can be one of the first to read it when it comes in! The Unseen World looks very promising!

Once these are done, I’m planning out the rest of my summer reads!

First up will just absolutely have to be, A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson. This one will complete a CBC Books Bingo Challenge Square and give me about 3 Bingo lines! It’s the one that’s been holding me up from being able to finally yell Bingo! :-)

Then, I need to decide – do I read a pair of super-chunky reads? The two I have are: Barkskins and The Crow Girl. With Barkskins at over 730 pages and The Crow Girl over an impressive 780 pages, I’m not too sure I’m ready to take on both of them? While I’m completely geeked to read Proulx’s latest, and Axl Sund’s sounds like it could be an exciting new read similar to Larsson’s Millennium Series, I’m not too sure I want to take on a hefty and heavy read like those at this time.

All the others on the piles? I have to go through these and choose wisely – meaning I have to make sure I’m in the right frame of mind at the time to read them. There are so many great ones here, but some are a little bit heavier than others. I think I should start with ones that hold a more uplifting message or lighter read at this time, just to get the summer reading started.

I haven’t even looked at the library wish list yet…perhaps a little afraid to? I also have a serious backlist that should have my attention turned to as well!

For summer reading, these should be put in there since they have been sitting on my shelf for some time, or for two of these titles, were wonderful gifts to have received in the mail by a wonderful bookish friend!