Summer Reading
Summer in Arizona is much like winter in normal places. It’s so miserable outside that everyone sort of hunkers down in air conditioned places and waits it out until walking out your front door doesn’t feel like walking into an oven. One of my favorite ways to while away my spare summer days is with a stack of good books. Over the weekend I spent some time in Tucson for a friend’s wedding and stayed at an incredible Air BnB (book the space here) and spent most of my day on Saturday reading The Fault in Our Stars. Is there anything better than lounging in bed and reading a really engaging book? I’d say no is the answer to that. So, in honor of the finer things in life, here are some books I’ve consumed recently.
Back in my Tumblr days, I stumbled onto a quote form this book that is, to this day, one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read.
“I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”
I’m happy to say that when I finally read the book, it lived up to the beauty and honesty in that little snippet. This is a really quick read (like most YA fiction) but the story is told in such a raw, honest voice that I had a really hard time putting it down. For fake characters, they have this ridiculously empathetic quality. Spoiler alert – I lost a friend from high school in a similar way so the book REALLY hit home for me.
I saw the movie first and enjoyed it so much that I figured the book had to be so much better. I’m happy to say that the book and the movie both do each other justice. I honestly cannot decide which I preferred. It’s a really easy read (I took it out in 1 day) and is a sweet story that, again, will most likely make you ugly cry. Think “My Sister’s Keeper” minus the mystery/legal drama plus the love from a book like “The Time Traveler’s Wife”.
This book is fucked. I read the synopsis on A Little Bit Ginger and immediately bought it on Amazon. The cover of mine is really tactile (a fuzzy black slip cover like those pictures you used to color in as a kid) which I love. It’s salacious and so wrong on so many levels but I’m LOVING it. If you want a look inside a (fictional) teacher-student relationship from the teacher’s point of view, read this immediately. If you like dirty books that make you blush while you read them on the train, this is for you.
I always hated history growing up. I got all of the battles and wars confused and I remember being ridiculously bored by the entire subject until my World History class my sophomore year of high school. My awesome teacher, Mr. Bezkorovainy, introduced me to a whole world of History I had heard very little (or nothing) about before. It. Was. AWESOME. As a result of this class, I got into reading historical non-fiction books about seedy parts of American history. I love learning about gangsters and burlesque dancers and Alcatraz. This book was good, but not great. I feel like I learned a lot and overall I’m happy I took the time to read it but it wasn’t quite as engaging as some other historical books I’ve read recently.
Filed under: Reading Rainbow
