Do you remember getting ready to leave on a vacation and making sure to pack some carefully selected books and magazines to lazily read while tanning? I remember those days. If you still have those days, cherish them. I followed the same tradition while packing for our first vacation to the Bahamas when our son was 7 months old. I found some great books at Chapters that I couldn’t wait to read on the beach since life at home seemed too hectic to get any reading done.
By the end of the vacation the most use those books had was to act as a weight in my beach bag. Reading with a small child around? I don’t know what I was thinking. It was almost as silly as when my husband packed himself a bunch of magazines for our hospital stay for our son’s birth. Didn’t he know he would be busy running around doing everything I asked? I did just give birth to his first born child, so it didn’t take me long to cash in on the you-owe-me-for-life-for-having-your-baby angle.
Now that things are a bit more manageable (I didn’t say less hectic, it’s just easier to manage the chaos), I’ve had an easier time keeping up on my reading. I always have a novel on the go, and sometimes two. Yesterday I picked up Gone Girl, which I am excited to read before the movie comes out.
Here are a few of my recommended summer reads for when you actually have five minutes to yourself this summer!
The Night Circus By Erin Morgenstern
I avoided reading this one for a long time, but I kept seeing it over and over again on people’s lists of must-reads. The idea of reading about the circus didn’t interest me, but once I started this book I couldn’t put it down. Highly addictive, and dare I say, a must-read!
The Paris Wife By Paula McLain
I really knew very little about Ernest Hemmingway until I read this book centered around his first wife, Hadley Richardson. The book focuses on their lives in the 1920’s while living in Paris, and the story of their marriage is pretty unbelievable. And frustrating. Very frustrating. You may do some yelling at Hadley. Oh, and it will make you want to go to Paris.
Before I go to Sleep By S.J. Watson
This one was a bit frustrating, but I found myself racing to the end to figure out what was going on. Every morning Christine wakes up not knowing who she is, who her husband is, and why she cannot remember anything. It’s one of those books where you are screaming at the character to figure it out!
Furious Love By Sam Kashner & Nancy Schoenberger
Love love love this book! It’s about the love life of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and I think I’ve read it at least three times. Their life together was so unbelievable.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
This story jumps from present to past, and is a little on the sad side, but it’s a very good read. It sort of haunts you when you are done, which means it’s a great story!
Life by Keith Richards
I love biographies. I read some pretty obscure one’s too, but this one was pretty appealing because wouldn’t you think Keith Richards had an interesting life? He did, I can confirm it. It’s a great read, and his life was as crazy as you would imagine.
