Summer Reading

Well, I am still teaching summer school so I haven't really been able to dive into my summer reading full-force yet. But I have read a few books that I thought I'd share.

I really liked this book. I didn't know it was YA until I had finished it and started reading the reviews. I think it's extremely well-written, the imagery is really haunting. And you just really feel for this main character who  didn't have a chance in life given the family dynamic she was born into. I highly recommend this one. It's one that stays with you.

I try to read classics in-between the newer fiction. I read this book in high school and really couldn't remember much about it. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal (love her!)-she really was a perfect voice for the protagonist of this story. I hate to say it, but it was a little more boring than I remembered. A lot of the story was about her life at work. I am not usually one to re-read books, but it's kind of neat to read one from your past and see how as an adult the story resonates differently.

I read the book reviews in Entertainment Weekly magazine and usually they are spot on, but I don't think this book deserved the rave review they gave it. I love scary stories and this was touted as a good scary one! Stephen King was even recommending it. I thought it was an interesting story, extremely atmospheric in the descriptions. Very well-written-just not very scary. I am actually not even sure after reading the last 2 chapters twice what even happened. I wish I knew someone else who read it so they could explain it to me! :)

I also really wanted to like this book. The premise seemed so interesting. A Native American man shoots at a deer and accidentally kills his friend's son. So to atone for this, he gives them his youngest son. I love Native American history and enjoyed the legends included. But the author kept flashbacking (is that even a verb) to the father's past, his father's past, etc. I understand family curse and there was meaning to the name and all, but I found it to be very confusing and jarring to the original storyline. This was a book I felt like I had to finish after I was more than halfway through, but it was more like a chore to get to that ending.

Have you been reading anything that you'd recommend?