Summer Reading

I am thoroughly enjoying my summer break so far! I substituted for summer school this year which meant I got  to choose which days and where I wanted to work. It was kind of interesting to see how different schools do things.

I have been to several PD's and spent time working on putting together leveled readers and recording stories for my listening centers. I've also caught up on some episodes by binge-watching some Netflix. One of my big goals was decluttering my house and getting more organized before someone submits my name to Hoarders. I have definitely made some progress on that front as well.

Reading is something that I try to catch up on during summer break. I have read several books but am kind of in a slump right now. I have a huge stack from the library I just need to get motivated to read them.

Here are some that I read so far this summer:

I love when an author can write about flawed characters but still make you care about them. This is the story of a boy who was abandoned by his mother when he was little and his journey to find his identity. At the same time there is a parallel story about what happened to his mother.

This was an incredibly well-written book! There was a sentence on each page that I found profound or clever. It is a long book-I didn't know how long when I put it on hold at the library. It's over 500 pages, so it took me a while to read it. It's the story of a boy and his mother, love and grief. People just trying to get through the day to day.

I read a list of suspenseful books and was reminded of this story. Now I never saw the movie, but I knew the story. This book was written in the late 50's and I think it was very salacious for a book written in that time. Yes, there's the story of a child with psychopathic tendencies and her mother debating whether to help her (she is a mother after all) or stop her. But there is also the story of the mother herself remembering a past that she believes may be the cause of the daughter's affliction. Much better than I thought it would be.

I had read great things about this book and I have to admit I thought the premise was very creative. It's the story of a woman who marries the former husband of a woman who was convicted of murdering his children. For me though this book missed the mark. It bounced back and forth between character's perspectives and time to a point where I'd have to say who is this now? I also am one of those readers who likes the mysteries solved, who likes everything tied up in a bow by the end and this ending was not that for me. Wouldn't recommend this one.

I do like mystery stories and this one was a very cliched mystery. A girl tracing her past to see what really happened to her mother and her grandmother. I was intrigued enough to finish it and see what happens but really just mediocre.

I had read great reviews of this book in several different places. I feel like it's a hipster effort at artistic vision. These characters where truly flawed but in this story I didn't really care about them very much. It was hard to get through.

Are you reading anything exciting this summer?