Posts Tagged ‘summer reading’
Upcoming New Releases
I went just a wee bit crazy on Amazon recently pre-ordering books for my Kindle. I admit that I’m not very good at keeping up with what new books are coming out, but Amazon’s “Recommended Items” that show up whenever you buy something else are FANTASTIC. Thanks to that handy little tool, here’s everything that I pre-ordered…
- “Home Front” by Kristin Hannah – this just came out on January 30 but I haven’t started to read it yet
- “I’ve Got Your Number” by Sophie Kinsella – February 14
- “Lone Wolf” by Jodi Picoult – February 28
- “Another Piece of My Heart” by Jane Green – March 13
- “The Song Remains the Same” by Allison Winn Scotch – April 12
- “Jeneration X: One Reluctant Adult’s Attempt to Unarrest Her Arrested Development; Or, Why It’s Never Too Late for Her Dumb Ass to Learn Why Froot Loops Are Not for Dinner” by Jen Lancaster – May 1
- “Summerland” by Elin Hilderbrand – June 26
- “The Next Best Thing” by Jennifer Weiner – July 10
- “Where We Belong” by Emily Giffin – July 31
Looks like I’ll be busy for the next six months or so. This list is just about all of my favorite authors. 2012 is gonna be AWESOME!
By the way, have you started your 2012 Reading Challenge yet on Goodreads? I’ve already read 8 books out of the 35 that I predicted as my goal for the year. I have a feeling I’m going to go over since this is only February. I’m thinking about doing a contest for my readers to guess how many I’ll go over by and then whoever comes the closest at the end of the year will win some sort of a prize… what do you think? I credit author Jenn Thorson for the contest suggestion during a recent discussion on Twitter. Thanks Jenn!
Seasons Greetings and Reading Resolutions
I know I’m a little late for some of the holidays this month, but I hope all of my readers had a wonderful holiday season! It doesn’t feel like winter in my part of the world so it really didn’t FEEL like the holidays compared to past years. On another note – look at this cute book tree that I found on Pinterest!
Did you get any good gifts? Any good gifts involving BOOKS? I know quite a few people who were gifted Kindle Fires. I’m really curious about them but it doesn’t seem to make sense for me to get a tablet like that since I already have a smartphone, Kindle 2, and a laptop. But they look pretty awesome! I’ve noticed that the traffic here has been pretty steady over the past few days – I guess a lot of people are searching for new books to download to their e-readers and tablets!
One of my Twitter friends is a librarian, avid reader, and blogger and gave me an idea. She had set a goal of 45 books to read in 2011. And she hit the goal with a few weeks left in December! Holy cow! When I heard that, I thought I’d check Goodreads to see how many books I’ve read this year because I knew it had to be a lot. I was slightly disappointed to see that it was only 26, but then I realized that 1) that’s a whole lot more than most normal people read per year (or per five years! Or ten!), and 2) I was planning a wedding for the first half of the year and was too busy doing DIY stuff to read in my spare time. So I GUESS I can be okay with 26. But I bet I could get more than that next year. 35 maybe? I also have to keep in mind that I have to pay for most of these books so I can’t go too crazy. Although I still have a ton of books on my Kindle that I haven’t read yet for numerous reasons, so at least I have a stock to go to if I’m short on cash.
What’s your reading resolution for 2012? Finish a series? Read a classic that you’ve had your eye on for awhile? Beat me in the number of books you read?
Posted in Ramblings | 
Tags: books, e-reader, fiction, goodreads, holidays, summer reading | 
4 Comments »
Summer Reading
It’s that time of year again… SUMMER! I can’t believe June is almost over already but technically, summer only started a few days ago. I just ran across Amazon’s summer reading recommendations for this year. On the first list, I thought it was kind of weird that cookbooks were on a “reading list”, but whatever. You can drill down the recommendations by genre so you can take a look and see if there is anything that really interests you. A few books that I’ve already read are listed in the Literature and Fiction section like “Room“, “The Help” (never blogged about that one yet, sorry, but it’s amazing, so please go read it), “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet“, “Shanghai Girls” (also didn’t blog about that one but it’s also very good), “Heart of the Matter“…. and that’s just in the top 27 in that category.
I’ve preordered a few books for my Kindle that should be out soon:
- “Silver Girl” by Elin Hilderbrand (this one actually just came out on June 21 and I didn’t even realize it but it should be in my Kindle library waiting to be read!)
- “Then Came You” by Jennifer Weiner (out July 12)
- “Escape” by Barbara Delinsky (also out July 12)
I wonder if I’m missing any other new summer releases by my favorite authors. Are there any books that you’re looking forward to reading this summer, whether they’re new or have been out for awhile? I would love to hear your recommendations!
Happy summer reading and make sure you’re stocked up (with books, but also sunblock, water, etc) before you hit the beach or pool!
Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner
Jennifer Weiner is one of my favorite chick lit authors, not to mention one of my favorite authors, period. I couldn’t wait to read her newest book when it came out recently!
“Fly Away Home” is about a high-powered New York City family – Richard, Sylvie, and daughters Diana and Lizzie. Richard is a State Senator who (“ripped from the headlines”!) gets caught having an affair with an intern then admits to helping her get a job. When Sylvie, his dedicated and loyal wife of many years, finds out, she can’t bear to be with him any longer. She realizes that she has molded herself to fit in as a politician’s wife and is sick of the act. She flees to her family’s house by the beach where she spent so much time growing up. She sheds the designer skirt suits, Spanx, and hair straightening to revert back to her wavy hair, comfy clothes, and no-makeup-ed face.
At this same time, Richard and Sylvie’s oldest daughter, Diana, a married mother of one and an emergency department physician, is in the middle of a heated love affair with a younger med student at the hospital. She admits that she had “arranged” her own married and never really loved her husband but decided to marry him because he cared for her and she didn’t think he would ever hurt her and she thought she would grow to love him. During this time, Diana’s younger sister, Lizzie, gets released from rehab for drug and alcohol use and moves in with Diana to be the nanny to her son.
When things start to go wrong for both of the girls, they also retreat to the beach house with their mother. Sylvie, by the way, is having the time of her life being independent, learning how to cook, and doing things that she was never able to do as the wife of a prominent politician.
The story doesn’t end there, but you’ll just have to go out and buy it if you want to know what I left out! I really really liked this book – each chapter was told in the perspective of one of the female characters, Sylvie, Diana, or Lizzie, but never Richard. I like when an author does something interesting like that to mix it up a little bit. I enjoyed the characters as well because they were all so different and had their ups and downs at different points in the book.
Jennifer Weiner has written six other books, all of which I own and loved. You may recognize her one title, “In Her Shoes“, which was made into a movie a few years ago starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette (which by the way was not as good as the actual book – if you’ve seen the movie but not read the book yet, please go out and read it!).
Posted in Jennifer Weiner | Tags: chick lit, contemporary, fiction, new releases, summer reading, women | No Comments »
Amazon’s Best Books of the Year… So Far
Amazon has announced what they think are the Best Books of the Year… So Far…
… But am I a total loser or something? I have not read ANY of these and not even heard of most of them! The only one that I’ve even heard of is the Steig Larsson book, “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.” I’ve been meaning to read that trilogy, but other things/books/authors have taken precedent and I haven’t gotten around to buying them yet.
Has anyone read any of the ones on their top 10 list? Or the Fiction or Nonfiction list? Maybe I just have particular taste in genres and authors, but I thought I would have at least heard something about some of these. It’s just a random list that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but still. I like looking at these lists sometimes to get recommendations if I run out of books to download.
Still looking for some new books to get for your vacation? Here’s Amazon’s list of summer reads. Some of them sound really good! Amazon Wish List, here I come!
