More Books to Read.....Need More Time

My summer reading list continues to grow. I believe by the time July comes I will have established a list worthy of many summers. I do read every day, but often can only squeeze in about 30 minutes between work, kids activities, my course work, and the crazy amount of time that I am glued to my computer. I love summer reading because I can languish in a story for undetermined amounts of time. Rainy evenings when the power goes out and we light so many candles (husband never impressed - major fire hazard - I let him be keeper of the flames) that we continue reading late into the night (husband also says this ruins eyesight, I've wanted glasses forever, but to date, eyesight still better than 20/20).

Favourite summer reading memories:

As a child, I spent my summers at a family cottage about a half hour from our home. The cottage is nestled on an embankment overlooking Lake Erie. There was a tiny community library where I obtained lending privileges and took out as many Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon books as my heart desired. These were the days of suncots that were as thick as a mattress, baby oil and not sunscreen, jumping from the front to the back seat on long car drives - if you were small enough you got up into the back window to make faces at passengers in the car behind you, visiting the corner store to buy penny candy -remember Mojo's?, playing at the beach and someone always getting scraped by that horrid metal protrusion on the tractor tire inner tube that like 6 cousins fit on at a time, simple card games like Hearts and War, sleeping on a veranda, where we thought it was exotic that our Mom's took our clothes to a Laundry Mat and we could get an ice cream at the Dairy Bar and the height of this sophistication extended to driving a ways out of town to the Kentucky Fried Chicken!!!!!!!!!!!! to purchase a Sunday buffet... the salads, the whole loaf of bread (remember that), everything but the white plastic Colonel Sanders bank. These were days that although I was outside from sun-up to sun-down, my books were never out of reach. I have to admit that I probably returned them to the library a little worse for the wear, maybe a bit dusty, grainy with sand, a splotch of baby oil, a dab of ketchup, but no books were more beloved than these.

So, today I will purchase yet another lottery ticket with a big dream of capturing that endless summer where everyday includes a good book. Wish me luck!

Here are my new finds:

In "Leaving India," Minal Hajratwala recounts her

family's journey to five continents.

What do you do when you meet the love of your life when you're six years old? And he's 36, but he's really only eight years older than you are? If you're Clare Abshire, you wait for each of his visits throughout the years until you meet him in real time.