When June rolls around, I think of summer reading. I wasn’t a fan in high school, since I was required to read books I would not have chosen for myself. As years passed, I fell out of my regular reading habits. There were a few beach trips where I would load up my bags with books and spend most of my time sleeping or reading. But most of the time, I didn’t think about reading.
That’s changing. This summer will be a great time for me to continue reinventing myself as a reader. Time to get back into the habit of keeping books within easy reach and devouring them all.
Check out the books in my countdown:
5 Books I Recently Reviewed
Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon 
Entertainment Weekly included Sorrowland on its list of best new books in May 2021. Vern is a pregnant teen who brings readers along on her extraordinary evolution after fleeing a cult-like compound. I can’t really describe more without spoilers, but it’s better to come into this story unspoiled and figure out what’s going on by yourself.
Blood Parish by E.J. Findorff
Why did an entire baseball team disappear? That’s the cold case FBI agent Angel Blondeaux is trying to solve when she returns to her hometown, which is run by her crime family relatives. Can she solve the mystery, or will she die trying?
The Question is Murder by Mark Willen
A columnist known to his readers as Mr. Ethics faces a moral dilemma as he gets caught up in the investigation of a senator’s murder. I’m a sucker for political thrillers.
The Audacity of Sara Grayson by Joani Willett
A famous author dies and leaves instructions for her daughter to finish the eagerly-anticipated book in the series. Chick lit is a great summer read, whether you’re vacationing or stay-cationing.
Moonlighting: An Oral History by Scott Ryan
Were you a Moonlighting junkie like me? Are you a fan of entertainment history? Here are the interviews that talk about what it took to bring the shows together. It’s loaded with information on how the show broke new ground, imploded, and would not be made today.
4 May Presents For Me
I mentioned last month that since Mother’s Day and my birthday both fall in May, my family lets me pick my presents. For my birthday, I not only bought books, I fulfilled a wish I had made months ago.
After the Super Bowl, A Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired a special Super Bowl commercial. Instead of showcasing businesses with millions in their advertising budgets, the show decided to create and present an ad for a small business struggling during the pandemic. Their ad was for Foggy Pine Books in Boone, North Carolina. Check out this terrific ad and its famous actors here:
YouTube/The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Since I spent many vacations in the NC mountains, I decided I would order books from them. I ordered two books from them and included a message about fulfilling my wish by ordering from them for my birthday. They included a sweet hand-written birthday note to me with the books.
Buying books from an independent bookstore has a completely different vibe. I feel like I’ve been welcomed into a wonderful reading family where I’m much more than a customer.
Moral of the story – Support Independent Bookstores!
Support Independent Bookstores! If you need ideas on what to buy, check out my June Countdown. Click To Tweet
Birthday Presents
If I had asked most of my family members to give me these books as a gift, they would have all scrunched up their faces and asked, “Really?”
My husband wouldn’t have done that, because we either buy from the top of a wish list or tell each other to buy our own presents. That is why we’re about to celebrate our 24th anniversary because we make sure the other person gets exactly what they want.
My sons don’t buy me presents because they’re teenagers. They just sign the card and eat whatever I’ve picked as my birthday dinner. This year, I had sashimi while they picked cooked food from my favorite Asian restaurant.
How To Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
I know, I know, this book doesn’t fit the typical summer reading plan. But this book is relevant for our world and therefore fits all seasons. Anyone can sit on the sidelines, complain, and shoot down any solutions other people offer. I was impressed by Kendi’s interviews and think that this National Book Award winning author could help cut through my ignorance. I don’t want to make the problem worse. I want to know how I can contribute to progress. I’ve gotten other book recommendations, but this will be my launching point.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Amazon Prime is showing a limited series based on the book. When I finished watching the series, I knew I had to get the book. The series was excellent, and most books are better than the adaptation.
Happy Mother’s Day
Another holiday when my husband tells me to buy what I wanted, and my sons sign the card. My husband grilled ribeyes, and then I took a long nap. Good times.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (A Hunger Games Novel) by Suzanne Collins
Another Mother’s Day, another dystopian novel for me. I think my older son is influencing me, because he’s chosen Dystopian Literature for his English elective. I read an online excerpt of this Hunger Games prequel and want to jump back into life in the Capitol and Districts of Panem.
#IMomSoHard by Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley
A friend gave me this best seller for Mother’s Day. Meet two comedians with millions of social media followers, as they humorously navigate motherhood. Their book is another way of providing kinship and humor through the wacky world of parenting.
3 Reviews I Plan To Post in June
I’ve been reading a lot of mysteries and thrillers for the first part of 2021. Summer is a great time to chill out and to have the freedom to try something different. I do have one mystery on the list, but it definitely qualifies as something different.
One Two Three by Laurie Frankel (June 8)
Triplets are unraveling the mysteries in their small town, whose water was contaminated by big business. Frankel’s a best-selling author whose previous book was included in Reece Witherspoon’s book club.
Orange City by Lee Matthew Goldberg
I read the excerpt twice and had the same I need this book NOW urge each time. Orange City is a dystopian world that offers felons and other outcasts a chance at a new life, if they’re willing to sign their lives away to comply with the orders of the “Man”.
The Devil’s Road to Kathmandu by Tom Vater
I enjoy mysteries. I enjoy road books. I enjoy books set in different times and places. Vater’s book atypically checks all of those boxes. I’m intrigued about the mystery triggered by four friends traveling between London and Kathmandu in the 1970s. It sounds like nothing I’ve read before. That’s a good thing.
2 Authors Who Make Me Want To Read More
E.J. Findorff
I want to check out more of his books since I enjoyed Blood Parish. All of his previous works sound interesting, and I’m deciding between two of the newer additions to my TBR shelf.
The New Orleans author introduces Detective Peyroux investigating an unnamed Jane Doe found near the Mississippi River in Where the Devil Won’t Go. When Peyroux travels to the Bayou to notify the family, he’s thrust in the middle of more disappearances and murder.
In The Unraveling, a former detective is ordered to kill the governor of Louisiana by Mardi Gras, or his daughter will be killed. Can Remi Doucet untangle the mystery before his daughter is murdered? Or will he murder a prominent political figure to save his daughter
Lee Matthew Goldberg
I’m going to post a review of Orange City and (SPOILER ALERT!) It’s a positive one. His recently published YA novel Runaway Train sounds intriguing, but so do his prior works. The Desire Card offers the elite the chance to have any wish fulfilled…for a price. But what price will the organization behind the card demand? It’s fun to see where an author takes the warning “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it”.
1 Guilty Pleasure
When reality shows were starting to emerge, I moderated an online forum and wrote satirical episode summaries. I wrote about popular shows like Amazing Race and the Bachelor. I also wrote summaries for lesser-known shows that were so stupid that they begged for sarcasm. My favorite show was Survivor, because I was fascinated by what a group of isolated strangers would do to win a million dollars.
I’ve also read many Agatha Christie mysteries. I’m more of a Poirot fan than Miss Marple, but my favorites doesn’t include either of them. My #1 favorite is Ten Little Indians, aka And Then There Were None. I was fascinated by what a group of isolated strangers would do when there was a murderer in their midst.
Thank you Johnny Moscato for Isolation Island: Into the Wild, combining two of my guilty pleasures into one book. A group of strangers are on a remote island competing for a million dollars, but there’s a murderer on the island. Now this is what I call Summer Reading.
So there’s my early summer countdown. What books are on yours?
