Summer Reading Guides – Update!

At the beginning of summer, I posted about  Modern Mrs. Darcy and Sarah’s Book Shelves Summer Reading Guides. My goal was to read as many of the books on both of their lists that I could. I’m happy to say that I got through almost the entire list! It’s pretty rare for me to stick to a TBR list, especially one this large. Audio books were the key to success – I would’ve never read most of these if I didn’t have the audio versions. I also added some more books from their lists to my TBR after my original post.

 

Books I Read Before The Lists Were Posted

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin –

Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb –

Recursion by Blake Crouch –

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid –

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth –

Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering –

Forever is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan –

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim –

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides –

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker –

 

Books on my TBR List (That I Own)

 

I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott –

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane –

When We Left Cuba* by Chanel Cleeton –

Waiting for Tom Hanks* by Kerry Winfrey –

Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald – even though I have a Kindle copy (ARC), I have been waiting for my library audio hold for this one

The Body in Question by Jill Ciment –

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes –

Only Ever Her Marybeth Mayhew Whalen – just didn’t get to it

Hope and Other Punch Lines by Julie Buxbaum –

Southern Lady Code* by Helen Ellis –

Normal People by Sally Rooney –

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer – I own a hard copy of this book, but haven’t made the time to read it.

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez –

 

*Audio Book

 

BOOKS ON MY LIBRARY HOLD LIST

The Gown by Jennifer Robson –

Never Have I Ever* by Joshilyn Jackson –

The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson –

The Huntress by Kate Quinn – The audio book is really long, so I returned it to the library. I do want to read this one some day.

Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith –

The Editor by Steven Rowley  –

The Better Sister by Alafair Burke –

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite –

How to Be Married by Jo Piazza –

Out East by John Glynn –

Inheritance by Dani Shapiro –

 

*These were all audio books except for Never Have I Ever.

 

After I posted this list, I added a few more of their recommended books to my TBR

Save Me the Plums* by Ruth Reichl –

The Last Book Party* by Karen Dukess –

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin – I have an ARC on my Kindle, but I’m still holding out for the audio version (library hold)

*Audio Book

 

As you can see from the 5-star ratings, my favorites were Ask Again, Yes When We Left Cuba / Evvie Drake Starts Over / Hope and Other Punch Lines

This was a lot of fun – I hope to do the same thing again next summer!

Summer Reading Guides – What are you excited to read this summer?

Last summer, I discovered Modern Mrs. Darcy and her Summer Reading Guide, where she recommends the best books of the summer. And this year, I discovered Sarah’s Book Shelves also publishes her own Summer Reading Guide. Not that I need to add more books to my TBR list, but I was excited to see these lists come out this week! And I was happy to see I’ve already read (and loved) several books on Sarah’s guide, and have many of them waiting on my Kindle (and a few physical copies) to read. Are you excited about any of these books?

Make sure to check out both of their blogs for more recommendations and to download their Summer Reading Guides.

Modern Mrs. Darcy

Sarah’s Book Shelves

 

Books I’ve Already Read

The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin

Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb (reading now)

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (LOVED)

The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth (LOVED)

Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering

Forever is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan (LOVED)

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker

 

Books on my TBR List (I Own Copies)

I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Only Ever Her Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

Hope and Other Punchlines by Julie Buxbaum

Southern Lady Code by Helen Ellis

Normal People by Sally Rooney

The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer

 

Books on my Audio Hold List

The Gown by Jennifer Robson

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

The Accidental Beauty Queen by Teri Wilson

The Huntress by Kate Quinn

Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith

The Editor by Steven Rowley

The Better Sister by Alafair Burke

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

How to Be Married by Jo Piazza

Out East by John Glynn

{Monthly Recap} – July

monthly recap

July was a really great reading month for me – 8 books!  In the same week, I received the two books I was most looking forward to reading in 2014 – and they were fantastic, surpassing all of my expectations.  Both definitely top my list of favorite reads for 2014.  I also reached my goal for the Summer Reading Program challenge!  It was a small goal, but that’s okay – I’m just glad I accomplished it.

Books I Read:

Love, in English by Karina Halle (Review)

Nash by Jay Crownover

Happenstance by Jamie McGuire (Review)

Landline by Rainbow Rowell (Review)

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover (Review)

Mean Streak by Sandra Brown (Review)

Up at Butternut Lake by Mary McNear

You by Caroline Kepnes

My Favorite Books of the Month:

Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

I couldn’t pick just one – they both deserve equal recognition because they were amazing!

Books Read in July: 8

Books Read in 2014: 42

Things I’m looking forward to in August:

I never seem to read any of the books I think I’m going to read in the next month.  In fact, looking at my June Recap post, I only read one of the books I said was on my radar!  There’s that moody reader thing coming into play. Here are a few books I really want to read soon.  Maybe my goal for August should be to read at least 2 of these books, which will be better than I did last month!

   18687114 Beautiful romantic young lovers holding each other close as the 19486412

And I’m really excited that Isla releases in 2 weeks!

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What’s on your radar for August?

 

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