Summer Reading

It is no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am an avid reader. I LOVE reading and always have a book going. A few months ago there wasn't anything I was really interested in reading and I felt very lost. I spent a lot of time reviewing the best seller lists, asking friends, and still nothing sounded appealing. A friend brought over a couple of her chick lit books that have kept me reading but I have been putting together a list to get me through the summer.


Summer reading is something my mom started when I was a kid. She went to great lengths to make sure we had a set of books to get us through the summer. A lot of times I would start a series of books and try to finish the series before the summer was over. Growing up some of my favorite series were


The Baby-Sitters Club. I lived my summers reading about Kristie and her Logan. Thinking about how great it would have been to have such fun and caring baby-sitters. Ironically I hated babysitting when I got older but I loved the idea of having a close group of friends that were always there for you.

Little House on the Prairie is still to this day one of my all time favorite series. My grandmother watched this show religiously and loved all of the characters. She always said that I reminded her of Laura. I took that to heart and loved reading about hardships of living in a place similar to where I was from only many years earlier. I loved that even though the books took place many years before there was still "Nancy's" even then.

Anne of Green Gables to me always felt very similar to Little House on the Prairie only years later. I read the first book much sooner than I did the rest of the series. It wasn't until I was a few years older that I could relate to the characters. I was so happy the day Disney started the series based on these books. I always wanted an apple tree outside my window because I thought about waking up smelling the blossoms.

One of the last times I went to spend a whole week of my summer vacation with my grandmother she was reading this series she got from a friend. I picked up out of sheer boredom. I know it was a Christan romance and was not interested at all but I quickly fell in love. One of the best love stories I have ever read this amazing journey has touched my heart and has a soft spot with me forever.

In the past few years here in PA I have picked back up with my summer reading goals. One summer I tried to read "classics" that I had never read before. Man some of those books were tough and really challenged me. I am not really a "classics" kind of gal I have decided. Here are three series that I read and loved.

The Sookie Stackhouse is fun, steamy, and totally addictive. There is a series on HBO that follows the books pretty closely and I have to say...seeing Eric in on the screen is very fulfilling :) The newest book just came out and is at the top of my summer reading list.
The only summer I wasn't working here in PA I decided to read the very popular Left Behind Series. Although at times I thought the books were a little cheesy I was fascinated by the authors ability to make biblical references apply to a somewhat realistic play in current times. It was definitely worth reading although there were a ton of books in this series and none of them were very short.

One of my other favorite authors is Beverly Lewis. She writes books set in Amish communities. I love that a lot of the little towns that she has as her settings are located all around where I live. Her books are light reading and compelling. I also love that she writes in little mini series about the same characters.

Although I have a ton of favorite authors and a list a mile long of favorite books these are my top favorite series. What are some of your favorites?

Controversy

I am reading the latest Ann Coulter book, Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America. I know how controversial some of her books are and this is no exception. Already she has had several heated discussions with some of the liberal talk shows and it has been interesting.

There is no question that I am a pretty conservative political person. Which is funny because I tend to be the minority with my friends and even family. I tend to keep my mouth shut because I truly don't want to hurt people's feelings and conservative viewpoints don't always come off as unoffensive. I am not judgemental and the struggle that I find myself when I read her books is that she puts harsh criticism and blame on "someone". While I don't always agree that putting blame somewhere is productive I DO agree with some of her points.

In her latest book her argument is the most liberal people in our country make being a victim something heroic. Rather than try to prevent them from getting into these situations (by choice, fate, poor circumstances, etc) we enable them. Particularly in this book she focuses on single mothers. I am very torn on this subject because I do admire single mothers. It is a tough load to haul. I am not sure that I could ever mange it. On the other hand no other classification can be so clearly pointed to as the one common thread for a long strew of social issues in our country.

"By 1996, 70 percent of inmates in state juvenile detention centers serving long-term sentences were raised by single mothers. Seventy percent of teenage births, dropouts, suicides, runaways, juvenile delinquents and child murderers involve children raised by single mothers. Girls raised without fathers are more sexually promiscuous and more likely to end up divorced. A 1990 study by the left-wing Progressive Policy Institute showed that, after controlling for single motherhood, the difference in black and white crime disappeared. Various studies come up with slightly different numbers, but all the figures are grim. A study cited in the far left-wing Village Voice found that children brought up in single-mother homes "are five times more likely to commit suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape (for the boys), 20 times more likely to end up in prison, and 32 times more likely to run away from home." "

I wish that Ann and others would spend less time criticizing the mothers and more time working on finding solutions to help curve this issue. I also wish that more time was spent criticizing the fathers that for whatever reason are no longer around. I wish for everyone to stop taking offense and accept the harsh reality. Instead we argue and throw blame.

Sorry Edward you have been replaced

Ok not really..I still love you but my new love is just....more. More sexy, more mysterious, more make me blush. As mentioned in my Christmas wish list post I wanted new books. Specifically I wanted the Sookie Stackhouse series books. These books are a Vampire series for adults (very much adult ;) Being the good husband that Dr. Heskett is he took my list with him (literally on his iphone he was looking for the pictures I posted) and got me the series (minus the last book but that wasn't his fault because it was not listed in all of the books cover) and I finished 6 of the 8 books.

I. LOVE. THEM. The books became popular because HBO started a new series this past fall called True Blood. The show is OK. I like it but some of the characters are annoying in my opinion and the lead hot guy (or at least in the beginning) is not as HOT as I would have dreamed him to be. This OK though because my heart strings are pulled by Eric.

Back story: In the books/show the Japanese invent synthetic blood intended to be used for trauma patients in ambulances. Low and behold that in addition to this use the Vampire community comes out of the closet because they are no longer a threat to humans because the synthetic blood satisfies their needs (sort of). Anyhoo, Eric is a Viking with long blond hair (never thought I would think that was sexy), piercing blue eyes, a sexual appetite that cannot be satisfied, and this bad boy attitude that has a strange and perplexing softness for the lead lady, Sookie. Problem is that this has never happened to him, she is kind of with Bill who works for him, and thus you see the crazy love triangle that has yet to really develop on the show.

I think the funny thing for me is that I almost never root for anyone but the main character. I never thought twice that Bella should be with Eric, in the notebook I was rooting for Noah since the beginning, and in every other love story that I have loved I didn't care who would be hurt as long as they ended up together. In this case I loath Bill and cheer for Eric. I love the electric connection between the two of them and I hope for Bill to do something wrong so that Sookie will find her way to Eric. OK, enough of my filling in spaces with my own hopes. I have started to slow in my reading of the final books because I am starting to worry that my hopes of them ending up together are starting to look dashed at best. I will always hold on to my own ending and hope that in this one case the movie will agree with me and choose Eric (who knows maybe the author came to her senses and some crazy plot change will push them together). In the meantime you should really check out the books or at least the series...although I must warn you that the books don't get GREAT, FANTASTIC, BEST EVER until book 3. Up until then they are just good.