Summer Reading: July Part One.

Summer reading lists are a dime a dozen and I've noted that people don't seem particularly interested in reading a review of a book here every single week.  So I'm going to lump them for July and give you the first half of my July reading list today and perhaps after I return from Myrtle Beach I will give you part two ( I expect I will devour a few books on that trip).

I am a huge Jodi Picoult fan as many of you know.  Lone Wolf, which I finished over 4th of July weekend and her newest book, coauthored by her daughter are the only Jodi's I haven't read yet.  My Mom is faithful to buy me all of Jodi's books, or was, until the one she bought me for Christmas turned out to be about a lesbian couple and my Mom was tempted to steal it back and rid the house of it, I'm pretty sure.  She may not be buying me any more Jodi's now.

Anywho, Lone Wolf was not my favorite Picoult novel (that title is split between Salem Falls and Nineteen Minutes) but I will say, it only took me 3 days to finish so it obviously wasn't boring either.  It was a nice read for my pool side holiday and the story-line interested me, I just didn't care for the family to wolf pack parallels that overwhelmed the first half of the book.  I'm glad I read it and if you like Picoult's style of writing, this one won't disappoint.  If you like wolves, well, you'll probably love it.

For the first half of this book I didn't like it and thought 'why am I reading this' but the second half really brought it all together in  way that made me a. give it 4 stars on Goodreads and b. feel glad that I finished.  I'm really working hard at writing a good story and so Miller's dialog about how to write a better life story really hit home with me on many levels.  His theology is shakey for me but he makes some good points.  My feelings on this book are about as muttled as what I just wrote about it.

This book was a blend of scandel and somewhat unexpected plot twists.  I read it in 24 hours, mostly by the pool.  I really enjoyed it and it kept my interest from start to finish, which I feel like is no small feat.  I was glad I found it (at the used bookstore in my library) and I'm considering reading a few more of Hilderbrand's novels now.

Hilarious. I wanted it to go on forever.  I absolutely loved this one and thought it made for a perfect summer read.  Get it.

Note: After deciding to do my reading updates in lumps, I realized I've been dominating a crazy amount of books lately, so this list doesn't include all the books I'd read in the first two weeks of July, there have been a few others. But these are the ones I felt like highlighting.  This is my blog and I'll do what I want.

Love,
B