Summer Reads

I love summer.  It reminds me of being a carefree kid, playing outside all day, enjoying family vacations and hanging with my friends.  I really miss those days but now I look forward to summer reading.  I get several book/book store related emails and I really enjoy checking out the new, and not-so-new, reads.  There are so many books I want to read...I only wish I could read faster!  That makes it really tough for me to fit in all the books I'd like to read. 

Well, I've narrowed it down to 4 books I'd like to read over the summer...
1. Don't Breathe a Word, Jennifer McMahon

Goodreads:

On a soft summer night in Vermont, twelve-year-old Lisa went into the woods behind her house and never came out again. Before she disappeared, she told her little brother, Sam, about a door that led to a magical place where she would meet the King of the Fairies and become his queen.

Fifteen years later, Phoebe is in love with Sam, a practical, sensible man who doesn’t fear the dark and doesn’t have bad dreams—who, in fact, helps Phoebe ignore her own. But suddenly the couple is faced with a series of eerie, unexplained occurrences that challenge Sam’s hardheaded, realistic view of the world. As they question their reality, a terrible promise Sam made years ago is revealed—a promise that could destroy them all.

Check out what Coffee, Books, and Laundry had to say about it.  Sounds pretty exciting!

2. A Long Walk to Water, Linda Sue Walker

Goodreads:

A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about a girl in Sudan in 2008 and a boy in Sudan in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.

Easton, my 9-yr-old, read this book a couple months ago and had been asking me to read it ever since.  He says it's very good and it has actually gotten pretty high reviews.  I think it should be a quick read, even for me! 

3. Lone Survivor, Marcus Lattrell and Patrick Robinson

Shelfari:

On a clear night in late June 2005, four U.S. Navy SEALs left their base in northern Afghanistan for the mountainous Pakistani border. Their mission was to capture or kill a notorious al Qaeda leader known to be ensconced in a Taliban stronghold surrounded by a small but heavily armed force. Less then twenty-four hours later, only one of those Navy SEALs remained alive.

This is the story of fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing, and the desperate battle in the mountains that led, ultimately, to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history. But it is also, more than anything, the story of his teammates, who fought ferociously beside him until he was the last one left. Over the next four days, badly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell fought off six al Qaeda assassins who were sent to finish him, then crawled for seven miles through the mountains before he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe, who risked everything to protect him from the encircling Taliban killers.

Luttrell takes us, blow-by-blow, through the brutal training of America's warrior elite and the relentless rites of passage required by the Navy SEALs and transports us to a monstrous battle fought in the desolate peaks of Afghanistan.

After one of my dear friend, Becky from Becky's Babbles, highly recommended this book I just couldn't turn it down.  And since I've always wanted to read a book like this I thought Lone Survivor would be perfect!  You can go here and see what Becky has to say about it.

4.  100 Cupboards, Nathan D. Wilson

Amazon:

Twelve-year-old Henry York wakes up one night to find bits of plaster in his hair. Two knobs have broken through the wall above his bed and one of them is slowly turning . . .Henry scrapes the plaster off the wall and discovers cupboards of all different sizes and shapes. Through one he can hear the sound of falling rain. Through another he sees a glowing room–with a man pacing back and forth! Henry soon understands that these are not just cupboards, but portals to other worlds.

This is the first book in a 3-part series.  I've wanted to read it for a long time and I figure after the previous more deeper books on my summer reading list that this will be a nice break.  I'm hoping that by me reading it my kids will be more eager to read it. 

I can't wait to get started.  Let me know what books are on your Summer Reading List!! 

Happy 'Summer' Reading!!  :)