Summer Reading List

When I was a kid, my family had an every other Saturday tradition.  It was payday week and that meant we went to Pizza Inn for their lunch buffet (they don't have these everywhere and they don't have very many of them.  It's most definitely not the best pizza on the planet but I loved their buffet!  And their bacon, ham, and cheddar.  Nom), followed up the buffet with a trip to the used book store, then it was on to the grocery store.

Man I loved the used book store.

I still loved used book stores.  I wish the mom and pop ones weren't such a rarity these days -- most of them have been replaced by places such as Half Price Books.  I love the smell of old books and I love, love, love finding me a good deal on a book I've been dying to read.

I've never been a hard cover girl.  Never a glossy, brand new book type of girl.  Sure, I've bought new books but I'd much rather find them at a used book store for a fourth of the price.

I have a ton of books on my summer reading list.  (Yeah, yeah -- I know it's not technically summer yet but it's hot, the kids have been playing in water and eating popsicles every day, there are only two weeks of school left.  It.is.summer).   The days of browsing used book stores have been replaced with merely downloading to iBooks whenever I'm ready to read.  I resisted the change for so long and it still makes me . . . it makes me feel like I'm going to the Super Mega Everything store in a small town that replaced the hardware store and family owned grocery that had sat on Main Street forever and a day.  It makes me feel almost traitor-ish to the art of reading.  But, at the same time, it's 2012 and I love, love, love the convenience of having a book - any book! - merely by taking the time to click a link.  Simplicity.  Ahhh.

Most of the books on my summer reading list have been out for a while.  They're ones I've been meaning to read, ones I've somehow skipped reading, some from new-to-me favorite authors.  I thought I'd share the list with you and I'll probably, as the summer goes on, share how I liked each of the books.

Here's what I plan on reading:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - I WILL finish this!  I will!  I think I'm going to make myself read a chapter of it before I can begin any other book.  Maybe that way I can plow through it
Silver Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
Summer People by Elin Hilderbrand
The Beach Club by Elin Hilderbrand
A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand
The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand
The Island by Elin Hilderbrand (if you can't tell, Elin Hilderbrand is one of those new-to-me favorite authors.  I've already read Nantucket Nights, The Blue Bistro, and Barefoot.  LOVED Barefoot.  The other two were very good as well)
Heart of the Matter by Emily Griffin
The Litigators by John Grisham
Calico Joe by John Grisham
Shadow of your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark (currently reading, pretty bored with it)
The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark
The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks
Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond (JUDGE ME)
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard
Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah
Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah
Home Again by Kristin Hannah
Night Road by Kristin Hannah
Summer Island by Kristin Hannah
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
On Mystic Lake by Kristin Hannah (I've only read one Kristin Hannah book - Distant Shores - but I really enjoyed it)
The Beach House by Jane Green
Book Ends by Jane Green
Swapping Lives by Jane Green
Second Chance by Jane Green
Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell
Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell
One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell
Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell
Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook
Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlan and Nicola Kraus
Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein
The Gap Year by Sarah Bird
How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan
The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan
Bossypants by Tina Fey
If You Were Here by Jen Lancaster
My Fair Lazy by Jen Lancaster
Bitter is the New Black by Jen Lancaster
Bright Lights, Bigg Ass by Jen Lancaster
Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster
Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Wistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

44 Books (47 if I try to give the Fifty Shades trilogy another try).  One summer.  Let's do dis! 

What're you (planning to, hoping to) reading this summer?