Summer+Reading+for+Us

This page will compile the suggestions made to the list in regards to summer reading for us. Feel free to add directly to this page. (There is a section just for mysteries at the end.)

//Three Cups of Tea// by Greg Mortenson (several recommendations) //The Last Lecture// by Randy Pausch //Mistaken Identity: T//about the Taylor Univ. van crash; tragic but inspiring //People of the Book// by Geraldine Brooks -- Loved It! //God is not Great// by Christopher Hitchens -- Did not Like It --(It's great on audio!) //The Reason for God// by Timothy Keller -- Alvin Plantinga's books are better //Trouble// by Gary Schmidt -- Great Book //Animal, Vegetable, Miracle// by Barbara Kingsolver //The Fortune Cookie Chronicles//, by Jennifer 8. Lee //Red Azalea//, by Anchee Min

//Souvenir// by the daughter of a WWII soldier in the Pacific. Spoke to my heart as my dad served in the Pacific but at the end of the war not when the battles were hot. //Battle for Rome// which discussed the papacy and role in WWII. //Martha's Cookies//-on a lighter note

//The Dew Breaker// by Edwidge Danticat //The Minotaur// by Barbara Vine //The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family// by Martha Raddatz //Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944// by Rick Atkinson

//Water for Elephants// by Sara Gruen //The Pillars of the Earth// by Ken Follett - do it. It's wonderful. And I just found out that he wrote a sequel, which is on my list to read next, it's called //World Without End//.

//The Thirteenth Tale//, for lovers of Jane Eyre and the curious about the life of twins. //Glass Castles//, sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree //Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian//, amazing how the author balanced tragedy with humor //Total Money Makeover//, for everyone who wants to get their financial house in order during these times. Ramsey is opinionated and open about his religious beliefs, but he offers sound advice and has helped many people escape the spiral of debt and keeping up with the Joneses.

//The Nine// by Jeffrey Toobin, an engrossing look at the current Supreme Court, its members and recent important cases. (I'm listening to the audiobook.) Toobin writes for the New Yorker. //The Book of Salt//, a novel about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, written by their Vietnamese cook. //My Antonia// by Willa Cather...sometimes it's fun to revisit the classics. I listened to this while walking. Wonderful.

I'm hoping to read any new books in the following mystery series: the Kathy Reichs series (it's the one the t.v. series "Bones" is based on) Janet Evanovich's two series (oh, I hope there's a new book in either series this summer!) Sarah Graves' //Home Repair is Homicide// series (set in down East Maine)
 * Mysteries**

If you are a mystery buff, check out the "Stop You're Killing Me" website at: http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/ It's a great place to find some "reads like" ideas if you're waiting anxiously for that next installment in your favorite series. It also allows you to search for mystery series by either author OR by the name of the main character. Handy source to figure out what order to read a series

Two mystery series focusing on women who served in WWI: //The Maisie Dobbs// series by Jacqueline Winspear. The first title is //Maisie Dobbs//. Maisie was a maid in the home of a lord, whose wife saw her intelligence and sends her to school and college. Maisie left school to be a nurse in WWI. The series is set in post-WWI England and Maisie is a private detective.

The Jade del Cameron series by Suzanne Arruda (a Kansas author!) The first in the series is //Mark of the Lion//. Jade is from New Mexico, but was an ambulance driver in France in WWI. Her fiance, a RAF fighter pilot, dies and in his dying breath gives her a mystery to solve, related to his father who died in Africa. She obtains a job as a travel writer for a magazine and heads to Nairobi to go on safari while also searching for the truth about how her fiance's father died.

Both characters suffer from PTSD as well as some physical injuries suffered in the war, and both lost fiances or near-fiances. I don't want to give away too much so I'll stop!

//I just finished the second book of a wonderfully funny, entertaining mystery series, The Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz. The characters are so real. I actually listened to the book on audio, and I think it really enhanced the story.//