My Summer Reading List, So Far

Yes, I know a blog about books is a cop-out but it's all I got right now. Other than the huge angst that is my mind-set right now, the huge desire to just get in the car and keep driving, the huge need to plan a vacation that won't happen for at least four months, the huge longing for something other than this "how can I make you happy" job I currently have, this huge want that seems to thrum inside me all of the time.  Other than all those things, it's all I got right now.

But books are my hiding place. Books demand nothing of me. They don't care if I read them or not. They do not ask where to eat or where to drink or crab at me about their credit card woes.  Books just are. Books are my safety.  Others have friends, exercise, diet, music, art, drugs.  I have books.  Like Mavis Staples says, to paraphrase: They take me there.

I come home, I strip off my work clothes, (which are jeans and a shirt,) and put on anything else so that I feel apart from my job.  And then I either walk the dogs or simply sit down and read. Sometimes I fall asleep, napping, sitting up, for 15 minutes, but that's fine.  I nap and I keep reading. The dogs sit on the couch with me and give me that space.  I read and I am no longer working and no longer a tool for someones vacation enjoyment. I read and I learn or escape or just enjoy the writing.  Enjoy the craft. 

Here are some books I have read this summer.  I have read many more that I haven't included, these are the best of the bunch.  So far.

Books:  Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson. 
We Are Called To Rise by Laura McBride
Cuckoo's Calling and Silkworm by Robert Galbraith, a pseudonym of J. K. Rowling. 
The Circle by Dave Eggers.  (If you haven't read Zeitoun from a couple of years ago, shame on  you.)
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings
Edge of Dark Water by Lansdale

OK, that should get you started. (More will follow.)   All were really good or I would not have recommended them. I got all of them out of the library, although some might be a long wait.  I read book reviews like many people read their emails so I get a 'heads up' about books before they are even in the NY Times book review section.  Not that it makes me better, it just makes me quicker to read some new books. Thus my wait for these books was short.  But still, they are all really good. Find them. They are all worth waiting for.  I didn't include any synopsis, you can find that online if you want.

Without books, without the other world they provide, I don't know how I would think.  My silly brain jumps all over the place all the time.  Reading grounds me. It makes my mind sit still and think.  For that fact alone, I am grateful to all those authors who labored over their words. I don't labor reading their words, I revel in their words.  I am happy and my silly mind is happy and that's all that matters.

Think. Read.
Read. Think.
It's a good combo.

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