Tuesday, June 1, 2010

May -- Mission Accomplished!

On May 1st, Leah from Amused by Books and I set out to read Hilary Mantel's Man Booker Prize winning novel, Wolf Hall.  We gave ourselves 31 days to read it -- and we did!  We both finished last night in Cinderella fashion -- a huge task that we are both very proud of.  Our last read along discussion with Elise will be posted on Wednesday with my final book review on Thursday.  Just as a teaser -- I loved it.  I think Hilary Mantel is brilliant.

In addition to the main goal, I was able to finish the following:
The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh

Wolf Hall was such a massive task that I chose to off set 16th century England with some EXCELLENT juvenile fiction. Indeed, all of my juvenile fiction choices are adult worthy reads.  Some of the best books I've read this year.  The romance novel by Mary Balogh, on the other hand, was chase down the garbage truck-worthy.

I look forward to a very prolific literary summer.  My work schedule has been reduced due to my kids being home, so I plan on devoting that time to the traditional "summer reads."  First summer read of the season, My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveria.  The bloggersphere has heaped high praise on this book -- I hope it holds true.

Others I hope to read this summer:
Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (this was our book club choice for May -- but we had to cancel due to a scheduling conflict)
The Icing on the Cupcake by Jennifer Ross
Evangeline by Ben Farmer

What is on your summer reading list?

4 comments:

Liz said...

I hope you love Shanghai Girls! I did!

My list for summer:
The Help
Garden Spells
Parenting the Willful Chid
Soft-Spoken Parenting
Mockingjay (or whenever it comes out!)
the Percy Jackson books

Camille said...

I don't read many books, but am always looking for good books on audio for my commute. I'll have to check to see if these are available!

Amused said...

As far as I'm concerned finishing Wolf Hall in that time frame was a freaking miracle! I am so glad I had you to cheer me on!

On my summer reading list: chick lit :)

Hannah Stoneham said...

Well done! I have really enjoyed your discussions...