Sharing My Summer Reading List: What's on Yours?

Every year for the last nine, I've participated in our local library's summer reading program.

Now that I have kids, they participate too.

It's a little crazy, really. To get the gold star at the end of the program (though the first year, they really roped me in with a travel mug!), you have to read something like 11 or 12 books in eight weeks.

Madness, I tell you!

I cushion my choices, especially when I'm pregnant or nursing or having a rough time reading a lot, with a lot of YA. (Hey, I want that gold star!)

This year, I've made myself a bit of a list for my summer reading, and I'm already getting excited about it.

Here's the short list I'm starting with:

Fiction:

• Mr. Blue, by Myles Connolly, which will be a delightful reread. Bonus: it's short (but deep)
• Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis, which I have meant to read for, um, a couple of years at least
• Manalive, by G.K. Chesterton, because I love Chesterton and I've heard this is a great read

YA:

• The Tripods Attack, by John McNichol, which is the first in the Young Chesterton Series and that I've had waiting for me for quite some time
• Stoop of Mastodon Meadow, by Daniel McInerny, which is the second in the Patria series, and which I can't wait to dive into (my seven-year-old has started the first)
• Leviathan, by Scott Westerfield

Nonfiction:

• The Messy Quest for Meaning: Five Catholic Practices for Finding Your Vocation, by Stephen Martin
• The Temperament God Gave Your Kids: Motivate, Discipline, and Love Your Children, by Art & Laraine Bennett
• After Miscarriage: A Catholic Woman's Companion to Healing and Hope, by Karen Edmisten

I know I'll be adding a book or two (and possibly swapping a book or two out), but it's fun to have a starting list.

What's on YOUR summer reading list?

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