As I'm sure everyone knows, summer is FINALLY almost here. It's that time of year when everyone is starting their summer "to do" lists… mine is getting WAY long! So this week, I'm just taking the "book" part of my list. Choosing my 5 summer must reads and here they are:
1 - The Blue-Ribbon Jalapeno Society Jubilee
By: Carolyn Brown
Description: Cadilac, Texas: Where the gossip is free, the hottest jalapenos are worth the money, and the friendships are priceless
Why I want to read it: Even just the cover shows the signs of a nice, hot summer. The ratings for this book are around 3.5 and up, so I figure why not? It IS summer, and I think it's going to be well worth the wait.
By: Carolyn Brown
Description: Cadilac, Texas: Where the gossip is free, the hottest jalapenos are worth the money, and the friendships are priceless
Why I want to read it: Even just the cover shows the signs of a nice, hot summer. The ratings for this book are around 3.5 and up, so I figure why not? It IS summer, and I think it's going to be well worth the wait.
2- Beautiful Ruins
By: Jess Walter
Description: Hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction, Beautiful Ruins is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962..-and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later.
Why I want to read this: I love love LOVE historical fiction, and this book sounds like the thing for me.
By: Jess Walter
Description: Hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction, Beautiful Ruins is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962..-and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later.
Why I want to read this: I love love LOVE historical fiction, and this book sounds like the thing for me.
3 - Let's Pretend This Never Happened
By: Jenny Lawson
Description: When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.
Why I want to read it: I have heard WONDERFUL things about this book, and am so excited to read it! This book is supposed to be hilarious, the perfect book for a day on the beach.
By: Jenny Lawson
Description: When Jenny Lawson was little, all she ever wanted was to fit in. That dream was cut short by her fantastically unbalanced father and a morbidly eccentric childhood. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Lawson to find the humor in the strange shame-spiral that is her life, and we are all the better for it.
Why I want to read it: I have heard WONDERFUL things about this book, and am so excited to read it! This book is supposed to be hilarious, the perfect book for a day on the beach.
4 - Dash and Lily's Book of Dares
By: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Description: So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?
Why I want to read it: Sounds fun and daring. But I also LOVE the romance action behind it. Really looking forward to this one.
By: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Description: So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?
Why I want to read it: Sounds fun and daring. But I also LOVE the romance action behind it. Really looking forward to this one.
5 - One Fifth Avenue
By: Candice Bushnell
Description: One Fifth Avenue, the Art Deco beauty towering over one of Manhattan's oldest and most historically hip neighborhoods, is a one-of-a-kind address, the sort of building you have to earn your way into - one way or another. For the women in Candace Bushnell's new novel, One Fifth Avenue, this edifice is essential to the lives they've carefully established - or hope to establish. From the hedge fund king's wife to the aging gossip columnist to the free-spirited actress (a recent refugee from L.A.), each person's game plan for a rich life comes together under the soaring roof of this landmark building." This book is a modern-day story of old and new money, that same combustible mix that Edith Wharton mastered in her novels about New York's Gilded Age and F. Scott Fitzgerald illuminated in his Jazz Age tales. Many decades later, Bushnell's New Yorkers suffer the same passions as those fictional Manhattanites from eras past: They thirst for power, for social prominence, and for marriages that are successful - at least to the public eye. But Bushnell is an original, and One Fifth Avenue is so fresh that it reads as if sexual politics, real estate theft, and fortunes lost in a day have never happened before.
Why I want to read it: I found this book on a "for a day at the beach" read on Pinterest somewhere and I can't get it out of my mind. This book sounds like a fun read for an imaginative afternoon.
By: Candice Bushnell
Description: One Fifth Avenue, the Art Deco beauty towering over one of Manhattan's oldest and most historically hip neighborhoods, is a one-of-a-kind address, the sort of building you have to earn your way into - one way or another. For the women in Candace Bushnell's new novel, One Fifth Avenue, this edifice is essential to the lives they've carefully established - or hope to establish. From the hedge fund king's wife to the aging gossip columnist to the free-spirited actress (a recent refugee from L.A.), each person's game plan for a rich life comes together under the soaring roof of this landmark building." This book is a modern-day story of old and new money, that same combustible mix that Edith Wharton mastered in her novels about New York's Gilded Age and F. Scott Fitzgerald illuminated in his Jazz Age tales. Many decades later, Bushnell's New Yorkers suffer the same passions as those fictional Manhattanites from eras past: They thirst for power, for social prominence, and for marriages that are successful - at least to the public eye. But Bushnell is an original, and One Fifth Avenue is so fresh that it reads as if sexual politics, real estate theft, and fortunes lost in a day have never happened before.
Why I want to read it: I found this book on a "for a day at the beach" read on Pinterest somewhere and I can't get it out of my mind. This book sounds like a fun read for an imaginative afternoon.
What's on your summer reading list? What about your to do list?