Thursday, May 20, 2010

30 because i am 30 challenge

i love to read and i especially love to do so in the summertime. some of my best memories are of sitting on a couch reading book after book, enjoying the air conditioning while other kids played outside in the blistering heat. nerd heaven. or in college when my friends and i would sneak into the DT pool with out arms loaded with books we had just picked up from the juvenile fiction section of the library. good times, skin cancer and literacy.
for this summer i have issued myself a challenge. i am going to read 30 books before september 15th. there are several reasons behind this.
1. parents who love reading have children who love reading.
2. i have been stressed to the maxx yo for the past several months. i think reading is most my healthy creative release.
3. i actually get more done when i am consistently reading. when i read only occasionally, my already chaos-laden house becomes a more unbelievable pit of doom. when i am reading on a schedule and with a plan, i actually clean and organize and do things with the kids more. when i allow reading to become a part of my life, rather than an escape, it's better for everyone.
happy mom=happy everyone else

so dear readers, this is where i need you. i need some suggestions for good books to read this summer. i don't have much criteria, just something that's not too hard of a read. nothing too philosophical or intense. i don't mind sad or thought provoking, i just don't want anything like "phenomology of spirit" by georg wilhelm freidrich hegel or "finnegan's wake" by james joyce. (sidenote- if you google the phrase, the most difficult books ever written, these two books top a list someone created on amazon.)
i have already read three books this week,
a-hush hush by becca fitzpatrick
b-fallen by lauren kate
c-the dark divine by bree despain
and i am well into my 4th,
d-the lightning thief by rick riordan(really, really good bytheway)

i especially love YA books because i think you have more leeway to be creative because you are avoiding unacceptable youth subjects(usually) like gratuitous sex and drug use. and the author often has to think of real plots twists instead of just swearing and nudity. i believe that some "adult" authors become mired in lasciviousness because they think that is what real authorship is about, debauchery instead of imagination. smut instead of ingenuity.

ps-carie, the painted veil is already on my list. think of something else.
pps- i issue a challenge to everyone else. read gone with the wind this summer. perfect summer read. change your life, eat grits, love scarlett.

15 comments:

Emily said...

Try Three Cups of Tea. And, if you want to know about how the doctors without borders concept really got started, you could read Mountains Beyond Mountains. Just be prepped to leap over the swear words in teh later one.

Sarah Gessel said...

Sevenwaters series by Juliet Marillier
Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
Vampirates by Justin Somper
The Soprano Sorceress (Spellsong Cycle, #1)
by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
or The Corean Chronicles by the same
are you on goodreads?

Tess said...

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA book that is quite moving and a quick read); Uglies, etc. by Scott Westerfield; Walk Two Moons (or anything else by Sharon Creech); Island of the Blue Dolphins; The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt. These are all YA. By the way, I'm Heather's mission friend. :)

amanda said...

the book thief

Carie said...

I will have to think about this so expect another comment or email to follow.

Off the top of my head:
I am reading "The Happiness Project" right now and am really loving it.

Also, How about the Book of Mormon? Our ward YM/YW are doing another summer BofM Read and I am joining in again. I love doing it last year.

Read Downtown Chic (non-fiction with loads of pictures) by by Robert and Cortney Novogratz. You will have it done in an hour. It's great.

Ahem. Painted Veil. Ahem.

Love this idea. You are, as always, an inspiration.

Jessica said...

yay!!!!! i love reading, too. oh how i miss our dt pool days.

okay, here are some suggoostions:

first of all, i second "three cups of tea"

the help

life of pi

rebecca

the far pavillions by m. m. kaye (think a british gone with the wind as far as sweeping epics go)

any of m.m. kaye's mysteries that start "death in..."

there was a series of books i read several years ago that were mysteries and the main character was a crossword puzzle creator -- i'll have to google these to figure it out (alright i just looked it up and i think the other is parnell hall)

another series of mysteries by laurie king that involved a sherlock holmes type spin-off -- the first book is called "the beekeeper's apprentice"

the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society

outliers

raising your spirited child

peace like a river

little house on the prairie series

anne of green gables series

the poisonwood bible

jane eyre

okay, that's all i can think of right now. oh wait, i just thought of another one. i want you to read "house of mirth" by edith wharton, because i'm curious what you would think of it. we read it for book club last summer here.

this was fun! be sure and pass along any you read that you think i would like. lylas! hahaha.

(and p.s. thanks for giving me a nice little distraction here in the midst of MY mind stressing! :)

longnecker said...

Here Here to The Help and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. If you finish The Help by June 15th come down to my house for our book group because I am making everyone sit on my screened in porch (heat be darned) and sip lemonade while we discuss it and the 'Southerness' of it!

Julianne said...

OK, well, they're old fashioned and a little (a lot) flowery, but the Anne of Green Gables series is by far some of the best literature I've ever read. There are hidden pearls of wisdom, laugh-out-loud paragraphs and pages, and also heart-stopping, tear-inducing scenes every now and again.

Also, another book I have read twice in the last 4 months is Miss Bishop, by Bess Streeter Aldrich. Another old fashioned, flowery one -- the ending is perhaps the most lovely/thought-provoking stuff I've ever read.

It does take a bit of determination to get through these books, though, b/c they were written so long ago and we don't really know what the author is meaning all the time. But the important stuff rings so very true even today.

OK. Those are my suggestions.

Ryan likes Persuasion, and we both like Sense and Sensibility. But I don't know if you're into those old-fashioned ones...so...there you go.

Becca said...

These is My Words by Nancy E Turner

and I second The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and Peace Like a River.

And I will reread GWTW this summer, but you REALLY need to read These Is My Words.

Becca said...

(note: the audio book for Guernsey is really awesome. Different readers for the different parts. It's a lot of fun.)

Sarah Beck said...

okay here's my list:

after the first death-robert cormier (it's a psychological thriller book--YA novel, but I think it's more appropriate for adults)
-the Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
-The strange incident of the dog in the night time (a boy with autism solves a mystery)
This is what I want to read this summer:
to kill a mockingbird (again-it's a pulitzer)
cold mountain (again)
something by cormack mcarthy--everyone in my program raves about his writing so I really want to see if it's THAT good
Last Crossing--Guy Vanderhaeghe

YA pics:
3rd hunger games (of course)
the giver (or anything by Lois Lowry)
Sold (content is kinda mature, read it in class it's written in prose and the writing is beautiful. It's about a girl forced into child prostitution. Nothing really explicit, but the subject matter is harsh because it's real)
Princess Acadamy-Shannon Hale
Wrinkle in Time-Madeline L'Engle

I saw someone suggest peace like a river. Loved it. It takes place in ND/MN and is written by my advisor's brother

Okay, I'll think I'll stop now :)

Ashley said...

The Mortal Instruments series.

Caroline said...

Do you like Nicholas Sparks? I love all his books!

Rozlynn's Homemade Goodness said...

Heidi I love your blog......now I am stalking you......

DMC Studios said...

I don't read, but somehow I read Austenland and sisterhood of the traveling pants series.

If I could I would probably reread all the Sweet Valley Highs I could get my hands on. hahaha