Summer Reading List

One of my absolute favorite pleasures in life is reading. I love traveling to a new place, a new time or a new circumstance with books, and devour them pretty quickly.

I love reading other blogger's book reviews and suggestions, so I thought I'd share some of my favorites from the summer. Just to get a taste of my reading style, I like fiction, memoirs, and anything that seems real, relatable or suspenseful. I find I have a hard time getting into historical fiction, sci-fi or fantasy (besides Harry Potter!).

I used to read a lot of heady nonfiction books, but between all of the science literature I read at work, I find reading an academic novel is almost a chore. So I save those for vacations :)

(duckface, anyone?)

This summer, I've read and enjoyed:

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Amaryllis in Blueberry

Room

Before I Go to Sleep

The Hunger Games (books 1 and 2)

Seaview Inn (super trashy novel from the Iceland hostel)

and The China Study

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Before I Go to Sleep was one of my favorite books of the summer. It details the life of a woman who has severe amnesia and every morning wakes up not knowing who or where she is, relying on her husband to tell her the truth about her life and care for her. This novel turned out to be much more exciting and surprising than I expected, and I couldn't predict the ending. 8/10

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Room was a book that was highly talked up to me by friends, and when I read it I wasn't as enthused. It details the life of a mother and her young child who live their lives in a small shed behind their abuser's house. It's interesting because the story is told from the child's perspective, but a lot of the details and concepts kind of made me feel a little ill. 7/10

(Source)

The Hunger Games series is by far the most intriguing and intense book series I've read in a while. While the series is marketed for teens, the books are deep and deal with societal issues and dark themes. The series of 3 books follows a young girl in a dystopian society (America in the future) where she must fight against 11 other citizens in a cruel tournament for the government's amusement. These books are seriously good-- I finished the second one in less than a day! 9/10

After I finish the third and last book in The Hunger Games series, I'll be on the lookout for a new book to check out. Any recommendations?