Summer Reading 2012

It's hard for me to define "Summer".  Technically it is June 21st (roughly) to September 21st (roughly).  For some it is from Memorial Day to Labor Day.  For others it is from the last day of school to the first day of the next school year.

For this summer, I am going to define "Summer" as the day after Memorial Day, to September 15th, because that is today, the first chance I've had to look over what I read this summer.  :-) 

my read shelf:

Books I Read This Summer

(38 total)

My Favorites This Summer (4-5 Stars)

1. Lady Bug Farm Series (3 books) by Donna Ball.   Perfect light summer reading!
2. Born to Run - Nonfiction, and one of the best books I have read this year.  It's not dry at all, extremely interesting
3. The Dirty Life  - by Kristen Kimball - definitely one of my best reads this summer.  (think Farm dirt, not shades of grey dirt..  And no, I did not read Shades of Grey this summer. )
4. Only Time Will Tell -1st in the Clifton Chronicles series by Jeffery Archer
5. I, Michael Bennet by Patterson.  My favorite Patterson series, but not my favorite book in this series.  It was really good though!
6. The 7th Month by Lisa Gardner  - I'm really enjoying the DD warren series by Gardner
7. Come & Find Me by Hallie Ephron
8. Never Tell a Lie by Hallie Ephron - new to me author, but I enjoyed both these books enough to watch for more by her
9. Whose Body by Dorothy Sayers  - my first time reading Sayers, and I will definitely downlod more by her!
10. The Devil & Sherlock Holmes  - Short stories, some were better than others
11. Amazing Grace In the Life Of William Wilberforce - great story!
12. 11th Hour (Womens Murder Club #11) - love this series
13. Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
14. Heather Wells series by Meg Cabot  (4 books) - my guilty pleasure read this summer.  Light, silly, but I enjoyed them
15. The Mysterious Affair At Styles - Agatha Christie.  The First Poirot book - I eventually plan to read this entire series.  :-)
16. Tigers in Red Weather - a book I thought I would not like a few chapters in, yet ended up really enjoying.  Not my normal read, and a lot that bothered me, but it was interesting and made me think, but not think to deeply.  A really good summer read.
17. Tough Cookie by Dianne Mott Davidson  I read most of this series years ago, and just recently realized I haven't read the last few by her. Cozy mysteries, one of my favorites.  I'm really looking forward to catching up on the books I have missed!

Good Reads (3 stars)

1. 2BRo2B by Vonnegut - My first sci fi read, and I really did enjoy this one.
2. XO - Kathryn Dance series by Deaver, I prefer the Lincoln Rhyme series, but this was good.
3. Blindside by Cathrine Coulter - I liked this enough to look by more from her.  I don't think she will be a favorite author, but I did enjoy this one.
4. The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks (Sparks is always a great summer read)
5. Living In The Light Of Eternity - Yohannan (Christian Living)
6. Snatched  - A novella.  I don't remember liking this quite as much as 3 stars...
7. Never Look Away - would have been much better if it was much shorter.  Drug on too long.
8. Stately Pursuits - Katie Fforde.  This is on the lower end of 3 stars for me..  it wasn't good enough for me to want to read anything else by her, but I think that's more of a genre thing for me.  I'm not a huge fan of love stories
9. Bones Are Forever by Kathy Reichs.  I like this series (the series that the tv show Bones is based on) but they are kind of technical and dry in places. Still a good book.

Books I Did Not Enjoy (2 stars  or less)

1. Come Home by Lisa Scottoline The second of her books that I got sucked into..  she has great plot lines, but her books are a lot of tedious, stiff, dialogue, making them not so great to read.
2. Wild (Life On the Pacific Trail) - when will  I learn to never read anything Oprah recommends?
3. Wicked Business - Book 2 in the Diesel series by Evanovich.  I normally love her (non romance series) books, but just didn't care for this one
4. Snowhite & The Huntsman  - book written based on the movie. Bad idea
5. Gone Girl  - one of the worst I read this summer
6. Summerland - looked like an idea summer read, but it just wasn't good.
7. Here's to Not Catching Our Hair On Fire - probably the worst book I will read all year.  Along with Oprahs suggestions, I also rarely like the free books through Amazon..