The Next Best Book Club discussion

Hi. I am a newbie to the group. I love the idea of a summer reading challenge. It reminds of the summers when I sat in my parents' backyard, reading as many library books as I could before school started again. Here are my selections, but I don't think it will still be summer when I get them all finished.

Into the great wide open - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Get your grill on - I Need a Lifeguard Everywhere But the Pool

the colors of summer - Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

beach bum - Beautiful Day

sand between my toes - The Husband Hour

ocean blue (environmental)- Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them

ocean blue (fiction) - Ship of Fools

hook 'em - The Old Man and the Sea

sports-a-holic (baseball) - Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games

7/8/18 - changing my selection to: Wait Till Next Year (because I found this book in my basement and it is on my TBR list)

campfire story - Jaws

one and done - Pure Drivel

let's get it on - Love and Ruin

take pride - Letters to the Lost

read the world - Girl with a Pearl Earring

diversify yourself - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

You have a lovely accent - Daughter of Fortune

Won't be long - Writers on Writing: Collected Essays from ''The New York Times''

Poet at heart - Wade in the Water: Poems

book that puts a spin on a fairy tale - Mirror Mirror

High noon - Lonesome Dove

TBRing it - Still Alice

Unshelve it - She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana

Childhood reboot - Choose Your Own Disaster

Peter Pan

Listen to me - Sing, Unburied, Sing

Welcome and good luck!

Lori wrote: "Welcome and good luck!"

Thank you.

I finished my "diversify yourself book - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Maya Angelou was an amazing writer. I have read two of her autobiographies. Five more to go (as part of my RWTFYW challenge).

I finished my selection for "get your grill on," which covers summer recipes and outdoor activities. I read I Need a Lifeguard Everywhere But the Pool by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella. It may not be a perfect match for the category. But it is a fun summer read - light, easy essays with a few references to the joys of summer, people watching at the beach and buying on bathing suits. Plus, the cover has a great picture of a pool and an inflatable alligator.

I finished my one-and-done. Pure Drivel by Steve Martin. It's a very short book of essays, but I couldn't finish it in one day. It's done and I'm moving on.

I finished Love and Ruin and loved it. It was both a love story and a heartbreak. The book would also qualify as a beach read and a book about the ocean - a lot of travel on ocean liners to get over to Europe. My TBR list got longer as a result of this book. I plan to read more about Marty Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway's third wife and a well-known writer and journalist in her own right. I'll be reading Old Man and the Sea soon. Then I will be compelled to re-read more Hemingway.

Finished won't be long book - Essay collection on Writers on Writing edited by John Darnton. Not really a summer read but it was worth reading the essays by 46 prominent authors

Finished reading Sand between my toes The Husband Hour - may not be the classic beach read, but I enjoyed reading it

Also finished Beach bum Beautiful Day - was a classic example of a beach read or a book to read by the pool or even in the tub. Escape from your own problems and read about someone else's.

Two in one week. Less than 20 left to read. Yay! (LOL)

I just finished the audio book of Sing, Unburied, Sing. One of the best audio books I have ever heard. Loved the three people who read the book. Not really a summer beach read, but an amazing book.

Finished my sports-aholic selection Wait Till Next Year. This is a very readable, enjoyable memoir about a young girl in the 1950s, who loves her family, her community and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

This book Moby Duck really qualified for Ocean Blue. The author travelled around the world trying to track down a shipment of floaty toys that was lost at sea. I would recommend it to readers who are committed to environmental issues and/or the study of the ocean. I listened to the book on audio. Otherwise, I would still be reading it months from now.

I finished my second Ocean Blue book Ship of Fools. I thought it was a well-written book, definitely worth the read. (But it really absorbed my summer reading time - three weeks for one book.) I also finished my selection for a spin on a fairy tale, which I really did not think was worth the read. Mirror Mirror. I only read it to complete this category. The good news is that I am more than half way through the summer reading challenge and I am at 75% of my 2018 reading challenge total. I haven't read this many books in one summer in a very long time. Lovely every minute of the motivation to complete the challenge.

OK, two more completed:

Poet at Heart - Wade in the Water: Poems

and the colors of summer Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. The picture on cover of this book is Jeanette when she was a little girl, holding a beach ball at the beach. So glad I read this one. What a memoir.

I think I still have 10 more books to go and I've been reading all summer

Karen wrote: "I finished my second Ocean Blue book Ship of Fools. I thought it was a well-written book, definitely worth the read. (But it really absorbed my summer reading time - three weeks for o..."


I've picked up "Ship of Fools" to start reading it several times this summer, but each time a 'smaller' book seemed more in order, maybe I'll tackle it when the forecasters predict a big snowstorm...I'll mull-up some wine, put more wood on the fire, wrap up in a comfy blanket, and take on Katherine Anne Porter.

I'm not qite ready to think about snow, but Ship of Fools might be a good winter time read. I hope you get to it someday.

will do

For the category of chose your own adventure/childhood reboot, I chose a memoir that probably doesn't fit the category.Choose Your Own Disaster. I'm not sure I would have read it but for this reading challenge. Oh well.

I also read Letters to the Lost, but I don't think it fits the Take Pride category. so I will list Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? for take pride. Great book - one of the best I read all summer.

I finally read The Old Man and the Sea for Hook 'Em. I read a lot of books this summer that involved the sea. I think I am getting near the end of my summer reading list, which is good because it's October.

I have been working hard to get through my books for this challenge. (Next time, I will definitely double-up where I can.)

I read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek for the category "into the great wide open." It took me three weeks to get through it, but it's done. Phew. I also finished Still Alice and Girl with a Pearl Earring. They were all great reads.

I have 4 books left. I borrowed a copy of Lonesome Dove from the library and it's over 800 pages long. Whoa. I'm not sure how I will get this monster book finished and the other three before the year end.

On the bright side, I finished my reading challenge for the year. I've read more books this year than I have in decades. To all of you who finished you summer reading challenge in the summer, I say - congratulations. Good job!

My new target is to get my summer reading challenge finished before next summer.

Finally finished Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Looks like I didn't get all my summer reading finished before the end of the year. Next time, I'll try not to pick such hefty books. But this was a great read. For anyone who hasn't read it yet, it's worth of the commitment of time.

Finished Jaws. Only two more books left. I think it is safe to say that I will have them finished before next summer.