Summer Reading

Do you try and do extra reading over the summer like me? I'm not sure if it is because I am a teacher and feel I need to get the most out of my time at home in the summer or if it heralds back to the days of summer reading lists and library programs (oh, I loved those!), but I feel like I always try and do some reading over these warm months in the middle of the year. 

A confession: I actually haven't been reading much lately, at least not for pleasure. I knocked a few books out on my new Kindle Fire, but sometimes I just need to read something substantial and real. Our library has this pesky way of taunting me with their nonfiction new releases that are directly across from the children's area and I decided to dive in and have surprised myself by finishing not one...not two...but three actual books already this summer. I'm on a roll, baby!

"Bloom, finding beauty in the unexpected" is my first recommendation. I read Kelle Hampton's blog and I have lots of mixed opinions on it. Yes, I do love it but sometimes I wonder if her rose colored glass/unicorns/rainbows outlook on life is really real? Her book, which is a memoir, feels more intimate than her blog and I really felt like her words resonated with me more than I expected. I've never really thought we were similar and at times I did not feel for her at all because she has a baby with DS because--guess what? The world hasn't ended, you have a beautiful baby and she's here and you get to love her and keep her. Those doubting thoughts of mine ended pretty quickly as I delved into the book and realized we do have a lot in common, especially when she talked about her Old Life/New Life conflict which is something I have felt strongly in my own life after losing Trace and not something I think many people understand unless you've had a big crisis in your life. Some other themes that resonated with me were about sinking or swimming and flowing with the current of life, having hope....and creating joy. This book definitely pulled at my heartstrings and I had lots of moments with tears. I think you will all enjoy it! 

The next book, "The Happiness Project" just happened to be on the shelf right next to Bloom and so I grabbed it and took it home. It is also kind of like a memoir (can you tell this is my favorite genre?) and follows the author as she lives a year of her life trying different things that are supposed to help people be happier. Most of the things in the book are things I know are tried and true for creating happiness and it is an inspiration for me that even though our days are long we can still create moments of happiness. I love how the book is from the author's prospective because I have this thirst for figuring how other people get through life....I want to know exactly how other people do it and see if I can apply ideas to my own life.  

My last selection, "The American Way of Eating", was a good read about produce and how it gets to our table. The author went undercover to work in different environments and I thought seeing how she picked fruit in a field, worked in the produce section at WalMart, and did the line at Applebee's was the most interesting part of the whole book.  Her experience gave it a real authenticity and got me thinking about how we eat and how we can change some habits to make it work better. It reminded me of the book Nickel and Dimed to see how hard some Americans work for very little money and how they use a lot of that money just to put food on their table. I loved that it was an easy read almost in novel form which made the story flow nice and quickly. I think I finished it in a weekend.