Summer Reading Challenge

When you were a kid, did you breathlessly await the signup day at the library for the summer reading club? Boy, I did. And I dutifully logged each book read all summer long. And was oh so proud of my certificate that I got at the end of the summer. A certificate that showed the total number of books read on it! And the librarian called out your name, and told everyone how many books you read. And then you adjourned to a table at the back of the children's library for warmish lemonade and windmill cookies.

Well, I guess I'm never too old for that, so I'm continuing on with my seasonal reading challenges. Trying to move some of my many unread books to the "Ta Da! They're Finished!" section of my shelves.

So, I spent some time last night thinking about the summer (and the McKid being with me all the time) and how much and what I wanted to read.

Summer is not the time for a lot of heavy reading. Oh, I'll do some, no doubt. But in the midst of swimming pools and picnics and heatwaves--well, I think it's time for a little escape!

So, the Summer Reading Challenge has three parts:

Part I - Inkblots books for the summer. (These are books I must read for my monthly club meetings.)

June - Stones from the River by Ursula Heigi
July - The Golem by Isaac Bashevis Singer
August - Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton. (This one is the heavy lifting of the summer)

Part II - Southern Reading Challenge from over at Maggie Reads

June - Sights Unseen by Kaye Gibbons
July - Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
August - Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy

Part III - MamaT's Summer Escape Literature, or It's Hot Around Here and I'm Reading These and Sipping Lemonade, So There

Lord Vanity by Samuel Shellabarger
Captain from Castile by Samuel Shellabarger

And the rest of the summer will be spent with Agatha Christie, because I want to. On deck are the following Miss Marple novels:

Nemesis
What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!
The Body in the Library

and the following Hercule Poirot novels:

Death on the Nile
Murder on the Orient Express
The ABC Murders
Cards on the Table
Thirteen at Dinner

If I finish those, I intend to read other escapist literature. Possibly Brother Odd by Dean Koontz.

It'll start on June 1st. I continue to read Ngaio Marsh apace til then.