Come to find out, you guys read a ton. We read a lot of the same authors (Kingsolver, Lamott, Coehlo) and you had some mighty suggestions. For anyone interested in a recommended summer reading guide, here is what you’ve suggested in comments that I have not read:
(I copied these directly from comments, forgive the lack of editing style. Some are authors, other book titles.)
Beatrix Potter
Corrie Ten Boom
Jane Austen
Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
Come Back, by Claire and Mia Fontaine
Lucky by Alice Sebold
The Golden Compass
Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story by Ann Kirschner
Pride and Prejudice
In Lucia’s Eyes
The Historian
The Book Thief
The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show
Janet Evanovich’s number series
Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinkski
The Devil in the White City by Erick Larson
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Necessary Madness by Jenn Crowell
You’re Not You by Michele Wildgen
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Jane Eyre
Dr. Oz’s book How to Keep Young
PS I love you
March by Geraldine Brooks
The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Last Summer of You and Me
Hypocrisy of Disco
See You In A Hundred Years
Highest Tide
The God of Animals
Lullabies for Little Criminals
The Solace of Open Spaces
Haven Kimmel
Ron Carlson’s Five Skies
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth
Gaia Girls
Wee Free Men
The Birth House
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe by Douglas Adams
Mezzanine Nicholson Baker
A Woman in Berlin
Persepolis
And these I have read and have provided a brief review:
{On a banana scale, Summer Sisters by Judy Blume is a 1 (horrific!) while A Hundred Years of Solitude, The Power of One, The Poisonwood Bible, are all 5 bananas, absoloodle. Fives changed my way of looking at the world. Ones make me want to burn the pages for kindling.}
The Poisonwood Bible — 5 bananas
My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult — 3 bananas
Kite Runner — 4 bananas
Tom Robbins — 4 as a general rule, always entertaining
Eat, Pray Love — 4, loved it, love Elizabeth Gilbert more in person
Hemingway — 3. I realize he’s a classic, but not my favorite.
Blink — 3. Liked the topic but was bored by the end.
Freakonomics — 3. See above.
Sue Grafton — 2. Summer mind candy, good for the occasional craving.
White Oleander — 4, great read, descriptive writing
Water for Elephants — 3, candy.
The Namesake — 5, love Jhumpa Lahiri
The Alchemist — 5, one of my faves of all time. Coelho is gold.
Secret Life of Bees — 3, enjoyed the story
The Red Tent — 4, great imagination, loved the Biblical references
Life of Pi — 4, great story telling, great for discussion afterward
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver — 3, good summer read
Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld –2, couldn’t identify with the main character
Now, what to read next…
~K