The Summer that really wasn’t…

It is my humble opinion that just last week was June and the last day of school and despite the chilly autumn evenings and the turning of the leaves and the fact that students have returned to school — summer hasn’t passed.

How could it?

I don’t remember it and I assure you I have not had an alcohol induced moments of forgetfulness or other activities that may alter memory unless you call parenting such an activity.

I wrote, but never published, a Summer Reading List.  On this list were books that were going to keep me enlightened and informed.  Books I would read with my kids to help them with summer reading assignments and also just to stay cool as a Mom because they liked them so much.  So here goes … the famous list:

1) The Wrong Girl by Hank Phillippi Ryan — a Sister in Crime author who blogs with Jungle Red Writers — she sent me an ARC and I loved “The Other Woman” — this moves to the top of the list

2) World War Z by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks’ son writes a book about the Zombie Apocolypse — my son read the book and saw the movie … said the movie was nothing like the book … Go Team Jerusalem — just remember when trying to survive the zombie apocolypse don’t throw a wild party with loud music … zombies will come and check it out and walls can’t keep them out forever!)

3) Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen — A Sister in Crime Author who blogs with Jungle Red Writers … great series

4) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (my son loved it and we all saw the movie together … the movie was good, but my son said the book was better)

5) A Tine to Live a Tine to Die by Edith Maxwell — A Sister in Crime Author — met her at conferences a few times … eager to read about a local food mystery

6) Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe — on my children’s summer reading list so, since I have never read it myself, I thought I would read it so we could discuss it as a family ( A Connecticut Author)

7) The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain (Another Connecticut Author) — my daughter needs to read this one and so since I am reading about vampires and zombies for my son I figured I could read one for my daughter … can’t play favorites!!!

8) some yet to be determined trashy romance based in the Highlands because I just love those and I need to compensate for #6 and #7!

9) The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg — just because I love the entertainment value of Janet Evanovich

10) Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly — A Sister in Crime Author — I just heard her speak (and had a lovely dinner with her) and I haven’t yet gotten to her County Cork Mystery … but it is indeed on my list!

So I can honestly say that I read #1 (great book — HIGHLY recommended), a number of #8s, and I listened to #9 on audio book.  Quite good.

But I know summer didn’t really happen because the other seven didn’t get done.  Though for example I didn’t read “The Prince and the Pauper” because my daughter said it was BORING and old-fashioned so she read “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville.  I do not lie — who in their right mind would chose “Moby Dick”  over Mark Twain?

I was going to listen to the audiobook of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” with the children as a family — but my son started reading it on his own and preferred not to hear it as well.  We did join a friend at the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, CT — that was great.  So we needed to listen to something more upbeat in the car; which turned out to be “Angels & Demons” by Dan Brown… teenagers!

I may not have gotten all the way to Sheila Connolly’s version of Ireland, but I did finish up the Apple Orchard series which somehow I got behind on.  So I did do my part in supporting Sisters in Crime authors.

Listening to “The Heist” did start an interest in Lee Goldberg and so I ordered a copy of the first Mr. Monk series on audiobook and I really did enjoy that.

So it was not the summer I had planned … but the reading part was quite enjoyable.  Man, I wish I could say the same about everything else!