So yeah, it’s the middle of autumn. But since we’re experiencing our now-standard late-October “peak summer” weather here in San Diego, it feels like as good a time as any for a quick update on my summer reading list.
I love the idea of “summer reading,” although it’s not something that I actually do. I don’t read any more during that particular quadrant of the year, and my selections don’t tend to get any breezier, which I suppose is because I don’t usually take my vacations in the summer. It’s really nice here during those months, and I’m not inclined to leave. And this summer in particular, I was totally consumed by the 10-week intensive course that I took on Health Literacy in Public Libraries, which was a ton of work, and 100% fascinating. But squeezed into the little spaces between work, school, and the rest of the stuff of life, I continue to make time every day for at least a little reading – in the summer, and always. Here’s what I squeezed in from June to August this year:
The Art of Dying Well: A Practical Guide to a Good End of Life, Katy Butler (2019)
Eat & Run: My Unlikely Journey to Marathon Greatness, Scott Jurek (2012)
Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover (2018)
Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers, Nick Offerman (2015)
The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, Melinda Gates (2019)
Older, Faster, Stronger: What Women Runners Can Teach Us All About Living Younger, Longer, Margaret Webb (2014)
Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It’s So Hard to Think Straight About Animals, Hal Herzog (2010)
Fiction – Adult
The Claw of the Conciliator (Vol. 2 in The Book of the New Sun), Gene Wolf (1982)
Radicalized: Four Tales of Our Present Moment, Cory Doctorow (2019)
The Shadow of the Torturer (Vol. 1 in The Book of the New Sun), Gene Wolf (1980)
Fiction – Children and Young Adult
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling (1998)
*****
Does your reading have “seasons?” I loved seeing all of the summer reading programs for kids pop up in the libraries, and hope we’ll see that become a thing for adults, too.
brain dump 
Thank you for continuing to write your blog. I love keeping up in your life. You are such an inspiration that you find time to work, go to school, run and still read so much on the side! Thanks for the book tips!
Hope you are well.
Thank you so much, Kris! I really appreciate your encouragement. I told myself when I went back to school that if I got so busy that I didn’t continue to have time for pleasure reading, that would definitely mean I was doing library school wrong. 🙂 But don’t be fooled – it’s a struggle at times, and I crash hard at the end of the day! I’m counting the days until my 6-week winter break, you can bet sure. Hope we can catch up soon.