On the Shelf

Day Twenty-eight - I love reading. I love books. When I was going over today's photo topic, I was stumped for a bit trying to think of what I would shoot. And then I had my 'duh' moment and knew exactly what I would take a picture of. Here it is...one of the book shelves in our house. I thought that to go along with this post today I would offer some suggestions for summer reading a variety of categories. Here we go...

Fiction (fun and light):
1. Rhys Bowen's Her Royal Spyness Mystery Series - It's hilarious. Set in the 1920's, a distant relative of the queen of England, 28th in line to the throne, gets into all kinds of mischief trying to keep up appearances while living on nothing. The queen, from time to time, asks her for special favors which usually involve a murder going down. I always laugh.
2. Anything written by Cecilia Ahern. She wrote P.S. I Love You. Her stories are kind of like modern day fairy tales. Again, funny but always with a twist.


3. Alan Bradley's Flavia DeLuce Mysteries - A fiesty eleven year old chemistry whiz that solves mysteries. Not children's books, though it may seem so. Very entertaining.

Fiction (great stories)
1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - If you have not read it and only seen the movie, you really should read the book. It is fabulous.
2. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway - read it.
3. Anything written by Adriana Trigiani. She's great. Real characters. Good stuff.
4. The Forgotten Garden - Kate Morton
5. Little Bee - Chris Cleve
6. One Day - David Nicholls
7. Juliet - Anne Fortier
8. The Fisherman - Larry Huntsperger
9. The Orchard - Jeffrey Stepakoff
10. The Language of Flowers - Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Fiction (Classics)
1. JANE AUSTEN IS A GENIUS! READ ALL OF HER BOOKS!
2. Oscar Wilde is also a riot. Start with "An Ideal Husband" or "Lady Windemere's Fan". He definitely has society pegged, nothing has changed in over a hundred years...really!
3. The Blue Castle - L.M. Montgomery (still one of my favorite authors)
4. Jane Eyre - Charolotte Bronte

Fiction (to read aloud to children)
1. Kate DiCammilo's Mercy Watson Series - I always read these to Elle in my very best southern accent. They are about a pig and her very out-of-touch-with-reality owners. Very fun!
2. Anything written by Dr. Seuss. (Fox in Socks really does hurt my tongue!)
3. Ramona and Beezus - Beverly Cleary
4. Barbara Park's Junie B. Jones Series - Oh my these are so funny. These books chronicle the school days of a little girl named Junie B. Kindergarten and grade one would be really something if she was your student!!!

Non-Fiction
1. Little Princes - Connor Grennan
2. The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls (cannot believe this is true!!!)
3. Interrupted - Jen Hatmaker
4. Sacrilege - Hugh Halter
5. Crazy Love - Francis Chan
6. An Irresistable Revolution - Shane Claiborne
7. Searching for God Knows What - Donald Miller

Really, I could go on and on and on. There are so many great books out there. Hope you get a chance to do some summer reading...hit the library and grab a stack!!! Happy reading...