Summer Reading

In the past 2 weeks I have been able to read and read and read.  Oh, and watch seasons 5 and 6 of The Office, but that's beside the point.  Since I am not inspired to write about much right now, I figured I would make a few suggestions of books that are awesome.  Keep in mind I work in Youth Services, so many of my book recommendations are heavy on the Juvenile/YA spectrum.  Bite me if you don't like it.

1. Bumped  - Loved, loved, loved this YA book.  It is set in the future and like the Hunger Games, it is a dystopian society.  Unlike the Hunger Games, it is not filled with blood and gore.  The premise is that all females become infertile at the age of 18 and so it is not uncommon for girls to "go pro" and enter into contracts with families to conceive and give birth to babies in return for college tuition.  There's a lot more to it than that, but I could not put it down.  Luckily, it is the first in what looks to be a series.

2. Horton Halfpott: or The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, The Loosening or M'Lady Luggertuck's Corset - How can you not want to read this book just based on the title?  The author, Tom Angleberger, is also the author of The Strange Case of Origami Yoda which was one of the best books my son read last year (or so he says).  Fun, silly book for kids.  (And their parents).

3. The Mysterious Benedict Society - Fun, complicated mystery story for the juvenile fiction crowd.  Blaine is reading this, so I decided to read it at the same time so we can discuss it.  I liked it so much I finished reading it before he got to chapter 3.  Whoops.  I plan on picking up the second book (yay!  it's a series!) tomorrow at work.

4. Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married - OK, I admit, this one was a re-read.  This is one of my favorite chick-lit books of all time.  It's chick-lit with a little bit more, in my opinion.

5. Smokin' Seventeen - I keep reading these Janet Evanovich novels even though they really are just the same book over and over again. They usually make me laugh and this was no exception.  It took me about 4 hours to read.

6. Wither -  another YA dystopian novel.  As vampire novels were crazy popular a few years ago thanks to the Twilight books, dystopian novels are popular now thanks to the Hunger Games.  I haven't finished this one yet but so far it's pretty gut-wrenchingly good.

This is just a sample of what I have read in the last 2 weeks.  I have a few other books I'm in the middle of along with Wither.  I always seem to have one fun fiction book, one literary book, one juvenile or YA book and one non-fiction book in different spots around the house and which book I read depends on the mood I'm in...and if there are any episodes of The Office I haven't yet watched.