Summer Somedays

"You said 'tomorrow' yesterday."

Someday books are ones that I want to read but can't get to quite yet. Maybe I'm already involved in a great story, or I really want to wait for a time when I can dedicate myself to a particular book. We all have our own list of Somedays because we can't read all the books we want to all at once. My Someday list is quite long, and scattered in many places at once (on my B&N profile, my iPhone, scribbled onto multiple sticky notes, etc.) Not only do I want to consolidate everything into one space, I want to share it so that others can take my recommendations too (because I'm a teacher and that's what we do!)

So here it goes, my self-assigned Summer Reading List. At this point, it is by no means comprehensive and is certainly subject to change. (I tried adding small thumbnail pictures of each book but there were so many that my computer froze up and I couldn't get the post to publish.)

Pride and Prejudice is surely my favorite classic and one of my favorite stories overall. It's time for a reread. In keeping with the classic spirit and having Jane Eyre so highly recommended to me by one of my students and my grandmother, this is definitely my next classic.

The are the newest books on my shelf waiting to be read/reread are:
31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan
Secretariat by William Nack
and Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (also see previous post about her newest book Unbroken.)

Recently, I've jumped into the world of trail running. I love it because it's so much more scenic and very different than what I've been doing for the past 6 years with "pounding the pavement" on the streets and sidewalks. I started exploring the website for the Appalachian Trail and it completely captured me! A new goal of mine, a "bucket list" item I guess you could say, is to hike the entire 2,700 miles from Georgia to Maine. Whether all at once (which I'd love to do but isn't really logistical) or in pieces over a number of years, I will complete this trail. It will require lots of preparation with physical conditioning, research, and careful planning, and of course a dedicated partner to hike with. What better way is there to begin than to read about a real person's experience on the trail? I will be reading Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods very soon.

Cleopatra is said to be one of the most interesting women in history. I became familiar with Cleopatra, A Novel by Stacy Schiff when one of my students began reading it for a research project. When a 14-year-old recommends a biography to you that's something to make note of!

Here are some other sure-to-be-good books that have been on my Someday Shelf - the bottom one of my bookcase - for quite some time now.
The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy is the second book of a trilogy I started almost two years ago now. One thing I've learned from my students is that it's ok to keep a book on your Someday list for a while, until the time is right to read it.
Two books by Alice Sebold, The Almost Moon and The Lovely Bones. I've been interested in seeing what her writing is all about for a while now too.
The Blue Orchard by Jackson Taylor interests me with its historical depression-era setting. I've always liked historical fiction, and I'm pretty sure I wrote in an earlier post about why it interests me so much.

One of my responsibilities to be an effective teacher is to keep up with the ever-changing world of youth literature. Hooray! No problem there! The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver looks like a good one and it shouldn't take long to read all five books. Others to borrow from my own classroom library include The Book of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau, which is supposed to be very good and is recommended to those who enjoy books like The Hunger Games. How could I pass up a book like Rain, the debut novel by local teen author Kieryn Nicolas? I'll also be reading her second book Flawless Ruins. I read A Wrinke In Time so long ago in school that I don't remember much about it except that I was unsure about it at first but ended up liking it. I'd like to tackle the whole quintet eventually.

As always, I welcome recommendations and am always looking to add to my ever-growing Someday list (no matter how much I read, the list continues to grow!) Now I'm just waiting for the last 5 weeks of school to finish up so I can lay out by the pool with the sunshine and as many books as I can handle! (That is, between running Summer Camp and working at Hallmark, my new part time job which I love. But no, I'm not over-committed.)

Happy reading!