Summer Reading List

Here I am with my very first blog intending to write about one of my favorite subjects: books. Friends know that I keep an annotated log of all the books that I read in a little blank book. I frequently look back on my list to remind myself what I thought of a book at the time I finished reading it or to check the date I read it. This blog is my attempt to join the 21st Century and to faithfully share my musings with you.

As a high school librarian I spend a good deal of time during the summer reading books that have piled up on my list of "must-reads" during the school year. This first list, which I will update as I complete other books, is merely a list of books that I have read this summer. They are not necessarily my favorites, though I do like several of the books very much. By the end of the summer I will create a Top Ten list of books I have read to share with my students. Look for that on a later post. I am always on the hunt for good books for teens but that doesn't mean that all the books I read are YA lit. I am a very eclectic reader, as you will see from my list below. I also love to listen to books-on-CD, in fact that is my favorite way to "read" a book.

A little star* next to the listed book means I will be writing a review of the book. My reviews will always be short and I will never give away much of the plot of the ending of the book.I hate reading lengthy reviews, since I have to read so many of them myself. Let me know if you want me to write reviews for any of the other books. I have opinions on all of them.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog and I invite you to join in the conversation with me about books, reading, life.

Here goes...my first list:
Mrs. Bennett's summer reading list:

1. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow 
*2. Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith
3. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy *
4. Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
5. Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichel
6. No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row by Susan Kuklin *
7. Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through Autism by Dawn Prince-Hughes
8. Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz *
9. The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
10. One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus *
11. Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors by James Hornfischer
12. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien *
13. Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal by Mal Peet *
14. Dope Sick by Walter Dean Myers
15. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan *
16. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein *
17. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray *
18. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury *
19. Serena by Ron Rash
20. Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives) by Bill Bryson*
21. Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver*
22. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson*
23. Face by Sherman Alexie*
24. Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork*
25. Impossible by Nancy Werlin
26. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
27. Guernica by Dave Boling
28. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery*
29. Before I Die by Jenny Downham*
30. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
31. The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin

*=Reviews to follow