Not only do I love to read, I really think that is what summers are all about – friends, family, maybe a beach or two, tons of music and good reads!

Some of my favorite summer reads have been discovered by accident.  I love Jimmy Buffet’s novels.  Two summers ago was the discovery of this wonderful author – who also tends to get me going with is music too – when I picked up A Salty Piece of Land at the local WaldenBooks.  While it was a thick paperback, I hated to put it down each night.  I would work all day.  Grill dinner and sit in the waning sun with a glass of white wine and this wonderful piece of fiction until the bugs would drive me inside – or, as happened many times, the darkness made staying outside to read reasonable any longer.

This summer I have a list of summer reads.  I had sort of forgotten about them until my weekly list from Borders came to my email and there, in the email, was a link to what Borders buyers are reading this summer.  I didn’t match up a lot of the reads but I have rather eclectic reading taste.  I love non-fiction but not for summer.  I want light and airy to go with the wonderful summer weather.

So far, and remember summer hasn’t officially started yet, I have taken full advantage of what may be the only summer we get here in upstate NY.  If it was hot, I was at the grill cooking dinner and then reading.

I have re-read Sammy’s Hill by Kristin Gore – yes, she is related to Al, his second daughter.  I cannot wait to find a copy of Sammy’s House.  This is a recent re-read as it was hot this past weekend and I was in the mood for sun and reading.

I visited with another old friend when I picked up The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver.  I first read Kingsolver when I delved into The Poisonwood Bible years ago.  The Bean Trees did not leave me disappointed in the least.  It was like listening to an old friend tell a new story.

Buffet brings me to big belly laughs with some of his writings.  Where Is Joe Merchant? is no different.  It sets you up in the Carribean and makes you want to make margaritas every night.  Until I can afford to have a big bottle of Patron around, that little scenario will have to wait.  I want to run out and pick up a few more Buffet books.  I have also recently read Swine Not? and, while not a tropical setting, it is definitely a Buffet original and worth the time to sit down and read it.  

While a lot of people think of Meg Cabot and The Princess Diaries – which, by the way, I have never read – I think of Size 12 Is Not Fat.  This is my first encounter with Cabot and made me run out looking for Size 14 Is Not Fat Either.   While both of these were last year’s reads, I saw Queen of Babble at my local Sam’s Club and grabbed at it.  I love the way Cabot’s mind works and Queen of Babble did not disappoint.  It is definitely a beach read and a book that leaves me waiting for more about the protagonist Lizzie, as did Cabot’s Size books about protagonist Heather.

I also decided, while i was book hunting, that I needed to try some new authors.  I decide to pick up Mrs. Kimble.  What a marvelous book!  It takes you through the life of one man from the point of view of his wives – all three of them.

My second new author was to pick up Alphabet Weekends.  Not only do I now want to find someone willing to give me 26 weekends of their life to do something having to do with each letter of the alphabet, I want to read more by Elizabeth Noble.

Here’s to summer reading!  More there be many more books to come.