Summer Reading

Light + Beachy | The Island by Elin Hilderbrand

from Goodreads –

Birdie Cousins has thrown herself into the details of her daughter Chess’s lavish wedding…Like any mother of a bride-to-be, she is weathering the storms of excitement and chaos, tears and joy…[until} a call from Chess, abruptly announcing that she’s cancelled her engagement…Enlisting help from her younger daughter and sister…all four are headed for beautiful, rustic Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket, where their family has summered for generations. No phones, no television, no grocery store – a place without distractions where they can escape their troubles. But throw sisters, daughters, ex-lovers, and long-kept secrets onto a remote island, and what might sound like a peaceful getaway becomes much more.

my take –
I have read a few of Hilderbrand’s novels. They center around east coast island life, family and friends. Something about other people’s dramatic family life that I love to read. Loyalty, love, mothers, daughters, sisters, tragedy, it has a little bit of everything all set amidst an idyllic summer backdrop is what I call a fine summer read.

Pulitzer Prize Winner | All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

from Goodreads –

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When Marie-Laure is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle.

In a mining town in Germany, [lives] the orphan Werner [who] becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth. A special assignment to track the resistance… [Werner] travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

My take –
I can’t wait to sink into this heartfelt story from a different perspective. I’ve read many stories that take place during WWII over the years, but this one is told from the angle of the German orphan. Like Unbroken and The Nightingale, it is a story about a horrific time in our world. The children, one blind and one orphan converge to tell a story about the war I haven’t heard before. I am drawn to stories from WWII. I am saddened by the thought of the aging few that survive to keep these stories alive. I cannot wait to dive into this one.

Parenting/Self-Help | How to Raise an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims

from Julie’s page on Amazon –

I am deeply interested in humans – all of us – living lives of meaning and purpose, which requires figuring out what we’re good at and what we love, and being the best version of that self we can be. So I’m interested in what gets in the way of that. I wrote this book because too many adolescents and young adults seem to be on a path of someone else’s making, while being subjected to a lot of hovering and lot of help to ensure that particular path is walked, all in furtherance of a very limited and narrow definition of “success.” I come at this issue from the dual vantage points of former university dean and parent of two teenagers, and with great empathy for humans.

my take –
I spend an exorbitant amount of time thinking about my kids. I worry about their hearts, their growing bodies, their friendships. I also worry about what I’ve said or didn’t say and how my words have shaped them. I read books on siblings and ‘spirited’ children, and how to best get picky eaters to eat. This is my life. Every day since my first was born nearly 12 years ago, I have educated myself on how to best raise kids. That’s what we are supposed to do, right? The title of this book alone was enough for me to be interested. As if a license to stop. Stop the worry, stop the fretting over parenting. In the end, all I hope for are happy kids who grow up to be confident happy adults and don’t look back on their lives thinking their mother is crazy. Plus, Julie is a Stanford grad and local mom so she’s probably pretty rad.

The Classic | Angel of Repose by Wallace Stegner

from Goodreads –

Wallace Stegner’s Pultizer Prize-winning novel is a story of discovery—personal, historical, and geographical. Confined to a wheelchair, retired historian Lyman Ward sets out to write his grandparents’ remarkable story, chronicling their days spent carving civilization into the surface of America’s western frontier. But his research reveals even more about his own life than he’s willing to admit. What emerges is an enthralling portrait of four generations in the life of an American family.

My take –
Honestly, for the past 20 years if you were to have asked me what my all time favorite novel was, this would be it. I would have said, “Angel of Repose.” Then you would ask me, “why, what’s it about?” For which, I would reply, “I can’t remember.” Yes, that’s me. What I do remember is how in love with this novel I was when reading it. I can tell you exactly where I was and what I was doing and how badly I wanted this story to never end. Yes, I loved it. So I figured it was time to re-read it so that I can answer your second question. Plus, I love to go back and read classics. It’s a good change of pace and they are classics for a reason, they are darn good. Wallace Stegner became my favorite author of all time and helped shaped my love of place more than any other author I’ve ever read. He started the Creative Writing Program at Stanford University and was a professor there for many years.