Top Ten Tuesday: Books for Your Beach Bag

The summer reading season is here and Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, wants to help you pack your beach bag. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing better than reading on the beach (under an umbrella, of course) with the sound of the waves in the background. My beach/vacation  reads are usually all about plot. But while I want a great story, good writing is also a must. That means I usually reach for literary fiction.

Here are my recommendations for vacation reading this year:

A Hundred Summers

by Beatriz Williams

We Were Liars

by E. Lockhart

The Interestings

by Meg Wolitzer

The Girl You Left Behind

by Jojo Moyes

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress

by Ariel Lawhon 

Tell the Wolves I'm Home

by Carol Rifka Brunt

The Gravity of Birds

by Tracy Guzeman

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake

by Jennie Wingfield

Flight Behavior

by Barbara Kingsolver

 Pavilion of Women 

by Pearl S. Buck

 Want to see what I recommended last year? Here is my list from 2013.

For links to more Top Ten Tuesday posts, visit The Broke and the Bookish.

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Weekly Update: It's June!

June is here and that means a shift to "summer mode"... life is (slightly) more relaxed, we spend more time outdoors, use the grill almost daily, eat later,  and, for the first time ever, I am not responsible for transporting anyone to summer classes, driving lessons, etc. It almost feels like retirement! ;-)

The scene:  7:30 Sunday morning, black coffee, my laptop, a beautiful day on the lake - I'm heading out for a long walk very soon.

Reading:  I finished We Were Liars by E. Lockhart on Memorial Day and started Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart by Carol Wall.  Nonfiction seemed like a good follow-up to the popular YA title and, at the 37% mark, it is a refreshing change of pace.

Listening:  I downloaded Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell. This is our next book club selection and I'm approaching it as a read/listen combination. The first hundred pages have focused on Huguette's father, W.A. Clark, and although he was quite a character, I'm not totally into the book yet. I have a feeling we'll get to Huguette soon and this background is surely important to her story.

On the blog:
- review of We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
- review of The Light Between Oceans by M.L.Stedman
- Three New Recipes for Weekend Cooking

In the garden: I'm loving my new herb garden in a wine crate! We had fresh rosemary on our grilled vegetables, cilantro on the Avocado Cup Salads, basil with our tomato/mozzarella, and parsley on just about everything else. The plants look a little crowded, but I hope it will last all summer.

Hoping:  To attend BEA one day... It's so much fun to see the photos and tweets, but I'm a little afraid the actual event may be slightly overwhelming. Next year I'll at least plan to participate in Armchair BEA. I enjoyed reading the posts this past week.

Anticipating:  Perhaps dreading is a better word, but I'm having a couple of old fillings replaced this week. Does anyone really like going to the dentist?

Later today:  The rest of the flowers must get planted, and then we'll probably have dinner at my sister's.

What are your plans for the day?

I am also linking this post to It's Monday! What are you Reading? hosted at Book Journey.

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