Summer Reading 2012

Those two words strike fear in some middle schoolers' hearts just one week into summer vacation, but not mine. I look forward to summer so that I can stay up too late finishing a chapter or even a whole book if I want to. For Christmas, Son #1 gave the Ex-Ex and me a Kindle, just the basic model. I was convinced that I wouldn't like it, but I really, really do. I can download samples, read a few pages, and decide if I want to purchase the book or not. It is very lightweight -- perfect for sticking in my purse during the upcoming trip to France. Unfortunately for the Ex-Ex, he hasn't gotten his hands on it very much since December. But now, fortunately for him, there is a Kindle app on my lovely little iPad. So, my books are downloaded on both.  I suppose showing what's on my Kindle is a glimpse into my private life, n'est-ce pas?

At the moment, I am reading a book I picked up at The Dollar Tree for yes, you guessed it, $1.00.

I am learning about Drancy where Jews were held before being loaded onto train cars and taken to death camps during WWII. When I picked up the book, I did not realize that would be the focus. The story just looked interesting-- a middle-aged woman, scarred by the time she spent in a Nazi camp when she was a child. She is reunited with the boy-turned-man who was there with her as well as the older man who tried to look after the two children.

Then today, Head Butler, Jesse Kornbluth, hooked me with his description of Mission to Paris by Alan Furst. Paris in the late 1930's. Nazis. Spies.  Now downloaded on the Kindle.

I also plan to reread a book I read a few years ago.

This is one of the summer reading books for our sixth graders. A colleague gave me a copy because she said she recognized me in the story of Dovey, a mountain girl in North Carolina. I was very surprised (and secretly thrilled) when I realized that Frances Dowell is the mom of one of my advisees. We even talked about her writing a couple of times. She and her family head up to Bakersville, the county seat of Mitchell county, where Spruce Pine, my hometown, is located. I do not usually reread books, but it's been a while since I read this one and I miss the little mountain girl I used to be.

Mme P, MLQ, ma très chère amie française, whom I will see very soon, has asked for the second and third books in the Hunger Games series. She bought Hunger Games when she was here in April. I read all three of them, too, in a very short period of time at the suggestion of one of my eighth grade girls.  I haven't seen the movie yet (filmed totally in North Carolina).  That's on my summer to-do list.

Ah, les grandes vacances... And more free time to read (and to take an afternoon nap in case I stay up too late reading).

Bon appétit et bonne lecture, mes amis!