Continuing to blast through summer reading recommendations, I chose i’ll be your blue sky by Marisa De Los Santos next. It’s a great summer choice. Clare meets elderly Edith on the weekend of Clare’s wedding. Clare’s cold feet become walking feet as she leaves her fiance and moves on with her life on Edith’s sage advice. While the story is a bit predictable, it was just surprising enough to keep one from being bored and had a unique and captivating sub-story. I would absolutely throw this one in your beach bag. It’s fast-paced and enjoyable (but nothing deep and earth-shattering).

Here’s my annual list of summer picks. I choose these from those I have read in the previous six months that have garnered 4.5 stars or more. Any of these would be a great pick for the beach. Happy summer, everyone!

Links to read my blog posts and/or buy each book are here:

The Great Alone
Educated
Still Me
Grist Mill Road
Beneath a Scarlett Sky
The Woman in the Window
An American Marriage
Lilli de Jong
An Untamed State
The Perfect Mother

2017’s summer books are listed here.

I don’t like short stories. Just when I get into the characters or the story, they end. I didn’t realize before I picked up Neel Mukherjee’s A State of Freedom that it was short stories: I thought the tales were interconnected. So, I kept waiting for them to get connected. And, though the connection came around in the end, overall, I was disappointed. Mukherjee’s writing was good and some of the stories were interesting, but overall, I would have given this one a pass.

How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister was on several “Best Summer Reads of 2018” lists. So, when it came to the library, I was excited to grab it. A slim volume, I knocked it out over a day. However, I wish I hadn’t bothered. I didn’t like the main character and the bouncing back from reality to fantasy wasn’t to my liking. The main idea of the story is a high school mass shooting by an unhappy student. Briefly, a suspended teacher is a suspect. It is her point of view from which the story is told. Honestly, other than the topical nature of the premise, I can’t figure why this one made a must-read list. I hope some of the other choices I have put on my own summer TBR list are better!

Normally a book like The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan would not be up my alley. While you wouldn’t know it at first, the supernatural came into play toward the end and that’s not for me. However, the story was so sweet, that I am willing to suspend my disbelief and give this choice a thumbs up. It felt very much like A Man Called Ove and The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend. Anthony Peardew finds and keeps lost things and writes stories about each one. He does this because many years ago he lost his fiancé, Therese. Laura becomes Anthony’s assistant. Recovering from a divorce, she needs a distraction and finds one in taking care of Anthony. At the same time, we learn about Eunice who is also finding herself and newly employed. Their stories intertwine in predictable but enjoyable ways. I’d add this one to your summer reading list.

While The Strays by Emily Bitto had an engaging and beautiful cover, I didn’t love it. I not only felt like I had read it before but also I tired of the story’s premise quickly. It’s one of those books where the parents are bohemian artists and neglect their children. Then the children get up to no good and have adult sadnesses and regret. The story wasn’t bad, per se, and it had some suspense driven by a dangling story element alluded to in the beginning, but I found myself distracted through most of the book and only really into it at the end.

I don’t know anything about Cuba and was interested to pick up Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. The premise is as follows: Marisol’s grandmother was an exile from Cuba. When her grandmother died, Marisol was tasked with smuggling her ashes back to Cuba to be scattered. While the story felt like others I have read, it was a decent read – nothing too heavy – and worth grabbing for the summer.

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy was the perfect book to enjoy on a lazy Mothers’ Day morning. New mom, Winnie, leaves her baby for the first time with a nanny recommended by a new mom group friend. And, not surprisingly, the baby is abducted. Chapters are told by alternating members of the new moms group, each with her own motivations, leading you to question your assumptions. This was a great page-turner. Nothing to write home about, literarily speaking, but a good escape especially for the beach.

Need to Know by Karen Cleveland is a quick mystery/thriller about Vivian, a CIA analyst who discovers that her husband is not who she thinks he is. While the first 40% of the book was annoyingly focused on how Vivian couldn’t believe any of this was happening, it was a good story with a nice amount of unexpected twists and turns and one that kept the pages turning. I would recommend picking it up – it’s a good summer choice.

I get this question all the time: how are you able to read so many books? And, since I keep answering it over and over, I thought I would share the answer en masse here. First, I have been reading since before I can remember (under the covers, in the car, you know the drill). So, it’s just part of my routine and how I choose to spend my downtime. In fact, of late, the TV is hardly on and a show has to be really good to keep my interest. Second, it’s how I gain energy (introvert at heart, even though you’d never know it based on my life/job). It’s how I decompress – in fact, it’s hard for me to fall asleep if I haven’t read right before bed. Last, I have developed a habit of speed reading. There’s no other way to put it: I read really fast. This means that I don’t have the best memory of what I have read, but I enjoy the books nonetheless (and it’s the crux of why I started this blog in the first place – I can never remember all the books I have read and my real opinions about them if I don’t keep track in an organized way). So, there you have it. On top of all those reasons, I am pretty organized generally, which leaves some extra time (grocery store lines, baseball sidelines, etc.) when I can capitalize and read a few more pages.