My Western Sky

It is June 28, and I have yet to finish a book. Actually, I finished Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine, which I started a few weeks ago, but I have abandoned two books. What happened to my summer reading ambition? I had dreams of flying through my summer reading list, soaking up books like the sun's rays, but I just can't find my groove. What is wrong with me? During the first week of June, I started reading The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy, a memoir about his year of teaching on Yamacraw, a tiny, remote island off the coast of South Carolina. Since I dubbed this my "Summer of Conroy" in honor of our trip to Folly Beach, I thought this was a good first selection to kick off my summer reading frenzy. Simply put: it was not the right book to ignite my summer reading flame. I will pick it back up at some point, but now is not that time. Also, my father-in-law became very sick and had to go into the hospital during the second week of June. Due to his illness, we canceled

Sweet summer is here. This one is sweeter because I don't have to log on to that darn UNT website to begin a summer session like I've had to do over the past two years. I'M FREE! So that means more time to READ! But in typical Amianne fashion, I have already booked up my summer with stuff. I will: teach the 1st session of the Abydos Institute, travel to Georgia and South Carolina, de-crapify our house and paint some rooms that are still "builder beige," and work on some projects in my library. I don't do lazy well, and I am excited about doing all of these things. And, of course, I will make room for reading in my busy summer. I've started making my Summer Reading List, and I don't feel like it is as enticing as in summers past. I have yet to come across many "buzz-worthy" new releases, or at least I haven't heard of many that interest me. So I feel like my list is very personal to my tastes because most of the selections are books that I

Bossypants by Tina Fey Started: May 2011 Finished: June 2011 Format: Kindle Goal: 13 of 25 (Didn't meet my goal of 25 by June, but at least I read during a very busy time.) I love Tina Fey. In fact, if I could meet any celebrity in the world, I would want to meet her. And Oprah. It's a close tie. My adoration for Tina goes back to her movie Mean Girls and her stint on SNL doing the "Weekend Update." She's a smart, witty, successful hard-working mom in a male-dominated industry, and most importantly, she's down to earth AND an excellent writer, which is confirmed by her memoir Bossypants . I LOVED this book because it made me laugh out loud, which I don't always do while reading. (For some reason, the laughter stays inside my head when I read--but not with this book.) In fact, my bed-shaking-laughter woke Jason up one night while I was reading and he had already drifted off to sleep. (By the way, when I read him the line, he didn't think it was so fun