My Western Sky

Memorial Day weekend makes my mind drift towards the lazy days of summer when I can stay up late and READ. Or lie on the couch in the afternoon and READ. Or go to the neighborhood pool and READ. Or spend 14 hours in a car on the way to vacay and READ. So many of my friends ask me for "Summer Reading" recommendations, which I feel honored to give them. Hopefully, summer is the season of reading for you, and if it's not, then why not start now.  So without further ado, here is my personal "Summer 2014 Reading List."  I have divided it into 2 lists: YA and Not. I have to keep reading YA in the summer (because it's my JOB and I love reading it). Because I read so much YA year-round, I use Summer to relish some adult books. In fact, I usually alternate between YA and adult during the summer months. You can click on the covers below to read more about these books on Goodreads.  NOT YA Books that I Want to Read this Summer : ...

I first read  The Fault in Our Stars  in the Summer of 2012, six months after publication. It generated a lot of buzz from my fellow librarians and YA book lovers, so it jumped on my reading radar, but the rest of mainstream America was oblivious to the story of Hazel and Gus,  two brilliant, funny teenagers who just happen to meet in a support group for kids with cancer. They fall in love, and the rest is...well, if you've read it, then you know how it ends.   Obviously, I ADORED this book. John Green takes a story that could be cliche and turns it into a beautiful, gut-wrenching, Kleenex-soaking reading experience. With his words, JG warmed my heart, ripped it out, and then handed it back to me in better shape than he found it. Thank you very much, John Green. Ironically, this is what I wrote in a post comparing TFioS to Fifty Shades of Gray . (I happened to be reading them simultaneously two years ago, which made me love TFioS even more): "The Fault in our...

May brings out the mushy in me. I'm overly sentimental, so this isn't hard to do; and who am I kidding: I'm a mushball all the months of the year, but May, you get to me the most. May is the month that we celebrate our "Barbie-versary;" May is the month that our family of four became a a Fab Fam of Five. May is the month that God gently taps me on the shoulder and says, "Move over, Aim. I'm driving this bus." Barbie's story is well-documented on my blog because I can't help but attempt to put all these feelings into words. It's what I do. My words are the jars, and these beautiful moments are the fireflies of my life; writing is my way to capture, examine, and keep them on the shelves of my mind. (If you don't know our story, you can read about our first year here and our second year here .) I've never wanted it to seem that this is a perfect situation. It's not. It's messy; it's complicated; it's not easy...

It's 11:43...way past my bedtime, and I'm writing a book review, which I hardly ever do anymore because there are so many books and so little time. I just go on Goodreads , assign stars, mark as read, and move on to the next one in the pile. But I must write about this book. I listened to most of it while driving to and from College Station, and it took my breath away. The fact that the audio book is read by the author, David Levithan , makes it even more magical. There is something spellbinding about listening to an author read his own work.Especially a work like this. I met David Levithan at TLA and stood in his VERY LONG line to have him sign a copy of this book for a dear friend of mine. Now that I've finished this book, I love David even more. I finished reading the last 10% tonight (thank you, trusty Kindle). And I must say that I am PROUD of the fact that I checked out both the audio and e-book versions from my school district's digital library. And I w...