Summer Anytime Reads

Hey'a, everyone! I'm officially back from my hiatus! And just in time for summer too . . . well, sort of. Y'know, since unofficially, summer's been here over two weeks, but officially it starts in a few days. Either way, it's the perfect time to talk about summer reads- but not in the sense of books releasing during summer. Instead, today's post is all about the books I'd recommend for reading during the summer for one reason or another.

Summer Anytime Reads

 

1. The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall. If there's one book that I'd say contains the essence of a wonderful summer, it's The Penderwicks. It's lighthearted and fun, yet touching, and the Penderwick sisters are each wonderful, both in their own rights and in terms of their relationship with each other and their father. The style, too, is lovely, giving this story the feel of a classic despite being set in our modern day and age. On the whole, the story is sweet without being fluffy, playful without becoming meaningless, and entirely perfect as a companion on a warm summer afternoon.  
If you liked The Penderwicks, try: Entwined (for the sweet sisterly relationships) or The Summer of Cotton Candy (for a lighthearted contemporary story set in summertime).

2. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Howl is, of course, a good book to read at any time of the year. But it does feel like a very summertime book to me: lighthearted, amusing, classic. Pick it up on a sunshine-y morning and enjoy meeting Sophie, Howl, Calcifer, and the rest (whether for the first or hundred and first time), or save it for a rainy day and let Howl's antics and Sophie's misadventures in dealing with him make you forget all about the gloomy weather.  
If you like Howl's Moving Castle, try: Jackaby (for the, how shall we say, eccentric? male lead and amusingly bickering main pair), The Chrestomanci Chronicles (for more Diana Wynne Jones and the closest character to Howl I've found so far), or The Hollow Kingdom (for the feel of the book).

3. The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Sometimes, though, you don't want something lighthearted. Summer's the most free time any of us have, usually, and we might as well make the most of it by tackling something big. And The Stormlight Archive contains two of the biggest and best books I've ever read in my life- and if you're reading it for the first time, you'd better make it during the summer. Try it during the school year and you'll need a great deal of self-discipline to keep it from taking over your life. Summertime, though? No worries- you won't need to put it down, which is good, because you won't want to.
If you like The Stormlight Archive, try: The Blood of Kings trilogy (for epic adventures and a pretty awesome world), The Wheel of Time series* (for massive books and lore-rich worldbuilding), or the Queen's Thief series (for incredibly twisty plots).

4. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. Basically, anything Discworld is probably a good choice for the summer- they're hilarious, if not quite lighthearted, but still fairly substantial. (Not as substantial as The Stormlight Archive, no, but what is?) But if I'm going to pick just one book to recommend from the series for the summer, Going Postal is the obvious choice. It's a bit less outright weird than some of them, while maintaining all the Discworld charm, and Moist van Lipwig is definitely a summertime sort of character.   
If you like Going Postal, try: The League of Princes series (for unlikely heroes and fantasy send-ups) or The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (for fun fantasy send-up; read it straight through or flip around at will).

5. The Books of Bayern by Shannon Hale. These books are neither lighthearted nor especially substantial, but they still feel like a quiet summer afternoon, especially The Goose Girl and River Secrets (first and third, respectively, in the series). The romance is sweet, the stories are both classic and original, and the writing style is the sort you want to take the time to savor.
If you like The Books of Bayern, try: Wildwood Dancing or Five Glass Slippers (for fairy-tale retellings), The Merchant's Daughter (for a romance without too much fluff), or Orphan's Song (for fairly short books worth reading slowly).

What are some of your favorite summer reads? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

*Note: I have only read the first three Wheel of Time books. Those three books, I can recommend as being good, especially the third one- mostly because Rand ceases to be an idiot and Mat gets to be awesome. I can't vouch for the rest, but I have a friend with excellent taste in reading material who says they're good.

Summer Reading Plans

When I think of summer activities, there are many things that come to me: swimming, biking, writing, and most of all, reading. For as long as I can remember, I've done the summer reading program at my library every year, and if I can find others, I like to do those too. This year, however, I'm doing something I haven't done before: a summer reading list.

Most of the books on my list are ones I haven't read in a year or more and want to make sure I reread sometime relatively soon. There are some new titles on the list, however, and if anyone has suggestions of other books I should add to it, I'd be happy to hear them. I'm always on the lookout for new books to enjoy.

First on my list is The Door Within Trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson. This was one of the first contemporary Christian fantasy series I read, and when I first started writing, it heavily influenced my stories. However, in the last year, I've been more focused on other Batson books, namely The Tide of Unmaking and his short stories. I'm very much looking forward to returning to the Realm this summer and joining Aidan, Antoinette, and Robby on their adventures once more!

Another trilogy on my list is The White Lion Chronicles by Christopher Hopper. When I first read Rise of the Dibor, I don't think I was really mature enough to appreciate these books, since they're longer and move at a slower pace than most books I was reading at the time. After they were rereleased, I gave them another try and really enjoyed them. However, until now, I never quite got around to rereading them. This is the only series on my list that I've already gotten started on rereading; I just reread Rise of the Dibor last week.

For a change from fantasy to dystopian, I'll be reading Sneak, the second book in the Swipe series by Evan Angler. Though Sneak was released some time ago, my library only recently obtained copies of it. I can hardly wait to read it and find out what in the world is going to happen to Logan, not to mention whether or not my theories about the Mark and such are true. Of course, since Storm just recently came out, and I'm pretty sure my library doesn't have it, I'll be back in the same boat again. Oh well. Such is life.

Back to fantasy! This time, however, the fantasy is a classic. It's a tradition of mine to make sure I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings at least once every year. I used to try to do this in either November or May (near either my birthday or half-birthday), since the first time I read The Lord of the Rings was shortly after my birthday some years ago. More recently, however, I decided that summer was the best time to read these books, since I'll have more time to read and therefore I'll be able to enjoy them more. 

Another classic I'll be rereading is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I first read this book in September of last year and promptly decided that it was my new favorite non-fantasy classic. I also hope to find another Austen book to read, though I'm not sure which one. I read Sense and Sensibility in January and, though it was fairly good, didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Pride and Prejudice. I'm leaning towards Emma for this summer, but if any fans of Jane Austen's books are reading this, suggestions are more than welcome!

Two weekends ago, I did the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt, an online scavenger hunt hosted by thirty-two Christian fiction authors. To complete the scavenger hunt, you had to go from blog to blog and collect all the clues to put together a quote and be entered in a drawing for the prize. Along the way, I discovered a few authors I'd like to try, most notably R. J. Larson, author of Prophet and the rest of the Books of the Infinite series. Her books, which are fantasy set in a world similar to the Biblical time period, looked interesting, so I decided to give them a try. I can hardly wait to find out if they live up to my hopes.

By far the longest series on my reading list is the Redwall series by Brian Jacques. I've read these books several times each since first discovering them, but I've been too busy with other books to read them for some time. This summer, however, I intend to change that. It might take a miracle to get through all of them, however, unless I decide to listen to some of them on cd or such instead of actually reading them. There are, after all, twenty-two books in the series!

Taking second place for longest series on my list is John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice series, along with its companion series, The Brotherband Chronicles. I've actually read several of these semi-recently (within the last few months), but I decided to put them on my list anyway, since I've been thinking of rereading the two series for a few weeks now.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer is a newer book that I first noticed because two people recommending it in the same day: Jill Williamson in her ABC Reading Challenge and Emma, a friend of mine from WI. Cinder is a Cinderella remake set in a sci-fi/dystopian-type setting, which I thought sounded interesting. After asking both Emma and a lady at my church (who's recommended several other fairy-tale remakes to me) for more details, I decided to go ahead and add it to my reading list.

Another dystopian series on my list is The Cantral Chronicles by Amanda Davis. Like The White Lion Chronicles, I haven't quite gotten around to rereading the books in this series since around the time they first came out. In this case, however, that's mostly because I'd have to borrow the first book from a friend. I'm hoping she'll be ok with me borrowing it, since I remember really enjoying The Cantral Chronicles the first time I read them.

The last book or book series on my list? That's still a bit of a mystery. A friend of mine (who's pointed me towards many of my favorite authors and books) suggested that I try reading something by Shannon Hale. However, I'm not sure where to start. I know she wrote The Goose Girl, as well as the Princess Academy series and a whole lot of other books. (The library has twenty-two items by her, though some of those are books on cd, not actual paper-and-ink books.) Has anyone reading this read anything by Shannon Hale? If so, do you have any suggestions of which of her books I should read first, or any of her books I should avoid? Thank you in advance for your advice!

What about you? Do you have any summer reading plans?
Never alone!
- Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

A Winning Week

This week has been a week of finishing things.

First of all, I won Camp NaNoWriMo on Tuesday, April 23rd, with a wordcount of 50,127 words! As a reward, I bought myself the Owl City album All Things Bright and Beautiful from iTunes, which I've listened to at least once a day every day since then. (In case you couldn't guess, I really like Owl City.) Please don't get my winning Camp NaNo confused with my having finished my Camp NaNo novel, though. I still have a long way to go before that will happen.

I've also been finishing up a lot of school subjects. I took my last science test yesterday, and my last history test today. (Huzzah!) I'm nearly done with literature as well; I only have the final left. 

Of course, since school is winding down, that means that it's time to start thinking about summer plans! I'm going to take a writing class this summer, which I'm quite excited about. I'm also hoping to do the second Camp NaNoWriMo session in July if I have time, though I'm not sure if I will, since the writing class runs through July, and I'm also helping a friend with a project during that month. Other than that, however, I'm hoping for a fairly quiet summer with plenty of reading, writing, and knitting.(We'll see how well that works out.) 

What about the rest of you? If you're doing Camp NaNoWriMo, how are your wordcounts? Do you have any summer plans you want to share?

Calo anor na ven!*
- Sarah

*May the sun shine upon your road!