Fashion & Fiction: What I'll Be Reading This Summer

I know for most of the country, summer is in full swing, and has been for quite a while now, but for me and my kiddos, summer starts today! I am so glad to finally be done with school. Bring on summer. And bring on summer reading! There's nothing like summer reading, whether it's reading by the pool or at the beach, or just reading on a blanket in my backyard. I thought it would be fun to gather together in one place all the books I hope to read this summer. My stack may be a little ambitious, considering how busy our summer is this year, but why not aim high, right? I've divided what I'll be reading this summer into four categories, MMD's Book Club picks, MMD's Summer Reading Guide personal picks, MMD's 17 Books Everyone Will Be Talking About This Summer personal picks and my personal picks. Bring on the books! (All book covers are linked to Amazon for more information! I've read a few already. Those I've read, I provide a (super) short review.)

MMD'S BOOK CLUB PICKS

I belong to MMD's Book Club. I highly recommend it. During the year, we read one book a month. During the months of June, July and August, we read five! Here's what we are reading this summer.

Loved the Dry!

Love Fredrik Backman! Loved the writing and story in Bear Town, but huge language warning.

Just started Dreamland Burning. A little over one hundred pages in and enjoying it.

This HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) had to abandon Anything Is Possible. I gave it 50 pages.

Release date July 11

MMD'S SUMMER READING GUIDE (PERSONAL PICKS)

MMD puts out a great summer reading guide each summer. She personally handpicks books she thinks are great summer reads, reading and vetting every single book herself. This year the guide includes thirty books. I can't read all thirty, nor am I interested in every single book she picks, (she provides a great variety though under the categories of Twisty Novels, History, Thought Provoking Stories, Intense Novels, Families Are Complicated and Beachy Reads) so I narrow her list of thirty down to what sounds perfect for me. I chose five. (Of the thirty, I had personally already read two and five of them are the above Book Club picks, so by the end of summer, I will have actually read twelve of the thirty in her guide.)

I am most excited about The Jane Austen Project!

Or maybe I'm most excited about Mr. Rochester. I can't decide!

Release date June 27

Here's the two I had already read!

Really enjoyed A Bridge Across the Ocean!

Really enjoyed This Is How It Always Is as well!

MMD's 17 BOOKS EVERYONE WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THIS SUMMER (PERSONAL PICKS)

MMD wrote an excellent blog post about 17 books she thinks everyone will be talking about this summer. These are books that either didn't quite make her summer reading guide or books that she didn't/couldn't personally read before releasing her guide. I scoured the list and chose two that sounded, again, perfect for me and one that I am personally counting down the days until its release.

Release date July 11

Release date August 1

Release date August 29 - Seriously, counting down the days! This is Book 13 in Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache series.

PERSONAL PICKS

I have a soft spot for Regency Romance. I recently bought a small stack of Regency Romance books, yet I haven't had the time to devour them. I am really hoping to do so this summer.