Sunday Salon: Summer Reading Shortlist

I don’t remember ever having an official summer reading list, except for before starting 9th grade Honors English we were supposed to have read Romeo and Juliet. I participated in library summer reading programs aplenty, but my district(s) never really went in for whole lists of assigned books.

In past years, however, I’ve made myself a de facto summer reading list by simple virtue of the fact that I have spent much of my summers in the woods, with only whatever books I crammed into a cardboard box at the beginning of the summer to keep me company.

So, because I am a creature of habit, I am making myself a summer reading list out of my TBR pile. (Although I won’t be putting them into a cardboard box, at least not until I have to move in August.) Some of these are ARCs that I’ve agreed to read and review, but most are some that I’ve been meaning and wanting to read for a while but just haven’t quite seemed to get around to it (and some are both!)

ARCs

– Angels of Destruction by Keith Donohue – While his The Stolen Child wasn’t perfect, it was very interesting, and I still find myself thinking about it almost three years later, which is more than I can say about most books. I’m looking forward to see what he’s done for his sophomore effort.

– Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson – New stand-alone fantasy from one of my favorite authors. Need I say more? (besides “Hooray!”)

– Tomato Rhapsody: A Fable of Love, Lust & Forbidden Fruit by Adam Schell – This sounds a lot like Chocolat – hopefully it’s just as good.

– The Wet Nurse’s Tale by Erica Eisdorfer – From reading the first page and the description, this looks like it’s going to be a good time.

– The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley – I know a lot of you have read this already… seems like Random House is going whole-hog on the pre-publication buzz creation, huh?

Series to finish

– Temeraire: Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, and Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik – I re-read the first one recently in hopes of having it fresh in mind before reading the rest… and they’re still sitting on my shelf, untouched. That needs to be remedied! (I know there’s a fifth book that I’ll probably wind up reading too, but it’ll come from the library if/when I do.)

– Modern Tales of Faerie: Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside by Holly Black – I actually read and reviewed Tithe a year ago, but all of the details have thoroughly fallen out of my mind already, so it’ll require a re-read before I can read the rest of the trilogy.

– Demon Hunting Soccer Mom: Demons are Forever by Julie Kenner – I’ve read the first two, so I’d like to get this third one cleared off my shelf. This one also fits in the “Christmas presents I feel bad about not having read yet” category below… except this one is Christmas 2007. Whoops.

– Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War by Clive Barker – The first book is reviewed here; I’d like to get to the second one before too much time passes, plus this is a hardcover that I’d rather not have to move, if possible.

– Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch – I absolutely loved The Lies of Locke Lamora, and although I have heard that this one ends with a cliffhanger, and the next book is not yet published, I do not care. Must have more Locke.

Series to start (and finish)

– The First Law: The Blade Itself, Before they are Hanged, and Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie- I always feel like summer is a good time for reading fatty-fat fantasy novels, and I’ve heard many, many good things about these. Besides, I think I might hold off on my Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire re-reads until ALL the books are out, or else I’m going to have to re-read them all AGAIN before each new book, and then I really wouldn’t have time to read anything else.

– Midnighters: The Secret Hour, Touching Darkness, and Blue Noon by Scott Westerfeld – Another series that I’ve heard almost nothing but praise for. Westerfeld‘s books have been somewhat of a mixed bag for me in the past, but when he’s good, he’s really, really good.

Christmas presents I feel bad about not having read yet

– The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox – This had been on my wishlist *forever*, my parents finally found me a copy this year.

– Original Wisdom: Stories of an Ancient Way of Knowing by Robert Wolff – Another one from my wishlist… plus it’s my current Go Review That Book! “assignment” at LibraryThing.

– On Fire’s Wings by Christie Golden – A SantaThing pick.

– Fifth Quarter by Tanya Huff – Another SantaThing pick.

Just ’cause

– Ysabel and/or Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay – It’s been too long since I’ve read a new Kay; there’s no point in hoarding them unread.

– The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: Twelfth Annual Collection – I keep collecting new volumes of this without actually reading any of them; I’ve actually been occasionally browsing this one for a long time, but I’ve only got the yearly summaries and three of the stories read. Time to get cracking.

– Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder – This one’s cover yells “READ ME!” every time I look at it, but it’s the start of a series, and given how many books I already have on my pile…
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So… twenty-seven books in the next three months. Not too shabby. Am I going to get to all of these? Probably not. Are there going to be other books (from the library, new arrivals, etc.) read as well? Almost certainly. Still, this at least gives me a base to work from.

What say you, readers? Which of these should I push to the top of the stack? What’s on your reading plate for the summer?