Summer Reading

I don't have time during the school year to do hardly any reading for fun, so I try to read a lot during the summer.  I've read 5 books so far, and only one of them is new; it takes me a while to get caught up.

Bloom, Kelle Hampton - I actually read this one right at the end of the school year.  It's s a memoir written by Kelle Hampton, about the birth and first year of her daughter, Nella.  Nella was born with Down syndrome, which was not something they were expecting at all.  I have been following Kelle's blog Enjoying The Small Things for over a year, where she writes about their day-to-day happenings.  She has a way of turning the most ordinary things into adventures for her girls, and she is also a photographer, so the pictures on the blog are incredible!

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins - I had already seen the movie, but wanted to read the books too.  Since I already knew what was going to happen, I was never glued to the book or "unable to put it down," but I still enjoyed reading it.  I like really descriptive writing, which this is.  Yes, I did have the movie scenes in my mind as I read, but even if I hadn't seen the movies, I think I could have imagined things well on my own.

The Help, Kathryn Stockett - Again, I had already seen the movie, but still really enjoyed the book.  I think parts of the book seemed even funnier because I could picture the characters, mostly Minny, mouthing off about something.  I also really liked how the book was written by Skeeter, Aibeleen, and Minny; you get one story from three different points of view.

A Voice in The Wind, Francine Rivers - This one could be hard to sum up, because there are several different story lines in it.   But it takes place in Bible times, after Christ's crucifixion and is mostly about a young Christian girl named Hadassah who becomes a slave for a family in Rome.  It's about her relationships with the different family members, and her inner struggle to share the hope of Jesus with them.  Much of the book is also about a gladiator named Atretes.

An Echo in The Darkness, Francine Rivers - The second book in this series of three called The Mark of The Lion, is about Hadassah's new life (things changed drastically at the end of the first book), and how she is able to care for people and offer forgiveness.  Marcus, the son of the family who owned her, goes on a journey to find answers to his questions about God.  One of the main reasons I really enjoyed these books is because I'm really interested in Roman culture.  I took Latin for 5 years in middle and high school, and loved it.  So it was fun to be reading and recognize phrases and words, and just remember all the things I learned.

My goal before the end of the summer is to finish the last two books in the Hunger Games series - Catching Fire and Mockingjay, and the third one in the The Mark of The Lion series - As Sure as the Dawn, which returns to the story of Atretes.  So what's been on your summer reading list?