Unfortunately, I won’t be needing anything for the beach, or for when I travel somewhere. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t be reading. Not at all.

My battle against cancer has given me time and a desire to dig through my library at home as well as my local library, looking for something to enjoy while lying in a chair for three hours or more every week. Not to mention those several days of extreme fatigue that are an unfortunate side effect of chemo.

The books I’ve been setting aside are not my usual fare because I wanted something escapist, fun, and easy to read. So I decided to finally start the Sookie Stackhouse series hoping they will be as good or better than its TV counterpart. And they have been. I got off to a rocky start as the style of writing wasn’t what I expected, but I soon got into the story and found myself liking Sookie a lot.

I’ve also read Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and loved it. It is a mesmerizing tale of magic and illusion and the power each has in our lives. It’s a thicker book than most on my summer reading list, but I don’t regret its inclusion, not one bit.

I was also excited to discover that my library has unlimited digital availability to the first four books of the John Carter of Mars series. So I downloaded them and will give them a try.

So far it’s been a great start to the summer, which I know, doesn’t officially start for several weeks. But considering how dismal my reading has been since the beginning of the year, I look forward to a summer full of books, books, and more books.

And oh yeah, kicking cancers butt to the curb for the second time. Maybe this time it’ll get the hint.

How about you, what does your summer reading list look like? Maybe something on your list is a book I’d like to add to mine.

I’ve been sidelined with having to spend a bit more time going to, and sometimes staying in, the hospital. I need to get things back in order, but where to start?

I know! Recently, Pam over at Bookalicious.org posted something that caught my eye and I’m looking forward to being able to participate. It should help get my blog and I back on track. It’s a read along of one of the greatest fantasy series ever written: the Song of Fire and Ice books by George R.R. Martin. (Many of you probably know them better as those Game of Thrones books).

If you’d like to join in, click on the badge below and sign up. If you’ve been watching the series, you’ll find the books are as good or better.

Can’t wait until July.  But until then, boy howdy do I have my work cut out for me.

I wonder if Merry Maids does blogs??

I confess. I started on this Spring’s Read-a-Thon early. I couldn’t help myself.

After finding some great books at the library to download, I just couldn’t let my e-Reader sit there all full of words with no one to read them.

I started with The Iron Thorn and flew through the book in two days. For those of you who love steampunk, horror, and fantastical scenarios, this is the book for you. It is so refreshing and unique for its genre that it actually cannot be, nor should be, pigeon-holed into just one. There were some parts I felt could pull a reader off track a bit, but the author was able to regain my attention with some compelling storytelling and character development. I look forward to reading the second in the series.

I’ve switched to some physical books I have, but I hope to get to Moon Over Manifest at some point during the Read-a-Thon.

For now though, since I can never get enough of the ‘punk’, my current read is the first in the Burton & Swinburne series called, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack. Actually, I accidentally started reading the second book, The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man, but realized that I’d rather begin at the beginning. It was hard. After only a couple of chapters I was hooked! Both books do a 0 – 60 in no time and as I read I found myself completely engrossed. I have a feeling by the end of this event I’ll have both books finished and will be looking to get a hold of the third as soon as I can.

I’m not sure if I will have enough time or energy for another before this all ends, but my hope is to at least start a non-fiction book as I’m woefully behind in my challenge to read five this year. So far I’m still torn between The Winter of Our Disconnect: How Three Totally Wired Teenagers (and a Mother Who Slept with Her iPhone) Pulled the Plug on Their Technology and Lived and Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found.

Either way, I do intend on starting one of them.

It’s been a wonderful day of reading, snacking, watching/listening to the hockey playoffs and planning a BBQ for dinner. Can’t get any better than this. Don’t you think?

If you are participating, I hope your reading is going as well as mine!