Monday, July 7, 2008

Beach Reading

Happy Monday, everyone. I hope you all had a safe and happy 4th of July (Independence Day if you live in the US). I had an awesome weekend. My sister-in-law had her bachelorette party weekend extravaganza at the beach house and it was a blast! (If you're wondering, I'm the giant in this picture. It really sucks being 6 feet tall sometimes).



11 girls and one and a half bathrooms is always a fun time. We spent a lot of time down at the beach getting burned to a crisp and a lot of time eating. I'm pretty sure I gained 10 pounds, which is great when I'm squeezing myself into my bathing suit. We also did some outlet mall shopping which I highly recommend. Here is a picture of the my Mother-in-law put up for the weekend.



Friday night we had a bonfire at the beach and watched kids set off insane amounts of highly dangerous fireworks all around us...which in retrospect was probably not that safe. But it was made of awesome, none the less. Here's the aftermath of one of the craziest fireworks displays I've ever seen.



One thing I love doing while I'm at the beach house is laying out with a good book. I think I average a book a day while I'm there, sometimes more. Here are some of the books I have read or will be reading this summer:

The first is a series I discovered earlier this summer. Twilight is the first book in a series about a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire. I've always been a sucker for a good vampire novel and this is no exception. There are three books in the series with the fourth and last coming out this August. I can't wait!



Fearless Fourteen is the latest in one of my very favorite series by Janet Evanovich. The series follows Sephanie Plum who becomes a reluctant bounty hunter after losing her job as a lingerie buyer. I never fail to laugh till I'm crying while reading these books and can't wait to get my hands on this latest installment (hurry up Mom and Dad!).



Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes is a great read for summer. It's short enough to read in a day and a great story about a girl who goes on a sort of scavenger hunt across Europe.



One of my favorite genres is science fiction and fantasy and this book is my absolute favorite book in that genre. I might even go so far as to say it is my favorite book of all time. I've read it more times than I can count and feel like I'm due for another go at it this summer. This particular version is actually three books put into one volume. It is the story of Paksenarrion, a sheep farmer's daughter who is destined to be a legend (If you haven't noticed by now, I tend to like stories about strong heroines). I highly, highly recommend this one.



My last book recommendation is a historical romance novel and I'm more recommending the author than just this particular book. Lisa Kleypas has a knack for writing great romance, mostly set in England in the 1800s. Her books are a great read for the beach with just the right amount of content to suck you in but not be too heavy.



If anyone of you have book recommendations you can share with me, I would love to hear them. I'm always looking for the next great book to read.