A Tuesday Ten for Summer Reading

What I’m Reading: Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and The Devil’s Company by David Liss

What I’m Working On: Some plotting exercises

On Sunday, I posted 7+ books that I’ve read this summer (or just before it started) or want to read this summer. I have ten more to add to that list.

It’s eclectic, but so am I.

1. The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass. I attended a Donald Maass workshop last fall. It was great. Overwhelming. Intimidating. Pretty damn scary. So why do I want to read a writing book by him? Because he’s one of the most successful literary agents in New York and someday I want to be good enough to not be intimidated by him.

2. My boss’s boss (my ultimate boss, the man with President – not of the U.S. – in his title) handed me Brain Rules by John Medina, so I guess I’d better read it. He read it for a conference he attended where all attendees were asked to read it. Obviously, he liked it. In all actuality, it sounds very good. Its subtitle is “12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School”. It supposedly informs us as to how our brain really works and how to get the most out of it.

3. I am very, very, very excited about Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning. I have read all her books – both the sexy highlander series and the fever series. I like them both. A lot. I’m dying to figure out what happens next to MacKayla Lane, the protagonist of Moning’s feverish (grin) series. She was in quite a predicament at the end of Faefever. I’m sure she survives, but I have no idea how. Dreamfever doesn't come out until August 18th. I’m almost afraid to download it to my Kindle that day. I may have to splurge for hardcover. Can a hot book melt a Kindle?

4. The next three made my list because they were big vote getters on my favorite high school’s summer reading book club list. I figure I’ll read them, too, just in case I get called to lead an impromptu book discussion. I probably wouldn’t have read any of them if it weren’t for the school’s book club, but who knows, maybe I’ll fall in love with at least one of them. The first is Kiss My Book by Jamie Michaels.

5. The second is How to be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle.

6. The third is The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

7. Gone and Hunger, both by Michael Grant. Check out the book info on the publisher's (Harper Teen) website. The publisher is offering the first 100+ pages of Gone as a free e-read. Click here to check it out. Gone is the first book in the series. In Gone, only the young are left as everyone over the age of 15 disappears. Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day. It's a terrifying new world. Hunger is the sequel and is set three months later when conditions have deteriorated even more. Sounds exciting, huh?

8. April & Oliver by Tess Callahan has been calling to me. Here's what it's about: Best friends since childhood, the sexual tension between April and Oliver has always been palpable. Years after being completely inseparable, they become strangers, but the wildly different paths of their lives cross once again with the sudden death of April's brother. Oliver, the responsible, newly engaged law student finds himself drawn more than ever to the reckless, mystifying April - and cracks begin to appear in his carefully constructed life. Even as Oliver attempts to "save" his childhood friend from her grief, her menacing boyfriend and herself, it soon becomes apparent that Oliver has some secrets of his own--secrets he hasn't shared with anyone, even his fiancé. But April knows, and her reappearance in his life derails him. Is it really April's life that is unraveling, or is it his own? The answer awaits at the end of a downward spiral...towards salvation.

9. Don't Judge a Girl by her Cover by Ally Carter. I blogged about it for a "Waiting on Wednesday." I'll be reading it this summer.

10. Finally, my book club choice for Affairs of the Pen: Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey.