Don’t Judge a Blogger by Their Summer Reading List

Remember when you were in school and the summer reading lists were handed out? You groaned inwardly as you pictured the summer you had looked forward to crushed in an instant by the prospect of squandered sunny afternoons. Sound familiar? No? Well not to us either. We love summer reading and even without a middle school teacher forcing us to do it, we decided to make up our own list of books to spend our beach days and summer nights with.

Spoiler Alert: We seem to really love Neil Gaiman

Kaitlyn

This is the summer of classics, brand new, and horror. I’m trying to skip rereading things, because that becomes a slippery slope where I just reread A Song of Ice and Fire for the billionth time. Best part so far has been making the summer reading shelf on my e-reader.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

First book of the summer? Already finished it. Hill is a horror force all of his own. N0S4A2’s about  a bad man with a bad car (and throw some terrifying vampire children in to the mix just for kicks) It’s a bit on the long side, but the pacing is good, the characters are amazing. It was a wild ride.

Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Due out June 18th, I’m hoping this new effort by Gaiman will hold me over until the new Sandman mini is out. I didn’t really enjoy American Gods but we’ll see.

Lolita- by Vladimir Nabokov

Creepy, right? This is my idea of a break from horror. Go figure.

Player Piano- Kurt Vonnegut

Recommended by a friend who suggested the only other Vonnegut book I’ve read, Mother Night. It’s about a dystopian future where society is almost fully mechanized. Sounds extremely similar to a dope digital comic that I reviewed earlier that everyone whose ears pricked up at the description of Player Piano should check out.

Sati by Christopher Pike

Recommended by our lovely editor, Leia. Sati is about a young hitchhiker who claims she is god. Sounds good, and Leia has rarely steered me wrong before.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This movie terrified me as a child, so it seems right that the books should terrify me as an adult. Not the awful 1990’s version with strange babies and Catherine Zeta Jones, mind you. The 1963 version with the terror artistically done with sound effects and camera tricks. It’s a classic of American Horror and I’m super excited to get in to it.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

For someone who loves Science Fiction, I’m woefully lacking in the classics. This is my solution.

The Maltese Falcon by  Dashiell Hammett

This is the stuff that dreams are made of…and that’s it. No idea why this is on my list, I’ve never seen the movie but there you go.

At the rate I’m going I’ll be finished with my list before I’m finished with August, so I’m sure I’ll have to add a few books, any suggestions?

Leia

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

Often hailed as the most difficult of the Tolkien works, Silmarillion is one I am glad to devote part of my summer to as it covers EVERYTHING, from the creation of Ea, the world that is, to the Third Age, the time we experience the LOTR series.

NOS4A2 By Joe Hill

NOS4A2 is my third trip into the mind of Joe Hill and excited doesn’t even cover it! This will probably be my second book in the summer as I might need something a bit more livelier after Silmarillion

The Immortals Quartet by Tamora Pierce

The Immortals is a Young Adult series by a favorite author of Deadrabbit92, Tamora Pierce. The books revolve around a young girl who has wild magic and so far, book one is AMAZING. It makes me wish I could talk to whales *sniff*

Marceline and the Scream Queens by Meredith Gran

Marceline and the Scream Queens brings our favorite vampire into a band with the uptight Princess Bubblegum so I can’t wait to see what sort of shenanigans they get into.

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force

Legacy of the Force…I always hear bad things about it and as usual, I’d like to make up my mind itself, so why not give it a go? It’s a series we haven’t quite touched on in the Star Wars book club I run on Facebook, so this will be some supplemental reading

Sam

Sam begins a summer of rereads!

American Gods(author’s preferred edition)  by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Maus by Art Spiegelmen

Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way by (naturally) Bruce Campbell

Jen

Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser

American Gods By Neil Gaiman

Sailor Moon Manga by Naoko Takeuchi

Jen Recommends the work of Patrick Rothfuss for summer readers looking for a series to start.

Lisa

Warm Bodies  by Isaac Marion

This is a case where I got such a kick out of the movie, I have to read the book, plus Marion’s own story is pretty funny, too.

The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Homes edited by John Joseph Adams

This is a compilation of Sherlock stories similar to the one I reviewed, except contributors are “darker” authors like Neil Gaiman, Stephen King and Anthony Burgess.

The Price of Freedom by A.C. Crispin

The first “POTC” Jack Sparrow novel geared toward adult readers

What are you reading this summer?