What have you been reading this summer?

I posted a few weeks ago that I was getting a chance to read a couple of books this summer.  Especially when Andy travels.  That’s when I stay up way past my bedtime and read and read and read.  In fact I finally finished Divergent…at 3 AM one morning while he was in Europe.  And it was a slow start for me (kept asking myself, “Will this really be different than Hunger Games?”), but just got better and better. I highly recommend it and can’t wait to start book two.

Therefore, I was looking forward to being on vacation and reading a few more books.  I had everything planned out:

1. Our rental had a pool in the backyard with great lounge chairs on the deck.
2. Our rental was across the street from the beach.
3. There were six adults going.  So we could take turns reading and counting heads.
4. The kids’ cousins were going.  Therefore?  Entertainment for the kids!  At all times.

So I packed up my books and stack of magazines.  We drove to Michigan and BAM!  Worst weather.  EVER.  As in coldest-weekend-in-July-in-3-DECADES type of weather.  Some of you followed along on Facebook and Instagram.  It truly got comical.  More on the actual vacation in another post.  It wasn’t a complete bust, but it was work.  No sitting-on-the-beach-reading-a-book and no sunning-poolside-lost-in-a-novel.

When I finished Firefly Lane awhile back, it left me feeling drained.  Sad and depressed.  I was almost angry at the people who recommended it.  How much time had I wasted reading it?  Why did everyone think it was marvelous?  I was so glad it was over.  Time to move on.  And then the news…the sequel Fly Away was coming out later that month.  Now that I knew there was more…I couldn’t just let it go.  I got on the library wait-list and received the book right before vacation.

It was day 3 or 4 when I finally opened it.  I somewhat dreaded it.  A story I didn’t want to really read, but had to.  I couldn’t NOT know how it would really end.  I still had questions.  And there could be answers out there now!  I trudged through it page by page.  I couldn’t believe it got even sadder…more depressing.  But I had to finish.  I was sucked in and hoping the author would be kinder to us readers at the end of book two.

I won’t tell you how it ends.  (I finished it this morning.)  But I’ll say a lot of questions were answered and closure happened for me.  I appreciated the first book more after finishing the second one.

What are you currently reading?

Next up for me?  Insurgent.  The sequel to Divergent.