My 5 Summer Reads

Over the years I have to realize I have a rather interesting reading habit; it’s either I read a book for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and finish it in less than a week or I snack on a book here and there and finish it after a few months. Never anything in between. Ever! I have no explanation for this.

However, this year I set a reading goal of 16 books (I know, seems small and achievable, but last year I didn’t complete it). So far I am seven books in and it is June. I think that is a decent place to be for the point in the year we are in. I think I can manage to catch up and actually complete my goal this year.

So, in order to combat my usual inconsistent reading pattern, I have lined up the books I plan on reading ahead of time in order to give myself a time frame to complete them, thus, staying on track. I am in it to win it this year!

Without further adieu, here’s my upcoming reading list:

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

*Quick disclosure: The photos for the items below are each linked to Amazon.com. Should you choose to purchase from them, I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.*

Right now, I started a book my coworkers lent me. I just happened to walk by her desk and see this book, the cover caught my attention immediately. It was a beautiful blue (my favorite color) and has the image of a young girl with her back turned in a red blouse. It’s written by Erika L. Sanchez. I am only a few pages in and it seems promising.

It follows the story of a young Mexican girl who lost her older sister and how this shapes her life and relationship with her family. That is all I can say about it for now, and I would say anything else, even if I knew because I don’t like spoiling things.

Note: I have come across some explicit language, over the years and much ready I can gloss over the words as if they aren’t there. But, if strong language offends you, I’d say skip this one.

12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You

Written by Tony Reinke, this is a book I have been wanting to read for a long time, pretty much since it came out. Knowing I live in the day and age where we are all addicted to our phones, I must admit, I too can be a bit addicted to my phone and am fighting to stay off of it for as long as I can. I know that in the long run, the time spent on my phone is not necessarily fruitful.

I think this book can help give me the biblical perspective to help me overcome the need to constantly check my phone because deep down I know I can be using my time better and I can use my energy on many other things, fruitful things.

Competing Spectacles

This book is actually written by the same author as the previous book and it has a similar topic. You see, I really am trying to fight this constant need to be on my phone. Here he looks at how we are affected by social media. Social media is something I definitely see myself struggling with.

I see social media this alternative world where everyone feels the need to share everything and anything they agree with and this is great but I find myself being angry at people posting their arguments and completely disregarding what opinions others may have. I gave up arguing on the internet a long time ago (it most definitely it not fruitful).

Sometimes social media triggers my argumentative side and I want to stay away from that ugly side of me. Not only this but the image we portray on social media is nothing short of a facade. We only show what we want people to see and hide our true selves.

Why spend all this time on social media, if all we do is present an image of ourselves that isn’t even us? These are the thoughts I fight with when it comes to social media and I am curious to see what this book has to say.  

A Wedding in Haiti

Julia Alvarez is a Dominican-American author who I admire very much. She has written many works taking place in the Dominican Republic and reflecting what it was like to live in the Dominican Republic during the Trujillo era. If you do not know, Trujillo was a dictator in the Dominican Republic who ruled from the ’30s to the ’60s. He was eventually murdered and his reign of terror was officially over.

However, not every Dominican saw his time as a president as cruel and I think as a Dominican it is important to know our history and Julia does a great job of showing us a glimpse of what this time in the Dominican Republic was like.

In this book, she writes a story of her relationship with a friend of hers, a Haitian. Dominicans and Haitians are known for not getting along, so I look forward to reading about her relationship with a dear friend of hers, Piti.

Dreyer’s English

Because I can always use better grammar. I mean, come on, I run a blog! I need to have good grammar! I read my good reviews of this book and am looking forward to reading it. It is written by Benjamin Dreyer who is Random House’s copy chief, so he knows English grammar well. We can all improve our writing. And, I especially can if I plan on taking my writing to new levels.

I don’t think I mentioned it before in my blog, but I enjoy writing short stories and hope to one day be able to write a book of them, and if I intend to do this, I need to brush up on my grammar and work on my writing style. I think this book will be a great tool.

I hope you enjoyed this post and make some reading plans of your own. I definitely intend to make better use of my time, and planning out which books to read and putting my plan into action, I believe is one way to do it. Do you have any reading goals, any book recommendations? I would love the hear them, so feel free to comment below, and until next time…

SDG -“Soli Deo Gloria”