A Little Light Summer Reading

It's the end of our book group for the summer.  We always take a little break during the summer months so we can supposedly get caught up on all the household tasks that have been neglected as we sit around and read our book group books during the school year. Don't get me wrong - I have many household tasks that have fallen by the wayside this year . . .  (anyone want to send a couple kids my way?  I'm missing my family workday crew . . .  But that's a whole 'nuther topic . . .)

We actually just finished up with an amazing and inspiring book -

"And Still We Rise"

take a look at it . . . I highly recommend it! 

I'm incredibly inspired by those who climb pretty much insurmountable odds to have the kind of lifestyle that we take for granted in my family everyday . . .

But I'm ready for a little light summer reading - my favorite activity is being curled up in the summer sun somewhere (a beach prefereably or a houseboat at Lake Powell - sigh . . . ) with a good book!   Right now, I'd settle for the splash pad down the street and watching all the little neighborhood kids running in and out of the water fountains though . . .

While loading up my Kindle with inexpensive summer reads for our upcoming family vacations and long summer July weekends . . . I waxed a bit nostalgic and reviewed some of my childhood favorites.  I'd love to know what you all read and loved and grew up on . . .

I was a big fan of Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart - I would huddle under the covers with a flashlight for hours everynight absorbed in their mythical, mystical historical fiction and romance.  Plots full of brooding heros, damsels in distress, mysterious castles and crashing waves upon the shore. 

Just thinking about . . .
"Menfreya in the Morning"
"On the Night of the Seventh Moon"
and
"Mistress of Mellyn"
makes me long for an uninterrupted weekend of lazy reading.

The magic of Mary Stewart's
The Crystal Cave trilogy (II Hollow Hills, III The Last Enchantment) reminds me of my longing to grow up in King Arthurs court with Merlin as a friend, sneaking in and out of the castles of Cornwall, potions and knights of the Middle Ages.

If you're soooooo done already -

you can stop right here and just know that this will be the summer I enjoy a blast from the past

  my past :)

 As I revisit some of my favorite childhood memories of long nights under the covers with a flashlight.  (It's really not that different now . . . my book light is just a little more sophisticated now:)

Otherwise - hang in there for a quick review of my favorites.

Mistress of Mellyn - I must have read this  10 times before I turned 15.  Martha, the heroine enters the mysterious castle of Mellyn as a governess to the only daughter of the cold and mysterious master of the castle, Conan Tremellyn.  The plot is full of suspenseful secrets and more than a few unexplained demises. It's somewhat reminiscent of Rebecca, and if you like the Bronte sisters of Daphne de Maurier, you'll probably enjoy this intriguing summer read.

Menfreya in the Morning - I love the first sentence: To see Menfreya at its best was to see it in the morning.  I think this book gave me a love for the victorian English culture.  Harriet comes to Menfreya as a bride, a mansion of ghost stories and legends, with a hero by the name of Bevil.  Isn't that just a romantic name? I can see the English countryside, the manors, the seas, and the people that surround them.  A good page turner.

and finally . . .

On the Night of the 7th Moon  - the setting is the fabled and romantic Black Forest of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time of the Napoleonic wars.  According to an ancient Black Forest legend, on the night of the seventh moon, Loki, the god of mischief is about in the world. It's a night of festivity and celebration, of singing and dancing, and thus the romance begins.  Helena and Max are some of my long loved fictional characters, their romantic separation and reuniting would make anyone long to get lost in the woods . . .



Enjoy whatever is on your summer reading list - I'd love to hear ALL about it . . .