Monday, July 28, 2014

Summer Reading

Hello Monday!

I've taken a little bit of summer vacation from blogging and working long hours. It's been great! When it's as hot as it's been in Sweden (for the past few weeks it's been in the 80's) with out the comfort of A/C I just can't handle sitting in front of my computer for more than a few minutes per day. So besides working on the commissioned projects I received at the beginning of the month and shipping orders to my wonderful customers I haven't done much else work related. No new illustrations or other projects. I haven't even really been keeping up with my favorite blogs (shocker!) 

I've been spending most of my free time with Johan of course since he's on real summer vacation from work for 4 weeks. We've gone on lots of day trips to sun ourselves and cool off in the ocean or lake, even took a quick camping trip out in the archipelago (amazing!). We've of course been enjoying lots of picnics, grill parties with friends and gorgeous al fresco dinners on our balcony with refreshing glasses of wine or beer too. It's been really nice not really having any real plans, stay-cations can be just as great as travel. Since there is no better way to pass the time during hot summer hours at the beach/lake/park I've become a reading fiend again. I've read nearly 10 books in the past 3 weeks!

So I thought we'd chat about a few of my summer reads. To start off, a few of my absolute favorites:

By far my favorite summer read! I adored this book, especially since I'm such a book nerd. It's a little Da Vinci Code meets Harry Potter without the magic plus Google makes a huge appearance. Loved! Read it!

A perfect summer read as the story is set in the winter time. Almost, makes you feel a bit cooler. (Not really.) I loved the atmosphere of this book. It was so quiet, remote a little dreamy, and even a little depressing. I thought it would be a little more fantasy as the summary suggested but I loved it all the same.

This one was a bit weird, but I love weird. I really adored all of the accompanying weird photos throughout the books pages too, really added to the fantastical story. A fun fantasy/circus freak/supernatural twist on a World War II story.

and then let's move on to Gillian Flynn. I read all of her books. Gone Girl, Sharp Objects, and Dark Places. There is something seriously wrong with that woman, hehe. These books are sick, twisted, dark, and I was completely surprised by how each of the books ended (which is always nice, nothing worse than being able to figure out the who-done-it in the first few pages). I actually really enjoyed them, even with the disturbing feeling you're left with after finishing. Suppose that's the point.

To finish a few that I wasn't too hot for.

I just had to read this since everyone and their Mom has already and I don't want to be out of the loop. I thought the book was good, I suppose, but it didn't make me laugh or cry. (I think I'm cold hearted, hehe) Hated the pretentious teenage dialog. Meh.

And two other Young Adult books that were just that, a little too YA for me. Across the Universe by Beth Revis and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. Still really nice reads if you're into YA teenage romance. (I'm 30, time to move on.)


What have you read this summer?



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