What’s on your summer reading list?

by Linda Post Bushkofsky

My blog post was almost late today. I had intended to finish it last evening, but then I got caught up with Dempsey Killebrew and the fixer upper that’s occupying all her time. The house is a grand old Southern Belle, but it’s seen some wear and tear and needs more than what some realtors would call “a hug.” It was bedtime before I finished with Dempsey.

Driving into the office this morning it hit me: I hadn’t finished the blog post!  What to do? Hmm, I thought, I’ll write about Dempsey. Well, not Dempsey per se but about books. Dempsey Killebrew is the lead character in Mary Kay Andrews’s book The Fixer Upper, and it’s been a great entry on my summer reading list.

When I say summer reading list, I’m not talking about the kind of list that my cousin’s daughter has for honors English. That list is filled with books in the “well educated people read these books” category. I’m talking about a list of books that are perfect under a shade tree in the backyard or at the beach, lake or recreation spot of your choice along with the summertime beverage of your choice.

You could form your own summer reading list. That’s what I’ve done. I went “shopping” on my bookshelves and found several books that fit the bill: light-hearted or just plain funny, or at a minimum, not emotionally heavy.

Your unit could agree to a summer reading list, or you and a group of friends could do the same.

Let’s say you have eight women. Each of you could select one book for the group to read: eight books, eight weeks in July and August. You could gather at a coffee shop, in someone’s backyard, at church, or even a local park to talk about the books. If that seems way too ambitious for summer, kick back and read on your own.

Need some suggestions for your summer reading list? Many magazines publish summer reading lists about now; in fact, I think that’s how I found The Fixer Upper. National Public Radio has a whole series devoted to summer reading that even includes 10 top summer cookbooks. To quote the Barefoot Contessa, how great is that?!

Now I’m wondering, what’s on your summer reading list? I still have a couple of openings on mine.

Linda Post Bushkofsky, executive director of Women of the ELCA, learned to love books at the Monroe County Public Library in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and started building her own collection at the AAUW book fairs each summer.