Summer Reading: Recap

Finished my summer reading and I've just started on fall reading! I love to read - I've turned into a total bookworm and will probably be posting a lot more about my summer reads! For now, a quick recap of the books I've read (no spoilers, of course!), in order that I read them!

1. ROOM - This is the story of a boy who grows up in a Room and it's all he knows. It was written before Jaycee Duggard's story became public, and there are definitely parallels. I think the story excels because it is told from the child's point of view and retains some innocence amid the horror. I'd highly recommend it.

2. Devil in the White City - this is a historically rooted novel which weaves together the 1893 Chicago World Fair construction with the rise of the nation's first serial killer. Intense, very detailed, and interesting and engrossing read!

3. The Help - count me on the Help bandwagon! This novel was hard to put down, and it's been turned into a movie this summer as well (yet to see it, but want to). I love the stories the Maids tell, I love the courage - I really wish it was a true story, of course. I still feel sadness and remorse at the forces that oppressed the black community in the 1960s, part of me wonders if I could have been this brave if I'd been a young girl at the time.

4. The Hunger Games - the last of my summer reading (and its sequels, the first two books of my fall reading) - when I say I couldn't put it down, I mean it took less than a day to finish. I'm actually still surprised it's labeled young adult fiction - it seems a lot more adult and not so much young (I don't believe having young lead characters should automatically qualify a novel as young adult!). Off the soap box - I can see how it appeals to teens and adults alike. I love the story, the moral challenges it forces the reader to consider, the perspective of the narrator, and the depth of the supporting characters. Highly highly recommend!

Stay tuned for a fall post on my fall reading - which so far includes Catching Fire, Mockingjay (the second and third books in the Hunger Games series), Angels and Demons, Freakonomics, Cutting for Stone, and Game of Thrones.