Summer Reading Program

We’re at the library at least once and usually twice a week all summer long. The Deschutes Public Library has a great kids’ program and, surprisingly, an adult summer reading program as well. Adults who read for three hours get a free book. I got the latest from C. J. Box, a mystery author whose books I’ve reviewed before.

In addition there’s a Bingo card to fill out. Each box is either a different type of book to read or an activity associated with the library or reading. For each Bingo you make you’re entered in a drawing to win a Nook eReader. I have no plans to buy an eReader. but I wouldn’t mind one for free - especially one that is compatible with eBooks available at the library.

The Bingo squares take me out of my reading comfort zone. One square requires reading a graphic novel. I’ve read a few of these, like Maus: a survivor’s tale and Good Eggs, which are more like illustrated memoirs. This time I randomly went on the web and picked one that is supposed to be one of the best graphic novels of all time, Watchmen. This is what I would think of as a comic book. The superheroes are much darker than those I watched growing up, i.e. the Superfriends. So far it has helped me get a Rorschach reference that I would have otherwise completely missed on Facebook. The most interesting character in the book is Dr. Manhattan, who was exposed to nuclear radiation, disintegrated, somehow regenerated and is now America’s weapon. I don’t know enough about the comic book world to know whether all these characters were created anew for this book or were old favorites, but the authors do make it seem to be a complete world.

I might have trouble getting through all the library Bingo squares. One is a suggestion from a librarian. Even as the librarian I asked was giving me a reading suggestion he mentioned how he didn’t like the book. Do I have to read it or should I get a different suggestion or does just getting the suggestion count? I’d love to hear from others whether it is common practice to have adult reading programs at libraries.

End-of-the-Summer Book Blahs

Usually I read two or three books and then stumble across one that I am interested enough in to write more about. That has not happened lately. I was in the midst of a promising one, Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner, when it hit a wrong turn for me. I can recommend some of her other books as light, fun fare set in Philadelphia. Little Earthquakes is about four new moms bonding, probably falling in that maligned chick lit category.


I also recently read The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black. The protagonist, pathologist Garret Quirke, seems an interesting character in his dealings with family and friends, but the murder mystery part was only so-so. The book spent a lot of time hinting at the previous book, Christine Falls, and events that took place therein. I wish I would have read that book first and maybe that would have helped me place all the characters in context, instead of spending my time wondering what had happened.


I keep a list of all the books I plan to read. It is occasionally months before I get to some of them. I had Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch under novels. I was quite surprised to pick up the very hefty book subtitled America in the King Years 1954-63. I am not going to be able to finish it before I have to return it to the library. I do highly recommend the chapter entitled “The Montgomery Bus Boycott”, especially if, like me, your American history education is spotty. I had no idea that the bus boycott lasted more than a year after the arrest of Rosa Parks. It was really by the efforts of every black person in Montgomery to carpool or walk that the boycott worked. I can’t imagine what that must have been like. It was also during this time that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested for the first time (for going 30 in a 25 mph zone), his house was bombed, and he really came into prominence as a leader in the civil rights movement. I have gotten bogged down later in the book among the descriptions of presidential politics and King’s financial issues with Alabama.


If your summer reading is going well, let us know what gems you have found.