#which aren't bad but i wld only recommend them for very specific needs

[e-b-reads]

Books of the summer! (June, July and August 2022)

Ah, summer camp. I just started part-time PhD classes, and I seem to have lucked into an (also part-time) research position after all, and I will still be working full-time hosting off season retreats here at the camp site, and yet! I still won't be working as much as I do in the middle of the summer, when I work mostly thirteen or so hour days running around outside doing activities and fixing things, come home, shower, fall into my bed, then wake up early to do it all again.

Anyway, obviously tumblr will continue to take a back seat during the summer months. But I did read! So here are my books of the summer (as usual, not necessarily my personal favorites of all I read, but the ones I would recommend. This is not always the same thing).

Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake (Alexis Hall): of course, I found this one because of tumblr, so surely many of you have heard of it. I enjoyed the look at class in Britain, and the romance between adults with adult responsibilities, and of course the baking show. And tbh, enjoyed how sex was part of the story/romance, but not the most important part. Now that I'm reading more things marketed specifically as romances, it can be hard to find a balance of those that really satisfies me.

Secret Water (Arthur Ransome): Reread, which I will recommend with one reservation. I adore Arthur Ransome's various books about kids messing about in boats, and I think they're very accurate to 1) how boats work and 2) how it can feel when things go either wrong or right as you mess about in them! They were, however, written in the 1930s, and so when kids pretend to be exploring uncharted lands, they will pretend to encounter (or be) "natives" and "savages." If this is a sticking point, but you're interested, I would start with another book. If it's a sticking point to where you'd rather not read them at all, fair enough! I do like to read at least one per summer, to get in a sailing mood.

The Secret of Platform 13 (Eva Ibbotson): Children's book and a reread. If you would like to study how to tightly plot a book with lots of twists where you know everything will be OK, but you can't figure out how it will happen, read one of Eva Ibbotson's children's books! (Also some of her romances, but they have less fantasy and friendly ghosts.) This one is a particularly good example.

Jellicoe Road (Melina Marchetta): Here's the thing. I found this in a library recently and checked it out to reread, and it was fine. Not bad. But I remember that when I was in middle school, and picking my sister up from elementary school every day, and then walking to the library with her on the days our parents would be home late, I found this book in the newly-discovered (to me) Young Adult section, and couldn't put it down. So I guess I recommend that experience; or at least, reading it once. The reveals are very good when you're reading it for the first time, as are the developing friendships.