Dishing It! Party (Your Summer Reads)

Welcome to the July edition of my Dishing It! party! I'm so glad you're here, and I hope that you are planning on having a lot of fun visiting around some other great blogs. I'd love it if you'd taken a minute to read about my Summer Reading List too!

I planned this party as a way for bloggers to not only share a little bit about themselves, but to also make an effort to get to know some of the other wonderful people out there in Blogland. New bloggers and seasoned pros are all welcome!

I do have a few quick rules that I'd like you to stick to if you're planning on linking up with me. Nothing crazy, just basic blogging etiquette, but it would help me out so much if you'd follow through so I don't have to delete links.

1. Please be sure to enter the link to your specific party post.

2. Please include a link to THIS post somewhere within your own post. 

3. Please leave me a comment with your party link as well as checking to see that your link posted successfully. This helps tremendously in case there are problems with the inlinkz system. Send me an email if your link won't go up after a few tries. I can get your post linked up!

Also, I love comments. (wink)

4. MINGLE. A party is not a party unless you visit! Please take a few minutes to visit at least one or two other links on the list and leave a thoughtful, genuine comment. It is totally okay if you need a day or two, but I'd like for each participant to visit at least one or two of the other blogs by the end of the week. I think that's a doable request.

If you're new here and missed the party info., here it is one more time:

Our topic for July is

{Your Summer Reading List}

Please feel free to use this as a question and answer post, or use it as a loose guide to write your post however you like. Add or omit any questions you like, and feel free to embellish with photos! (Note: If you're a mom and haven't read anything except Goodnight, Moon in three years, think back to when you used to have time.)

~Give us your list of top 5 picks for summer reading.

~What genre of literature makes you want to pick up a book and read (biographies, chick lit, Christian fiction,  historical fiction, etc.)?

~What are your favorite magazines?

~If you had to be stuck on a desert island with any fictional character, who would you choose?

~How do you make time to escape into a good book?

~What's your favorite place to get your books?

~What's next on your "to-read" list?

Here's the code for the cutesy new party button. I'd love it if you'd add it to your post.

<a href="http://www.serenitynow4amanda.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" src="http://i523.photobucket.com/albums/w351/laurenjh04/Custom%20Designs/Amanda/150dish.png" /></a><br/>
Link up right here (email me if you have trouble and I'll help you out), and don't forget to do some visiting! The party will be open for new links until Thursday at 10 pm (ET).


Here's my contribution this month:

Y'all know I love Fluffy Books.

I used to read *smart people books* in college. But then I had kids. And I think I used up a lot of brainpower. Marlowe just doesn't get through to me like he used to. So Fluffy Books are right up my alley these days, and summer is the perfect time for light reading. Better Homes and Gardens, anyone?

I'll have some time to myself next month when I fly to Florida for the annual MOPS Convention. So this month's topic was slightly selfish, as I'm hoping to get some good tips from you guys.

Some of my favorite books for Summer Reading-
1. Anything by Mary Kay Andrews. I've dished about her work before. She is funny, she has style, and her characters are interesting. May I recommend The Fixer Upper or Hissy Fit? Both delightful, as in I neglected my kids while I read a chapter or three.

2. Emily Giffin's Something Borrowed. I would never have guessed that an author would make me cheer for the girl who cheats with her best friend's fiancé, but Giffin makes this story work. If you like NYC, you'll like this book!

3. Liz Curtis Higgs' Thorn in My Heart. Christian fiction can be tricky because I sometimes feel like the characters are a bit too perfect and the stories can wrap up just a bit too neatly. But this novel, set in 18th Century Scotland, is based on the Biblical story of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah. Higgs allows the characters' flaws to show, and she makes them believable.

4. Meg Cabot's Size 12 is Not Fat. Heather Wells, the main character, is a former pop singing sensation turned Assistant Dorm Director in NYC who falls into sleuthing. Heather is honest and funny. And she likes Twinkies.

5. Sophie Kinsella's Can You Keep a Secret? This is possibly my favorite of Kinsella's novels. Emma spills her dirtiest secrets to the man sitting next to her on a very turbulent plane ride. Little does she know, her seatmate is going to turn up in her life and her secrets won't be so secret anymore.

If I had to choose any fictional character to be caught on a desert island with, I'd choose Jamie from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I didn't even have to think twice about that. He has an accent. He fights off the bad guys. He's outdoorsy, so he'd know how to survive. And in my head, he's mighty good lookin'.

Since I don't live on a desert island, I don't have an awful lot of time to read, but I do try to carve out a bit of time before bed. This is sometimes not a good thing, because my bed is comfy and I tend to get wrapped up in stories; but it's better than reading while my kids tear the house apart during the day.

I've mentioned before that I love browsing Borders, even when I'm not in the market for a new book. I like to grab a to-go mocha from Panera Bread and just meander through the bookstore. There's also a great used bookstore near my house that lets you use full store credit on purchases, which I love.

Next on my to-read list is The Zookeeper's Wife, by Diane Ackerman. It's a true story about a married Polish couple who saves several hundred people from the Nazis by hiding them in empty animal cages after the zoo is bombed. Not exactly light reading, but I just found it tucked away and decided to dive in next.

{So...what does your Summer Reading List look like?}