Summer Reading

Summer is quickly approaching and I'm excited to get some good reading in. I have a stack of books next to my bed lined up to be read, but one that's off to the side and about sixth in line is about to be moved to the "on deck" position. I'm embarrassed to admit what the name of it is. Let me back up.

I've always loved mystery books but I feel like they're guilty pleasures that I squeeze in between more serious books. Maybe serious isn't the right word, but you know what I mean. (The exception to that rule is any book by Agatha Christie who I love and never feel guilty about reading!) Anyway, last summer I was at huge garage sale with Katherine, thumbing through a box of books when I saw a Murder, She Wrote book. I remembered having seen that show a couple times as a kid and thought that it might be a fun book to bring to the beach, plus it was only 25 cents. I started looking through the books more and saw that there were seven M, SW books. At first I thought, I'll just buy one. Maybe two. Or three. But then after I paid for those, I thought what the heck and bought all seven, thinking they'd just be fillers on my book shelf. Well, once I started reading them, I couldn't stop. When the seventh Harry Potter book came out, I didn't want to put down the M, SW book I was reading to read Harry Potter. (Did you see what I just wrote!?) Finally I decided to read HP and M, SW simultaneously, but M, SW won out and I ended up resenting HP for slowing down the process of finding out whodunit in the M, SW book. Needless to say, that was the best buck-seventy-five I spent that summer.

The big problem however, was that occasionally friends or casual acquaintances would ask, "read anything good lately?" I'd freeze and think, "should I tell them about the less embarrassing book I finished before starting on the M, SW series? or should I admit what I'm reading?" I'm about to face the same dilemma. I was at the library book sale last weekend and found another M, SW book: Manhattans and Murder. I glanced at the back and it said that Jessica (Fletcher, of course) has an appointment to go on the Larry King Live show to promote her new book and then has to (spoiler alert) solve the mystery of the murder of a sidewalk Santa. This book is an obvious classic.

Anyway, I'm reading Jane Eyre right now and just finished Wuthering Heights before that, so I think I have a right to go a little lighter for the next one, right? I'd be open to any other recommendations for summer reading! Just try not to judge me for the first one on my list.