Roll out those lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer....

Why is it that being lazy is "OK" in the summer? Is it because there was no air conditioning in the olden days, so people couldn't move fast or complete tasks? Because school always let out in the summer, creating a natural break? For whatever reason, we all seem to get a little lazy when the summer months arrive. We eat ice cream cones. We take naps. We take vacations.

"Summer Reading" is a synonym for "unimportant", "unrealistic", or even "dumb". I went to the library on a hot day recently and deliberately chose a big stack of "summer reading" books. They were all paperbacks. All by women. One was even a mystery!

But, as I sat in front of my room air conditioner, watching a re-run of "The Middle" I had seen a couple of times before (don't you just love Brick?), I found myself really enjoying the books I selected.

"Tainted", by Brooke Morgan is a mystery set on Cape Cod. A shy single mom, Holly, who doesn't realize she is beautiful, meets a handsome, witty, smart, irresistible Brit, Jack Dane. He asks her out, but when he realizes she has a five-year-old daughter, he tells her he can't see her any more. However, events out of Holly's control bring them together again. Jack is just perfect...except for those bizarre outbursts of anger when there is any noise. The creep who fathered Holly's little girl and abandoned them both, doesn't seem to share Holly's opinion about Jack Dane's perfection. Who is right? And why does the British woman whose number is on Jack's cell phone keep denying she knows him? This first novel kept me interested all the way to the end.

I have seen Elin Hilderbrand's books on the library's shelves for years, but have never wanted to read one. With titles like "The Love Season" and "The Beach Club", they just didn't seem like my glass of iced tea. Where would I find the concentration camp survivors? Members of the French underground? Nonetheless, something made me pick up one of Hilderbrand's books, "Nantucket Nights". It is the story of a twenty year friendship between three women who meet once a year, at midnight, to drink champagne, swim in the buff, and share secrets. They call themselves the "night swimmers". One woman is a high-powered attorney, one is a reclusive millionaire who had been a great dancer, and our heroine is a wife and mother who battles with her weight and tries to take care of everyone. Not surprisingly, the night swimmers encounter a lot more than waves when they try to carry out their ritual this year. Are they really "friends", or has that all been an illusion? I have to admit that I will be taking out the rest of Hilderbrand's beachy paperbacks as soon as I return this one.

Another first novel, "Why the Sky is Blue", by Susan Meissner was my third paperback this week. I will divulge that this book is on the "Christian-lit" side, for anyone who minds that sort of thing. Meissner is the wife of a pastor. Claire is leading a wonderful life...she has a loving husband (he is even a veterinarian), a healthy boy and girl, and she teaches English at the local high school. But, one night she is brutally attacked by a stranger and her life, and the lives of everyone she knows, changes forever. Claire might be able to recover from the attack. She has strength, support, and faith. But she is facing much more than anyone knows. Will her courage be enough?

I can't imagine reading any of these books in the winter. But, for now...well, they are like a soft ice cream cone from Jumpin' Jack's...with sprinkles. Enjoy!

The Choice Isn't Always Easy

Some books stay in your mind and heart for years. You find yourself recommending them to friends. You find yourself re-reading them. Others are enjoyable, but forgettable. The story may keep you up way too late (yes, that happened to me last night) and yet, you can recognize the flaws in the story even as you are reading.

Recently, I read Ann Hood's new book, "The Red Thread". It is about six American couples who adopt baby girls from China through an agency called "The Red Thread." However, it is equally about the heartbroken and courageous Chinese mothers who have no choice but to give up their beloved infant girls. It was a solid, good book. There was nothing wrong with it. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it to anyone. However...several years ago I read "Digging to America" by Anne Tyler, which is about two very different types of American families who meet at the airport while waiting to meet the little girls they have adopted from Korea. I loved this book! I loved the two families, who shared nothing except the adoption of these babies. I loved learning about the Iranian customs Tyler describes; I could almost taste the tea that grandmother Miriam brewed. I could feel how uncomfortable Jin-Ho Donaldson was with her Korean name.

Perhaps Hood tried to do too much by telling twelve stories within this fairly brief novel. Perhaps I just felt so disgusted by some of the Americans that I couldn't bear to see them acquiring these children. Tyler, however, doesn't flinch when she shows her her characters' flaws and weaknesses. Yet, I never once doubted that these two couples were loving, deserving parents to their daughters.

I also recently read two historical fiction books, "The Kommandant's Girl" by Pam Jenoff and "Purge" by Sofi Oksanen. I have read another of Jenoff's books and have her third waiting for me. So, I really do like her writing. But...things just go way too easily for the Jewish heroine, Emma, who poses as a Catholic, Anna, and finds work as an assistant for the German Kommandant in occupied Poland during World War II. Even the Gestapo isn't very frightening in this book! And while I understand Emma escaping from the ghetto, I do not understand how she seems to ignore her imprisoned parents for the greater part of the story.

Oksanen's book, "Purge", tells so many stories and takes the reader into so many painful places that it could be difficult for some to read. For me, however, this is the way we can all learn about the horrific events in history that shaped those from behind the Iron Curtain. Two women, Aliida and Zara, meet. They are suspicious, as all Estonians must be. We learn about Aliida's painful, almost unbearable past, and we learn that such horrors are still happening to women in the present, through Zara's story.

Some years ago I visited what I consider to be the best museum in the world, "The House of Terror", in Budapest. The story of the victimization of Hungarians by both the Nazis and the Soviet Union is told in a simple, yet chilling, way. Every item I saw at that museum has stayed in my mind. That is how I feel about many of the scenes in "Purge".

For me, there is always time enough to read two, or three, or three dozen books on any given topic. But for many, a choice is necessary. While you will enjoy "The Red Thread", you will remember and be touched by "Digging to America." While you might stay up late to finish "The Kommandant's Girl", as I did, you will feel and be haunted by Aliida's and Zara's victimization in "Purge."