By no means is this a summer reading list. I can never stick to those sorts of things. These are just a few books that I've been trying to crank through or want to get through in the near future. 


1. The Night Circus
2. The Valley of the Dolls
3. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
4. The Ice Cream Girls

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.  

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.  

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead."

1. I'm about halfway through The Night Circus. It's really an inspiring book. It's a bevy of fantastical writing that weaves together an intricate, and completely amazing story. I can't wait to finish it off in the near future. Usually, if I like a book, it takes me next to no time to get completely through it. This is my one exception. I'm in love with this so far, but it's far from a trashy beach read. It requires a level of presence and consciousness from readers I find a bit too demanding when I have a three year old running around me. The writing and story line thus far have been superb and magical in their own right.

"In 1945, Anne Welles moves to New York City from Lawrenceville, Massachusetts, and finds employment with a talent agency representing the Broadway musical Hit the Sky. She meets Neely O'Hara (who changed her name from Ethel Agnes O'Neill), a vaudeville star living in her building, and recommends her for a role in the show’s chorus. Jennifer North, a showgirl regarded for her beauty but with limited talent, appears in the play as well. The three women become fast friends. Over the next twenty years, the women embark on careers that bring them to the heights of fame and eventual self-destruction."

2. Valley of the Dolls came to me highly recommended by The Rooms. I hear the movie is amazing. I'm about a third of the way through this book (which I started in college...but tucked away and forgot about until recently). It was book a bit before it's time. It's written excellently, but it lacks a certain sense of emotion. I find it strangely casual and formal at the same time. It's like reading an old movie instead of watching. I can appreciate this story, if nothing else.

"In the 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals in a small town in rural Mississippi. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry was the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, black single mother. But then Larry took a girl to a drive-in movie and she was never seen or heard from again. He never confessed . . . and was never charged.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry lives a solitary, shunned existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has become the town constable. And now another girl has disappeared, forcing two men who once called each other "friend" to confront a past they've buried for decades."

3. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is the only book in this bunch that I haven't started at all (unless you count reading the first two pages while waiting in line at Barnes & Noble). This isn't the type of book I'd normally pick up, but I find when I open myself up to book that are set in the past and center around living in the country...I actually really like them. Example being Where the Red Fern Grows (4th grade), A Painted House (9th grade), and so on. So, I thought I'd give this a try since the story line sounds riveting enough!

"As teenagers Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a tragic event. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed ‘The Ice Cream Girls’ by the press and were dealt with by the courts. 

Years later, having led very different lives, Poppy is keen to set the record straight about what really happened, while married mother-of-two Serena wants no one in her present to find out about her past. But some secrets will not stay buried – and if theirs is revealed, everything will become a living hell all over again..."

4. The Ice Cream Girls is one of the books that I found randomly. Once reading the synopsis, I had blissfully high hopes. The story line was absolutely stellar. I'm a fourth of the way through, but I find myself losing interest and skipping bits and pieces. I don't know why that is. I find myself unable to connect to the characters or the writing at this point, but I have hopes that it will improve if I get a little more invested and finish it off!


So,what are you reading?