Hey hey hey party people!
So it’s summer.
The sun is shining, the days are getting longer, and the shorts are getting shorter.
Nothing would please me more than to be sitting on a patio right now in my new fabulous sunglasses with a pitcher of sangria (yes, yes I do realize it’s nine in the morning) and my book of the week in hand.
Now I don’t know about all of you, but I like to spend my summer making money to support my overly frivolous and terribly indulgent lifestyle. Some people like to spend theirs travelling, some like to spend theirs volunteering, and others like to spend theirs back at UofT.
(Granted, I use “like” veeeery loosely in that last one.)
Anywho, summer aside, that’s no excuse to let your brain rot away, so aska’s going to share with you her own stack of to-read books for the season! 🙂
1.Ella Minow Pea, Mark Dunn — This one isn’t so much in my stack as it is in my bag. Now it’s an epistolary novel — fear not, the definition of “epistolary” is actually offered at the start of the book! — so I find it to be quite the quick read despite the rather formal language. It’s equal parts hilarious and horrifying from what I’ve gotten through so far. I highly recommend it though. It’s about the citizens of the island of Nollop, a place that holds Nevin Nollop (a.k.a. Mr. “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”) in such high regard, so when a letter falls off the statue commemorating him, the island council bans any use of that letter. But what happens when mooore letters begin to fall? 😉
2. The entire A Song of Ice and Fire series, George R.R. Martin — Guys. Guys come on. Despite my oh so endearing obsession with this entire franchise, I’ve actually only read the first book. So yeah. Gotta finish that. I shouldn’t even neeeeed to explain this one.
3.Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan — I mean look at that title. I expect nothing short of Rachel Chu being a first-person narrator who is utterly ignorant of her Chinese heritage because she was brought up in the U.S. and barely functions abroad. Also, I expect hilarity, awkwardness, and the classic “what is my life fml fml fml” voice typically attached to young twenty-something narrators.
4.Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez — Admittedly, I just try to throw in a “classic” every so often to fulfill my need to be pretentious. Also, Oprah picked this book guys sooooo. But like actually, if you feel like heart-wrenching love story, just the summary kind of does me in!
5. Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart — Okay okay deep down I quite enjoy love stories. Or well, love stories sans the overly tragic ones. But yes, I’ve heard nothing but good things about this book so I plan on giving it a try.
6. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan — My friend bought this for me for my birthday last December annnnd I’ve only gotten past chapter one. In my defence, it’s book one of a super long fantasy series. The prologue was quite interesting in the typical high-fantasy sort of way, but I mean asdfghjkl world-building on 7AM subway rides? Let me save this one for a sun and sangria day. This one requires coherency.
And lastly, 7. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy Kaling — Because it’s Mindy Kaling you uncultured swine!
That’s my pile (thus far).
What’s on yours?
Cheers!
aska