Summer Reading

I have read two books on vacation:  Summer Island and Wild.

I read Summer Island, by Kristin Hannah, because I ended up at the beach without a book and it was in the snack bag.  It was your basic "chick lit" that I don't like to read.  But I got into far enough into it that first day at the beach that I wanted to see what happened.  So I kept reading it the next day at the pool.  However, I used the same technique I used to read 50 Shades of Gray --I skipped multiple paragraphs and pages at a time!  It was so predictable and sappy.  Typical "chick lit": "love, healing, forgiveness and renewal"....yada yada yada!  I hate books like that.

I read Wild, by Cheryl Strayed, because a friend at work gave it to me because she knows how much I love to back pack in the Sierras.  Wild was fabulous!  It was a story about a young woman who was devastated by the death of her mother and slowly started falling apart - she divorced her husband, dabbled in drugs and had a string of endless menial jobs.  Finally, at the depths of her despair, she decided to go on solo hike on the Pacific Coast Trail.  She showed courage and grit while facing down bears, rattlesnakes and the emotions that brought her life to this point.  There were hilarious parts of the book that I read out loud to our vacation crew.  This one is definitely worth a read!