Summer Reading

Sorry for my absence. I've been sucked into my absolute favorite summer activity:
Summer reading.

As a kid I definitely always read more than the required 3 books.
I wasn't as good as my friend Abby who always read the ENTIRE list,
but I did my fair share.

So now that I'm doing a much milder outpatient rotation (Praise Jesus!),
I have the luxury on the weekend of staying up late reading,
sleeping in,
and first thing in the morning grabbing the book off my nightstand to start again.

Of getting so sucked into a different world that the characters start to feel like long lost friends.

Of daydreaming about reading, wondering what will happen next, whenever I'm stuck at work or in traffic.

Of, as the International Man o' Mystery found out last weekend, preferring reading to swimming in the lake, hanging out, or pretty much anything.

Here's what I've been reading:

Recommended by my friend Erica.
An engrossing story of a Dominican family that moves to NJ.
Tons of heartbreaking Dominican history, which I did not know.
It helps to have a working knowledge of Spanish to read it, especially swear words.
And a dash of magical realism as any self respecting Hispanic book should have.

Pat Conroy books make me feel as wrapped up in a warm, cozy blanket of Southern culture as if I had just had crawdads, biscuits, and boiled peanuts while sipping sweet iced tea on the veranda of my plantation home.
He spins the Southern culture into the beautifully golden but crooked web that it is.
And he's a beautiful writer to boot.

This one is up next. I want to read it before the movie comes out.

What are you reading??
What should I read next?
The summer is still young.