What's On Your Summer Reading List?

Summer means trips to the beach and packing the requisite beach reading material.

I read all year long but tend to ramp up a little bit over the summer, with or without (mostly without) trips "downy oshun."

In the past couple of months, I've read Patricia Cornwell's The Bone Bed and Top of the Morning by New York Times writer and Maryland native Brian Stelter.

I was for the first time disappointed by the Cornwell offering. The plot seemed to be a little disjointed, and the book's title had little to nothing to do with the bulk of the storyline.

I've been a little less enthralled with the Kay Scarpetta series ever since the writing was changed to a first-person perspective. The dialogue puts the reader in Scarpetta's head too much of the time.

In this particular story, Scarpetta had the habit of jumping cryptically from topic to topic, all the while saying "I know where this is going," or something to that effect.

While she might know where something is headed, the reader does not and I was left frustrated and wanting more information on many occasions.

The book also ends abruptly. It almost seemed like Cornwell realized her page count had been reached and she said to herself, "Heck, I better end this thing."

The ending is thin and doesn't give the reader ample time or information to close the story.

At least that was my take.

I've also reread a couple of classics — Ernest Hemingway'sFor Whom the Bell Tolls and Harper Lee's one hit, To Kill a Mockingbird.

Rereading those made me realize that a lot of good literature is wasted on high school students, many of whom aren't in a place to appreciate (or understand) the works.

I struggled through the Hemingway piece this time, which made it quite clear why I skipped through it when it was a high school assignment.

So, what are you reading?

According to those friendly folks at Baltimore County Public Library, county readers are choosing fiction by James Patterson and David Baldacci, while biographies top the nonfiction list, according to the library system's most-borrowed data from June.

Here's the complete list of Baltimore County's top-10 most-borrowed books for the month of June:

Fiction:

The Hit (David Baldacci) 617 Loans

Daddy's Gone a Hunting (Mary Higgins Clark) 590 Loans

Alex Cross, Run (James Patterson) 569 Loans

12th of Never (James Patterson) 566 Loans

Six Years (Harlan Coben) 549 Loans

Private Berlin (James Patterson) 533 Loans

Private London (James Patterson) 533 Loans

The Storyteller (Jodi Picoult) 526 Loans

The Forgotten (David Baldacci) 525 Loans

Secrets from the Past (Barbara Taylot Bradford) 512 Loans

Nonfiction:

Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife (Eben Alexander) 134 Loans

Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls (David Sedaris) 125 Loans

Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot (Bill O'Reilly) 101 Loans

In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin (Erik Larson) 89 Loans

Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever (Bill O'Reilly) 88 Loans

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Katherine Boo) 81 Loans

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Cheryl Strayed) 77 Loans

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (Michael Pollan) 76 Loans

America the Beautiful: Rediscovering what Made this Nation Great (Ben Carson) 72 Loans

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot) 71 Loans

Let us know in the comments section what you're reading.