Linda Stevens's blog

Congratulations to Traci Patterson, winner of a Nook Simple Touch in the second 2012 Adult Summer Reading prize drawing!  Don't forget to register and keep reading this summer for your chance to win.

We're almost at the halfway point for Summer Reading!  Last week, we did some homegrown Texas reading.  My choice was Texas Soundtrack: Texas Stories Inspired by Texas Music.  By eating ice cream while I read, I was able to achieve a trifecta of personal favorites.  I highly recommend this book, Texas music, and ice cream.

Since we went local last week, let's have a global challenge this week:  Read worldwide.  You can try a book by an author from another country, follow Bill Bryson or Rick Steves on their travels, spend time learning another language, or read about a culture different from your own.  I've downloaded the audio of Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo for my choice.  What are you reading?

I hope everyone enjoyed last week's mystery challenge!  My choice (Started Early, Took My Dog) introduced me to a British mystery series that I will definitely revisit.  

Let's get a bit nostalgic this week:  Read or share a childhood favorite.  If you are an adult, re-read a book that you loved as a child or share it with a child in your life.  If you are not yet an adult, ask a family member to share their favorite childhood book with you or get them to read your favorite book.  Don't forget to tell us all about it.

I'm going to re-read a book that I carried around with me for an embarrassing number of years -- Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary.  It's checked out from the Digital Media Catalog and loaded on my Kindle.  What are you reading?

Welcome to Summer Reading 2012!  This year, we'd like to challenge our readers to read a little differently, maybe outside of your normal comfort zone.  Each week, we'll post a different reading challenge and ask you to respond by sharing your reading choice through your Summer Reading program log, comments on the blog post, through Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, or just tell everybody you meet.

We'll start off easy with this week's challenge:  Read something that solves a mystery.  It can be from the mystery or thriller genres, a true crime book, an article that explains a scientific principle, a blog post that demystifies Stonehenge, well, you get the picture.  I'm going to start with the audiobook of Kate Atkinson's Started Early, Took My Dog.  What are  you reading?

I've documented here before my fangirl adoration of Jayne Ann Krentz.  The one time I managed to meet her in person I gibbered with all of the sophistication of Porky Pig.  What's unusual for me about this author is that I enjoy all of her different romance genre explorations equally, whether it's the science fiction Jayne Castle books, the historical Amanda Quick books, or the contemporary Jayne Ann Krentz titles.  I would imagine that authors use different pen names to manage reader expectations with different types of books, so I wonder what usually ends up being stronger -- the appeal of the author's style or the appeal of the type of plot or setting?