Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. Every year that I can, I join my family and a ton of friends up my my parents’ cabin in northwestern Wisconsin for a long weekend of relaxing by the lake. Since it’s right before my birthday, it’s always felt like a special weekend to me.

As you might expect, I always bring an insane number of books with me — always more than I can possibly read, especially since I will spend at least a one afternoon this weekend sitting on a boat with an alcoholic beverage in hand (Booze Cruise!). I also spend a long time trying to narrow down my book pile before every trip. I’m always trying to balance out a range of genres and styles so there is a book for any mood, and trying to make sure they’re books that are going to work for beach reading (easy to pick up and put down, smart but not complicated, forward momentum).

I’ve been adjusting this pile for about two weeks now, but I think I’ve finally settled on the five books that are going into my beach bag:

• Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (Aug. 5 from Harper Perennial)
• Embassytown by China Miéville
• This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
• Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark (Aug. 19 from Little, Brown)
• Hidden America by Jeanne Marie Laskas (partially finished)

The other exciting part of this trip, for me, is that it’s going to start out with a stop at a bookstore! Our drive to the cabin takes us right past a Barnes and Noble and, since it’s my birthday month, I’m going to make the boyfriend stop for a bit. I’ve spent the last month trying not to impulse books online… so I’ve got the itch.

I’ve been putting together a Goodreads list of books I want, but I’m most excited to take time just to browse. I’m almost certain I’ll leave with Tom Rachman’s new book, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, but the rest is up to chance. I’ll be back to the blog next Monday!

How to you choose the books you take on vacation? Any books you’re excited to read over this holiday weekend?

June has felt, to me, like a very unbalanced month. I got into a pattern of being really obsessed with one thing while ignoring all other things, then feeling bereft when the thing I was obsessed with came to an end. After a few days I’d switch to another thing to be obsessed with to continue the cycle. It was fun to spend time immersed in things, but ultimately it left me feeling a bit off-kilter.

As I look back on my reading this month, I can see part of the imbalance:

1. Enger, Lin: The High Divide (fiction) (Sept. 23 from Algonquin)
2. LeDuff, Charlie: Detroit: An American Autopsy (audiobook/nonfiction)
3. Bardugo, Leigh: Shadow and Bone (audiobook/YA fantasy)
4. Lee, Chang-rae: On Such a Full Sea (fiction)
5. Doughty, Caitlin: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (memoir) (Sept. 15 from WW Norton)
6. Booker, Sheri: Nine Years Under (memoir)
7. Bardugo, Leigh: Siege and Storm (audiobook/YA fantasy)
8. Edmonds: Michael: Risking Everything (nonfiction)
9. Bardugo, Leigh: Ruin and Rising (audiobook/YA fantasy)

Look at all of those audiobooks! It’s something like 40 hours worth of audio when normally I’m happy to finish one or two audiobooks. Part of the reason I spent so much time listening to books is because I got a FitBit and have been walking more and part is because I wanted to re-listen to a Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm before the third book in the trilogy, Ruin and Rising, came out on June 17. I finished the trilogy (it was amazing!) and will have some thoughts to share on it next week.

I also didn’t read a single review copy the entire month. I did pick up both The High Divide and Smoke Gets In Your Eyes from BEA, but I read them because I was excited, not because I felt like I “needed” to read them to hit a publishing deadline. That was fun. That said, a lot of the reading I did this month was for other projects — I’m hoping to have more “me” reading in July.

A Look to July

This summer is a big one for finishing up trilogies that I love. In June, the third book in Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy, Ruin and Rising, came out. This month, the third book in Ben H. Winter’s Last Policeman trilogy, World of Trouble, is hitting the shelves. And in August, the third book in Lev Grossman’s Magician’s trilogy, The Magician’s Land, will be out. As such, there’s been – and will continue to be – a lot of re-reading in my plans this month.

Aside from books in the series I already mentioned, here’s what else I’d love to get to in July:

• The Crossword Century by Alan Connor (July 10 from Gotham)
• Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay (Aug. 5 from Harper Perennial)
• Out With It: How Stuttering Helped Me Find My Voice by Katherine Preston (Atria Books)
• Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong by Juliet Macur (March 4 from Harper)

As always, this list is only a starting point for where my reading might take me this month – you never know what might happen. And since I’m heading out for a long weekend at the cabin tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be starting the month with my version of beach reads. I’ll have that post up tomorrow.

Time and Place // 7:20 a.m. at my desk

Drinking // Green tea (delicious, but perhaps not the caffeine content I need this morning)

Reading // I spent a lot of time this week reading creative nonfiction submissions for a regional literary magazine. When I wasn’t doing that, I flipped between a couple of books: Hidden America by Jeanne Marie Laskas and The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara. I will finish one of these books this week. 

Watching and Listening // On Friday, the boyfriend, a friend and I randomly watched Broadway Idiot, a documentary about the making of a Broadway musical out of Green Day’s American Idiot album. Since watching, I’ve been listening to the original cast recording of American Idiot — their versions of “21 Guns” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends” are gorgeous.

Building // While I was at home this weekend, my mom and I made a trip to Target where we could my birthday present — a little patio table and chairs for our backyard. I starting putting them together last night, but I have some work for later today.

Blogging // This week on the blog I posted a brief review of The Map Thief by Michael Blanding, interrogated my bookshelves, and shared some of my favorite memoirs.

Enjoying // This list of 24 Things We Unexpectedly Became Obsessed With In our Late 20s made me laugh.

Reflecting // The boyfriend and I made a quick trip to the Twin Cities this weekend for a memorial service for my uncle, who passed away unexpectedly in April. I’ve been thinking about him, and the rest of my family, a lot in the last week. I remember what a warm and generous sense of humor he had, and I was so glad to meet and talk with other people who loved that about him.

Loving // One of our quick stops this weekend was to a new grocery store in Richfield that my sister helped to design. It was so cool to walk through a building and hear from her about some of the touches she helped with.

Anticipating // We leave for Fourth of July up at the cabin this Thursday afternoon. I’m in the middle of packing, cleaning, baking, and (most importantly) choosing the books I’m going to take with me. Long weekends at the lake are my happy place.

Life at my day job this week has been… strange, so I only have one recommendation to share today. But the request from Rhonda is a great one, so I’m excited to share it. Here’s what Rhonda is looking for:

I read a lot of memoirs. I love fiction, but it has been a long time since I’ve been carried away. Many of the memoirs I read seem like they could have fictional elements… love those as well. Some that I’ve enjoyed are Angela’s Ashes, The Glass Castle, The Gringo and anything by David Sedaris.

This one was a little tricker than I expected – I haven’t read as many memoirs lately as I used to read – but after skimming through my Library Thing catalogue I came up with three that I thought were both out-of-the-ordinary and compulsive reads:

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan – This is one of the scariest and most interesting memoirs I’ve read in a long time. When she was 24 years old, Susannah Cahalan experienced a “month of madness” when a rare autoimmune disorder nearly killed her. In the book, Cahalan uses her reporting skills to reconstruct her missing month based on medical records, interviews with friends and family and a journal her father kept during the ordeal. It’s intense and wonderfully written.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven by Susan Jane Gilman – After her college graduation in 1986, Susan Jane Gilman and her friend Claire decided to take a trip to China, a country that has just recently opened up to tourists. The women soon discover they are well out of their league as novice travelers, particularly when Claire starts to behave strangely, leaving Susan to pick up the pieces. I originally listened to this one as an audiobook and coudn’t pull myself away.

This Life Is in Your Hands by Melissa Coleman – This book was one of my favorite reads in 2011. Coleman grew up on a rural homestead on the coast of Maine in the 1970s with her parents, Eliot and Sue. The couple was part of a movement of people leaving behind society to life a simpler life. But the costs of their decision –  frenetic summers, long winters, and the daily pressure just to get through the day – result in some terrible consequences. This memoir is just stunning… ominous, elegant, honest and evocative. I read it in a single sitting.

Interested in getting a personalized nonfiction recommendation? Please fill out this form to get on the list. I currently have two requests in my queue, so any new requests should get answered within the next month. 

Photo Credit: Chris at Shutterhacks