Summer Reading Part I: “Murder on the Orient Express” & “Piranesi”

*This post contains NO spoilers! (No, really, I am being serious!)

Although autumn is my absolute favorite season (as I am sure most of you know), something about the summertime just makes me want to read. Sitting outside with a glass of rosé while reading a good book, or digging one’s toes into the sand while diving into a summer romance? There is nothing like it. Every summer I look forward to catching up on some reading and I plan on doing the same this year.

In my recent Life Update post I talked about finishing my master’s program. While I adore school, writing papers, and reading academic books and articles, it can be so draining. A few of my last reads for the semester were passages from Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics, a handful of encyclical letters, and Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Dare We Hope “That All Men Be Saved”? In short, I am genuinely looking forward to some “light” reading over the summer. Or, at least some reading for fun. It has been so long since I have read a book for my own enjoyment as opposed to for work, school, or paper writing.

My goal for the summer is to read at least ten books. As of today (June 17), I am already down two books and plan on starting my third today at some point. On my Instagram and Facebook I asked my followers and friends to send me some titles to consider and I would love my readers, here, to send their recommendations, too! Some offered classics, new works of fiction, mysteries, romances, military books, memoirs, etc.

Because of the many recommendations I received, I want my summer reading list to have a little bit of everything included.

The first book I read this summer was Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. I’ve written about my love of Agatha Christie on this blog before, and I am so embarrassed to admit that I only read Murder on the Orient Express for the first time last week. It has been sitting on my nightstand for months now and I actually intended to read it over the winter because it takes place during a blizzard but I never got around to it. Overall, I loved this book and it remains a classic for a reason. I can also now watch the 2017 film version and not feel bad! I refused to watch the movie or read a synopsis of the book before reading it. (Also, I would like to mention that I called the ending before finishing the book! My husband can attest to this claim.)

The second book I read this summer so far was Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and boy was that wild! This book came as a recommendation from a fellow undergraduate classmate of mine, and I took her advice in just diving in without looking anything up first. Clarke does a fantastic job at keeping audiences on their toes while reading and there were times when I could not put the book down. Overall, I would use the word “haunting” to describe this book. It is not scary in the traditional sense, but plays with your head. I do recommend this book to anyone looking for something new and different to read. I am trying my hardest to avoid spoiling anything!

The third book I plan on reading this summer is Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. When I posted online that I planned to read this book next, soooooo many people reached out saying that it was such an awesome book! I am very excited to start reading it. I heard also that it is possibly going to be made into a movie next year, which would be super cool.

I plan on writing a blog post about the books I am reading over the summer every two books. In the meantime, please send me some suggestions!