What I Read on My Summer Vacation

We came back yesterday from a lovely week in Cape Cod.  So in what is becoming a tradition for this blog, I'm going to tell you all about what I read on vacation (and what the rest of my family read too).  I love to read all the time, obviously, but vacation reading is especially enjoyable - isn't there just something nice about reading by the beach or pool, especially when you have nothing else pressing to do?

Jonah reading

Judging a Book By Its Cover

Have you ever seen a book where the cover is just so great looking that the cover itself is what makes you want to read the book?  Obviously this happens to me a little less often now that I pick most of my books on the internet as opposed to a bookstore or library.  But it definitely still happens.

For this whole post, I'm not talking about books where I've heard of the author, read a review, or had someone else recommend it to me.  I'm talking about the kind of book where you see the cover without knowing anything about the book, and that is the first thing that makes you want to read the book.

Here are a few on my to read list where the cover was the first thing that drew me in.  I haven't read them yet so I can't tell you whether they're any good, but I love the covers!

 Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton - Seriously, is this the most gorgeous cover or what?  I was browsing Netgalley one day and saw this cover and I was pretty much sold on the spot - and obviously when I read the description and saw that it was in my beloved genre of dual time period historical fiction I was in for sure.  I didn't get approved for a copy by Netgalley, so now I'm on the library waitlist for this one.  But the fact that I saw it before publication proves that it's not the endorsement of Reese's book club that made me want to read this one - though she does tend to pick books I want to read!

The Passage TV show trailer

Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm totally obsessed with the book trilogy "The Passage" by Justin Cronin.  When I first heard that it had been optioned for a TV show, I was pretty excited, especially because originally it was going to be adapted for a movie and I knew there was just no way to cram that whole book into a movie.  Then I heard the TV show was going to be on Fox, and I started to worry.  Because this really is a show that screams for premium cable or a streaming network.

From the Top 10 Archives - Jen's 10 Favorite Books of 2006

It's been a while since I did one of these posts, so thought it was about time to look again at one of my old top 10 book lists.  Today we'll re-visit my 10 favorite books from 2006.  As a reminder, that means books I read in 2006, not necessarily books published that year.

Here's my list from 2006, in alphabetical order by author's last name: