I posted a bunch of links to book awards here.  I was looking through the Rebecca Caudill Awards 2011 list for some possible Summer Reading titles, and I thought about other states and what they recommend.  It’s interesting to see variation and some patterns.  Hunger Games, for example, shows up on a lot of lists.

I recently read The Mailbox by Audrey Shafer, and I really enjoyed this book.  I’m planning to write a review soon.  I’ve started reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, and I really like it so far.  I’m thinking about pushing that book for a summer reading book.  It’s a nice historical fiction book with links to important curriculum (slavery, the Revolutionary War, civil rights and discrimination), as well as an engaging and interesting read by a popular author with titles in multiple genres (like Speak, Catalyst, Twisted, and so on).

I would like to suggest The Alchemyst for our summer reading, but it’s too long.  It’s a great book, though, and one that fantasy fiction readers should take a look at.

Right now, I’m also looking forward to several upcoming releases.  The last book in the Keys to the Kingdom series is coming soon, I hope, and I’ve really become a fan of Garth Nix because of that.  Dean Lorey has a pretty good story in his Nightmare Academy series, and the third book – Monster War – has a great title and a lot of promise.

I’ve been getting a little stuck in science fiction lately, though, and I’ve been enjoying books by some more adult writers in the genre – complex, difficult books like Accelerando and Bones of the Earth.  Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling, Charles Stross, and, recently, Neal Stephenson have become favorites of mine.  But I’m starting to feel a little too trapped in a genre.  I’d like to branch out, but I don’t get as excited about other kinds of fiction as I used to.  If it isn’t fun, I have a hard time finishing it.