LIGHT SUMMER READING

With only a couple more weeks of school, my thoughts are turning to summer. With all the stuff I have going on such as the charter school and my writing gigs, I'm not planning on lazy days at the lake or pool. But I hope you are, dear reader. Boy how I envy you, lounging about reading books and sipping a tall iced tea...

Stop laughing. There's got to be someone out there who isn't running around like a chicken with their head cut off. Nevertheless, even if you have every minute of the summer break mapped out, plan some personal down time, and check out these books for summer:

Growing Girls: The Mother of All Adventures by Jeanne Maria Laskas is the real life story of adopting and raising of two Chinese girls on a farm in Pennsylvania. It's also a of story marrying late and having children late in life, and balancing work, farm, and family without going insane.

I really enjoyed this book since it was sweet and sentimental yet down to earth and real. While reviewers compare Laskas to Erma Bombeck (can anyone write about motherhood without being compared to Saint Erma?) I found she reminded me of Garrison Keillor with her amusing outlook on country life and crazed farm animals. She deals with mommy guilt, being worried about her daughter's speech delays, neighbor relations, and a host of other issues most parents can relate to, whether we live in the city or out in the sticks.

Another mother-daughter book to check out is It Hit Me Like a Ton of Bricks: A Memoir of a Mother and Daughter by Catherine Lloyd Burns. Burns is an actress who you may recognize from Law & Order or Malcom in the Middle (she also had a big sister who worked at Saturday Night Live). Don't expect the warm fuzzies from this books. For most of her life, Burns has a contentious relationship with her mother. In fact, her mother's treatment of her boarders on neglect. Yet when Burns becomes a mother herself, she seems to turn around the relationship, finally appreciating her mother's struggles and accepting her weaknesses. There's nothing like understanding how hard it is to parent once you've gone through it yourself.

On the light side, there's Gucci Gucci Coo by Sue Margolis. If you liked any of Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic books or Allison Pearson's I Don't Know How She Does It, you'll like this British take on pregnancy and motherhood. And if you love conspiracy theories - how do those Hollywood stars looks so darn good just weeks after having a baby? - you'll enjoy this book, too.

It's a great spin on celebrity pregnancy, and how the rich do motherhood. There's also a great side story on older pregnancy and mother and daughter relationships. It's a fun, entertaining read and a book you'll pass on to friends.

Finally, there's Deanna Kizis's Finishing Touches. The perfect chick lit summer book, it features a death of a college friends, a subsequent romance, and how the main character Jesse grows from all these experiences. There's fun stuff too like goofy jokes, glimpses of college life at CU Boulder, the wacky world of L.A. celebrity, a slutty parent, and a cute dog. There's even stuff on antique and collectible furniture for all you interior decorating mavens. Again, another book to pass on to your sister or best friend.

I'll post soon about two serious books for summer reading, All the Numbers : A Novel by Judy Merrill Larsen and Jacquelyn Mitchard's Cage of Stars.