What I'm Reading This Summer
Summer reading looks a little different when you have kids home.
It happens in stolen pockets — thirty minutes at the splash pad while they get gloriously wet without me, a quiet lunch when I actually remember to sit down for one, and my favorite: the thirty minutes before bed that I've claimed as mine. My kids know that at a certain point in the evening, mom stops momming so she can go finish her chapter.
It's not a lot of time. But it's enough, when the book is right.
Here's what's keeping me company this summer.
Linda Castillo — The Kate Burkholder Series
I came back to reading consistently because of Linda Castillo, and I don't say that lightly.
I'd been restless for a while — picking up books, putting them down, not finding anything that pulled me in the way a good book should. Then I found Sworn to Silence, the first book in her Kate Burkholder series, and finished it in a week. Started Pray for Silence immediately after.
Kate is a former Amish woman now working as chief of police in the small Ohio town where she grew up. The tension between those two worlds — who she was and who she became — runs quietly underneath every page, and Castillo handles it beautifully. The mysteries are gripping without being gratuitous. The setting is atmospheric in the best way.
If you've been in a reading rut, start here.
Anne Canadeo — The Black Sheep & Wool Shop Series
My mom and I discovered Anne Canadeo around the same time we found Linda Castillo, and she's been just as much of a gift.
Her knitting circle mysteries are warm and gentle and full of the kind of female friendships that make you wish you were part of the group. They're perfect for reading in small chunks — each chapter satisfying enough to set down, but not so tidy that you don't immediately want the next one.
This series is cozy in every sense of the word. Exactly right for summer.
Mary Kay Andrews — Killer Fudge
This one lives on my e-reader for the moments when I want something fun and easy and a little bit silly in the best possible way. Mary Kay Andrews has a gift for light, breezy mysteries with characters you genuinely enjoy spending time with.
Killer Fudge is exactly what it sounds like — charming, a little campy, completely enjoyable. The kind of book that makes a slow afternoon feel like a treat.
Jen Hatmaker — Awake
This one I'm trying to read — the key word being trying, because my library hold has a wait list longer than I'd like to admit.
Jen Hatmaker has a way of writing that feels like a conversation with a very honest, very funny friend who also happens to make you think. Awake has been on my list since I first heard about it, and I'm holding my place in the queue until it's mine.
If you've read it already, please don't tell me anything. I want to come to it fresh.
What's Keeping My Place
Through all of it — the Kate Burkholder series, the knitting circle mysteries, the e-reader holds and the paperbacks stacked on my nightstand — what I reach for every time is a magnetic bookmark.
I came to magnetic bookmarks the way I come to most good things: by being frustrated enough with the alternative for long enough. Regular bookmarks fall out. Pages get dog-eared. You set a book down and come back to it and have absolutely no idea where you were.
A magnetic bookmark closes around the page and stays. Pick the book up tomorrow, next week, after the kids finally fall asleep tonight — it's right where you left it.
The bookmark keeping my place through all of it is the Reading Past My Bedtime Duo — if you need one that actually stays put while you chase that last chapter, that's the one.
What are you reading this summer? I'd genuinely love to know — hit reply and tell me. My to-be-read list always has room for one more.
With gratitude, Cindy 💜 The Simply Magnetic Shoppe Thoughtfully made magnetic bookmarks & keepsakes Created to add tiny moments of joy to everyday life