I have managed to knock some sought after reads off my summer reading list. Two of the titles I read solely because I knew they were being adapted for film. I am sucker for a book-turned-movie, much to my husbands chagrin. He is a visual person, whereas I devour the written word. Mostly likely, if you ask him what his biggest pet peeve about me is, he will say when we watch a movie after I read the book first, I comment negatively throughout the experience. What can I say? The books is ALWAYS better. Harry Potter 1-4 get the only thumbs up for movies being as good, Hunger Games was close and Annihilation was brilliant on screen.

Artemis Fowl - I had high hopes to read this with my son but I ended up blasting through this while he concentrated on summer reading homework. Disney is about to make this a movie. There are several books in the series so I was curious if this will be the next great thing. It follows the story of a special boy from a special family line and his bodyguard/caretaker and his caretakers sister. They discover the way to steal fairy gold. They capture a feisty fairy, the first female soldier in the fairy army, who has got something to prove. It was a fun little story and perhaps I will get around to reading more from the series.

Where'd you go Bernadette - I loved this book so much I talked 4 of my friends into reading it. I know 2 of them loved it. When we finally get together to discuss I will get a consensus. It was funny, completely different than anything I had read before and 100% kept me engaged. Written in mostly dialogue from the daughters point of view, the funniest parts were the correspondence between Bernadette and her online personal assistant in India that she kept secret from her husband. Bernadette is a former famous architect, married to high powered executive for microsoft with a bright young daughter who is about to go away to an exclusive boarding school, but before she goes the daughter was promised anything she wants. What she wants is a family trip to Antarctica. The rest is a mess! Just read it before it comes out on screen.

Today Will Be Different - I wanted to love this book. I read it solely because I loved Bernadette so much. I honestly did not even finish it. It was like someones really bad day that never gets better. I have enough bad days of my own and time is too short to waste on mediocre books.

Where the Crawdads Sing - This book was everywhere. I was 79th in line at the library for it. Two of my friends read it also. I heard so many good things about this book. At times I felt it was slow, but as I moved through it I feel as though I needed all of that sedate storytelling to understand and grow with Kya. It goes back and forth from past to present where there is a murder, or was it, and how the abandoned "Marsh Girl" grows and changes and get entangled in a mess. Full of prejudice, from a time not so long ago. It is beautiful and heartbreaking. Toward the end I could not stop. A book that stays with you.