Summer is quickly drawing to a close

...but I have finished all 20 of the Maud Hart Lovelace nominees! Thanks to a road trip to Omaha, Nebraska I was able to breeze through the last three on my list: Elephant Run by Roland Smith, No Girls Allowed (Dogs Okay) by Trudy Trueit, and Listen! by Stephanie S. Tolan. Once again, it is a good thing I am not eligible to vote in the actual contest, because I can never pick just one favorite one. My top five are Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt, Listen!, Elephant Run, The Juvie Three by Gordon Korman, and Stolen Children by Peg Kehret.

I think kids will like The Maze Runner by Dashner, but it just isn't quite my cup of tea.

Besides the 20 MHL books, I read these Newbery medal and honor books: The Graveyard, Moon Over Manifest, One Crazy Summer, Turtle in Paradise, and The Evolution of Capernia Tate. The Graveyard is a little weird but I enjoyed them all.

As for more adult reads, this summer I read: The Postmistress, The first 3 of the Flavia mysteries by Alan Bradley beginning with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie(looking forward to number four coming out in November), the first two of Julie Kramer's books with 3 and 4 loaded and ready on my Nook, The Devil's Food Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke, and The Real Macaw by Donna Andrews.

Next up is my August book club book Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards.