In Comes The Heat...

... out come the good old summer-reading books. You know, the ones I can read without thinking too much. When I was a kid it was Nancy Drew, books I'd already read and wanted to read again, and Archie comics. (And just for the record, Archie should never have proposed to Veronica!) Toss in some bare feet, a seat on the porch, and a Fla-Vor-Ice, and life was good.

Now that I'm well into adulthood, I tend to do something similar. I'll re-read my Victoria Holt's or scan the library shelves for anything clad in old sixties or seventies library binding. And my Fla-Vor-Ice is replaced by something chocolate.

So I'm not entirely sure how I ended up reading freaky, nightmare-inducing novels this summer, but I have, and I've got the strange dreams to go along with them. I've been spending a lot of time with books by Ted Dekker, king of Christian creep-me-out fiction. And now I'm just making my way into Valley Of The Shadow, Tom Pawlik's sequel to Vanish. Great reads, but definitely not soft and fluffy.

Which makes it necessary for me to throw in something to lighten up my summer relaxing. Next on my shelf is a change of pace in Eva Marie Everson's Things Left Unspoken and Rene Gutteridge's Scoop. And I hope to discover a few new gems this season out of the deepening pool of Christian authors.

Beach books, however, are a different breed entirely. For me, great seaside reading has to have some suspense to it along with a mysterious setting. If there are unusual locations, stormy days and thick mists, we're getting somewhere. Think Mary Stewart or Phyllis Whitney. The problem is finding some I haven't read. There's nothing worse than carting a stack of library books to the beach only to realize I've read all but two of them.

So any suggestions you have, pass them on. I'm desperately seeking new material... and looking forward to enjoying some happy summer reading.

I hope you do the same!