Another month of no teaching, very little exercise and work due to two elbows, so I got a lot of reading done. Truly, not much else to do 
How is your summer reading going? Read anything that’s a MUST READ?
A Night Like This (Smith-Smythe Quartet #2), Julia Quinn
2 stars
Mild summer entertainment with a governess in disguise heroine and a paranoid hero. Sub-par for Quinn, but a pleasant enough diversion. (How’s that for damning a decent book with faint praise?)
Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful #1), Jamie McGuire
2 stars
“Twilight meets 21/Bringing Down the House” in this train-wreck of a YA romance. Heroine is a doormat with an aptitude for poker and hero is a co-dependent, stalkery mess. Ugh. First half of the book was ok, hence the two star rating.
Butterfly Swords (Tang Dynasty #1), Jeanne Lin
3 stars
Middling romance, but amazing setting and excellent job by Lin in weaving history into the narrative without resorting to info dump. Hard to do in a shorter-format romance novel!
Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, Rolf Potts
2 stars
Hyper-conscious travel writer recounts his adventures around the world. Too meta for any real enjoyment or sense of place/culture. Not my cup of tea.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
3 stars
I can see why it’s become a “new classic”, but it still pales in comparison to Looking for Alaska.
