Welcome to Sweet Summertime Reads! All summer long I will be featuring a different blogger to share their current summer reads + what's on their agenda for this summer. I hope you'll join me each week! Today, Amy from Tripping Over Books is here to share with us one of her favorite re-reads of the summer. I love the way she's paired it with her own summer adventures as well. Makes reading that much more alive! Please welcome Amy to the blog...
Friends, I’m so excited and thankful to be taking part in Ginger’s amazing and super fun feature, Sweet Summertime Reads! It’s always makes summer even better to see everyone talking about all the great books they’re reading at the beach or next to the pool or on vacation. So thanks for having me and for hosting this excellent feature, Ginger!
I don’t know about you guys, but for me summer means contemporaries. Not exclusively, but I just find myself craving them more when the weather is nice and warm. Some of my favorite contemporary books are ones that I reread constantly--for the feels, for the characters, for the places. I’ll often pull ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS or THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE off of my shelves to reread during the summer months, but the one that I pull down with the most regularity is probably AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR by Morgan Matson. It was one of the very first books I ever read with my library school book club and I just adored it. I’ve read it in every format there is, but in honor of the incredible road trip Amy and Roger take, I brought it with me on a road trip of my own two years ago.
Two springs ago, my sister and I went on a road trip to Cooperstown, NY (home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame), Niagara Falls, and Toronto. It was baseball-centric--we went to the Hall of Fame, took a stop for a few days in Niagara Falls (AMAZING), and then went to a Toronto Blue Jays-New York Yankees baseball game. It was incredibly fun and I was SUPER STOKED to take my favorite road trip book on a road trip. It wasn’t cross country like Amy and Roger’s was, but I HAD to bring it with me.
I had big plans to take pictures of it everywhere, but I only wound up taking two: one in the window of a used bookstore in Cooperstown and another in my hotel room in Niagara Falls. Road trips are busy, guys. Also, there’s a lot of time DRIVING.
Anyway, I thought about AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR a lot while my sister and I were driving all over upstate NY/southeastern Canada. About making memories and seeing new places and how the ability to get fresh perspectives on things is only as far away as the nearest highway. For all that my road trip only lasted a long weekend and I basically drove in only three states and part of Canada, it gave me a better understanding of how Amy and Roger could forge such a strong relationship while they were sharing a car and so much of their time. Experiencing new things with people creates a bond, and even though Amy and Roger are fictional, thinking of them and how they’re probably still road tripping together everywhere makes me happy. (Unless this actually makes me crazy? Not sure. Maybe.)
I’m definitely going to be rereading AMY & ROGER’S EPIC DETOUR this summer. Because I almost always do, and because I miss them, and because I want to remember all the awesome fun my sister and I had together, too. And because Roger *hearts for eyes*
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I completely agree with you, Amy, on how a change of scenery can definitely lead to a change of perspective. It's even more amazing when we connect with this theme in a book. I adored AMY & ROGER and have been wanting to do a re-read. I might just have to now! Thanks so much for sharing your SWEET SUMMERTIME READS with us, xo.
Be sure to check out the giveaway (open international -- Book Depository must be able to ship to you!) happening all summer long...
+ Open internationally (Book Depository must be able to ship to you!)
+ One winner will be chosen to receive one book from the image above (provided that it is available)
+ Contest ends August 31, 2015
+ Contest ends August 31, 2015
I loved this book and yes to road tripping!!
ReplyDeleteI love road trips! I've never taken on to Niagara Falls, but I imagine it must be really fun to go and visit such a stunning sight. Also, HECK YES to Amy and Roger's Epic Detour!
ReplyDeleteAhh, I love Amy and Rogers epic detour!!
ReplyDeleteI love road trips! I want to go to ALA Orlando next year by way of car with a few blogging buddies - it would be so epic!
ReplyDeleteWhenever I think of this book I think of you, Amy, because I know how much you loved it. I think it's pretty great too. :)
Summer here is exceptionally hot this year.....too hot to even go outside >.<
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ReplyDeleteI live in the Pacific Northwest, Western Washington to be exact. Our weather is mild year round - meaning not super hot summers and not too cold of winters. I love that about our area. Now saying that leads me to share that this June has been one of our driest and hottest on record. It's now July and it hasn't let up. I'm not complaining by any means, but it's just unusual.
ReplyDeleteSummers look a lot like winters where I live. Hot, humid, sunny. So what we do in the winter and the summer are largely the same. But going to the movies during the summer is a treat because of the AC! As far as books, I"m hoping to finish Shadow Scale and reread Just One Day this summer.
ReplyDeleteOooh! I love road trips and stories (and especially stories that involve road-trips!) Emmy & Oliver are already on my books to read shelf. Hoping to secure one of the others!
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