When I was younger you could never catch me without a book in my hand.  I read anything and everything.  When it came time to divulge hobbies in classes or surveys or whatnot, reading was pretty much all I had.  As I’ve gotten older, however, I’m sad to say I just don’t have the time to devour books as I once did.  I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit this, but we’re all friends, right?  Over the past two years, I have finished exactly eight books.  Considering that four of those books were The Twilight Saga and four of those books were chick lit… this is just pathetic! {Not that I regret this, mind you. All 8 books made for very fun reading!  I just wish I read more!}

There are two books that will be released in the very near future that I am geeked to pick up, so I thought I’d share them with all of you.

The first book is the debut novel by Kelly O’Connor McNees titled The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott.

Kelly is actually one of my friends from college!  I have not had the opportunity to read this book yet, but you can bet that I’ve placed my Amazon pre-order!  This book is, as you can imagine based on the title, about Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women.  Here’s a little snippet about the book from Kelly’s website:

In her debut novel, The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Kelly O’Connor McNees deftly mixes fact and fiction as she imagines a summer lost to history, carefully purged from Louisa’s letters and journals, a summer that would change the course of Louisa’s writing career—and inspire the story of love and heartbreak between Jo and Teddy “Laurie” Laurence, Jo’s devoted neighbor and kindred spirit.

I’m pretty excited to read The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, which will be released on April 1, 2010.  I hope to become reacquainted with some of my favorite Little Women characters while also learning more about Alcott herself.

If you’re interested in learning more about this novel, check out Kelly O’Connor McNees’ website.  And if you’re really gung-ho, Kelly is going on a book tour!  Click here to see if she’ll be visiting a town near you.

Next, last summer I fell completely and totally in love with the four books written by chick lit author Emily Giffin.  Last June my boyfriend and I traveled to Hawaii for a wedding.  We booked our flight out of Portland and were able to stop by the famed Powell’s Books to search for books to read on our flight.  I had packed a book but decided I didn’t like it on the flight to Portland.  I’d heard good things about Emily Giffin, so I decided to pick up Something Borrowed. To be perfectly honest with you, I’m a bit of a book snob, which is pretty much all you get out of being an English major in college. I wasn’t expecting much from the book.

Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t put it down.  I read it cover to cover during the flight and then became absolutely obsessed with getting my hands on the next book.  The next day, my boyfriend reluctantly agreed to walk 2 miles from our hotel to the nearest Barnes & Noble so I could pick up not just Something Blue {the next book in the two-part series}, but Giffin’s other two books as well: Baby Proof and Love the One You’re With.

This is all a really long way of telling you that I have been very impatiently waiting for Giffin’s next book, Heart of the Matter, to be released.

The release date, May 11, 2010, is {finally} rapidly approaching.  Woot!

One aspect of Giffin’s books that I really enjoy is the way she weaves characters from previous stories into her newer books, so while the books aren’t serial in nature, I do recommend starting with Something Borrowed and working your way up to Heart of the Matter.  It makes the reading experience that much more enjoyable!

These are the two books I’ll be reading this summer.  What’s on your summer reading list?