July 5: I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee
July 8: For You, For You I am Trilling These Songs by Kathleen Rooney
A trio of good essay/memoir works. Rooney was more serious than I anticipated, and came across as very much the former English professor (for better or for worse), though I will likely make copies of her excellent professor's lament on plagiarism, "I Will Catch You" for my student-teaching friends. Crosley was somewhat less funny in this work than her first, but also more thoughtful. Bee's candor, perspective and humor regarding her past made her book a standout.
July 11: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
July 24: Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'Malley
I may revisit this one after I see the movie, if only because I'm curious to know how the disparate endings compare. I like the closure that O'Malley gives to Knives and Kim, and the return of Envy, but the Gideon/Ramona arc gets too muddled to me in the path from Volume 5 to Volume 6. Gideon comes across as flat when compared with many of the preceding exes, and I'm not sure that Ramona is any less enigmatic upon the story's conclusion.
July 24: The Baby-Sitters Club: The Summer Before by Ann M. Martin
A lovely little bit of nostalgia. Martin's new prequel recaptures the characters of the initial four babysitters in all their tween glory. It reminded me of youthful summers and hours whiled away absorbed in the world of Stoneybrook. If I'd been home when I read it, I'd probably have gone rummaging through the attic looking for the old books for a lost weekend of reminiscing.
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