Summer Resting by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

​Gretchen Rumohr is Chief Curator of YA Wednesday.  She serves as a professor of English and department chair at Aquinas College, where she teaches writing and language arts methods.   She is also a Co-Director of the UNLV Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. She lives with her four girls and a five-pound Yorkshire Terrier in west Michigan.

Summer Resting by Dr. Gretchen Rumohr

After a few weeks of work and travel in June, after yardwork and laundry and emptying the dishwasher night and day, I am taking a week or two OFF.  Off, I tell you!  My girls and I are headed this very moment to Manistee, where we will enjoy lake time, campfires, and hobo pies.  And then we will head to Cadillac to see brother (and fellow YA Wednesday contributor) Luke Rumohr for a few days of boating, hot tubbing, and discount store shopping. We will soak in all of the things we love about Michigan summers, staying up late and sleeping late and barbecuing things on the sunny deck. And we will rest. Do you think I have everything I need in my trunk?  I sure hope I do, because I don’t have another inch to spare.  ​

​Wait!  I forgot!  There are just three more things I need to add…

​The next week or two, I will enjoy my family, enjoy the weather, enjoy Michigan beautiful, and of course READ! This is what is on my list–and why.

​​I know I’m behind the times because I haven’t yet read In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner.  In my defense, I let my father borrow my copy first (which he devoured immediately)--now it’s my turn!  As with The Serpent King, I look forward to Zentner’s rich prose, realistic and heartbreaking storytelling, strong sense of place (especially rural place, as Chea Parton’s Literacy in Place has explored).


But yet!  I am AHEAD of the times because I have my hands on Twin Cities by Jose Pimienta and it is a gorgeous book.  Flipping the pages, I note realistic urban landscapes of Calexico–a border town–and a boy-girl twin dynamic as each twin decides whether to attend school in Mexico or in the U.S.--and contends with changes in their relationship as they grow.


And The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson will be my perfect beach read. After all, it takes place in the summer, celebrates friendship, and keeps us in suspense with its thrilling murder mystery.  I’m ready for it!

So–what is on your “resting” reading list?  Whatever is in your TBR pile, happy reading!