As always, summer is a wonderful time for reading. While I haven’t had a chance to visit the beach, summer days are perfect for lazing around with a good book and a glass of iced tea.

Here’s a bit of what I’ve read this summer.

The Practical Magic Series by Alice Hoffman

So far, I’ve read the first three books in the series: Practical Magic, The Rules of Magic, and Magic Lessons. Normally, I save my witchy reading for autumn, but since I’m well into writing And Shadows Will Fall, Book Six of the Loving Husband Series, I thought it would be nice to read about another family of witches.

Practical Magic is the first book in the series, and The Rules of Magic and Magic Lessons are both prequels. In fact, Magic Lessons takes place during the Salem Witch Trials, just like the Loving Husband Series, and I love reading other novels set during the same era I’m writing about. There’s a fourth book, The Book of Magic, that I haven’t read yet, but I will definitely get to it since I enjoyed the other three in the series.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Probably exactly zero people are surprised that I’ve read Demon Copperhead, the award-winning novel by Barbara Kingsolver based on my all-time favorite novel, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. In fact, it was reading David Copperfield in a Victorian literature class that inspired me to become a novelist. Kingsolver does a wonderful job creating a story about poverty set in Appalachia with its basis set firmly in Dickens’ original work.

I came to Demon Copperhead with mixed emotions. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I would like it since I love David Copperfield so much. I’m pleased to say I was proven wrong. I loved Demon Copperhead from the first paragraph.

You don’t need to have read David Copperfield to enjoy Demon Copperhead. Demon Copperhead is an example of a modern American classic that stands perfectly well on its own.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

This is the second time I’ve read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. I enjoyed the book the first time I read it and I recommended it to several writer friends. I appreciate that Gilbert has a woo-woo relationship with creativity, as I do, what she calls the “Big Magic” of living a creative life, and I like how honest she is about the day-to-day reality of being a writer.

During this second reading, Gilbert’s observations about writing caught me on a gut level because she addresses some issues that I’ve been giving a lot of thought to lately. I love how reading does that. When you read a book once, you see it in a certain light. When you read a book a second time, you may find something new, or you may interpret it in a different way depending on your circumstances at that moment.

Gilbert addresses the paradoxes of being a writer in a conversational, humorous way, and she prompts readers to reconsider some “truths” (read: fallacies) commonly believed about writing. There is no need to be a tortured artist. Writing is challenging, but it’s also fun and a great way to spend your time. Gilbert notes that it isn’t fair to our writing to expect it to make our living for us. In many ways, putting that kind of pressure on our writing takes away the joy, and writing should be, above all, joyous. As Gilbert says, if you’re writing for the money, there are easier ways to make money.

I connected to Gilbert’s message much more profoundly this go-around. Gilbert reminds me why I still write after so many years.

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

I’ve only just started reading The Marriage Portrait, but I can already tell that this is a five-star book for me. I adored O’Farrell’s Hamnet, an imagined look at Shakespeare’s family’s life. The Marriage Portrait has already pulled me into 1550s Florence, a fascinating time in history.

Happy summer reading!