I’m going to blame work deadlines and strep for a slow conclusion to the summer reading. Work kept me tied up late into the evenings and over weekends, and the strep left me feeling listless and uninterested in picking up even the funniest book. But eventually both were conquered and I did squeeze two more books into the season:

I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after Twenty Years Away, by Bill Bryson

From the book jacket: “After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens — as he later put it, ‘it was clear my people needed me’). They were greeted by a new and improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item. Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, [the book] recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man’s attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended if at times bemused love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.”

Why this book? I really enjoy Bryson’s books. I bought it because there was a buy-2-get-1-free sale of certain publishers at my local book store. I picked it in August because you can’t help but laugh when you read Bryson, and the month seemed woefully serious from the outset.

My take: The book differs from a number of other Bryson tomes in that it is a series of adapted newspaper columns he wrote for a British newspaper recounting the differences (both good and bad) he encountered between the U.K. and his new-old home in the U.S. The advantage of such a book is obvious for such a disconnected month — no column lasts more than four pages and the topic changes from “chapter” to “chapter.” And it worked. I’d read an article or two at night to wind down before I went to bed or while I waited for the Metro in the evening. On the other hand, because it’s a series of articles, there are some repetitions that wouldn’t be as noticeable if the series were read weekly over three years that become more so when read nightly.

While it wasn’t my favorite Bryson book, it’s not because it isn’t good or funny; it’s just different. I’d recommend it to anyone who thinks they’d like to try a taste of his style without having to commit to a whole book about one subject — Europe, the Appalachian Trail, science — or someone who doesn’t have a lot of time to read anything all at once and has to fit their reading into bits and bats of time sprinkled throughout the day, week, or month. You’ll find you won’t think about things like health clubs the same way again!

Pages: 288

Peter and the Starcatchers, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

From the book jacket: “In an evocative and fast-paced adventure on the high seas and on a faraway island, an orphan boy named Peter and his mysterious new friend, Molly, overcome bands of pirates and thieves in their quest to keep a fantastical secret safe and save the world from evil. Bestselling authors Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson have turned back the clock to reveal the wonderful story that precedes J.M. Barrie’s beloved Peter Pan.”

Why this book? This has been on my to-read list for a while (because who doesn’t love Dave Barry?), but I hadn’t managed to pull it together to buy myself a copy. And the library took its own sweet time in acquiring a copy. Hopefully they won’t be so slow in buying the sequel, which came out in July.

My take: Having read one of the original Barrie works, I definitely feel this pulled more from the play and movie adaptations than the original works. Having said that, I enjoyed it anyway, finding it entertaining to see how Barry and Pearson managed to introduce each familiar aspect of the Peter Pan story. I also enjoyed the new characters (especially Mollie) and plot twists that were introduced

The book’s beginning was a little slow, with the authors taking a bit too long to get the action moving, but once they got going, the story remained riveting and fast-paced. There was no obvious, “I wrote this chapter; he wrote the next” kind of divisions disrupting the story, so I’ll definitely read future collaborations between the two, even if they choose to stray from this successful storyline.

Pages: 452 pages

Total pages read for Kat with a K’s Summer Reading Program during July: 740
Total pages read to date this summer: 3890
Total books read this summer: 14

This leaves me having beaten my goal of 10 books for the season, but falling short of my bonus goal of reading de Tocqueville. It’s too bad for Democracy in America, but there’s always the winter… And I just want to note that some of Kat’s other participants leave me feeling woefully inadequate and under-read. As of last week’s update, the folks leading the count had read 50 books apiece and one woman’s page counts were more than quadruple mine. I bow before such prowess.