Blink Book Reviews are back for summer 2025

If it’s summer, that means it’s time to gear up for summer reading.

Remember those summer reading clubs from childhood? In my family, we would go to the Cooper Branch Library to sign up the first day school was out. We’d get a fancy paper brochure where we’d painstakingly keep up with all the books we’d read over the summer.

While I don’t really remember the prizes we got, I do remember the deep feeling of satisfaction from knowing I’d met a goal … and enjoyed doing it!

My adult version of summer reading the past several years grew from a 2022 commitment to get off the screen and back to books for the summer. My accountability was a series of short book reviews I called “Blink Book Reviews” – so short they could be read in a blink (that means 300-ish or less words).


Blink Book Review Rules

I have only a few rules for myself.

1 – During the summer, I don’t finish books I’m not enjoying. Thus all the reviews are positive.

2 – I try to mix up genres a bit, but you’ll find a lot of themes around celebrity bios, dogs, politics, random historical topics, best sellers, writing and authors I either know or have a connection to.

3 - Hard copy books must be purchased at an indy bookstore (I have three on order right now from Columbia’s All Good Books, but my other top two are Litchfield Books at the beach and Square Books in Oxford).

4 – Hard copies and audio books carry equal weight. It took me a while to accept the fact that “reading” an audiobook had the same heft as a hard copy. Finally on board with this!

This summer, David and I are tagging along with a friend’s family summer reading challenge. That gives me extra incentive to read more because there’s actually a prize at the end of the summer!

A few recommendations

I’ve been asked if I’ve got a few favorites from these 40+ reviews (link takes you to a search summary on the blog). Yes … but not really a fair question because they’re favorites for different reasons. Here’s five you may want to try this summer and why (in no particular order).

·       “Grace Will Lead Us Home” by Jennifer Berry Hawes – The writing in this telling of the Charleston church shootings falls at the intersection of excellent journalism and passionate, purposeful storytelling. With the 10th anniversary upon us, this is a must-read this summer.

·       "Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR" by Lisa Napoli – With all the dust-up about NPR and public broadcasting at the forefront at the moment, this book is a great reminder of the “why” behind public radio and why it still matters.

·       “South of Heaven” by Patti Frye Meredith – A favorite because it’s written by a dear friend who I know long dreamed of writing this novel. For anyone who is southern by birth or has moved to the south, passed through the south, yearned for the south or just wondered about the south, this book gives voice to southern realities and complexities of family, loss, love and redemption with twists of stories and delightful turns of words.

·       “Devil at his Elbow” by Valerie Bauerlein – I’d sworn off of anything Murdough-related after the trial but this book overlays an experienced Wall Street Journal reporter’s newspaper writing style with the narrative skill of an empathetic storyteller that makes this book engaging, interesting, easy to follow, and a pleasure to read.

·       “The Art of Calm” by Roger Hutchison - This is the perfect mix of thought-provoking, easy reading, insightful and practical help bringing new awareness to our daily lives. Roger is another old friend who had a dream to write a book (actually he’s written many). The book lays out calm, purposeful pathways acknowledging everyone’s narrative is unique while, at the same time, exploring universal practices of healing.

Join my Blink Book Review Facebook group here if you’re so inclined to follow along as the summer progresses. The first review posts this week!

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