June’s Book Club Theme
☀️ Let's get nostalgic about summer reading
I’ve been considering adding a book club component to Inspiration Everywhere since its launch last August, and the summer felt like the perfect time to finally kick this off!
Here’s how it’ll all work:
Theme
At the end of each month, I’ll introduce the theme for the upcoming month. Rather than all of us reading the same book, I thought it would be more fun to:
Read what you want.
Recommend the books you love to our community.
Get creative about how you interpret the month’s theme.
Format
Using our theme as your guideline, read whatever you’d like. At the end of the month, I’ll invite you to share and participate in the comments section, which will give you the opportunity to win “stickers” that’ll act as entries in a drawing for a prize at the end of the summer.
Challenges
You can earn stickers/entries by leaving a comment or linking to a photo that describes:
🍪 Food/Drink challenge: Make a food or drink accompaniment inspired by your book.
💃 Costume challenge: Wear an outfit inspired by your book.
🎨 Creative challenge: Design your own book-related project, like creating a piece of fan art or fan fiction, a craft, or hosting a theme party.
🫶 All paid subscribers who leave a comment or heart the post will automatically get an extra sticker/entry for each challenge.
Participation is free for all free and paid subscribers through August. If we decide to keep the book club going in the fall, it’ll switch to being a paid subscriber benefit. If you’d like to upgrade to be a paid subscriber to access all posts and receive full benefits, save 15% off all subscription levels, or would like to support my work click below!
📆 Save the Date: June’s book club post will be shared on Sunday, June 23rd.
June’s Theme
The theme for June 2024 is: Books we loved as kids
In case you’re new around here, I am an overly nostalgic person, especially in the summer. And when I think of summer, so many of my favorite memories are centered around our library’s summer reading program, which I lovingly fashioned this book club after.
From what I remember, in our library’s summer reading program in the 1990s, each child received a paper cutout of an object that related to the year’s theme. For example, during the “ocean” themed year, I may have had a crab with my name on it, while my sister had a whale.
Whenever you’d visit the library, you’d locate your cutout, which was stuck to the shelves in the children’s section, bring it to the front desk, and the librarian would give you one sticker to add to your cutout for each book you read. I thought it was the best thing ever!
The only sad part is that my family was always on vacation in August during the end-of-the-year summer reading program party, so clearly, I’m going to try to make up for that here.
I could think of nothing better than to revisit one or some of our favorite picture books, chapter books, or series we remember loving as children. You may consider:
Reading to your kids or with your family.
Reading a series.
Listening to an audio version of a book you know and love but haven’t read in forever.
I’m writing this from my parents’ house, where I sought some inspiration from a shelf of our favorite books we loved as kids. I was so delighted by the number of books they saved! My mom says she has more in a box somewhere (after I demanded to know what happened to the Little House books 😂).
The book I’ve been wanting to read is also missing and on backorder from Bookshop.org, so I’m going to be scouring all the bookstores here in Cape Cod to see if I can locate a copy; otherwise, I hope that my library carries it.
I can’t wait to hear which book or books you choose to read over the next month and to see the creative ways you celebrate them!
📚 For more reading fun + inspiration, here are some of my favorite book-ish Substacks:
✍️ Creative Exercises/Journal Prompts
Make a written or illustrated list of ten books you remember loving in childhood.
Create an alternate book cover design for one of your favorite children’s stories.
Plan a reading date in a special location and pair it with a yummy snack.
☀️ Five good things
When we can recognize the things that bring us the most joy, we invite more of them into our lives. Here are five things that made me happy this week. Share yours below!
Five good things that happened this week:
I got to do some in-person research for my book this week, visiting a historical society and taking a Lobster Lunch Cruise. The people I met with were so gracious with their time and knowledge, and it gave me even more encouragement to make publishing this book a reality.
On Tuesday night, we went to Pub Trivia/Taco Tuesday/Luau Night with my parents, aunt, and uncle, and it was every bit of fun+madness as it sounds.
My husband and I spent a few beautiful days in Nantucket this week and fell in love with pretty much every home we walked past.
I’ve visited three bookstores this week (so far 😊) and picked up: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, Ready or Not by Cara Bastone, and The Paris Trip by Ruth Reichl.
I’m writing this right after dinner, so it’s very top of mind: my dad went out and harvested clams this morning, and my mom made the most delicious meal with them tonight. We’re so very blessed.
💬 Share your intention
Whether it’s a giant leap, a tiny to-do list item, a habit change, or something else, there is power in accountability, and this is a safe space to share your aim. Some weeks, we’ll fail, others we’ll soar, but with support, we’ll always keep going together.
✨ Question of the week: What is your favorite summer reading memory?
Until next week, get out there and make something beautiful.
Michelle
Ooh, I love this theme! I read through the American Girl books every summer. I'll have to see if I can borrow them from my online library.
I'm excited to join a book club for the first time in my life. Thanks for making it fun and accessible through this month's theme. Reading your post sparked memory flashbacks of books I read as a kid in the 1980s. I'm surprised that some of these titles are still in print and can't wait for my next trip to the library.
Q of the week: My favourite summer memory is reading outside — in my backyard, in the schoolyard, on my grandparents' veranda, in parks, on rocks by lakes & rivers, on farms, in local forests, in the middle of nowhere and everywhere.