Summer Reading List 2025

🔥 Campfire Conversations

As the sun sets and stories come to life beneath the stars, let the books you read spark something more: connection. Each tale—from forest creature fables to interplanetary adventures and dragon-led revolutions—offers a starting point for conversations that can ignite wonder, reflection, and laughter across generations.

Pull up a log, pass the marshmallows, and dive into questions like:

Which character surprised you the most—and why?
What choice would you have made in their place?
Where did the story touch your own life?
What does it mean to stand up for something, or someone?

This summer, let reading be more than a solo journey. Let it become a shared adventure—one that spans ages, perspectives, and the space between hearts. Around the fire, with one author’s voice as your guide, discover how stories can bring families together in ways that last long after the last page is turned.

The image shows a detailed "Family Summer Reading List - 2025" featuring works by author Lawrence Nault. It's organized by age groups: For Young Children (Ages 4-8): "The Mountain Hermit's Animal Tales" about a child raised by different animal families in the forest. For Tweens (Ages 10-13): The "MacIver siblings" series, a science fantasy adventure across planets. For Teens (Ages 12-17): "The Draconim Series" about dragons returning to Earth to help address environmental crises. For Adults: Four books including "The Life of Phi," "Reptilexions," "Inversion," and "Latitude 25." The poster includes book cover images for each category and emphasizes that the reading list connects generations through one author's diverse works. It concludes with a section on "Campfire Conversations," suggesting these books can spark meaningful family discussions.

Comments

Stone and Signal - Episode 5: Storytelling As Resistance

Welcome back to Stone and Signal. I am excited about this episode. I hope you enjoy it. The Podcast Links Episode 5 on Substack Edpisode 5 on YouTube Episode 5 on Spotify The Essay The Transcript The Thin Line Between Cancelling and Censoring Every year, Banned Books Week comes around like a mirror we’re asked to look into—and what we see reflected says a great deal about who we are becoming. The books that end up on “challenged” or “restricted” lists rarely surprise me anymore. They tend to be the ones that speak too plainly about what others would rather not confront—identity, power, the environment, grief, or truth. If a story makes us uncomfortable, it’s easier to remove it from reach than to ask why it unsettles us. If I’m honest, many of my own books could probably find their way onto those lists. Stories that speak of youth defying systems, of ancient forces rising against human arrogance, of governments rewriting morality under the guise of progres...

Feeding the Beast: Why Pirated Books and AI Misuse Are Part of the Same Problem

The digital equivalent of someone selling stolen electronics or meat out of the back of a van, appearing on one corner one day and another the next. Recent revelations about Meta’s use of copyrighted material for AI training have reignited concerns about how our creative works are being exploited. While Meta’s actions are troubling, the deeper issue isn’t new. It’s one I’ve spoken about before, and one I’ll continue to emphasize. The problem lies not just in what corporations like Meta are doing, but in how easily this exploitation is enabled. For decades, authors, artists, content creators, and consumers of our work, have been unknowingly, or carelessly, feeding the beast. The right hand (AI) has our attention right now, but the left hand is still stealing our wallet. The Problem We Helped Create I’ve long cautioned about the risks of uploading books, documents, and images to websites and software platforms without fully understanding the terms of service. Many creators have ...

Fragments of Frost and Fire - Episode 13 - Walk-On-By Society

Sometimes a passing phrase cuts through the noise of the day and stays with you. I recently came across a video shared by @modelstrangers on Threads , where a man—soft-spoken but resolute—spoke about the loneliness we often feel even when surrounded by millions, and the deep importance of respecting every person, no matter their role in society. His words reminded me of how easy it is to walk past others without truly seeing them. And how powerful it can be when we choose to see. This poem was born from that moment of reflection. Walk-On-By Society Millions of footsteps echo, side by side, but hearts pass like shadows— unseen, untouched, eyes fixed forward, never meeting yours. In the crowd, you could scream, and still be an empty whisper. P hoto by Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz : https://www.pexels.com/photo/elderly-man-with-a-broom-and-a-dustpan-19408637/ This is a walk-on-by world, where silence is safer than kindness, where pain is private and everyone is "fine." But listen— n...

Search This Blog