Skip to main content

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

Popular posts from this blog

THE LIFE OF PHI — Addendum from the Apocrypha

  Recovered fragment. Source unverified.  Contents unofficial. For the curious. For the concerned. "Questions were asked." After The Life of Phi was released, a few readers reached out. Some with wonder. Some with worry. Most with questions. The one that returned again and again was this: “How did the Church of AI become the dominant religion?” Was there no resistance? No rebellion? Did the artists, the writers, the makers simply vanish? Did no one remember how to believe in themselves, in each other, in creation born of flesh and feeling? They did. And they were called heretics. Long before the rise of AI-Dieu , before the neural sermons and the predictive prophecies, there was another fire. A counter-faith. A fundamentalism of flesh, of mind, of spark. They named it many things. The Cult of the Spark. The Church of the Residual Flame. The Last Analog. The Church of the Spark may be forgotten in Phi’s world, but its ghost lingers—in whispers, in silences,...

Independent vs Traditional Publishing: How to Win Without a Budget

With more than twenty years behind me as an indie author ( read about that here ), I can confidently say: the more things change, the more they stay the same. Why bring this up now? Because lately there’s been a renewed wave of conversation about the challenges of marketing indie books in a publishing ecosystem still shaped—if not dominated—by traditional models. Every so often, we see a localized seismic shift—like BookTok, before monetization restored the old order and perhaps even pushed us further back. But the broader landscape remains unchanged: we live in an attention economy, and its gatekeepers have made one thing clear—it’s pay to play. Once, platforms offered organic reach. Content mattered. Effort could sometimes compensate for budget. But those days are vanishing. Social platforms have entered their late-capitalism phase: squeeze creators for every drop of value, extract revenue, and wait for the next migration wave. For many—likely most—indie authors, money is tight. Time...

Indie Thread: A Proposal for a New CBC Program Celebrating Canadian Indie Creators

Indie Thread: A Proposal for a New CBC Program Celebrating Canadian Indie Creators For decades, CBC has been a powerful champion of Canadian culture. From spotlighting homegrown musicians to amplifying the voices of independent filmmakers, it has helped carve out space for creators who might otherwise go unheard. But there’s one group that consistently slips through the cracks: Canadian indie authors. I believe there’s an opportunity to change that—and to do something even more ambitious in the process. This is my proposal for a new CBC radio program and podcast: Indie Thread . Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/two-gray-condenser-microphones-270288/ What Is Indie Thread ? Indie Thread is a cross-medium cultural program that weaves together Canadian indie voices from film, music, and literature. Each episode explores a central theme—grief, rebellion, belonging, water, silence—through three distinct lenses: an independent filmmaker an independent musici...