New Summer Reading

Upon coming home from my shopping trip last Friday during my vacation, I moved some books around on my shelf to make room for the new ones that I just bought at Barnes and Noble. Some of those books sit in a tub under my bed waiting to go to storage or somewhere else. Maybe a church or Goodwill.

While cleaning up my bookshelf, I came upon a small book written by Good Morning America host Robin Roberts that I must have bought on one of my Target runs. Called Brighter By The Day, I’m only a few chapters into the book and so far I’ve read some interesting things. The book came out in 2022; therefore, it’s just after the COVID-19 pandemic. Robin talked about life during the lockdown in those first chapters. The book is broken up into three parts and right now, I am currently reading about The Joy Mindset. Later on in the month, I’ll have a blog post highlighting some of the things I learned. 

One of Robin’s books that I really enjoyed was “Everybody’s Got Something” where she shared her breast cancer journey. “Top of the Morning” was about the battle between Good Morning America and Today and how GMA ended the NBC morning show’s dominant run at #1. As of the time that this book came out, Good Morning America is still the top morning show. I read both books in the mid 2010’s as I was still interested in that topic. I still had dreams of going back for a post-bac degree, even though by that point I’d accepted my time at Slippery Rock. 

A few times a year, I get a magazine from my alma mater in the mail. In it are some interesting articles about alumni, current and retired professors, and events and goings-on around campus. There was a great article about a former professor who attended the church I went to when I attended the university in the mid 2000s. Dr. Thomas Gaither was a Biology professor at Slippery Rock University for nearly 40 years. During the early 1960’s, he was very involved in the civil rights movement and had been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and Mike Wallace. He passed away just before Christmas in 2024.

On the back of the magazine was a promo for Homecoming which will occur in mid-October. Coincidentally, that’s my week off from Giant Eagle and I am looking forward to going (barring any conflicts). This year marks 20 for me since graduating from Slippery Rock, just it also marks 25 since I began my college adventures at the Hiram G. Andrews Center. 

It’s been a fun-filled Fourth of July weekend for my family and we all love to celebrate. We had a great time on Friday at the Gaffron farm (and I’ll go into more detail in Thursday’s blog since that will be the milestone blog post). We capitalized on the warm weather on Sunday with a picnic on our back porch. We’ve had our pool for ten years and I’ve been getting in more in 2025 than in years past. On Thursday, my relatives had a nice pre-4th celebration at their “tropical oasis”. Not far from there is the house where my mom and aunt and all my uncles grew up. Lots of memories have been shared there and you always felt welcome. 

Now that the Fourth of July holiday has come to an end, it’s easy to start thinking about Labor Day and Pumpkin Spice season. There’s still plenty of summer left so enjoy the pool and all of the summer festivities. I’m hoping to make it out to the Greensburg Night Market later this month and enjoy some refreshers from Cutie’s.