Summertime’s the perfect time to dive into our country’s history.

While the books below aren’t all “beach reading”, one that I know is (because Siesta sand is stuck in the binding of my copy!) is A Girl Named Samson by Amy Harmon, based on a true story of a girl masquerading as a boy to join the Revolutionary War.

Our 250th anniversary, or semiquincentennial, has produced so many reading lists, you could be reading until our bicenterquasquigenary.

Start with the suggestions here:

TheStoryGraph.com has multiple suggestions split into categories such as Settlers, Civil Rights, even the Roaring Twenties.

PBS has historic fiction, non-fiction, and children’s history books on their list for our 250th birthday.

A library in North Dakota created a list covering a wide range, and also breaks down more recent history by decade.

And just one more source for suggestions is BookBrowse. They include humorous books too!

You can even play a reading game with yourself by completing a fill-in-the-blanks like this one. There are many versions with assorted categories available online:

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As always, shopping local does more for Sarasota than reorting to the big A. Bookstore1 in downtown may not have all the books you’ve selected, but they can get them for you. And, of course, checking the county libraries is a budget-friendly way to read. Just don’t get that library book full of sand!