What is it about when your kid is a baby that leaves you feeling totally inadequate and clueless, nearly all the time? That’s what drew me to “The Nanny Diaries,” the book, back in 2002, and to the movie last month. Find out more in my column today.

I’ve always wanted to take a two-week vacation. One week just doesn’t cut it. You arrive with all kinds of hopes and plans, and all of the sudden it’s Wednesday, and you’re staring at the end of the week and starting to think about packing up.

But this year, we did it. Two weeks at the beach. Two weeks of island living. No McDonald’s. No chain hotels. No traffic. No alarm clocks. Who needs a watch? Who needs a hair dryer? We slathered on 50 sunscreen and spent most of our time outside. Yes, it was hot on Dauphin Island, Ala., but not as hot as it was here. And if it’s going to be hot, I’d rather be at the beach.

Re-entry has been a little rough.

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There are no spoilers in this post.

I’d been trying to stay away from the Internet so I could discover the ending of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” on my own. I even plugged my ears whenever the kids would bring up the latest rumors from the Web.

But after all of the reports of the photos of the actual pages of the actual book, I could feel my fingers tingling whenever I went online to check my e-mail.

Then the New York Times came out with a review of “Deathly Hallows” after a New York bookstore put it on sale prematurely. The Baltimore Sun got an early look, too.

I knew they wouldn’t divulge the ending, so I read them, and they piqued my interest.

And then I couldn’t help myself.  It was like I was under the Imperious Curse.

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Nancy Drew as feminist: discuss.

Yes, I saw the new Nancy Drew movie. It’s cute and cartoonish and showcases adorable clothes. But it doesn’t capture the one thing that captivated me most when I first discovered Nancy Drew: She’s independent.

Nancy teaches important lessons to young girls: Being on your own. Doing the right thing without being told. Solving problems by yourself.

And the idea that she had her own car and kept an overnight bag in it for emergencies. Well, I’ve based my whole adult emergency-preparedness plan on her example! 

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What’s on your reading list this summer?

I decided to take a break from working on my master’s this summer because my Corps of Engineers husband got a three-month gig working in New Orleans. (That’s a whole other blog.…)  So, with some time to read non-textbook books, I’ve stocked my shelf with some old and new titles.

I’ve already knocked out “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy (bleak, but beautifully written), “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen (entertaining with some well-written passages, but I thought she wrote the main character as more mature than he would’ve been just out of college), “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines (the journal entries by the wrongly convicted Jefferson will have you crying at the end), and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini of  “The Kite Runner” fame. (Read my comments in response to the iDiva’s blog  here; I’m memgal.)

I’m slowly working through Steinbeck’s “East of Eden,” which I never had to read in high school, and then will start on “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert before the final installment of the Harry Potter series hits my doorstep in July. (I’m a fan.)

I want to add something from John Updike and Philip Roth, two authors I’ve inexplicably never read. Where should I start? What other must-read books should I add to my list?