It's Monday 7/25! What Are You Reading?

What's that sound??  Ah, it's silence. This weekend, my husband and I dropped off our two teen boys at their grandparents' house for their annual week of sailing with Gramie and Pop Pop.  They love this week - it's the highlight of the year for them (that's them with their cousin a few years ago on the Grandkids' Cruise).  And for me?  It's a well-deserved week of quiet solitude in the midst of a crazy-busy summer.  I hope to catch up on all the stuff (especially writing) that has been going undone all summer and, of course, fit in lots of reading (though I was a complete lazy bum last night and watched two movies in a row instead of reading my book!).  This is my week.

We kicked off our quiet week with a mini getaway this weekend.  My husband surprised me for my birthday Saturday with an overnight near New Hope, PA, a lovely little town along the Delaware River.  We had a fabulous dinner and enjoyed some much-overdue quiet time together.

So, last week was very busy, with my husband out of town on business, getting the boys ready for their trip, driving them to CT, and hosting two other teen boys to help out their mom (my friend).  Whew.  We did fit in a little reading, though:

• I am reading The Passage by Justin Cronin, part of my Summer of the Big Book effort to catch up on some hefty reads.  It's almost 800 pages, so I'm only about a quarter of the way through so far, but it is really, really good (though really creepy).
• My husband, Ken, finished Room by Emma Donoghue.  He liked it very much, and we even had time to discuss it over dinner this weekend!
• Ken is now reading The Burning Wire by Jeffrey Deaver, a Father's Day gift from us.  He says it's good so far.
• Jamie, 16, spent a lot of time with friends last week, so he had less reading time than usual.  He finished re-reading City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare.
• Jamie was thrilled when Rip Tide by Kat Falls showed up at our house last week.  It is the sequel to Dark Life which he loved last summer, so he re-read Dark Life and took the new sequel with him on the boat.  He loves to read water-centric books while on the boat, and these take place in a future community deep below the ocean.
• Craig, 13, took an old favorite on the boat with him.  He's decided to re-read the Charlie Bone books which were the first books to really grab his interest a few years ago.
• Ken and I finally finished an audio book this weekend that we started almost 9 months ago!  We rarely have time alone in the car together, so on our way home yesterday we finished Sarah Silverman's memoir, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee.  We weren't familiar with the comedienne before we listened to this, but I guess this was classic Silverman:  hilarious and outrageous, sometimes a bit uncomfortable, and sometimes suprisingly touching.

In addition to my post on the Summer of the Big Book last week (I could still use some advice on that one!), I also posted about The Demise of  Bookstores and was very sad to come home yesterday and hear that our own Borders is closing this week (I guess they are now closing ALL stores).  I will be stopping by their clearance sale this week to spend one last, remaining gift card.  So sad.

I did manage to post one measly review last week at Great Books for Kids and Teens on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book and movie).  I hope to use some of my writing time this week to catch up on reviews!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)