Monday, May 18, 2015

It's Monday 5/18! What Are You Reading?


I love the quiet solitude of a Monday morning. This weekend was mostly spent cooking and caring for our 17-year old son who had oral surgery on Friday to get his four wisdom teeth extracted. He seems to be healing well and went to school this morning. I've been feeling particularly stressed and overwhelmed lately. Between the oral surgery and my father-in-law's 90th birthday last week, it was a hectic week with little productive time, so I just feel like I am behind on everything. My big accomplishment for the weekend was getting the kitchen island cleared of clutter and paper - woohoo!

As always, we enjoyed our books last week:
  • I finished Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan for my online family book group, and we finally started our discussion! I enjoyed this novel about a young girl growing up in Ireland in the early part of the 20th century who goes to America to earn some money and ends up feeling torn between her husband in Ireland and her exciting new life in NYC. The author responded to one of my Tweets and answered some questions from our discussion. It's always great to hear directly from the author!
  • With my book group commitments finished for the month (well, I missed my neighborhood book group meeting last week), I moved onto some YA - my TBR shelves for kids/teen/YA books are overflowing! I finally started Blue Lily, Lily Blue, book 3 in the Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater. I love this series!
  • I finished listening to Ask the Dark by Henry Turner, a teen/YA novel on audio. It was absolutely riveting, narrated by a boy who often gets into trouble, about a series of missing boys in his town and how he was the only person who could piece together what happened to them. Suspenseful and moving.
  • I started listening to Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, another teen/YA novel, on audio. This was one of my downloads from the first week of SYNC - be sure to check out this great source for free YA and classic audio books all summer long! They feature a new pair of audio downloads (one modern YA paired with one classic) each week. This is only week 2, so you still have plenty of time. So far, I am enjoying this popular YA novel that I somehow missed before.
  • My husband, Ken, finished Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley. He bought it after I read Mosley's amazing novel The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey and went to hear Mosley speak for our All-County Reads program. When I showed Ken the long list of books Mosley had written, he decided to try one. This is the first book in the Easy Rawlins mystery series. He said it was great - very well-written - and he is looking forward to reading the next book in the series. We are both new Mosley fans!
  • Ken is going on a business trip this week (a hectic one with quick turnaround), so he chose a short YA novel for his next book. He is reading Enclave by Ann Aguirre, the first book in her Razorland trilogy. Our son recently read this novel and enjoyed it. I still need to read it!
  • Jamie, 20, has been overwhelmed with end-of-the-semester work but is reading Mountain Man by Keith C. Blackmore, a book his dad lent him, to continue his Zombie obsession. A week from now, he will be done with the spring semester - then he can read nonstop for two weeks!
I tried to catch up a bit on the blog last week:
Review of Masterminds by Gordon Kormon, a suspenseful middle-grade audio book

Celebrate Mother's Day with a Good Book!, a reprint of my monthly book column in Vital! magazine

Review of Rainey Royal by Dylan Landis, an adult novel I read for Booktopia

Review of Fram by Steve Himmer, another adult novel I read for Booktopia

Saturday Snapshot, with photos of late spring in our neighborhood

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers
 
  

Our family on my father-in-law's 90th birthday last week

16 comments:

  1. That is a lovely photo of your family. Thanks for sharing it. I am curious about Ellis Island. It is great to connect with authors. I hope your son is feeling better soon. Have a great week.

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    1. Pat - Turns out that Ellis Island is the first book of a trilogy - my cousins and I all enjoyed it.

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  2. You've got some great books in the rotation right now! I still haven't read the Raven Boys, but I've been meaning to start it. I've had Ask the Dark for a while but haven't gotten to it. Perhaps I should! Last week wasn't very productive for me either. Here's hoping that this week is better! Happy reading!

    Michelle @ Michelle's Minions

    My It's Monday! post

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    1. Ask the Dark was excellent ad unique. And you must read The Raven Boys! Great series - my son and I both love it.

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  3. What a wonderful family picture! Sorry to hear you've been feeling overwhelmed lately. I have been having the same issue. I feel like I can't keep up with everything! Hopefully we'll both find time to relax soon.

    Ellis Island sounds good. I hope you enjoy your discussion about it!

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    1. Julie - This is just such a busy time of year when you have kids! Our youngest is a junior in HS now, so this spring we also had SATs, ACTs, prom, a new job, and those wisdom teeth coming out!

      Hope this week is more productive for both of us!

      Sue

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  4. I love hearing about your reading family. Sadly our boys (both in the middle of their teens) have given up books for their phones! We have to hope that they return to books when this intense phase of their lives passes.

    Your boys inspire me to hope :-)

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    1. Brona -

      Don't congratulate us too much - we've only been 50% successful with raising our sons as readers! Our oldest is an avid reader, but our youngest claims to HATE reading now! Still, he has many years of good memories of books he enjoyed, us reading aloud, etc. so like you, I am hopeful, he will someday rediscover the joy of reading. His girlfriend loves to read - maybe that will help!

      Sue

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  5. What a great picture of your family! It's nice to have lots of family time, but those celebrations take a lot of work.

    I hope you find a lot of time to read this week!

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    1. Thanks, Lindsey! Yes, family gatherings are fun but a lot of work for sure. Looking forward to a quiet Memorial Day weekend with plenty of reading :)

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  6. Hey, you! Sorry I didn't stop by yesterday. I wasn't feeling well. I am glad your son is making a quick recovery and that your kitchen counter is clear! It is the little things, right? I planned to nap Beautiful Creatures and then forgot all about it. I have it in print, so I suppose that will have to do. I am looking forward to what you think about it!

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    1. Glad you are feeling better today, Ricki. Yes, the rest of the house is a mess but that clear kitchen counter gives me hope! lol

      I am loving Beautiful Creatures so far - and sorry to tell you, but the audio is really well-done, with sound effects and music that is part of the story and more.

      Sue

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  7. I love the family photo! It's such a treat to put faces to these names. I loved Blue Lily so much that I'm waiting for the audiobook so I can listen to it before the next one comes out. Mastermind is on my list of books to read.

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  8. Vedika Giridhar7:52 AM

    I finished "The List", by Siobhan Vivian. I started reading a more complex version of Anne of Green Gables than what I had read before. I also just started "One For The Murphy's" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

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    1. Anne of Green Gables is on my list for this summer! And I recently read and enjoyed Lynda Mullaly Hunt's Fish in a Tree. Enjoy!

      Sue

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  9. I absolutely love the Raven boys series too. I think it picked up for me in Book 2 and yes Blue Lily is just lovely. I am just hoping that the rest of the books would be released very soon before I forget the storyline all over again.

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