Monday, January 03, 2011

It's Monday 1/3! What Are You Reading?

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing holiday week, full of reading!  We had a busy week - it seems like much more than a week ago since my last Monday post.  We flew to Oklahoma to visit my father-in-law.  There are no direct flights, so it takes a full day's travel each way.  The bright side of that is LOTS of reading time!  Between long waits in airports (our first flight was delayed 4 hours), long flights, plus a lot of quiet time at my father-in-law's (he's 85 years old and loves on his own), we all fit in lots of time with some good books:
  • I had an excellent book for traveling:  Pendragon Book 10: the Soldiers of Halla by D.J. MacHale.  I absolutely loved the Pendragon series, and this was a wonderful ending!  At almost 700 pages, it kept me happily occupied most of the week.
  • I borrowed my next book off my mother-in-law's old bookshelf: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.  I've been wanting to read this book for years and just never got to it.  Jamie remarked this weekend, "Mom, that must be a good book because you've hardly set it down!"  It was good - I finished it last night and just sat and thought about it after closing the cover.
  • I've just started Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks for my library's book discussion next week.  I loved two of her other novels, March and People of the Book, so I'm very much looking forward to this one.
  • My husband, Ken, read one of his new Christmas gift books during our trip, Breathless by Dean Koontz.  He said it was confusing at first, with lots of different story lines, but they eventually came together, and he enjoyed the book overall.
  • Now he's home sick today and reading a book he borrowed from his dad, Bodies Left Behind by Jeffrey Deaver.  I just listened to an interesting interview with Jeffrey Deaver this weekend on the Reading and Writing Podcast (this one was podcast #27).
  • Ready for this?  Jamie, 16, read four books in the first three days of our trip, then waited (rather impatiently) for me to finish mine so he could read that, too!  He kicked off the trip by finishing The Magician of Hoad by Margaret Mahy.  He enjoyed it very much but said her earlier novel, Madigan's Fantasia, is still his favorite.
  • Next, he zipped through three books in one of his favorite series, Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan:  Book 5: The Sorcerer of the North, Book 6: The Siege of Macindaw, and Book 7: Erak's Ransom.  He says he's going to use the Borders gift card he got for Christmas to get Book 8!
  • Jamie breathed down my neck for the next day while waiting for me to finish Pendragon Book 10: the Soldiers of Halla by D.J. MacHale, then snatched it up as soon as I turned the last page.  He read this 700-page book in less than 24 hours on the way home!  He is truly a reading machine.
  • Craig, 12, was excited about the two books he got for Christmas, but only read the prologue of The Time Pirate by Ted Bell.  He thinks he may need to re-read the first book first.  He'll have a chance to dive into his new books now that school is starting again.
  • Finally, our family finished listening to an audio book that we started the week before, A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata, a wonderful middle-grade/teen book about a boy who wants to be an elephant trainer, growing up in the jungles of Vietnam during the war.
Now, it's back to our regular routines and more limited reading time, but I'm looking forward to lots of great books in 2011!


What are you and your family reading this week?


(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.)

9 comments:

  1. .Some brilliant suggest reads there - thanks!

    I enjoyed Lovely Bones - have you seen the movie? Be interesting what you think of it, now you have read book.

    Love Leanne

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sue, hearing about your sons' enjoyment of reading never fails to bring a smile to my face. Once again, good for you & Ken for setting a great example! I was absolutely amazed with The Lovely Bones & am glad to hear that you finished it as many shockingly did not given the subject matter. The movie is a good companion though it doesn't quite live up to the book. Happy New Year :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Some great books. I thought the Jeffrey Deaver was one of his best.
    Except for the ending I loved Year of Wonders.

    Have a great reading week.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I haven't seen the movie version of The Lovely Bones yet, but now I want to.

    I can understand why some people wouldn't finish the book - the beginning is pretty horrific.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I liked March by Geraldine Brooks -- I'll have to try the other two you mentioned. Sounds like a great week for family reading!

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's really cool that your whole family reads. My husband does some--but most of his reading is financial books (all about the stock market and mutual funds and..."yawn"). I should be glad he likes them though, he acts as my financial planner. My son reads every once in a while--but he'd much prefer gaming over anything. I guess his virtual life sort of mirrors my blogging. Instead of reading and writing about it, he develops graphic ideas for games....

    Thanks for stopping by this Monday. It is weird how we overlapped this week. Nice to get to know you!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sue,

    Thanks so much for linking to my interview with Jeffrey Deaver. I'm glad you enjoyed the interview.

    Also, I wanted to let you know about a new book-related project that I launched in December, in addition to my podcast.

    To Be Read is an e-newsletter devoted to books and reading. It features new books, book-related websites, podcasts, etc. I've been describing To Be Read as a "Daily Candy for books."

    You can subscribe at www.tobereadbooks.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks, Jeff - I'll have to check that out - looks interesting!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I need to put The Lovely Bones on my list for this year. I've been considering reading it for a long time! I also want to read something by Geraldine Brooks. I considered March but you'll have to let me know which one you'd recommend!

    ReplyDelete