Monday, January 30, 2012

It's Monday 1/30! What Are You Reading?

Here we are...Monday again! I have one son feeling better and heading back to school this morning after two weeks at home...and the other one curled up on the couch feeling awful. I wonder whether I will ever experience a normal, quiet, solitary work day again!  Really sick of the TV constantly making noise in the background.

Another busy weekend here - we are still buried in forms and paperwork for college, but we did finally file the FASFA (financial aid form) this weekend - progress! Not nearly enough time for reading this week, but here's what we did manage:
  • I finished Divergent by Veronica Roth, an excellent teen dystopian novel (see my review).  I'm looking forward to book 2!
  • I was in the mood for more kids/teen reading, so I next read a middle-grade book I've been dying to read for months: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick.  It was aptly named - full of wonder!  Just an amazing, one-of-a-kind book.
  • I am also still listening to an audio book, The Power of Six by Pitticus Lore, though I'm still not loving the narrators.  It is a good story, though.
  • And I finally started a book for one of my book groups, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel about two Cuban brothers who move to NYC in the early 1950's and start an orchestra.  I thought it started out a bit slow, but I am enjoying it now.  This book has been on my TBR shelves for almost 10 years!
  • My husband, Ken, is still reading one of his Christmas gifts from me, In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, and enjoying it, though he hasn't had much reading time either.
  • Jamie, 17, is reading Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness, Book Three in the Chaos Walking trilogy.  He says this post-apocalyptic trilogy is excellent and his dad and I need to read it next!
  • Craig, 14, gave up on Chronicles of the Red King: The Secret Kingdom by Jenny Nimmo, a prequel to one of his all-time favorite series, Charlie Bone.  He says it just wasn't as good as the Charlie Bone series.  
  • He is now finally reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, which the other three of us have been suggesting to him for ages!  Craig likes to be independent and make his own choices, but he admits we were right about this book.  He's only a couple of chapters into it and is already loving it.  He actually turned the TV off voluntarily a few minutes ago to read!
I posted two reviews last week:  Half-Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls and Divergent by Veronica Roth.  I also posted a link to the winners of the Youth Media Awards, including the Newberry and Caldecott Honors, plus many others - so many good books out there waiting to be read!

I learned a bit more about customizing the look of my blogs, though I am still a novice (after 7 years of blogging!)  I would love to figure out how to add photos and other customizations.  I like the clean look of it now, but it is a bit plain.  Someday...

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.  You might also want to take a look at the kids/teen version of what are you reading Monday over at Teach Mentor Texts.)

4 comments:

  1. It's about time your son picked up The Hunger Games :-) I hope to get to Divergent soon - by step-son finished it in 2 days and said it was fantastic!

    We already picked out his next set of books (a series), but after that I'm going to recommend Charlie Bone series to him since your son loved it so much and they are similar ages.

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  2. Tanya -

    Both of my sons loved the Charlie Bone series - it is aimed at a younger age, though (middle-grade rather than teen). I know Craig would LOVE the Artemis Fowle series, but he;s being stubborn about it because I recommended it! What series is your son reading next?

    Sue

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  3. Anonymous6:09 PM

    Hi: I made an attempt on Winterson's books, but wasn't able to engage with them. She was on our campus last fall and I shared a plane with her - she was lovely - a really nice person, I regret not being able to enjoy her writing, ah well, Ruby

    http://yearofreadingmybooks.wordpress.com/

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  4. Kathy -

    I'm not familiar with Winterson. Will have to see who that is. Enjoy your books this week!

    Sue

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