It's Monday 7/23! What Are You Reading?

Today is my birthday!  Happy Birthday to me - ha ha.  I am celebrating by relaxing alone at home - ahhhh!  My sons are off on their grandparents' sailboat for a week, so my husband and I are enjoying a rare bit of peace and quiet.  Life is so easy with just the two of us - we haven't run the dishwasher in 2 days, and it's still not full!

My 8th birthday!

We had a good reading week:

•  I finished reading Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, and I LOVED this unique novel!  It is just so much fun but has some depth to it as well.  I found myself thinking about the characters days after I'd finished the book - always the sign of a good novel.  I can't wait to listen to the book discussion of it on The Readers, one of my favorite book podcasts.  And my husband and son will love this book, too!
• Now I am reading Sharp North by Patrick Cave, a teen/YA dystopian novel that has been sitting on my TBR shelf for far too long.  My Big Book Summer Challenge motivated me to finally read it.
• I am listening to Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt, a middle-grade audio book that won an Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audio Book Production.  I can see why it won an award - I am loving it so far and hoping to have more time to listen with the kids gone this week!
• I also read another graphic novel that Scholastic sent me: Drama by Raina Telgemeier. I really enjoyed this story about a middle school musical production, especially since my son had the lead role in his middle school's musical this spring!
• My husband, Ken, is still reading George R.R. Martin's A Clash of Kings (Book 2).  He wants to read Ready Player One before I return it to the library but is too immersed in this hefty tome for now!
• Jamie, 17, finished The Sapphire Rose, Book 3 in David Eddings' Elenium Trilogy.  He really enjoyed this fantasy series that his Dad recommended.
• Jamie told me on the phone this morning that he is now reading The Rogue Crew by Brian Jacques.  He LOVED the Redwall series when he was younger and just discovered this one title that he'd never read before.  It was his first-ever purchase at his college bookstore!  And he loves to read books about sailing or the ocean while he is on the sailboat.
• Craig, 14, finished the first of two required summer reading books this week, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  He found it interesting, and is now enjoying a break from reading during his vacation (yes, I have one son who brings an extra bag full of books on vacation and another who doesn't read at all on vacation!).

I posted two reviews last week:  The Postmistress by Sarah Blake and Cardboard, a middle-grade graphic novel by Doug Tennepel.

My Big Book Summer Challenge is well underway, but there is still time to participate if you have a big book (or two) that you'd like to read this summer.  Check out the challenge and the links to some big book reviews!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kids/teen version hosted at Teach Mentor Texts.)