It's Monday 4/8! What Are You Reading?

Silence is golden!  Ahhh...the kids' two spring breaks are over, and I am once again alone in the quiet house. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed spending time with each of them (though greatly missed our usual spring break vacation when their breaks were the same week!), but it was tiring for me, and I am worn out. I am looking forward to focusing a bit on myself again and getting some work done, too. Of course, I just got a text from my son in college that he needs a hand-written note from me by 11 am today, so it looks like I am still on the clock! (and what kind of college professor requires a note from a parent when you miss class????)

Anyway, we all read plenty of books last week:

• I worked on We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver for a few days and finally set it aside after about 100 pages or so. In part, this was because I have a book group this Wednesday and needed to start that book, but I will probably not go back to it. It is very rare for me to not finish a book. This one was depressing - which I expected since it is about a school shooting - but my big problem with it was that I didn't like the narrator and couldn't relate to her. The novel is written as a series of letters from the mom of the teen shooter to her ex-husband, looking back over their lives together and what went wrong with their son. But the mom came across as cold, selfish, and uncaring. I was just not enjoying it, and, as my husband reminded me, life is too short to read books you don't like!
• The book I began for my neighborhood book group is much, much better: The Yokota Officer's Club by Sarah Bird. I am loving this novel so far! It's about a military family with 6 kids assigned to Okinawa in the 1960's. It's funny and heartfelt, and I am loving all the pop culture references of the time period!
• My husband, Ken, is reading The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King, which I gave him for Easter last week. I was wrong in describing it before as a prequel to the Dark Tower series. Ken says it is more of an in-between book, somewhere around book 3 1/2.
• Jamie, 18, finished A Dance with Dragons, book 5 in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. He said it was excellent and ended with a big cliff-hanger, so he can't wait for book #6 now!
• Craig, 15, was on spring break last week which for him means a break from reading for school!

I wrote two reviews last week:

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (fabulous novel!),
Ruins by Orson Scott Card, a teen/YA sci fi novel.

I also posted:
My March Reading Summary, and
Weekend Cooking 4/7.

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 Teach Mentor Texts.)