It's Monday 1216! What Are You Reading?

Happy Monday! Whew, what a whirlwind week I had last week! I spent all week making my annual DVD of family photos (videos and photo slideshows put to music on a DVD). Then, on Friday, my husband came home from a business trip, my older son finished his final exams at college, and the moment they were both back home, we packed up the truck and left for Connecticut! We had our holiday celebration with my family early this year, to accommodate everyone's schedule. It was great to see everyone, especially my wonderful niece and nephew! We got quite a bit of snow up there this weekend and had to dig out yesterday before we could drive home, but we enjoyed lots of great food and many laughs (except my husband who picked up a virus on his business trip).

So, it goes without saying that I had no time at all for blogs last week, other than my Monday posts, but we all enjoyed our books, as always:

• I finished The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Agawa, a book that both of my sons read for their high school English courses. I loved this warm, gentle story about a housekeeper and her 10-year old son who care for an aging mathematician whose short-term memory lasts only 80 minutes. 
• After just one week, I gave up on my idea of reading lots of short books this month...when I realized I don't have any time to write reviews! So, I picked up the hefty Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness, the third and final book in the Chaos Walking trilogy (and a great way to end the year!).
• I am still listening to Rotters by Daniel Kraus on audio, a teen/YA novel about grave-robbing, bullying, and the meaning of family. It just keeps getting darker and more disturbing - I can't imagine how it will end, but I am determined to finish it before the end of the year!
• My husband, Ken, is still reading World War Z by Max Brooks. He says it's an unusual book, written as a series of news clips from the future, rather than a story following certain characters.
• Ken also finished City of Bones by Cassandra Clare on his iPhone during his travels last week. Now that our son is home for the holidays, we are planning to watch the movie adaptation since it is one of his favorite series.
• Jamie, 19, is thrilled to have a break from school for a little while and have time for pleasure reading again. He finished the third and final book in the Night Angel trilogy, Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks, one of his favorite series.
• Now, he is reading Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence, Book 1 in The Broken Empire series. It must be good so far because he was up really late last night reading!
• Craig, 15, finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon for his British Literature class.
• Our whole family enjoyed a couple of audio books together in the car this weekend. First, we continued our family tradition of kicking off the holiday season with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens on audio. We have a bunch of different versions - this was a new(ish) unabridged recording narrated by Jim Dale (of Harry Potter audio book fame) and was excellent. It's such a hopeful, uplifting story - we were all grinning at the familiar happy ending.
• Next, we listened to an audio book we have heard at least a half dozen times before! It is my sons' all-time favorite audio, Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater, a silly middle-grade novel that they have long outgrown, but all four of us still laugh out loud all the way through. It is a clever, funny story about a boy whose family moves to Hoboken, NJ, made even better because it is read by the author. Pinkwater nails what it is like to be a kid.

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

What are you and your family reading this week?    

My sons (in front) with their cousins.