It's Monday 8/29! What Are You Reading?

Whew, this past week has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows! First, an exciting (but exhausting!) week of shopping, laundry (endless loads of laundry), and packing to get our sons ready for college. Oh, yeah, and my husband had a nasty flu for the past 10 days. So, we got our son moved into his freshman dorm room on Saturday, then the other three of us collapsed at home!

Unfortunately, we are not yet experiencing the empty nest. Our older son came home from his college apartment this weekend with a fever. We're not sure yet, but he might have caught his dad's flu...which is very dangerous for him with his immune disorder (same as I have) - last time he got the flu, he was incapacitated for over two months. So, the house is not yet quiet, the TV is still on nonstop, and I'm taking my son to the doctor this afternoon. That sounded selfish...actually, my husband and I are both worried to death for our son since classes start tomorrow.

(And it's taking me forever to finish this post because my son has Bob's Burgers on the TV, which we are both totally addicted to!)

So, not a lot of time for reading last week, but here's what we've been working on:

• I struggled most of the week with a new review book for Publishers Weekly, Moor by Gunther Geltinger, a novel translated from German. The narrative style was difficult, with a stream-of consciousness approach, no quotation marks, second-person ("you") point of view, and...a narrator that I'm pretty sure is the pond in the backyard. Yeah. But I was struggling through it, until the mother in the story started having weird sexual fantasies involving her 13-year old son. At that point, exhausted from my week, I gave up. I don't know yet, but I am hoping my editor will pass the review off to another reviewer - I just don't think the mother of two sons is the right reviewer for this one.
• At that point, with great relief and a need for fun escape, I started reading my 4th Big Book of the Summer, The Marvels by Brian Selznick. The highly esteemed author of Wonderstruck and The Invention of Hugo Cabret has done it again! This time, the first half of the book is told entirely in pictures and begins in 1766, and the second half of the book is a modern story starting in 1990 told through text. I'm well into the second half, and the two stories are gradually coming together. As expected, it is excellent!
• I am still listening to Unbecoming by Jenny Downham, a teen/YA novel, on audio. It is set in the UK and focuses on three generations of women in one family who all carry secrets. Teen Katie's life changes dramatically when Mary, her previously unknown grandmother, comes into their lives unexpectedly. Mary has dementia and requires a lot of care, and Katie's mother, Caroline, doesn't talk much about the past. It's excellent so far - totally engrossing (and another nice escape).
• My husband, Ken, is reading The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin, the third and final book in the trilogy that started with The Passage (followed by The Twelve). This was a Father's Day gift that we are both eager to read! He is once again impressed with Cronin's writing talent.
• Jamie, 22, is re-reading an old favorite series by Brandon Sanderson, the Mistborn trilogy. He finished Mistborn and The Well of Ascension, and is reading book 3, The Hero of Ages. These few weeks between summer session and the start of fall semester are his reading time!

No time for writing or blogging last week, so just a couple of posts:

 TV Tuesday: Stranger Things, the hot show of the summer!

Saturday Snapshot: South Dakota Wildlife - more pics from our recent trip to Black Hills

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

It's the last week of summer, so if you are participating in the Big Book Summer Reading Challenge, be sure to post your Big Book reviews on the challenge page! Enjoy the last of your Big Books!