It's Monday 9/10! What Are You Reading?

Yup, I'm still here. I was supposed to be on vacation all week - relaxing, camping, and gloriously unplugged! But with this tropical storm sitting on top of the entire Northeast for 3 days, we had to (again) cancel the first half of our trip. Luckily, it looks like Hurricane Florence will stay far enough to the south of where we are going (NY/MA border area) that the end of the week forecast still looks beautiful up there, and we tacked an extra day onto the end, so we are hoping to still manage a 4-day trip later this week. Pretty depressing, though, when we are supposed to be on vacation enjoying the outdoors and are instead still home watching the rain out the window. We have had some really bad vacation mojo this year!

As always, our books are a bright spot in our lives! Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

• I finished my first dark and creepy book of the season for the R.I.P. Challenge: Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian. I am a big fan of Bohjalian's novels, and this one has been on my shelf since Christmas, so I am glad to get it. It's a suspenseful story of a woman who sleepwalks and just disappears one night. Her husband and daughters (and the police) fear the worst when she doesn't turn up right away. It's slow burn suspense with Bohjalian's typical twisty plotting and in-depth characterization (and a lot of fascinating information about sleepwalking).
• Now, I have briefly stepped away from the creepy reading for my next review book, The Rain Watcher by Tatiana De Rosnay, author of Sarah's Key (the title and concept are quite an ironic choice right now, given our own current weather!). It's about a family that comes together in Paris for a birthday/anniversary celebration in the midst of a natural disaster, with heavy rain causing historic flooding of the Seine. It's engrossing so far, with rich characters and lots of flashbacks to the son's childhood.
• I am still listening to Dark Saturday by Nicci French, another good choice for the R.I.P. Challenge. When I chose this one for review, I didn't realize it was part of a series (the Frieda Klein series), but there were some hints at the beginning to catch me up. The titular psychologist is asked to look into an old murder case, where a girl (now a woman) was convicted of killing her parents and has been in a mental institute ever since. It's good so far - dark and gripping - though I do think I am missing some bits of the ongoing story and character details by coming into the series in the middle.
• My husband, Ken, finished Waking Gods, book 2 of The Themis Files by Sylvain Neuvel. He and I both loved book 1, Sleeping Giants, and I gave him this one for Father's Day (I'm next!). It's a suspenseful and thought-provoking trilogy about a giant hand found buried that is definitely not human-made. He really enjoyed book 2, and I can't wait to get back to this fabulous series!
• Now, Ken is reading another book I gave him for Father's Day, The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen, which the cover says is the "First Department Q Novel." Ken says it's about the dark underbelly of Denmark.
• Our son, Jamie, 23, is reading book 12 of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, The Gathering Storm, which is the first one that was co-authored by Brandon Sanderson.

Last week's blog posts:

TV Tuesday: Fall TV Preview - a rundown of the shows we are looking forward to

Teen/YA Review: City of Savages by Lee Kelly - compelling post-apocalyptic story

2018 Big Book Summer Challenge Wrap-Up - another amazing summer of Big Books, for myself and 25 other participants

Summary of Books Read in August - a good reading month for me

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.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?