It's Monday 12/3! What Are You Reading?

After 2 months of being stuck at home due to a relapse in my chronic illnesses, I am finally starting to see small signs of improvement - hurray! I was able to sit up more last week, tackle some overdue freelance writing assignments, and manage some laundry and cooking. I still have a ways to go to get back to my normal baseline, but I was able to go to the tree farm with my family yesterday to cut down our Christmas tree. We love our holiday traditions!

All this time on the couch adds up to more reading time, and I realized last night that I finished 11 books in November - absolutely unheard of for me! So, that's the silver lining. Apologies to my blogging friends, as I did not manage to visit any blogs at all last week. Between shopping on Cyber Monday, tackling those overdue writing assignments, and trying to catch up on book reviews, I pretty much used up all of my limited energy.

Here's what we've all been reading this past week, finishing up Nonfiction November:

• I am still reading The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett, Holly Corbett, and Amanda Pressner. The subtitle is pretty self-explanatory - it's a memoir with chapters written by the three authors about the year they spent traveling around the world. The travel is fascinating, but I am also intrigued because they all worked in magazines/freelance writing (which is what I do, though on a much smaller scale). I didn't finish this one in time to count for Nonfiction November, but it is over 500 pages and I am really enjoying it. I am up to the last leg of their trip, to New Zealand and Australia. It's been an incredible journey, both personal and global.
• On audio, I finished listening to Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons From a Year Among the Oldest Old by John Leland. The author, a reporter, spent a year interviewing seven elderly people (ages 85 to over 100) and wrote about their lives and what he learned. It's fascinating, especially since my father-in-law is 93, and as someone living with chronic illness, I can personally relate to some of the struggles of the elderly, as well as their life lessons. I absolutely loved this book and reviewed it right away (see link).
• Next, I squeezed in one last quick nonfiction audiobook for the month: Look Alive Out There: Essays by Sloane Crosley. I've been hearing about this author's amazing essay collections (she also wrote How Did You get This Number and I Was Told There'd Be Cake) for years, so I am thrilled I finally got to read/listen to one of them. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Her essay topics range from the trivial (her noisy neighbors, going to the wrong shiva) to the intensely personal and profound (fertility, developing a chronic illness). She tackled every subject with warmth and wit, often making me laugh out loud but also touching me.
• My husband, Ken, finished a book I gave to him for his birthday, The Silent Girls by Eric Rickstad, a thriller by an author he hadn't tried yet (who was at Booktopia 2018). He enjoyed it.
• Now, Ken has belatedly turned his attention to nonfiction, too, reading Dead Wake by Erik Larson, the king of entertaining narrative nonfiction. He says this story of the sinking of the Lusitania is interesting so far, and he keeps reading facts out loud to me, saying, "Did you know this...?"
• Jamie, our 24-year old son, is back to his favorite Wheel of Time series and is now reading the final book #13, Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.

Blog posts last week:

Nonfiction Review: Happiness Is a Choice You Make by John Leland - interviews with 6 elderly people on life lessons

Memoir Review: Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka - graphic memoir of growing up in the shadow of addiction, for teens through adults.

Memoir Review: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah - powerful, thought-provoking & hilarious memoir of growing up in South Africa

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?