It's Monday 12/31! What Are You Reading?

Happy New Year's Eve!

I skipped my Monday post last week because Christmas Eve was super busy here - lots of wrapping, cooking, and other preparation for the big day, plus I wasn't feeling well. Both of our sons had to work Christmas Eve night (busiest we have EVER seen the restaurant), so my husband and I spent a very relaxing evening watching It's a Wonderful Life - and yes, I sobbed my eyes out at the end, even though I can recite every word! I'm happy to report that I felt better on Christmas Day than I had in months and have been doing pretty well since then. I think I finally found the right balance with my Lyme treatment and got my immune disorder back to my normal baseline. I have started walking again and even got my weights back out this morning!

So, we had a lovely holiday. My mom and her husband drove down from CT for Christmas Day, and my father-in-law was here all day, too. And the week between Christmas and New Year's is my favorite time of year - nice and quiet, with time to begin catching up and getting reading for the new year. I also managed two evenings out this weekend - another big milestone for me - so we got to see friends and FINALLY see Bohemian Rhapsody before it left theaters for good (even more amazing than I expected!). All in all, a busy but good couple of weeks.

So, here's what we've all been reading during this hectic time of year:

• I finished a review book, Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen. When I read the synopsis of this twisty time travel story wrapped up in family drama, I begged my editor to send it to me! It's like this novel was written for me, with all of my favorite fiction elements, about a man in the future who is part of a time-traveling law enforcement team. He is on a mission to 1996 when he gets left behind and stuck there. Eventually, he lets go of his old life in 2142, finds a job in IT, marries a woman, and they have a daughter together. Eighteen years pass, and the retrieval team finally comes back for him. He goes back to his own present (where he's only been gone two weeks), but he barely remembers his fiance and his old life. When he finds out that his daughter is in peril in the past, he has to figure out how to save her. I LOVED this one and can't wait to share my Shelf Awareness review with you - the book is due out in late January.
• Next, I picked up one of last year's Christmas presents, in my typical end-of-year rush! I read American War by Omar El Akkad, which was on many Best of 2017 lists and nominated for a bunch of awards. All the accolades were right on - this novel about the US's second Civil War, from 2074 to 2095, was moving, powerful, and thought-provoking. The author looks at the effects of war through the eyes of one family and particularly, one girl/woman in that family. It was a bit bleak as a Christmas read, but so, so good that I've already reviewed it because I couldn't wait to tell you about it (review at the link).
• Now, I am reading a book my husband gave me for my birthday this summer (trying to knock out those TBRs before the end of the year!). Less by Andrew Sean Greer won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2018, which I found surprising because it's humorous, and I typically think of Pulitzer Prize-winning novels as serious tomes. But it's excellent so far, about a middle-aged gay writer who sets off on a round-the world trip to avoid attending the wedding of his ex-lover. It's one of those "everything that could go wrong does" stories, though the things that go wrong are often bizarre, unexpected things. It's a lot of fun so far.
• I finished listening to Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich on audio. I loved her novel LaRose (which I also listened to on audio), and this one also deals with the Ojibwe tribe, but with a completely different story. It's about a pregnant woman named Cedar who was born Ojibwe but adopted and raised by a kind white couple, but it's all set against an apocalyptic background where time seems to be moving in reverse, causing all kinds of problems in animals, plants, and humans. It is suddenly rare to have a normal pregnancy or birth, so when Cedar's doctor sees that her ultrasound looks normal, he advises her to hide. I was listening to this one at the same time that I was reading American War, so it was a bleak holiday season for me! ha ha It was very good, and I loved the characters - but definitely dark and without much hope at the end (American War ended on a note of hope after the war ended).
• Now, I am listening to a middle-grade audio book, The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson. I was hoping to squeeze in a short audio by the end of the year, but this is actually a fairly long middle-grade novel...so it will be my first audio of 2019! It's the story of a young girl named Candice in South Carolina whose recently deceased Grandma left behind a puzzle for her to solve that could lead to a fortune. Candice befriends the boy across the street who loves to read as much as she does, and the two of them learn abut the town's history while following the clues. It's very good so far, and I'm enjoying it.
• My husband, Ken, finished Dead Wake by Erik Larson, the king of entertaining narrative nonfiction. He says this story of the sinking of the Lusitania was interesting, and he enjoyed the book.
• Now, Ken is read Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen, since I had just finished it. He is enjoying it but not loving it as much as I did (as I said, it is pretty much my ideal novel, and I love time travel plots, so that makes sense).
• Our son, Jamie, 24, is reading Age of Myth, book one of The Legends of the First Empire by Michael J. Sullivan, the start of a new series, after enjoying Sullivan's first Riyria Chronicles book, The Crown Tower (we got him book 2 for Christmas!). He is almost finished now and loving it.
• Next, Jamie plans to read the FINAL book 14 of The Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. I was wrong when I said he finished the series with book 13 - there is one more, weighing in at a hefty 1168 pages! He loves this series and is looking forward to the conclusion.

Blog posts - two weeks' worth:

Teen/YA Review: How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather - witches and a ghost in Salem with modern teens

Nonfiction Review: The Lyme Solution by Darin Ingels, ND - good overview on how to treat Lyme and other tick infections - helpful for us

Summary of Books Read in November - my biggest reading month ever!

Books for Christmas! - photos and lists of the books we gave and received this Christmas

Memoir Review: The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, and Amanda Pressner - around-the-world travel memoir

Fiction Review: American War by Omar El Akkad - post-apocalyptic/dystopian look at US 2nd Civil War through the eyes of one girl

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? 
 

Happy New Year! (with my sons in 2005)