It's Monday 1/7! What Are You Reading?

Hello, Monday! I am in the midst of attempting to set up the new laptop I got for Christmas but running into all kinds of problems - first it wouldn't accept my WiFi password, then it wouldn't accept my Apple ID password, then I got the Spinning Beachball of Death (anyone with a Mac knows what I mean!). So, I finally got it to accept my WiFi password, and....yay! I just reset my Apple ID password and got past that hurdle, too. And now it's transferring my data from the old MacBook Pro to the new one - whew! That was much harder than it should have been.

Which pretty much describes last week. Not quite the week I had planned, though I did manage to squeeze in a bit of my annual look back at the old year and begin planning for the new year. My younger son came home on New Year's Eve with a high fever and killer sore throat. Five days and three antibiotics later, and we saw the doctor on Friday, who said it looked like he had strep throat plus tonsillitis plus a very painful abscess on one tonsil, and maybe mono, too! Yikes. I'm happy to report that antibiotic #3 and a short blast of steroids did the trick (and we don't think he has mono), and he is feeling much, much better and packing to move back to his house at school today.

Luckily, my reading week was calming, soothing, and enjoyable! Here's what my family's been reading this week:

• I finished reading - and thoroughly enjoyed - Less by Andrew Sean Greer, which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2018. I found that surprising because it's humorous, and I typically think of Pulitzer Prize-winning novels as serious tomes. But it was wonderful, about a middle-aged gay writer who sets off on a round-the world trip for his 50th birthday 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 has more emotional depth to it than you'd first think and is thoughtful, but it is also laugh-out-loud funny in every chapter.
• Now, I am reading a review book (due out in February), Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts. It's based on the true story of how Maud, the wife of the late L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, got involved as a consultant (she basically forced her way in!) on the famous movie version of the book in 1939. There are all kinds of entertaining details about the actors and the production, and especially about 15-year old Judy Garland in the lead role, but the novel also goes back to Maud's own childhood in New York State (where I grew up) and recounts her experiences with a strong, suffragette mother (she called Susan B. Anthony "Auntie Susan"), how she met Frank, and her own experiences as a mother. I am loving this book!
• I am still 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 is 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 about the town's history while following the clues. It's a wonderful mix of mystery and history, and I'm enjoying it.
• My husband, Ken, finished Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen, which I had just finished reading and reviewing. He enjoyed it but didn't love it as much as I did (it is pretty much my ideal novel, and I love time travel plots, so that makes sense).
• Ken needed a quick book to read before he heads off on an extensive trip to Europe, so he is reading one of his Christmas gifts from our son, Past Tense by Lee Child, the latest Jack Reacher novel. This is his favorite series and his favorite author, so he is enjoying it very much!
• I believe our son, Jamie, 24, is now reading 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 has been looking forward to the conclusion.

Blog posts last week:

Movie Monday: Bohemian Rhapsody - SO GREAT!! I laughed, I cried, I sang! Excited it won Best Drama and Best Lead Actor in the Golden Globes last night - well deserved.

Teen/YA Review: Release by Patrick Ness - warm, funny YA novel

Memoir Review: The Light Years by Chris Rush - stunning, powerful, funny memoir os a childhood like no other

Saturday Snapshot: Winter Shapes and Patterns - photos from my neighborhood

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?