It's Monday 6/3! What Are You Reading?

It's June! How did that happen? Not officially summer yet, but it certainly feels like it here. It's been hot and humid already, though it is cool and lovely out this morning - what a nice change! And, of course, the Big Book Summer Challenge started last week, so it must be summer now!

We are all enjoying our Big Books - here's what we've all been reading this week:

No surprise that I am still reading my first Big Book of the Summer! I kicked things off with a doozy - a 959-page chunkster - Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. This is a readalong for the Book Cougars podcast for June, plus a classic (I am behind on my Classics Challenge), and from my own shelves, so it counts for several challenges. I've never read the novel and saw the movie many decades ago, and I am enjoying it so far...even though I can barely hold it up! I'm surprised (though I shouldn't be) by how good it is. I'm completely engrossed in the story, in both the personal dramas as well as the detailed perspectives of the Southerners during the Civil War and what that time period and culture was like. I'm a bit more than 200 pages in, so I have a ways to go.

On audio, I finished listening to a YA novel, The Knowing by Sharon Cameron, the sequel to The Forgetting, which I listened to on audio two years ago (review at the link). It's an original and engrossing science fiction dystopian novel about memory, but to say any more about the second book would give away spoilers about the first book. Suffice it to say, it was a suspenseful and compelling story that I enjoyed just as much as the first one.

And now, I am listening to a Big Book on audio, Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen, a novel I've wanted to read ever since it was released last year. It's two intersecting stories, about Harry, a man who works for the Forest Service whose wife dies suddenly and Amanda, a woman who lives in a nearby rural area whose husband just died unexpectedly. Harry goes to the woods and ends up meeting Amanda and her daughter. That's about as far as I've gotten so far, but I am loving it and it seems like it is about healing. It's intriguing, compelling, and maybe even a bit magical - and set in the forest, so what's not to like?


My husband, Ken, finished his first Big Book Summer book, Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly, a novel where the author combines two of his popular characters, Harry Bosch and Renee Ballard, who was introduced in The Late Show, which Ken also enjoyed. In this new cross-over novel, the two team up on the unsolved murder of a runaway. Which reminds me, the new season of the TV adaptation of Connelly's novels, Bosch, just started April 19 - can't wait to see it! We both love the show (and the books, of course).

Now, Ken has moved onto another Big Book, The President Is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton, a recent political thriller that's gotten a lot of press. The fast-paced novel is set over the course of three days and deals with cyber-terrorism and espionage of such a magnitude that the whole nation is at risk. Even the President himself is a suspect, as the investigators try to root out a traitor in the cabinet. Word is that Clinton's inside knowledge of the workings of the White House and government make this political thriller extra-chilling and suspenseful.

Our son, Jamie, 24, is reading a novel that we put in his Easter basket, The Wolf, by Leo Carew, book 1 in the Under the Northern Sky series. I picked it out for him at an awesome indie bookstore at the beach in Delaware, Browseabout Books, because the epic fantasy sounded right up his alley. He's loving it. Jamie thinks my Big Book Summer Challenge is hilarious because everything he reads (including this one) counts as a Big Book!




Blog posts from last week:

Movie Monday: Fracture - psychological thriller starring Ryan Gosling and Anthony Hopkins

Fiction Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - warm, moving, engrossing and very funny novel

Fiction Review: The Guest Book by Sarah Blake - multi-generational family saga that also highlights political and social changes

Celebrate National Trails Day...with a Book! - 5 books about hiking and the outdoors

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?

Remember to sign up for the Big Book Summer Challenge! It's easy-going, like summer - you only have to read one book of 400 or more pages between now and September (though you can, of course, read more!) It's lots of fun and a great way to add extra enjoyment to your summer! All the details are at the link - you can sign up there if you have a blog or, if not, just leave a comment on that page or sign up at the Goodreads group linked from that page. Join the fun!