It's Monday 7/22! What Are You Reading?

I finally wrote down my goals for last week on Friday - ha ha! That gives you an idea of how busy things have been, but I did manage to finished editing my book last week and sent it off to my editor - a big milestone! It was 100 degrees here, with a heat index of 115, this weekend, so we hibernated in the air-conditioned house. I am yearning for some outdoor time and missing my walks. I'm really looking forward to a short camping trip next week with good friends, something that we planned many months ago before life got so crazy. We are heading north and a bit up into the mountains, so fingers crossed that it will be cool enough to camp there by then! And we capped off this week with a nice family dinner here Sunday evening, with both sons and my father-in-law, as an early birthday celebration for me (it's Tuesday).

Mostly, we enjoyed reading in the cool house this weekend! We continue to enjoy the Big Book Summer Challenge. Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

I finished my 3rd print Big Book of the Summer (my audios have also been Big Books), Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge. It's a middle-grade fantasy novel that has been on my shelf for a loooong time - since its release in 2008! It's set in a world where books are banned and few people know how to read, but orphan Mosca was secretly taught to read by her father. She runs away from her cruel uncle and pairs up with a con-man named Eponymous Clent. Mosca is very smart but also very naive, having grown up in a small, remote village, and knows little of the complicated politics of their country. It took me a while to get into this one, mainly because I'm not a huge fan of fantasies set in made-up worlds and it's a unique and complex set-up, but I ended up enjoying it once I got used to its eccentricities. Mosca is a great character, and this story is clever, action-packed, and funny. I'm glad I finally read it!

Just in time, the newly-released If You Want to Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais was delivered to my house on Saturday! Bianca is a two-time Booktopia author, and I absolutely loved her first novel, Hum If You Don't Know the Words, a contender for my favorite book of the year. So, I pre-ordered this latest novel and have been anxiously waiting for it. I am already about 125 pages in and loving it so far. As with her first novel, it is set in South Africa, though just after apartheid in this case, in 1994, when Nelson Mandela has just been elected and AIDS is beginning to tear across the country. Three very different women narrate this novel. Seventeen-year-old Zodwa lives in a squatter camp just outside of Johannesburg with her mother and is pregnant. Ruth, a wealthy white middle-aged woman has a breakdown and her husband leaves her. In Zaire, disgraced former nun Delilah gets some horrible news that leads her to leave the orphanage where she works and the children who need her to race back to South Africa. These three stories come together, and for fans of Hum, Beauty and Robin even make cameos here. It is wonderful so far, so much so that I want to slow down and savor it. Oh, and it's also a Big Book!

On audio, I am listening to another Big Book: The Book of M by Peng Shepherd, a novel that was released about a year ago that I have wanted to read ever since I heard about it. It's a post-apocalyptic tale about a mysterious condition that quickly spreads across the world. It causes people to lose their shadows, which oddly also causes them to gradually lose their memories. The author uses multiple narrators, all living in this strange post-apocalyptic world (with some flashbacks to how it all happened) and trying to escape its effects. This novel made it onto a bunch of Best of 2018 lists and has been compared to The Passage and Station Eleven, two books I loved. It's been an original and gripping story so far, and I can't wait to see what happens next (though I am annoyed that the author has people in a basement in New Orleans - there are no basements in New Orleans!).

My husband, Ken, is still working on his third Big Book of the summer, The Crow Girl by Erik Axl Sund, which I picked out for him at Northshire Books (recommended by the booksellers there) at Booktopia this year. It's a Swedish thriller about a serial killer. On the cover, it says, "the most disturbing book you'll read this year," and he says that so far that is absolutely true! He says it makes it sound as if most of Sweden's citizens are child abusers; I didn't realize this one dealt with kids or I might have chosen something different, but he is sticking with it and says it's suspenseful and intriguing. He was puzzled when the mystery seemed to be solved less than halfway through, but now there's been a new twist. At 866 pages, it might take him a little longer than his last Big Book.

Our son, Jamie, 24, is still reading a new-to-him series, An Assassin's Blade trilogy by Justin DePaoli, described as a dark epic fantasy. He says the books are shorter than what he usually reads and not as well-written as his favorites, but he's enjoying it. I've noticed him playing a lot of video games this past week, so reading may be taking a backseat!







Last week's blog posts:

Movie Monday: Widows - a gritty action-packed thriller about women taking charge

My Summary of Books Read in June - low quantity but high quality!

Fiction Review: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger - my second time reading this unique love story, and it is still one of my favorite books of all time!

Weekly Inspiration: Listen to Podcasts - this post is from my chronic illness blog, but I thought blog readers here would enjoy it, too - a round-up of some of my favorite podcasts, including book podcasts...and I would love to hear about yours, too!

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?

There's still time 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!