It's Monday 9/16! What Are You Reading?

Ahhh...no complaints this week because we just got back from a lovely week-long camping vacation, a much-needed, peaceful, rejuvenating break for my husband and I! We spent a few days in New York's Hudson River Valley, an area we've never visited before, even though it is only 3-4 hours from our home in Delaware. We had no idea the Hudson River was so picturesque and undeveloped (north of NYC), and we thoroughly enjoyed hiking, kayaking, camping, and visiting the beautiful waterfront towns (with lots of indie bookstores). We spent our last few days in the Catskills at North-South Lake, which we visited 24 years ago when our oldest son was a baby - I remembered nothing from that first visit! It was stunningly beautiful there and so peaceful and tranquil - not even any cell service until you got about 15 miles down the mountain! All in all, it was a wonderful and relaxing vacation - our first full week off this year - and just what we needed. Look for photos in my Saturday Snapshot post next weekend.

Of course, part of the fun of camping is LOTS of extra reading time, especially around the campfire in the evening. Here's what we have all been reading this past two weeks since my last Monday post:

I read - and loved - Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel, the third book in The Themis Files trilogy, a unique sci fi thriller about alien interaction with humans on Earth. It begins with book 1, Sleeping Giants, when a young girl named Rose Franklin is riding her bike, falls in a huge hole, and discovers a giant robot hand buried there. Rose grows up to be a scientist on the team investigating the hand. To say any more would spoil this original story with lots of unexpected twists and turns! I also enjoyed book 2, Waking Gods, where things on Earth went from bad to worse in relation to Rose's discovery and the events following it. This final book provided a satisfying ending, with a first contact situation and the perfect way to stop humans from destroying each other (if only). My husband and I both loved this entire trilogy - highly recommended.

Next, I had to set aside my RIP XIV Challenge seasonal reading (which I am thoroughly enjoying) to read a book for one of my book groups this week: Crimes Against a Book Club by Kathy Cooperman. This is a very unusual choice for our book group, which usually discusses meaty novels or nonfiction on important topics, so to be honest, I didn't expect to like it. I am a good book group member, though, so I read it. I was surprised to find that I enjoyed it! It's about two women who are best friends from college now in their 40's. Both need a lot of money (for fertility treatments and for autism treatments for a child), and they come up with a scheme to scam the women in their new book group, all of whom live in the La Jolla area of San Diego, one of the wealthiest enclaves in the country. They mix up their own skin cream (one of the friends is a chemist), include a secret ingredient, and sell it to the other women (with a big story to make it seem exclusive and unique) for $2000 a jar! I expected it to be light and fluffy and, while there were plenty of laughs, there was also a surprising amount of depth to the characters - the snobby wealthy women as well as the two friends. It was a fun read.

Then, I jumped back into my dark fall reading in a big way, with The Outsider by Stephen King. You would think I had enough of these hefty books with my Big Book Summer Challenge, but I have heard great things about this novel from everyone, including my husband. I haven't read a King novel in a while, but I am enjoying this one so far. The basic premise is that a beloved town coach and father of two is arrested for a horrific crime against a young boy, and the police have loads of forensic evidence proving this man did it. But did he? I am a little more than 100 pages in, and, like all King novels, I am hooked. This one includes a puzzling mystery, so it is even more gripping and keeping me reading far too late at night! This was a creepy one to read in a quiet, dark campground at night.

On audio, I have been listening to The One Safe Place by Tania Unsworth, a spooky middle-grade audio book that I downloaded from SYNC this summer. In a near-future drought-stricken world, a boy named Devin makes his way to a nearby city he's never visited. Devin's grandfather has just died, and Devin knows he can't take care of their farm by himself. In the city, he finds loads of other children on their own, scrambling to get by and half-starved. When he and his new friend, Kit, are offered a place at the Gabriel H. Penn Home for Childhood, they are thrilled to find the remote rural compound filled with beautiful private rooms, plentiful food, and every toy a child could ever want. Something seems off about the place, though, and soon Devin discovers a horrifying secret. He must work with his new friends to find them all a way out of this nightmare. It's been good so far - original and compelling.

On our trip (which wasn't very far from home), my husband and I listened to a new short story on audio, Cleaning the Gold: A Jack Reacher and Will Trent Short Story by Lee Child and Karin Slaughter. Since Lee Child is my husband's favorite author, I thought he'd enjoy this one, and we both did. It's a fun set-up: both Jack Reacher (Child's famous character) and Will Trent (Slaughter's recurring character) are undercover at Fort Knox, taking on temporary jobs cleaning the gold bars, which must be done every ten years. Working together, they each soon figure out that the other one is also undercover, though not all the reasons why. When they discover the situation is more complicated and dangerous than either of them expected, they have to team up in order to each meet his own goals. It was a fun story...and fascinating to hear about the inner workings of Fort Knox!

My husband, Ken, finished reading Creole Belle by James Lee Burke, a prolific and well-loved novelist that neither of us has ever read before. I bought this one for him for Father's Day at Northshire Bookstore during Booktopia because I was looking for a new thriller series he might enjoy. The series features Detective Dave Robicheaux on the Gulf Coast and from what I read, it sort of combines elements of westerns and thrillers. There are more than 20 books in this series, but I chose this one because it was recommended by the booksellers and it is set in New Orleans, where we used to live. We always enjoy reading books set in our favorite city, and my husband also lived in the Houston area for almost ten years, so he liked the Gulf Coast setting. He enjoyed this novel and said he would read more from Burke.

Now, Ken is reading another gift from me, The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon, a book I had heard great things about since its release in 2014. It's a super-creepy ghost story set in Vermont, with dual timelines. In 1908, a woman was found dead in the field behind her house, just months after her daughter's death. Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in that same farmhouse with her mother and sister. When Ruthie's mother disappears, Ruthie finds an old journal of Sara's hidden in her mother's bedroom. Ruthie begins reading it and also gets sucked into the historical mystery. Can she find her mother in time to stop history from repeating itself? Ken says it is gripping and intriguing so far, and he's not sure whether this mystery is actually supernatural or not. Sounds good to me and perfect for fall!

Our 25-year-old son, Jamie, has also been reading a gift book, a fantasy novel I picked out for him at at Northshire Bookstore during Booktopia because it sounded like exactly the kind of story he loves: The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt, Jr., book one of the Saga of Recluce series. He says he had some doubts since there is some technology in this world and guns have been invented (he prefers pre-tech fantasy), but it turned out OK because guns are almost obsolete in this story due to the growth of magic. All in all, I think I hit it right - he's really enjoying it so far!



Blog posts from the past two weeks:

Movie Monday: The Art of Racing in the Rain - a great adaptation of a wonderful novel

Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) XIV Challenge - Fall 2019 - I love reading for the season!
 
Fiction Review: The Desert Sky Before Us by Anne Valente - road trip novel about sisters

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

Fiction Review: The Likeness by Tana French - a fabulous start to my RIP Challenge!

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?