It's Monday 3/30! What Are You Reading?

How is everyone doing with this new world we are living in from our homes? We are just fine here. My own life isn't all that much different because with my chronic illness, I have often endured long periods of time when I can't leave the house. The big difference is that my husband and son are here all the time, but so far, we aren't driving each other too crazy! And it's actually a nice break to have no medical appointments to rush to for myself, my son, and my father-in-law. I've been venturing out to the grocery store (carefully!) about once a week or so to grab some essentials, walking in the neighborhood with my husband most days, and even got to see a friend last week when she joined us for our walk (from 6 feet away).

In other news, my book, Finding a New Normal: Living Your Best Life with Chronic Illness, is finally available in paperback! All of my struggles with formatting, cover design, and Amazon's exacting specifications paid off, and the print version was finally out last week (the e-book has been available on a bunch of different platforms for the past month). Ironically, with all the delays, much of my book on chronic illness is now also applicable to pretty much everyone, since we are all dealing with restrictions, isolation, and struggling to stay connected. A big thanks to fellow book blogger Bonnie who included my book on her post about positives during the crisis. Check out her wonderful blog!

During this time of crisis, as always, our books bring us comfort and joy. Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

I finished reading a nonfiction book for my neighborhood book group, Women Rowing North: Navigating Life's Currents and Flourishing as We Age by Mary Pipher, even though we won't be able to meet tomorrow (it was to be a dinner out to celebrate our 175th book!). Pipher is best-known for her ground-breaking book on adolescent girls, Raising Ophelia. As the subtitle of this book explains, it is all about women and aging. It covers grief and loss, staying connected and nurturing community, finding small joys in a life that may be more restricted than before, and more. My first impression was that it is very much like the book I just wrote and published! Just substitute "aging" for "living with chronic illness." So, of course, I agree with much of what she writes about, since I wrote a lot of the same stuff. That, plus my urge to read fiction now, made me a bit impatient with the book, if I'm being honest, though I did mark a lot of passages to add to my Quote Journal, so clearly, I found plenty of value in it, too. I waffled over whether to finish it this week, but I am glad that I did.

Now, I am indulging my need for something light and fun. I chose what is probably the lightest book on my entire TBR bookcase, For Once In My Life by Colleen Coleman, a British romcom. I was very surprised when my husband gave it to me for my birthday last year, since it is so different from what I normally read, but this seems like the perfect time for it. Lily is a young woman who was left at the altar when her soon-to-be-husband revealed he was in love with her best friend (while an entire church waited for them to exchange vows), and she loved him, too. Flash-forward three years later, and Lily is clearly still damaged from the experience, though she is happy working as a journalist for the local newspaper and living in her cozy little cottage. Upper management visits from the head office and threatens to shut down the paper unless there is a huge turn-around in ad sales and readership. Lily is now at the helm as Editor-in-Chief, working with a "transitional consultant" sent by management. I was pleased that the focus of the story is on Lily taking charge and diving into her new role (though clearly there is a new romance budding on the horizon), and I am enjoying it so far.

On audio, it has become very challenging to find time to listen to audiobooks with my husband and son home 24/7! I finally finished listening to a  Booktopia 2020 selection, The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata. This is an unusual novel that features a realistic story and a book-within-a-book that is science fiction. It begins with a Dominican immigrant, a young woman, who settles in New Orleans with her pirate husband in the early years of the 20th century. They have a son named Maxwell, and she writes a sci fi novel called Lost City, about alternative timelines. Before her death, she and her son burn the only copy of her sequel, A Model Earth, which she just finished. Then the action shifts to 2005. Saul, a Jewish immigrant, discovers Adana's second novel--supposedly destroyed--after his grandfather's death, in an envelope addressed to Maxwell. The book leads Saul and a friend to New Orleans to try to find Maxwell, just after Hurricane Katrina. I enjoyed listening to this convoluted story, filled with history and multi-generational family sagas, with a unique and lyrical writing style, and I loved the New Orleans setting.

Next, for obvious reasons, I chose a much shorter, middle-grade novel on audio, Notorious by Gordon Korman. I enjoyed Korman's Masterminds series, and this one is completely different but also enjoyable so far. Keenan normally lives an exciting, international life moving from one country to another with his mother, who teaches in international schools. But he caught TB (seriously!) and was sent to his father's home on Centerlight Island to recuperate. Centerlight is located right on the US/Canadian border so the island is split (and not in a straight line) in every way. Keenan knows no one there and finds the slow pace very different from his normal life, but he makes a new friend, a girl named Zarabeth (ZeeBee, for short), whose dad works for the Canadian Border Patrol. The island has a rich criminal history as a key part of a Prohibition smuggling route. ZeeBee asks Keenan to help her solve a mystery; she believes that her beloved dog, Barney, was murdered (and considers her new dog, Barney 2, a poor substitute). The two kids set out to solve the mystery of Barney's death, while also diving into the island's gangster past. Lots of fun so far!

My husband, Ken, is still reading a novel from an old favorite series of ours, Wild Kat by Karen Kijewski. Back in the 80's and 90's, my husband and I both loved this series about a female PI named Kat Colorado. In fact, these books (and also Sue Grafton's alphabet series) were our go-to's for backpacking trips. We'd slip a lightweight paperback in the pack and take turns reading aloud to each other at night in our tent...good memories!! So, when we spotted this one in a used bookstore last year, we were very excited to revisit Kat and her escapades. My husband is loving it so far and appreciating its quick pace and well-written but not overly complicated plot. It is just what he needed right now. If you enjoy mysteries and somehow missed the Kat Colorado series back then, we definitely recommend it!

Finally stuck at home and unable to work or drive back and forth to his girlfriend in New York, our son, 25, is settling back into his normal habit of reading like crazy! He finished The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams, book 1 in the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, one of the books he bought recently with a Christmas gift card. Sounds like this one features dark sorcery, an elf-like race, royals and servants, a deadly riddle, and plenty of swords--all right up his alley! He enjoyed it very much and pointed out that it is not only a long book with many pages but a BIG book with long pages! But it was the sort of epic fantasy he loves, and he is looking forward to reading more of the series.

In the meantime, though, he returned to an old favorite series, The Riyria Chronicles by Michael Sullivan. He previously read book 1, The Crown Tower, so last week he read book 2, The Rose and the Thorn, which was a Christmas gift from us last year. He was explaining to me that the books aren't necessarily in order because the first (and second, maybe?) are sort of prequels. In any case, he loves this author and this series, and he finished this one quickly! I'm sure the others are on his TBR list.

Now, he is reading Master, book 5 in the Sanctuary series by Robert J. Crane. We gave him book 1, Defender, for Christmas 2018, and he loved the series so much that he quickly read books 2, 3, and 4, also. So, this past Christmas, we gave him book 5. The series is epic fantasy about a world called Arkaria and features dragons, titans, goblins, and more. He loves the series, and is thoroughly enjoying this next book right now. Staying homebound is giving him some much-needed downtime to take care of his health and finally get to some of these tomes he's been wanting to read!



Last week's blog posts:

Movie Monday: Serenity - a twisty escapism film starring Matthew McConaughey

My Book: Out in Paperback!

TV Tuesday: Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist - uplifting, colorful, musical fun - just what you need right now!

Nonfiction Review: Black Is the Body by Emily Bernard - thoughtful, insightful collection of personal essays

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?