It's Monday 3/9! What Are You Reading?

Busy, busy, busy last week! Medical appointments, errands, and even a massive stock-up shopping trip on the weekend (No, not because of the virus--we were just out of everything.) My book woes continue. I was finally able to jump all Amazon's hurdles and order a proof copy (which I had to pay for, including shipping). It looks great, almost perfect. I just need one more very minor adjustment to the cover; the spine is just 2 mm too narrow, so a bit of the front cover shows on the spine. The problem is that I sent a message to my cover designer Friday and haven't heard back yet. She was clearly getting fed up with the many rounds of changes the past few weeks, but I don't have the files or the software to fix this myself. Fingers crossed she will get back to me soon with this last revision! All this waiting is getting old.

We did manage to go out to dinner and to the movies (Call of the Wild) with close friends Saturday. Besides that, we get our comfort and escape from our books! Here's what we have all been reading this past week:

I finished my first book (prequel, actually) for Booktopia 2020! Regular readers know that each year, my mom and I attend Booktopia, a weekend-long event in Vermont in early May where readers and authors hang out together for two days. There are author sessions (that are more like book group discussions than typical author presentations), meals together, and even a rousing game of book trivia! You can read about Booktopia 2019 here--tickets are now available at the above link for this year's event. So, my first Booktopia 2020 book was Who Is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht. The author will be at Booktopia for her second novel, Vera Kelly Is Not a Mystery, so this is my Booktopia prequel reading. The novel is about a young woman in 1966 working as a CIA spy in Argentina, just before a military coup. Alternate chapters go back to her childhood, showing more about who she is and how she came to be in such a unique position. I enjoyed this engrossing and intriguing novel that is also thoughtful. It's less classic spy thriller and more in-depth examination of a fascinating character in a unique position. I'm looking forward to reading the second book.

I am now reading my next Booktopia selection (this will be a continuing theme for the next two months!), Black Is the Body: Stories from my Grandmother's Time, my Mother's Time, and Mine by Emily Bernard. This is a collection of essays by a college professor and author who has written several nonfiction books. She is a black woman, living in Vermont (i.e. a very white state!), married to a white man, and mother to two beautiful little Ethiopian girls they adopted. She also teaches courses in African American literature  and race relations to an almost-entirely white student body. As the title indicates, the essays are all about her experiences (and those of the generations before her) of race, covering everything from being a stabbing victim, to having white friends, to her girls' growing awareness and experiences with race (which are quite different from her own childhood in the South), and more. I am really enjoying the book so far. She is an excellent writer, a storyteller, and has a good sense of humor. She is examining difficult topics, that are often not talked about, in an accessible and entertaining way.

On audio, I am still listening to The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard, a novel about the women (and other young people) working at Oak Ridge in Tennessee during WWII. Oak Ridge was a hastily-built town to support top secret research (and production) of radioactive materials for the atomic bomb, part of the Manhattan Project. It's a fascinating inside look into a very secret place and time, from a variety of different perspectives, including June, a local farm girl, adjusting dials all day without knowing exactly what she is working on; Sam, a PhD physics professor from Berkeley brought in to work on the heart of the operation; and Joe, a black man who had to leave his family behind to work construction at the new facility in the deeply segregated South. I think I am getting close to the end (the U.S. just dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, so...), and it's been a very engaging story with interesting characters. It digs into the details of the characters and their relationships and experiences, as a way of examining the larger picture of the Manhattan Project and Oak Ridge's role in the war.

My husband, Ken, is still reading Shell Game by Sara Paretsky, book 19 in the popular V.I. Warshawski series, featuring a female detective (Kathleen Turner played her in a movie adaptation in 1991). We don't think either of us has read a novel in this series before, though who knows? This one was a super-early review copy I received back in 2018--have I mentioned how overflowing our TBR bookcase is? With all the stress lately, Ken wanted something fast-paced and escapism-focused, so he grabbed this one when he saw a blurb by Lee Child (his favorite author) on the front. This version isn't even bound like most ARCs; my husband says he feels like he's reading a movie script! He's enjoying it so far, and I think it is doing its job, providing some fun, mindless escape.

Our son, 25, is still reading 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! I can't remember, but I don't think he's read this author before. He has been enjoying it very much, but life has been hectic for him lately, so it is taking him longer than usual to finish it.




Blog posts last week:

TV Tuesday: All Rise - an entertaining new legal drama

Teen/YA Review: Solo by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess - I loved this unique and powerful coming-of-age novel about music

Fiction Review: Saturday by Ian McEwan - an unexpected day-in-the-life of a London surgeon

My Summary of Books Read in February - a great reading month!

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?