It's Monday 4/27! What Are You Reading?

May begins this week (!), though it often still feels like March here weather-wise, and it's something like Day 43 or so of living in the After. Life sometimes feels like a post-apocalyptic book these days, doesn't it? Though luckily, so far anyway, everyone seems to be much nicer and kinder than in most post-apocalyptic stories! At least I haven't seen anyone in our neighborhood carrying weapons or forming roving bands.

Is anyone else having a hard time focusing and getting any work done right now? It's weird because things aren't all that different for me from my normal life. I often spend a lot of time at home due to my chronic illnesses. It's actually kind of a relief to me to see every single item in April crossed off on my calendar - no medical appointments for me, my son, or my elderly father-in-law. Of course, I miss my book groups and other time with my friends, but even fun outings always carry some stress for me, resting ahead of time and worrying about whether I can manage it or not.

Wait, I was talking about not being able to focus and ended up babbling about my empty calendar--see what I mean? My husband is home with me 24/7, so that's very different (and certainly distracting), and the news is still somewhat distracting, though less so than a month ago. I'm just having trouble concentrating and am spending way too much time on social media (probably missing social interactions more than I realize!). I make a list each week of things I must do ... and then end up transferring most of them to next week's list at the end of the week!

On the plus side, I enjoyed another socially-distant hike with my two best friends last week at our local nature center - a bit cold out, but it was wonderful to see all the spring green and enjoy their company. We talked a LOT (which is challenging with three people each six feet away).

We also had a nice weekend --did some yard work, enjoyed a gorgeous day on Saturday, and had a Zoom dinner with our closest friends. It was so good to see their smiling faces!

Saturday was also Dewey's 24-hour Readathon! I had fun participating in that. Obviously, it was a busy day, but I spent a lot of time weeding and cooking while listening to my audiobook. And I did take some extra time to just lie on the couch and read, which is a rarity for me (to read when it's not bedtime).

Oh, and I recorded a Mini Bookcase Tour #3 last week! These are just short video clips with me showing you one of the many bookcases in our house and describing what we keep there. I'm having fun with these, and I hope you are, too! I can't get the videos to post properly to the blog, but you can see them all on my Facebook page.

Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

Last week, I turned back to Booktopia 2020 reading - the in-person annual event (supposed to start on Friday!) was of course cancelled, but Northshire Bookstore has a bunch of free virtual author events planned in its place (click on Events at the link to join the fun!), including several Booktopia authors coming up in May. So, this week, I finished reading Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris. It's a memoir about Greece by a writer from The New Yorker. It's about her lifelong fascination with all things Greek: language, culture, mythology, and Greece itself. I had mixed feelings about this book: sometimes I found it interesting and engaging and other times, I was a bit bored with it. Surprisingly, the beginning parts, about the Greek and English alphabets, were fascinating to me, and I enjoyed reading about her travels around Greece when she got into some detail. I'm not at all into mythology, though I know many people are, and all of the New Yorker name dropping and many literary references were lost on me. Some of that is also probably timing--I continue to crave escapist fiction during these strange times.

I also finished another graphic novel, squeezing it in between other reading: The Phantom Twin by Lisa Brown. I really enjoyed this unique YA graphic novel that tells the story of a pair of conjoined twins in a freak show in a turn-of-the-century circus. Jane and Isabel spent their entire lives sharing an arm and a leg and joined at the torso, until a surgeon in one town convinced them to have a separation surgery. He assured them it would be successful ... but, of course, it was not. Jane died (though her ghost hangs around), and the rest of the novel is about Isabel's challenges in adjusting to life by herself, after a lifetime of being part of a pair. She no longer fits into the freak show, though with her prosthetics, they come up with a new act as a "living doll." Most of the story is about Isabel's struggles with her own identity, with or without the circus. It's warm, moving, and thoughtful.

After I finished my nonfiction reading during the Saturday readathon, I delightedly selected a book from my overstuffed TBR bookcase (I'm enjoying that aspect of quarantine life). I chose Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett, a Christmas gift from my husband. This novel was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critic's Circle Award! It's a drama about a family of five that struggles with mental health issues, including severe depression. John, the husband, was hospitalized for depression while he and Margaret were still dating, and despite the lack of information at the time, Margaret loved him and decided to stay with him. They marry and have three children: Michael, Celia, and Alec. Michael also struggles with some of the same issues as his dad, which affects everyone in the family. Each family member gets their own voice, as chapters alternate between them. I've only just started the novel but am already fully immersed in its world and its characters.

On audio, I finally finished Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore, a newly released novel. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 1982, a young woman named Oona who is celebrating her nineteenth birthday is suddenly transported 32 years into the future, where she is a 51-year-old woman, living in a gorgeous house and greeted warmly by a man she's never seen before. From then on, each year at the same time, Oona jumps to another age and time in her life. This plot is right up my alley! As I've mentioned, I love time travel and alternate timeline plots in novels, so this was a perfect escape for me right now. It's pretty mind-bending as Oona jumps from one age/time into another, but that's exactly what I love about these kinds of plots. She approaches each year very differently and it takes her a while to get the hang of this bizarre life she's leading. I really enjoyed this novel, with all its unexpected twists and turns.

Now, I am listening to a teen/YA novel, Bent Heavens by Daniel Krauss, the author of Rotters, which I also enjoyed on audio. This sci fi thriller is about a teen girl named Liv who's infamous at school because her dad, who was the high school English teacher, claimed to have been abducted by aliens, had a serious breakdown while directing the school play, and then disappeared. That was two years ago, and Liv just wants to get through her senior year and get on with her life. Her childhood friend, Doug, believed all the crazy stuff her dad told them, and the two teens helped her dad set traps all over their yard before he disappeared. Liz just went along for her dad's sake, but the two of them have continued to check and maintain the traps these past two years. Now, though, Liz goes out back one day and finds an inhuman creature in one of the traps. Was her dad telling the truth? Could he possibly still be alive somewhere? This novel is great so far, fast-paced and original, though it's giving me some seriously weird dreams!

My husband, Ken, made a big switch after a bunch of fast-paced thrillers to The Pioneers by David McCoullough, a nonfiction history book. I received this one as an Advanced Reader Copy last year, and though I didn't review it, we hung onto it. It's about the part of American history that includes the settling of the Northwest Territory (i.e. Ohio), beginning in 1788, as a group of pioneers set out after the Revolutionary War seeking the freedom of religion, free education, and prohibition of slavery that existed further west from the original 13 colonies. McCoullough is an outstanding and award-winning writer, so I'm sure this is an amazing book, though I think I would have trouble reading about pioneers and westward expansion after reading An Indigenous People's History of the United States earlier this year! I may never be able to read American history in the same way again. My husband enjoyed it, though.

Now, Ken is back to the mystery/thriller genre he loves, and is reading one of the oldest books on our TBR shelves! He just started 13 Steps Down by Ruth Rendell, which we bought at a used bookstore about 15 years ago and neither of us has read yet. Yeah, we have a problem, I know. Rendell is the author of over 80 books, including many mysteries written as both Ruth Rendell and as her pseudonym, Barbara Vine. This one sounds like a classic British mystery, featuring an obsessed and strange lodger and his equally strange elderly landlady. We've heard great things about Rendell for many years; I'm glad he's finally tackling this one!

Our son, 25, is still reading The Sixth Strand by Melissa McPhail, book 5 in her A Pattern of Shadow and Light series. He loves this series and even gave his dad book 1 for Christmas last year, so he could share it with him. This is another giant book (900 pages) for him, so it's taking him a while to read it, but he is thoroughly enjoying it. He read 100 pages in the first day and is loving being immersed back in this complex fantasy world. There's nothing like diving back into a favorite fictional world.



Last week's blog posts:

Fiction Review: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut - a darkly comic modern classic featuring WWII, time travel, and an alien zoo

Middle-Grade Review: Snapdragon by Kat Leyh - graphic novel about friendship, family, healing, and acceptance

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?