It's Monday 6/8! What Are You Reading?

It feels like the days (and week and months) are just flying by! Last week, our newly-graduated son was fully moved back in at home, and it is nice to have all four of us together again (for a short while). He's a very upbeat, happy person, so it's good to see his smiling face around the house.

Our weekend was a bit quieter with lots of work around the house (too much--I think we need more downtime), and a nice campfire in our driveway Saturday evening with good friends we hadn't seen since February! We've been friends for almost 30 years, and they share our love of outdoors, camping, and travel. It was fun to hang out and catch up with them, though we are all missing our travels. That portable firepit was a great buy this spring--highly recommended as a safe way to see friends!!

Of course, we always make room in our lives for reading, thank goodness. Here's what we have all been reading this past week:

I finished my first book for Big Book Summer, Faithful Place by Tana French, book 3 in her Dublin Murder Squad series. I just read--and loved--book 2, The Likeness, back in the fall, and my husband and I took advantage of a recent free week of Starz (it's also on BBC) to watch the new TV adaptation, Dublin Murders, which is based on the first two books and is excellent. So, I was geared up for this one and eager to read more! It was AMAZING and completely engrossing! This time, the story focuses on Undercover Detective Frank Mackey, with a cold case dating back to his childhood in the run-down neighborhood called Faithful Place where he grew up. As always, French has created immersive and realistic characters, setting, and plot that pulled me right in. The novel digs deep into Mackey's very dysfunctional family, with lots of unexpected twists and turns in the plot. It also puts a spotlight on his adorable daughter and his very loving relationship with her--a very different perspective on the abrasive detective than we've seen before. I loved every minute of this novel and was sorry when it ended.

But I recovered quickly and reached for another Big Book! Now I am reading my first-ever Liane Moriarty novel, Truly Madly Guilty, and it is so good. It's about two lifelong best friends, Erika and Clementine, who have a complicated relationship. It becomes even more complicated after a backyard barbecue at the home of neighbors of Erika and her husband. The neighbors, Vid and Tiffany, are larger-than-life, wealthy, and a lot of fun, but something happened that day that changed the lives of all six people. Clementine and her husband, Sam, are barely speaking to each other, and everyone is upset but not talking about it. What on earth happened at that barbecue?? The foreshadowing and suspense are so intense that I hate to put the book down! When I read a big reveal last night, I was so stunned that I stopped reading to page back through the earlier parts of the novel for clues (there were none). Now, I finally understand why everyone loves this author!

I'm still enjoying my first audiobook choice for #BigBookSummer, a novel I've been dying to read since its release in January: A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen. I absolutely loved his time-travel novel, Here and Now and Then, last year, with its sci fi plot and in-depth characters.  His second novel is similar, only the "sci fi" plot this time deals with a global pandemic. Yeah. It's not feeling quite so futuristic now! The novel begins six years after the pandemic, which was far deadlier than COVID-19, leaving the remaining population in quarantine communities and the infrastructure in tatters. But now, six years later, life is returning to a new normal. The main characters all live in the Metro area that used to be San Francisco: an IT guy working for a news organization who has a young daughter, a wedding/event planner who also works on the side as a "reunion agent," and a woman who was the world's hottest teen pop star when the pandemic hit who just wants to live a quiet life and stay far away from her controlling father/manager. I'm loving it so far and getting to know the characters as they each strive to build a new life, as the threat of a new outbreak emerges. I just keep thinking about the author writing such a prescient novel! Interestingly, he got some things 100% right (masks, hand sanitizer, not wanting to shake hands) and other things in his world are different than what we've seen.

My husband, Ken (who officially signed up for the Big Book Summer Challenge once I got him on Goodreads), chose his Big Book from our bookcase of novels we inherited from my dad (you can see it in this video - the first of my Mini Bookcase Tours). Most of it is filled with his collection of Stephen King and Dean Koontz hardcovers, so Ken chose a Stephen King book he hadn't read yet, Hearts of Atlantis. This book is an unusual one: a collection of two novellas and three short stories, connected to each other by recurring characters and taking place in chronological order. That format was a bit confusing to my husband at first, since he was expecting a novel, but he is enjoying it very much Anything Stephen King writes is engrossing. Besides, the first part of the book features a young boy, and King writes kids so well; he just perfectly captures what childhood feels like. Ken's almost finished now.

Our son, 25, has been plowing through one book after another in Brock E. Deskins' series, The Sorcerer's Path. He read books one, two, and three last week--The Sorcerer's Ascension, The Sorcerer's Torment, and The Sorcerer's Legacy. He's now reading book 4, The Sorcerer's Vengeance. The series is about a young boy from a wealthy family who's left on his own and must survive in the streets, among thieves, thugs, and murderers. He not only wants to survive but to avenge the wrongs done to him and his family. This series also revolves around some sort of mysterious magical power. He's enjoying the series (obviously!) and says he and his college roommate discovered this author years ago, and he's enjoyed reading his books ever since. My son hopes to one day write his own fantasy series!




Last week's blog posts:

TV Tuesday: Snowpiercer - we're enjoying this new post-apocalyptic mystery on a train!


Teen/YA Review: Out of Reach by Carrie Arcos - moving story of addiction's effects on a family


Fiction Review: Lakewood by Megan Giddings - dark, disturbing novel exploring race & class

 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?