It's Monday 8/17! What Are You Reading?

Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. If you read about our past two weeks in a novel, you'd say, "Well, it's a good story with lots of twists, but it's not believable"! ha ha

As I reported in last week's Monday post (thanks to a generator powering our server), our power had been out for six of the past seven days, and our cell service was spotty, thanks to two big storms. Our power did finally come back on Tuesday around noon, but when I woke up Tuesday, my laptop wouldn't start up. I could hear it running, but the screen was black. Crazily, my husband's laptop also would not work and also seems to have a screen/display problem! I ran my laptop--which is only 18 months old--over to Apple (ahh - air-conditioning!), and they sent it out for a week to repair it. I just got it back last night. So, we finally had electricity again, but both laptops were out of commission! I did what I could last week with my 12-year-old MacBook (which, by the way, has never needed a single repair!), but its system and software are so old that it can barely run a browser anymore. It was like being back in the days of dial-up, only with modern websites that wouldn't run on it!

So, I am back in business today, though I have two weeks' worth of e-mails, notifications, and other catching up to do. Apologies again for delays in my visiting your blogs, responding to messages/comments, and visiting Big Book Summer reviews--I will catch up!

In other good news, with nothing working, our cell service poor, and the on/off button not working on my old-school cell phone, I finally gave in and got an iPhone last week, my first-ever smart phone. Yes, I have joined the modern world! I couldn't do much to set it up, since all my stuff (contacts, bookmarks, passwords, etc.) was on my laptop, but I will do that this week, too. My family and friends are VERY excited, especially my mom who can now send me bitmojis, GIFs, and all the emojis she wants!

The one thing we could do without power, cell service, or computers was ... read! Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

I am still reading my latest Big Book Summer Challenge book, David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, a Big Book and a classic that I have been wanting to read for ages. I love Dickens, read several of his books in school, and so many people have told me that this one is their favorite. I was immediately pulled into the story and am loving the title character, who--like many of Dickens' characters--is a good person who suffered some horrible mistreatment as a child. David's father died before he was born, but he has a warm, loving relationship with his mother and with the maid/nurse who helps care for them both. The trouble begins when his mother remarries (nice to see an evil stepfather, for a change). The novel follows David through the twists and turns of his life; I am currently at the part where he has finished school and is trying to decide what to do with his life. I am really enjoying the novel so far.

I am also listening to a Big Book on audio, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. I think probably everyone has heard about this one! This novel, released in January 2020, caused some controversy, since the author is a white woman, writing a novel about Mexican immigrants. The story is about a woman, Lydia, and her son who live in Acapulco. She runs a bookstore and has a happy life, until her husband publishes a tell-all article about the city's biggest drug cartel leader. After the cartel guns down their family, Lydia and her son are forced to flee for the United States, with their lives in grave danger. The novel follows them on their harrowing journey. I have no problem with Cummins writing this novel: it's an important story to tell, and, from what I have listened to so far, she writes it well. The book has certainly attracted many accolades and much attention (controversy aside). So far, it's a riveting and suspenseful story.

My husband, Ken, finished reading a Father's Day gift from me, The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling), book two in her Cormoran Strike mystery series. We both enjoyed the first book, The Cuckoo's Calling, so I was excited to give him the next one ... and when he opened it, he did not remember the series at all!! Once he got into the book, though, he enjoyed it very much. This one involves a missing writer who just finished a novel with "poisoned pen" barely-disguised descriptions of just about everyone he knows, which means there are plenty of suspects! This sounds like a great set-up for a mystery, so I will probably read this one this fall, too ... and it was another Big Book for my husband.

Now, my husband has moved onto another Father's Day gift and another Big Book! He started The Never Game by Jeffrey Deaver, the first book in a new series. We are both huge fans of Deaver and his Lincoln Rhyme series (if you haven't yet seen the TV show based on that series, check it out--it's excellent). This novel is a departure for Deaver, the start of a new series about Colter Shaw, an expert tracker who travels around the country, hiring himself out to find missing persons and to help the police. When a young woman goes missing in Silicon Valley, her father hires Colter to find her. Deaver writes outstanding thrillers, so I'm sure this one will be good, too!

The last I heard, our son, 26 as of yesterday, was reading book four, The God-Stone War, of the series The Mageborn by Michael G. Manning. Here's the description of the first book from Amazon: "Mordecai’s simple life as the son of a blacksmith is transformed by the discovery of his magical birthright. As he journeys to understand the power within him he is drawn into a dangerous plot to destroy the Duke of Lancaster and undermine the Kingdom of Lothion. Love and treachery combine to embroil him in events he was never prepared to face. What he uncovers will change his understanding of the past, and alter the future of those around him." Our son loves this series, and during the power outage, he quickly read through books two and three, The Line of Illeniel and The Archmage Unbound. I have a nice stack of new books to give him for his birthday!


I only managed one other blog post last week, with that old, slow laptop:

My Summary of Books Read in July - a Big Book Summer 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?