It's Monday 9/14! What Are You Reading?

Ah, we are finally enjoying some lovely fall weather here! We saw the last (I hope) of summer heat and humidity last week, and it was even cool enough by Saturday that we could enjoy a driveway-gathering (our new kind of socializing) with friends we hadn't seen in six months, with take-out and a campfire. So good to reconnect with them and enjoy a cool evening and a fire!

Nice to enjoy a fire again!

I did not get around to visiting all the blogs I wanted to visit last week, so apologies. As you will see, I was super-busy, with blog posts almost every single day, trying to catch up and wrap-up Big Book Summer, so there wasn't much time left to visit and enjoy others' blogs.

But now it's a new week! I know we are supposed to hate Mondays, but I love Mondays! I love the fresh start, the chance to review last week and plan ahead for this week, and the new chance to do the things that are important to me. We had a nice weekend--we were empty-nesters for four days--so now I am ready for a new week and loving this new weather.

On the book front, we finished up our Big Books and started our darker fall reading last week. Here's what we've all been reading:

I officially made the switch last week from Big Book Summer to the annual fall R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) Challenge, which is focused on genres like mystery, thriller, supernatural, and other darker themes. My first book for R.I.P. is a nonfiction true-crime book, The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson. It is the first book chosen for my book group's new reboot via Zoom (we met online Thursday). This was a stunning story that we all enjoyed. Back in the 1800's, a bunch of naturalists (think Darwin and his contemporaries) collected rare, colorful birds (ironically, these guys killed and skinned these extremely rare birds!), leading to an almost priceless collection in the British Museum of Natural History. In 2009, along came Edwin Rist, a 20-year-old flautist and obsessive fly-tier who took an evening train to the museum, climbed a wall, broke a window, and stuffed his suitcase with hundreds of these extremely rare birds ... and got away! He sold these priceless birds (and sometimes tore them up into saleable parts and individual feathers) to his fellow fly-tiers around the world. The book was fascinating in every respect, and we had a great discussion.

Now, I have moved onto one of the many mysteries/thrillers filling up our TBR bookcase, The Dry by Jane Harper. I gave this to my husband for Father's Day, he just recently finished reading it, and I couldn't wait to dive into this debut novel that made such a splash a few years ago. It's set in Australia in a small farming community during a terrible drought. Aaron, now a Federal Agent, returns to the town for the funeral of his childhood best friend, Luke. Everyone in town believes the prevailing theory: that Luke, like many others, was at the end of his rope emotionally and financially, so he shot his wife and son and killed himself. Luke's parents ask Aaron if he will look into it, and he agrees. However, there is also a 20-year-old cold case: the murder of a girl that Luke and Aaron were friends with. Back then, the two boys alibied each other, but now there are some questions about that as the present and the past collide. I'm loving it so far and am happy to be immersed in some fast-paced thriller action again!

On audio, I finished one more Big Book by the end of the Big Book Summer Challenge, a YA novel of just 400 pages, A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena. It's set in Saudi Arabia, and the two main characters die in a car crash in the prologue, then the rest of the novel looks back at their lives and how they ended up there. Zarin, an Indian immigrant and an orphan who lives with her aunt and uncle, has never felt like she belongs--not with her cruel aunt, not among the girls she goes to school with, and not in this place. The one person she truly connects with is Porus, another Indian immigrant in the same town, a boy she develops a close friendship with and the only one who knows her secret. The novel digs into issues of race, class, and religion, from an entirely different perspective than American teens are used to, but also into things like belonging, social media, and other topics all teens can relate to. The audio is excellent, with multiple narrators piecing together Zarin and Porus' stories. Clearly, it's a dark story, since you know they die at the end, but I found it worthwhile learning about these young people from different cultures and religions.

Now, I have also turned my audio attention to the RIP Challenge with Feed by M.T. Anderson, a YA dystopian novel. It was a finalist for the National Book Award (plus won a bunch of other awards) and takes place in an imagined future. Teens (and other people) live with "the feed" constantly broadcasting directly into their brains. It reads your thoughts, listens to your words, and responds with a barrage of targeted information and ads. The main character, Titus, has been trained to rely on the feed to such an extent that he barely knows how to think for himself anymore. Then he meets a girl named Violet who's been homeschooled and didn't have a feed until she was seven. After a hack leaves Titus, Violet, and their friends without their feeds for a few days, Titus, with Violet's influence, starts to think more about what the feed means and how it affects his life. I am enjoying it so far. The audio is very well-done, with sections of it providing the feed that Titus is hearing, in between regular narration, making it especially immersive. I can't wait to see what happens next!

My husband, Ken, finished his last Big Book of the summer, a historical thriller from my Dad's book collection that we inherited, Hornet Flight by Ken Follett. We both love Follett's novels, and this is one of his many spy war thrillers. It's set in 1941 during WWII and focuses on an eighteen-year-old young man who discovers a secret that could change the war for England. He needs to tell someone, but his only way to get to England from an isolated island is with an old Hornet Moth biplane, rusting in a barn. It sounds like an intriguing and unique premise, and knowing how Follett writes thrillers, I'm sure it is action-packed, twisty, and suspenseful. My husband didn't expect to finish another Big Book in time, but this one was a quick read--Follett is known for his page-turners! He enjoyed it.

Now, Ken has also turned to the RIP Challenge--though most of what he reads all year-round are mysteries, thrillers, and other dark stuff! He finally started another gift from me, Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz. I've been anxious for him to give this one a try, since it got so much buzz when it was released a few years ago. It's a book-within-a-book, where a book editor is reading the manuscript of one of her perennial crime writers. The manuscript is a classic English mystery, in the style of Agatha Christie, as is typical for this writer, but at some point, the editor starts to think there is more than meets the eye to this new manuscript: some sort of real-life mystery. I've read that it's a very clever premise, with a twisty plot. So far, Ken is reading the manuscript part of the book and confirms that it's very classic British mystery. I can't wait to hear what he thinks when the story takes a turn!

Our son, 26 years old, finished reading a birthday gift we gave him, Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell, which is the first book in the Spellslinger series. A fellow book blogger, Beth Fish Reads, recommended this one to me for my son because she knows he loves the same kinds of fantasy novels she does, so thank you! Kellen lives in a magical world and must prove his skills as a spellcaster in his first duel. The problem is that his magic is fading. He must risk everything--and use only his wits--to try to get his magic back. A mysterious traveler may be Kellen's only hope. Our son loved the novel and definitely wants to read the rest of the series. He was away this weekend, so I'm not sure what he's reading now, but he still has more birthday books to start!
 


Blog posts last week:

Fiction Review: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins - fast-paced thriller about a mother and son on the run - moving and powerful

My Summary of Books Read in August - low in quantity but high in quality!

2020 Big Book Summer Wrap-Up - check out my own wrap-up and the record number of participants this year, with congratulations to one lucky reader!

Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) XV Challenge - I love this time of year! Time for a reading challenge just for fall.

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?