It's Monday 10/5! What Are You Reading?

I'm having a rough Monday morning, but it's just payback for a super busy weekend! This time of year is always hectic (but fun) for us, with our anniversary and my husband's birthday in the same week. Our 31st anniversary was Wednesday, so we took a little day trip to the beach (about two hours away) on Thursday to celebrate. We just walked on the beach and enjoyed lunch on an outdoor deck overlooking the water (we actually spent more time driving than there!), but it was a wonderful mini getaway. We have been missing our road trips and travel SO much this year, and we love this beach town. So, we got to enjoy a lovely day together and were back home in time to check in on my father-in-law before dinner.

Walking on the beach in Lewes, DE, for our anniversary

This weekend, we celebrated my husband's birthday. We had friends over Saturday for one of our driveway evenings! We enjoyed delicious take-out from an amazing local place with husband-wife chefs from New Orleans (3 of the 4 of us Saturday lived in New Orleans at the same time), had a campfire in our firepit, and just had fun chatting and catching up and looking at the stars.

Mmmm ... Bread Pudding with Praline Sauce from Cajun Kate's

Yesterday, my husband and I went for a short hike then visited his dad (he's 95 and in an independent living facility) and brought him a birthday cupcake. In the evening, both of our sons returned from weekend trips, and the four of us enjoyed take-out BBQ, those amazing cupcakes (from a friend who runs a bakery), and my husband opened his gifts (including lots of books, of course).

Our family celebrating my husband's birthday!

 

So, it was a nice week and weekend, though now I need to rest ... and stop eating so much!! ha ha Ugh--no more take-out for a while (though we still have leftovers for tonight).

Of course, we also made time for our books! Here's what we have all been reading this past week:

I finished reading a RIP XV Challenge book from our shelves, The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton. I gave this novel to my husband after it was recommended to me, and I saw that it won the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Novel. My husband read it last year and really liked it, so I wanted to read it, too. Eighteen-year-old Michael is a master safecracker who can open any locked door. Some sort of horrific trauma happened to him when he was eight years old (the reader doesn't know exactly what until much later in the book) that left him unable to speak. School was, as you can imagine, not a pleasant place for him, though in high school he does discover a talent for drawing. But he ends up skipping his senior year and jumping into a life of crime, as a specialist of the most coveted sort. The novel is narrated by Mike, looking back over his life, so chapters move back and forth between his childhood, his teen years, and his life of crime starting at age 18. I was completely immersed in this engrossing and original story. Definitely recommended!

Next, I had to take a break from my dark and creepy reading to read a nonfiction book for my book group: White Trash: the 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg. It starts by busting the myths of the U.S.'s original colonies that we all learned in history class: the staid, hard-working Pilgrims who came here seeking religious freedom and established a successful, class-less society. Instead, the author cites a wide variety of historical documents that show that the first settlers brought England's strict class society with them, with landed gentry given access to the most valuable property here and ships full of vagrants, criminals, homeless children, and other poor people sent here to provide labor for building and planting. Even before Africans were brought here in slave ships, the colonists had indentured servants (whose children were often owned by the wealthy also) and other kinds of unpaid labor--lots of different ways to have slaves without using the word. It's fascinating so far, though it's been a slow read for me, and I'm only about 50 pages in. We should have a very interesting discussion later this week.

On audio, I am still listening to a RIP XV Challenge novel, one that's been in my audio backlog for a few years, Sycamore by Bryn Chancellor. There is a mystery at the heart of this novel (a teen girl goes missing in a small town), but the novel is strongly focused on its characters. One reviewer compared it to Olive Kitteridge since chapters are written from the perspectives of different people in town, both in 1991 when seventeen-year-old Jess disappeared, and in the present day, when a new resident of the town discovers a set of human bones in a dry lake bed. The reader gets the perspectives of Jess herself and her mother but also her best friend, her teacher, her employer, and other people in the town who were/are somehow affected by Jess or her disappearance. So, while it is a mystery as to what happened to Jess, it is a slow, quiet mystery, with the people at the heart of the story. I'm enjoying it on audio so far and have just one more chapter left to go.

My husband, Ken, is reading another good RIP XV choice, From a Buick 8 by Stephen King. I had no idea that King wrote another horror novel about a car besides Christine, which was super creepy when I read it in the 80's as a teen! This one was published in 2002 and is about a State Police troop in rural Pennsylvania who discover an unusual old Buick Roadmaster back in 1979. Knowing that the car is dangerous, the troopers hide the car in a shed and attempt to discover its secrets over the years. In 2001, a state trooper is killed, and his teenage son, Ned, begins coming by the barracks to help out with small jobs around the place, to feel closer to his dad. The troopers understand this and welcome him, but once Ned discovers the Buick out in the shed, old secrets begin to stir. It sounds like classic Stephen King creepiness and perfect reading for the season!

Our son, 26, is reading the epic fantasy series, Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind and loving it! He finished book 1, Wizard's First Rule, and immediately moved onto book 2, Stone of Tears, which he picked up at his favorite local used bookstore with a birthday gift card.  It sounds like the series is filled with murder, swords, treachery, and a unique magical world--yup, that ticks all his boxes!It's a 1000-page book, and he says he's down to the last 200 pages ... and still loving it!

 

 

 

Blog posts from last week:

Movie Monday: Enola Holmes - a fun, light movie about Sherlock Holmes' younger sister, starring Millie Bobby Brown

Teen/YA Review: Feed by M.T. Anderson - creepy, thought-provoking dystopian world

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?