It's Monday 12/28! What Are You Reading?

I hope that you and your family have been enjoying whichever holidays you celebrate at this time of year! We had a very nice Christmas. Our youngest son, who lives locally, came home Christmas Eve and we enjoyed a relaxed night of seafood take-put and rewatching Christmas Vacation. Our oldest son arrived by Christmas afternoon, and we are greatly enjoying their company. We had a very bookish Christmas, and you can see the books we gave and received in this post. Since Christmas, with all the work done, I have been enjoying things even more!

Me with one of my new books Christmas morning

Here's what we are all reading this week:

I finished Finders Keepers by Stephen King, book 2 in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. I read Mr. Mercedes this summer and enjoyed it, and my husband and I enjoyed season 1 of the TV show. He's been waiting for me to read book 2 so we can watch season 2! In this one, characters from the first book--Bill Hodges, Holly Gibney, and Jerome Robinson--have now set up a business called Finders Keepers, kind of an unofficial private investigator business. But this novel has a literary theme, as it begins in 1979 with the murder of a famous reclusive author. The murderer, Morris, and his friends take the author's money but also his treasure trove of notebooks filled with writing. He wrote three novels that were highly acclaimed and are still taught in school English programs, but he withdrew from the world. So these newly discovered writings are extremely valuable, though mostly, Morris wants to know what happened to the lead character. Before he can read the notebooks, though, he is locked up for another crime, and the money and notebooks remain hidden for 35 years, until they are found by a teen boy. As with all of King's novels, it was super suspenseful and compelling.

My timing was perfect, and I was able to start one of my new gift books on Christmas Day! I am reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, which was high on my list to read this year. Thanks, honey! I love any novel that plays with time - time shifting, time travel, alternate timelines - and my family loaded me up on those for Christmas. In this novel, a 35-year-old woman named Nora decides her life is a wreck, she's useless to everyone, and she wants to die. But instead, she finds herself in a strange kind of library with infinite books and shelves, managed by her favorite school librarian. Here, the librarian explains, Nora can select a book and try a different path in life, to see what her life would have been like if she had made different choices. Since Nora has plenty of regrets, she begins requesting books and living different lives, based on the choices she has always wished she'd made differently or wondered about. It's really intriguing so far. This is what I like about novels that play with time, this endlessly thought-provoking stream of "what if's." In fact, my book inspired a conversation with my husband last night about exactly that.

On audio, I am still listening to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, a new release I have been dying to read/listen to! I've read one other book by the author, City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab, a middle-grade novel that I loved. Plus this new adult novel is being compared to The Time Traveler's Wife and Life After Life, two of my all-time favorite Top 10 books! In 1714, a young woman about to be forced into marriage makes a deal with a dark spirit to live forever in a life where no one ever controls her. The catch is that no one ever remembers her, either; she is immediately forgotten by anyone she meets, from her own parents to shopkeepers to men she falls in love with. The action jumps back and forth between her early years after the dark deal, and the present day in 2014, where she has lived for over 300 years but can never leave an impression on the world or even a single person, until she meets a single person who remembers her. It's been excellent so far, and I can't wait to see how it ends. It's been a long audio, and my listening time is limited these days, but I hope to finish it by the end of the year.

My husband, Ken, took a break from his steady diet of thrillers to read something different, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin, a prequel to the A Game of Thrones series. This one book compiles the first three prequel novellas that Martin wrote, which take place a century before the events in A Song of Ice and Fire, the first book in A Game of Thrones series. It's about a young, inexperienced knight named Ser Duncan (Dunk, for short), and his small squire, a boy named Egg. The book includes illustrations, but my husband was disappointed there was no map, a standard feature of most of Martin's books! He enjoyed it very much and is passing it on to our son while he's home!

Now, Ken is reading High Country by Nevada Barr, a favorite author of ours. Barr writes a series of thrillers that take place in National Parks and feature park ranger Anna Pigeon. We both enjoy thrillers and love National Parks, so these novels are doubly enjoyable for us. This one takes place in Yosemite National Park, where my husband has visited multiple times (and me, once). Anna is called in as an undercover agent pretending to be a kitchen worker at the famed Ahwahnee Hotel after several young park employees disappear. Her investigation leads to some sinister goings-on, and Anna ends up on her own, backpacking up a snowy trail to the high country in search of answers. Sounds like a good one!

Our son, 26, has returned to a favorite series and is reading Age of Swords, book two of The Legends of the First Empire series by Michael J. Sullivan. We gave him this one for his birthday this summer. He loves this author, and is enjoying this series very much. He also loves The Riyyria Chronicles series by that same author. A fellow book blogger, Beth Fish Reads, told me about these series and this author originally, so thanks to her. He says he hasn't made much progress--no surprise this week! He got a nice stack of new fantasy novels for Christmas, so those should keep him busy for a while.

 

Blog posts from last week:

Nonfiction Review: The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois - 1903 classic essays from the father of sociology

Memoir Review: No Time Like the Future by Michael J. Fox - another outstanding memoir from Fox that is warm, thoughtful, honest, and insightful

Bookish Christmas 2020 - see all the books we gave and received!

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?