Movie Monday: Leave No Trace

I was searching for a movie to watch this weekend, comparing the listings on Amazon Prime to the critic and viewer scores on Rotten Tomatoes to find a winner ... and I did! We ended up watching Leave No Trace (critics 100%, audience 80% on Rotten Tomatoes), a quiet but powerful movie about a father-daughter relationship, based on a real-life story and set in a gorgeous outdoor setting.

Will, played by Ben Foster, and his thirteen-year-old daughter, Tom (played by Thomasin McKenzie), live in the forest near Portland, OR, in a huge public nature preserve. While outsiders might view the pair as homeless, Will and Tom have created a happy and peaceful life for themselves, off the grid. Will teaches Tom all kinds of survival skills, and they live in a self-made campsite with a tent, sleeping bags, camp stove, and other supplies necessary for both subsistence and comfort. Will homeschools Tom, who is bright, inquisitive, and happy. Occasionally, they walk together into the city, where Will picks up his check from the VA and the two buy supplies, before heading back to their wilderness home. Unfortunately for the pair, it is illegal to live in a public park, and they are eventually spotted and brought in by the authorities. That begins an odyssey of changes for the father and daughter, and the destruction of their unique way of life. They are separated for the first time in Tom's memory, where she is tested academically, interviewed, and given new clothes. Meanwhile, her father receives some preliminary psychiatric care; it is clear he is ex-military and suffers from PTSD. Eventually, the authorities find the pair a new home, though adjustment is difficult for Will, while Tom discovers a whole world and community she was unaware of. The close pair go through several iterations of change, until a crisis finally brings them to a place of closure, though not necessarily the perfect ending one might hope for.

This is a moving, engrossing story that we both enjoyed. The father-daughter relationship portrayed here (based on a real-life father and daughter in the same situation) is warm and loving, and the closeness of the pair is poignant. Movie footage features a gorgeous setting in the forests and surrounding areas of Oregon and Washington, amid towering trees and beautiful streams. The acting, from both Foster and McKenzie, is outstanding; they both fully embody their characters and show the quiet but fierce emotions they experience. There is not a lot of action here, though there are some moments of suspense and tension. It is a quiet but incredibly moving story of the power of nature to heal and the strength of love between a father and daughter ... and the limits of that love, too. We thoroughly enjoyed losing ourselves in this compelling film based on a fascinating true story.

Leave No Trace was released in 2018 and is currently available on Amazon Prime, Starz, Hulu Premium and other streaming platforms.

 

It's Monday 6/28! What Are You Reading?

We had a busy week here! The good news is that I finally came out of my post-vaccine reaction (mine was a bit extended, for a full week, because of my immune disorder). By Thursday, I was feeling better and able to manage the grocery store and some weeding in the garden on Friday. I'm very relieved to be back to my normal baseline. 

Otherwise, we were busy with family--our son running in and out (he's living with us temporarily) and taking care of my father-in-law. 

And we enjoyed a HUGE treat last night: dinner with old friends ... in their house! We even hugged! We joked it was the first time we'd gotten together with friends indoors and without ordering takeout since last March. It was wonderful to enjoy that return to normalcy and to catch up with old, dear friends.

I uploaded two new book videos to Youtube recently:

My May Reading Wrap-Up

#FridayReads 6-25-21

Meanwhile, Big Book Summer is hot, hot, hot! (And so is the weather.) We're enjoying our Big Books. Here's what we've all been reading this week:

I am still reading one of my #BigBookSummer books, The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray. I heard about this through a podcast called The Readers (I don't think it's still on), which was hosted by Simon and Gavin way back when. Gavin loved time travel novels (just like me) and recommended this as one of his all-time favorite books. So, I kept it on my TBR list all these years, and my husband gave it to me for Christmas. It's an odd book, not what I expected, but I am enjoying it. A man named Waldemar Tolliver is "stuck outside of time" at the start of the book. As he narrates his present predicament, he goes back to tell his unusual family history, beginning with a strange discovery about time that his great-grandfather made in 1903, and how his namesake, his great-uncle, further investigated it. It can get kind of dark (his great-uncle became a high-ranking Nazi), but it's also very funny. It's not quite traditional time travel, but it is very much about the nature of time, with a dose of physics throughout (many of the early Tollivers were physicists), and I like the way it weaves real history into the family narrative. To hear me talk about the weirdness and fun of this novel, watch my #FridayReads 6-25-21 video!

On audio, I finished another Big Book, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames, a novel published in 2019. It's the story of a woman named Stella, who encounters many life-threatening incidents during her childhood in rural Italy and youth and adult life in the United States. She protects her younger sister, Tina, but life changes dramatically when the family immigrates to America just before WWII. The story is told from the perspective of a family member in Connecticut in the present day, to explain why the two now-elderly sisters don't get along. It's a well-written novel and engrossing, with a vivid sense of time and place in its different settings. However, it is also very dark. You might think I should have expected that from the title, but some aspects of this story are really disturbing (like scenes of abuse). So, while I was engaged in the story, it was long book, and the darkness was a bit too much for me. You can read my full review at the link.

After all that, I was looking for something lighter and fast-paced, so I chose All of This Is True by Lygia Day Penaflor, a YA thriller. Yes, I know thrillers are often dark! So far, though, I am really enjoying this unique and compelling novel. It's about a group of teens who are obsessed with a YA novel and go totally fan-girl (and -boy) when they get to meet the author (who is in her early 20's) at a book signing. They soon find themselves actually becoming friends with the author. Then she publishes a new novel, which is clearly based on the lives (barely concealed) of her new "friends." The media is saying she used these teens, but they believe she is really their friend. Best of all, this story is told after the fact--after the novel is published and some sort of event lands one of the teens in the hospital--through interviews, journal entries, and even excerpts from the novel itself. And the audio is outstanding, recorded with a full cast of 15 narrators, making the listening experience immersive. I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far and can't wait to see what happens next!

My husband, Ken, got a nice stack of books for Father's Day (holidays at our house always include stacks of books), so he picked one of those to read next. He did get a couple more Big Books, but after a heavy Hemingway Big Book, he wanted something fast and shorter, so he's reading Dead of Winter by Stephen Mack Jones. This is an author I met at Booktopia, an annual event in Vermont I've been missing the past two years (pics at that link include Stephen). My husband and I both love his series of thrillers set in Detroit about a half-Mexican, half-Black ex-cop. We both enjoyed the first book, August Snow, and liked the second one, Lives Laid Away, even more, so we've been looking forward to this third installment. Jones writes fast-paced, action-packed, twisty thrillers, but he also has a great sense of humor. This one will definitely go on my own TBR shelves when Ken's finished!

Our 26-year-old son is now reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, which is book one of a trilogy. He and his girlfriend want to watch the new Netflix adaptation of the series, and, like any avid reader, he wants to read the book first! He said it's not a series he probably would normally have chosen on his own (he prefers fantasy worlds without guns), but all the hype and rave reviews surrounding the trilogy (and now the TV series) convinced him to give it a try. He's enjoying it so far.

 

 

Blog posts from last week:

Memoir Review: The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson - warm, honest, funny memoir from the famous advice columnist Ask Amy

Request for Those Receiving This Through E-Mail - still trying to solve my e-mail issues, so if you are usually on the list but are not receiving new e-mails from follow.it, then please e-mail me or leave a comment on this post to let me know.

Fiction Review: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames - well-written and engaging story but dark and disturbing

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?

 

Fiction Review: The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna

I just finished listening to a Big Book on audio (yes, audios count for the Big Book Summer Challenge, too, based on the page count in the print book): The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames. This novel was published in 2019, and I’d heard rave reviews of it and had been saving it for Big Book Summer!

 

It's the story of a woman named Stella, who encounters many life-threatening incidents during her childhood in a rural mountain village in Italy and her youth and adult life in the United States. Stella’s father returns from WWI when Stella is very young, though he soon leaves the family again for America. Stella, her mother, and the siblings his father leaves behind after each visit are often left on their own, with no support (he rarely sends money home). It’s a hard life, but they are mostly happy when her father is away, surrounded by loving family, their modest home and garden, and the beautiful Italian countryside. Stella is especially close to her sister, Tina, and protects her. When her father insists the family emigrate and join him in America, it means massive changes for them all. The story is told from the perspective of a family member in Connecticut in the present day, telling the family history by following her grandmother Stella’s life from childhood through adolescence, maturity, marriage, and all the way to old age. Stella’s life is never easy, she accurately refers to her father as a monster, and she seems to never experience a day of happiness.

 

In case you couldn’t tell from that description, this is a very dark novel. It's well-written and engrossing, with a vivid sense of time and place in its different settings and interesting characters. However, it is also very dark and quite disturbing at times, dealing with some terrible instances of abuse that I found hard to listen to. And I was greatly troubled that much of it goes undiscussed in the family and unpunished (there is finally some odd resolution but not until the damage has been done). It’s a long novel, following multiple generations of the Fortuna family, and while I was interested and engaged in the story, it was just too much darkness for me. I can handle some difficult themes if there is also hope; there was none here, at least not for Stella. All in all, it is an engaging, richly-described family history, covering two countries, a hundred years of history, and multiple generations, though with a tone of despair and some disturbing scenes.

464 pages, Ecco

HarperAudio

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  
  

Or you can order The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Request for Those Receiving This Through E-Mail

If you are on my new e-mail list (successfully transferred to the new provider), then you should receive this post in two separate e-mails, one from the old service (sender will be Book By Book) and one from Follow.it. If that's the case, then you don't need to do anything (and I will deactivate the old list again after I send this, so you shouldn't receive any more doubles).

If you only receive this post in your e-mail ONCE (sender Book By Book) and you are not receiving e-mails of my blog posts from Follow.it, that means you were deleted from the list with the new provider.

Please e-mail me at jacksonde@comcast.net to let me know if that's the case.

I apologize for yet another post about my e-mail list, but I am still struggling to migrate my list to a new provider. This time, they have deleted many of the e-mails from my list, saying they were spam, but I am pretty sure they deleted some valid ones, too.

Thank you for your help in sorting this out. The old list provider goes away in July, so I am running out of time to fix this, and I appreciate your help and patience.

Memoir Review: The Mighty Queens of Freeville

My last book group pick before a summer hiatus was The Mighty Queens of Freeville: A Mother, a Daughter, and the Town that Raised Them by Amy Dickinson, the famous advice columnist, Ask Amy. Everyone in my book group enjoyed this honest, funny memoir.

 

Despite her relative fame and public persona, Amy has written a very personal memoir. It's about her family and her hometown, and her experiences going back there as a single mother after a devastating divorce. As she explains in the beginning of the memoir, hers is a family of mostly women (dubbed by her daughter as The Mighty Queens of Freeville), and many of them are/were divorced single mothers. She describes the divorce from her husband, which was a complete surprise to her, her long road through grief, and her process (erratic though it was) of figuring out what to do with her life. She brings us along as she heals, surrounded by her family, takes those first independent steps in moving to Washington, DC, and through her many experiences as a single mother. The memoir takes us right up to the present, with her daughter off at college and she herself cautiously dipping her toe back into a loving relationship.

 

It was well-written (of course), moving, and immersive. She's very honest about how damaged she felt after the unexpected divorce and her struggle to get back on her feet and figure out what to do with her life. I also enjoyed that her hometown is in Upstate NY, not too far from where I grew up (though I grew up in a suburb of Rochester versus her rural town). Although I haven’t read her column before (our newspaper doesn’t carry it), I enjoyed her honest and funny writing, which was both heartwarming and hilarious. It was an enjoyable read, for me and for the rest of my book group.

 

225 pages, Hyperion 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, read by the author, and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

  

 

Or you can order The Mighty Queens of Freeville from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

It's Monday 6/21! What Are You Reading?

Happy First Day of Summer and Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there--hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend!

We had a nice family-focused weekend. Our older son came home for a short visit Friday and Saturday, and we enjoyed two dinners with all four of us together, which was a great treat! We had a special crab dinner Saturday night for an early Father's Day celebration, since our son had to head home afterward. My husband is a wonderful father and loved getting to spend time with his grown sons this weekend.

Crabs for dinner! All 4 of us around the table.

Sunday, we enjoyed a Father's Day lunch with my father-in-law. He's 96 and struggling with some dementia, but he was lucid and really seemed to enjoy our takeout BBQ lunch, with his favorites: ribs, corn on the cob, and watermelon. He also enjoyed the big stack of gifts we gave him and was especially delighted by the portable CD player with a stack of his old favorite albums on CD (mostly brass bands from the early 60's). He was back in rough shape by dinnertime and again this morning (my husband had to go over there both times), but I'm glad we could give him that celebration and fun. The Father's Day fun continues today, as my husband and younger son head out golfing this morning.

Grandad enjoyed opening his gifts!

And, just a quick word in memory of my own dad, whom I miss every single day, though I have especially felt his absence this weekend. He was an amazing father and grandfather--kind, loving, affectionate, generous, lots of fun, and he had a great sense of humor! 

Dad and I on the beach in Canada

He was also an avid reader, and I miss sharing that passion with him. From passing the latest Stephen King books back and forth when I was a teen in the 70's and 80's to picking out books for him on the holidays to listening to him tell us excitedly about his latest read, he and I connected over books my whole life. My husband and I now have his collection of Stephen King (always his favorite) and Dean Koontz books in our bedroom.

Our collection of books from my Dad

One final bit of news: I got my second COVID vaccine last week! I was worried because of my immune disorder and went through extensive immune testing, doctor consultations, and new treatments the past six months before I took the plunge. I was surprised and delighted to have no reaction at all to my first shot, though this second one hit me harder. I had about 24 hours of being totally bed-ridden, with pain everywhere. I've been doing better since then, though still very low-energy and exhausted by afternoon (even with my daily nap), so I am hoping this week will bring further improvement. I am relieved to have gotten through it without a major relapse. Some with my illness are still in terrible shape and unable to function many months after their shot(s) and some are unable to get it at all, so I feel fortunate.

Here's what we've been reading this past busy week:

I am still reading one of my #BigBookSummer books, The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray. I heard about this through a podcast called The Readers (I don't think it's still on), which was hosted by Simon and Gavin way back when. Gavin loved time travel novels (just like me) and recommended this as one of his all-time favorite books. So, I kept it on my TBR list all these years and added it to my Books Gift List for my family! My husband gave it to me for Christmas, and I saved it for Big Book Summer. It's an odd book so far, not what I expected, but I am enjoying it. A man named Waldemar Tolliver is "stuck outside of time" at the start of the book. As he narrates his present predicament, he goes back to tell his unusual family history, beginning with a strange discovery about time that his great-great grandfather made in 1903, and how his namesake, his great-uncle, further investigated it. It can get kind of dark (his great-uncle became a high-ranking Nazi), but it's also funny at times. While there is not yet any time travel, it is very much about the nature of time, with a dose of physics throughout (many of the early Tollivers were physicists), and I like the way it weaves real history into the family narrative.

On audio, I am listening to another Big Book! (Yes, audios count for the challenge, too, based on the page count in the print book.) I am listening to The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames, a novel published in 2019. It's the story of a woman named Stella, who encounters many life-threatening incidents during her childhood in rural Italy and youth and adult life in the United States. She protects her younger sister, Tina, but life changes dramatically when the family immigrates to America just before WWII. The story is told from the perspective of a family member in Connecticut in the present day, to explain why the two now-elderly sisters don't get along. I'm finally getting close to the end, and I am looking forward to that! It's a well-written novel and engrossing, with a vivid sense of time and place in its different settings. However, it is also very dark. You might think I should have expected that from the title, but some aspects of this story are really disturbing (like scenes of abuse). So, while I've been engaged in the story, it's a long book, and the darkness is getting to me.

My husband, Ken, finished his first Big Book Summer pick (yes, he joins the challenge, too!), For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. Like me, he likes to read classics once in a while, and this one has been on our shelves for a bit. It's about the Spanish Civil War and is based on Hemingway's own travels to Spain as a journalist in 1937 to cover the war for the North American Newspaper Alliance. I think this is the third Hemingway novel my husband has read, but I have never read anything by Hemingway! I know, isn't that crazy? I never even read any Hemingway in school. Ken was struggling with this one at first. He said the language was very different from other Hemingway novels, and it was hard to understand. But, it got better, and he became immersed in the story and ended up enjoying it, though he was ready for something lighter and fast-paced afterward!

Ken got a nice stack of books for Father's Day yesterday (holidays at our house always include stacks of books), so he picked one of those last night to read next. He did get a couple more Big Books, but after Hemingway, he wanted something fast and shorter, so he's reading Dead of Winter by Stephen Mack Jones. This is an author I met at Booktopia, an annual event in Vermont I've been missing the past two years! My husband and I both love his series of thrillers set in Detroit about a half-Mexican, half-Black, ex-cop. We both enjoyed the first book, August Snow, and liked the second one, Lives Laid Away, even more, so we've been looking forward to this third installment. Jones writes fast-paced, action-packed, twisty thrillers, but he also has a great sense of humor. This one will definitely go on my own TBR shelves when Ken's finished!

Our 26-year-old son finally finished the 1232-page chunkster Rhythm of War, book four of one of his favorite series, Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. He really enjoyed it. He read another book next (that I didn't get the title of this weekend) and is now reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, which is book one of a trilogy. He and his girlfriend want to watch the new Netflix adaptation of the series, and, like any avid reader, he wants to read the book first! He said it's not a series he probably would normally read (he prefers fantasy worlds without guns), but all the hype and rave reviews surrounding the trilogy (and now the TV series) convinced him to give it a try. He's enjoying it so far.

 

Blog posts from last week:

New E-Mail List Provider - yes, another change for those who read this on e-mail--but this is it!

Summary of Books Read in May - an excellent reading month for me!

Fiction Review: End of Watch by Stephen King - my first Big Book of the Summer!

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?

Fiction Review: End of Watch

I finished my first Big Book Summer book, End of Watch by Stephen King. This is the third and final book in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. I enjoyed Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers. And my husband has been waiting for me to read this last book, so he and I can watch seasons two and three of the Mr. Mercedes TV show!

 

I won't give away any spoilers of the first two books, so this will be a bit brief. This third book continues the story of Bill Hodges, a retired police detective in Ohio, and his now-business-partner, Holly Gibney (who also makes an appearance in King's The Outsider). Together, they solved the case of the Mercedes Massacre in book one and the stolen manuscript in book two, but now a suspiciously odd string of suicides brings them back into an active police investigation. This final book of the trilogy comes back to the story of Brady Hartsfield, the evil but brilliant computer genius who was the vile “Mercedes Killer” (not a spoiler—you know from the start of book one who Brady is) and who is now paralyzed and in the hospital.

 

It was gripping and super-suspenseful, as are all of King’s novels! The first two books were mostly straight-up mystery/thriller stories, but this third one brings in some of that King creepiness with some supernatural phenomena. After I finished reading the book, we started season two of the Mr. Mercedes TV show, but it was highly annoying to me to find out they switched books two and three in the TV series so that season two is about book three (that’s why someone had warned me to finish reading the full trilogy before embarking on season two of the TV show). And they killed off of a beloved character who’s alive in the books! It’s probably best to wait a bit longer after reading a book to watch its TV or movie adaptation. In any case, the TV show is still good, even though it’s annoying me. And all three of the books were excellent with that can’t-put-it-down compelling character for which King is famous.

 

400 pages, Gallery Books

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

Or you can order End of Watch from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Books Read in May

In addition to the summary below, you can also watch my video, May Reading Wrap-Up, where I briefly tell you about each of the books I read last month.

May was another great reading month for me! Here's what I finished reading last month:

• Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline (OH) - adult fiction
• Becoming by Michelle Obama (IL) - nonfiction/memoir on audio
  

• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (LA) - adult fiction
• Clock Dance by Anne Tyler (MD) - adult fiction

• Force of Nature by Jane Harper (Australia) - adult fiction
• Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver (AZ) - adult fiction on audio
  

 

 

• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (UK) - adult fiction
  
• 7 Good Reasons Not to Grow Up by Jimmy Gownley - middle-grade graphic novel

I finished 8 books in total in May, and they were all very good. It was almost an all-fiction month, but I finished listening (re-listening) to Becoming. And it was unusual for me to read two thrillers in one month (unless it's fall and the R.I.P. Challenge!). So, just one nonfiction (memoir) and one middle-grade, and all the rest of my books were adult fiction. Two of my books were on audio. My favorite is a tie because I just couldn't choose: Clock Dance by Anne Tyler and Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver. These were both hug-it-to-your-chest books that I never wanted to end!

Progress in 2021 Reading Challenges:
You can see all of the reading challenges I am participating in and full lists of the books read for each at the challenges link above. I have some fun ones going this year!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2021 - Four of my eight books in May were from my own shelves.

2021 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge - May was Magnificent Middle-Grade, so 7 Good Reasons Not to Grow Up by Jimmy Gownley fit.

Back to the Classics 2021 - No classics in May.

2021 AtoZ Reading Challenge - It's getting tougher, but I filled in C and V last month, and the May Mini Challenge, a book about a nurse, since there were nurses in The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides.

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2021 - this is a unique one, with 50 quirky categories. My list is getting pretty full now, but I added another 2 categories to my list this month:

1. Book with something broken on the cover - The Silent Patient
2. Book about social justice -  The Vanishing Half

2021 Nonfiction Reader Challenge - I added one more nonfiction book, Becoming by Michelle Obama, and used it for the Biography category (technically, it was memoir or autobiography, but close enough, right?)

Diversity Reading Challenge 2021 - Five of my books were diverse last month, and for the May mini-challenge, Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline included a main character from Southeast Asia.

Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge - I traveled to the UK and Australia last month in my books.

2021 Literary Escapes Challenge - I added four new states: Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, and Ohio.

And finally, Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month! Stop by to print out this month's Bingo card and play along. In May, I filled 19 spaces on my bingo card:

 

Spaces Filled:

Ready Player Two - action/adventure, stars on cover, special abilities, squad/team

Becoming - audio book, woman on cover

The Vanishing Half - not in a series

Clock Dance - read a physical book, shelf love

Force of Nature - in a series, police, set in a foreign country

Animal Dreams - not set in current times

The Silent Patient - library book, shady character, multiple POV, book club read

7 Good Reasons Not to Grow Up - free book

Free Space

What was YOUR favorite book read in May?

New E-Mail List Provider

No, this isn't a duplicate post from two weeks ago! The first new mail provider I tried using, Mailchimp, didn't work for me because they couldn't e-mail the list every time I had a new blog post up. After much research, work, and many chats with the Help line (I am really just no good at the technical stuff), I am now signed up with follow.it, a fairly new e-mail list service. 

This one is made specifically for sending blog updates, so it should work pretty smoothly. They don't currently have the ability for me to send extra e-mails, but let's be honest - I don't have time for that now anyway! What follow-it does offer, however, is an extra perk for YOU, the readers. Follow.it is a feed-reading service (something like Reddit, I think), so in addition to following my blog, you can choose other feeds you want to follow as well, including all kinds of news, sports, entertainment, and loads of book-related feeds. You don't have to sign up for anything else, but the service is there for you to use (for free) if you want to.

So, once again, you may see a duplicate post as I transition; I will turn off the old feed as soon as I send this post. After this post, you should receive updates only from the new follow.it feed.

The e-mails may look a little different, but the service will be almost the same as before: you'll receive each blog post via e-mail, probably the day after I post it.

NOTE: If you were on the list before and stop receiving e-mails OR if you'd like to sign up for the blog post e-mails, just use the quick form at the top of the sidebar on my blog.

See you in your Inbox!