It's Monday 7/26! What Are You Reading?

Wow, another super-busy week, filled with family! My birthday was Friday, so my older son and his girlfriend came down from New York for the weekend, and my younger son was here, too. We had a typical two-day-long celebration! We ordered take-out Friday night from a favorite place. Saturday, with everyone there, we had my father-in-law over for a nice summer lunch. Then, the rest of us went out for dinner Saturday evening to a wonderful local seafood place. 

I opted both nights to skip the traditional birthday cake. My son is severely gluten-intolerant, and he and I are both dairy-intolerant and supposed to limit sugar. So, I used the piles of fresh peaches and blackberries we got from our CSA to make a delicious crisp, with sugar-free ice cream for my son and I. 

Saturday, after our dinner out, we came back home for a brownie sundae bar (with gluten-free brownies and sugar-free ice cream and sauce for my son and I). Both were a big hit!

 

I was also treated to lots of wonderful gifts from my family, including a stack of books I can't wait to read.

On YouTube last week, I uploaded just one new video, my weekly Friday Reads. Check it out to hear me gush about my current reads!

Here's what we've all been reading this week:

I finished my 7th #BigBookSummer book, Blackout by Connie Willis, a favorite author of mine and my husband's. Willis has a loose series of time travel books, Oxford Time Travel, and if you've read my blog, you know I love any kind of time-twisting plots! We both enjoyed To Say Nothing of the Dog, a sort of time travel farce, and last summer for Big Book Summer 2020, we both read Doomsday Book and were blown away by it--it was a favorite for both of us. Blackout takes place about four years after that last novel. All of this series are about a group of historians in near-future Oxford who use technology to travel to different time periods. Their role is to observe and learn more about history, not to change anything. In this novel, many historians are traveling back and forth to various places and times during World War II (including Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor, rural England where children were evacuated to, London during the Blitz, and more). This time, though, things begin to go wrong with their time travel technology and mistakes start to occur. As with all of Willis' books, it is completely engrossing, but I finished it Saturday and was sorely disappointed ... it ends in the middle of the action and says "To find out what happens next read Part 2 in All Clear"! What? There's no indication on the book itself that it's only part 1, though a blog reader alerted me to this last week. Of course, I will be reading it.

Now I am taking a short break from the Big Books to read a novel for one of my book groups that is coming back from summer break in August. We are reading The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin. Yes, that Justin Cronin of The Passage fame, but this novel is a far, far cry from that sci-fi/horror/thriller trilogy! It's a quiet story set in the northern woods of Maine about several lives that intersect. It begins in 1947, as a wounded WWII vet moves his young wife and baby son up to a remote area of Maine to start their lives over. Then, the narrative shifts to present-day, where that baby has grown up to own and work in that same camp/lodge with his own wife and adult daughter. An elderly millionaire who comes to the camp every summer has returned for one last fishing trip before he dies of cancer. I've only just started it, but it seems to revolve around relationships, secrets, and of course, that gorgeous, remote setting. I actually bought this book in Maine (and our last visit there was in 2014 so that's how long it's been on my shelf!), and I am glad to finally be reading it.

I finished listening to a Big Book on audio, Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton. It's narrated by twelve-year-old Eli Bell, who lives in Australia. His mother and step-father are heroin dealers, his older brother, Gus, is mute, and his best friend is an elderly, notorious felon named Slim who is know for his multiple prison escapes. So, there is a lot going on here and a lot for Eli and Gus to deal with, but it's interesting and engaging. As you might guess from that set-up, Eli doesn't have an easy life, and things get a whole lot worse for him and Gus. But Eli is clever and determined and has learned a lot from his buddy, Slim. This is a unique novel, I enjoyed it very much, and it had a very satisfying conclusion.

I am now listening to another Big Book on audio, After the Flood by Kassandra Montag. This post-apocalyptic novel takes place more than a hundred years from now, when rising sea levels have not only covered the coasts but also the interior heartland of North America. All that's left are individual colonies on the tops of mountains, surrounded by vast oceans. Myra and her seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, live on the water on a boat. Myra's grandfather taught her to fish (and built the boat), so they trade their catches for other necessities but are barely scraping by. Seven years ago, Myra's husband kidnapped their young daughter, Row, and Myra has been unable to find them. But now, she finally gets a lead as to Row's whereabouts, in an area near the Arctic Circle, and is determined to go find her long-lost daughter. This is a dangerous world they live in (apocalypses never seem to bring out the good in people, do they?), and the novel is already gripping and compelling.

My husband, Ken, is reading a Father's Day gift, The Lost Man by Jane Harper. This author of Australian thrillers has become a favorite of ours (and many other people!) recently, and we both read and enjoyed her first two novels, The Dry and Force of Nature. This third novel is a departure from those first two, as it does not feature Australian Federal Agent Aaron Falk. Instead, it focuses in on one Australian family. In the Australian outback, two brothers, Nathan and Bub, meet, for the first time in many months, at the remote fence line of their two properties when their brother,  Cameron, is found dead there. They have to come together to support Cameron's family and his ranch. As is often the case with thrillers, there are family secrets to protect, plus the mystery of Cameron's sudden death. Ken is enjoying it so far!

Our 26-year-old son returned to a favorite fantasy series, The Summoner trilogy by Taran Matharu. He started by re-reading book 1, The Novice. When he finished that, he moved onto book 2, The Inquisition, and quickly finished that one, too! He has a summer job doing environmental sampling, but he was thrilled to learn he could read during the waiting periods that dot his days! He was here this weekend and is now reading book one of a new-to-him fantasy series, The Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, which is ranked as one of Time magazine's Top 100 Fantasy Novels of All Time - impressive! It's set in a world inspired by ancient Rome, so I can see why my son was interested in it!

Just one blog post from last week (very busy week!):

Fiction Review: The Air You Breathe by Frances de Ponte Peebles - outstanding historical novel set in 1930's Brazil, about an intense friendship between women.

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?