It's Monday 8/30! What Are You Reading?

Not to sound like a broken record, but we had another busy, hectic week. Efforts to move my 96-year-old-father-in-law to Assisted Living have now ramped up, with movers scheduled for next week, forms filled out and scanned, and other essential pre-move to-do's.  On Saturday, we finally told him he'll be moving (he has dementia, so we didn't want to upset or confuse him) and took him to visit his new apartment. He seems OK with it and seems to understand the need for help (he's in Independent Living now, with no assistance of any kind available). My husband and son began moving a few pieces of furniture yesterday to our house that won't be going with him. This week, he has three doctor's appointments and a nurse's visit! I took him to appointment #1 today (about 4 hours for me) and managed to make arrangements to combine appointments #2 and 3 into the same day, so that will help a little.

That is really the only thing going on in our lives right now! Everything else is on hold. He required extra help from my husband Saturday evening, so our oldest and dearest friends picked up our favorite New Orleans' take-out and brought it to our house. We all met and first became friends in New Orleans; Hurricane Ida today hit right where the plant is that we worked in, so we are worried about that. We thoroughly enjoyed both the amazing foods and the great company on Saturday. Besides moving my father-in-law, our younger son recently moved back home temporarily, so his stuff is filling our garage, living room, and basement--it's wonderful to have the kind of friends who don't mind stepping around piles of stuff to bring you food and share a meal!

Bananas Foster Bread Pudding for dessert - sooo good!

 

Leftovers the next day: Muffaletta and gumbo - yum!

I uploaded one new book video to my YouTube channel last week, my usual Friday Reads update, with me describing the three books I am currently reading. I also recorded another book video that I will edit and upload tomorrow, all about re-reads; that one was a lot of fun so look for it!

 

And here's what we are all reading this week:

Guess what? I am still reading the biggest book of my summer, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. My copy is "only" about 600 pages, but they are very big, densely-printed pages. Most versions show almost 900 pages. Believe it or not, this is my first-ever classic Russian novel! Really! We didn't read any in school. I only have 80 pages left, so I will finish it by the end of #BigBookSummer (Sept. 6).  It's set in 19th-century Russia (I had to look that up - there's really no mention of the timing of the novel), about Anna, a charismatic woman of the aristocratic class who is married and has a son. While visiting her brother in Moscow, she meets Count Vronsky, and the two are instantly attracted to each other and eventually begin to have an affair, making Anna's life very difficult. I've found it easy to read (no archaic language), with short chapters and a lot going on. It's interesting that the title features Anna's name because there are actually a lot of characters, and the story follows others, too, completely apart from Anna (though they all know each other). It's fascinating to read what life was like in that time and place. I'm working hard to keep the Russian names straight (everyone seems to have at least three names plus a nickname). It's basically a Russian soap opera! I'm enjoying it.

I also started my library book, Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang, an acclaimed graphic novel that I can read in short 5-minute periods in between Anna Karenina ... and it's also a Big Book! It's an interesting book because the author himself is in it. In fact, it's a book about writing this book, so it is very meta. Well, that works as the framework for the story, while the focus is on the basketball team at the high school where Yang teaches. He is admittedly not a sports person, but he becomes curious about the focus on his school's winning basketball team, so he interviews the coach and players, begins attending games, and even researches the history of the game. It's excellent so far, and I'm enjoying it. And it is a nice, easy break from the 19th-century Russian novel!

On audio, I am still listening to my last audio Big Book of the Summer, A Better Man by Louise Penny. I chose this audiobook because it qualifies as a Big Book, to close out my summer reading challenge, which ends September 6, and it will kick off my annual fall reading challenge, the R.I.P. Challenge for reading darker books in September and October. However, this is sort of an odd choice for me because the only other Louise Penny novel I have read was book 1 in this series, Still Life, and this novel is book 17. I missed a little bit in between! But I enjoyed that first book and have been wanting to read another. In this one, during catastrophic spring flooding in Quebec, a woman has gone missing, and the local police don't seem to be taking it seriously, so Inspector Gamache and his team get involved, at the urging of an officer who knows the woman and her father. It was no problem to pick up the storyline, even after missing 16 books, and Penny is an excellent writer. I'm fully immersed in the story and enjoying the mystery and suspense.

My husband, Ken, is reading the book he picked up at the library, Red Hands by Christopher Golden. Neither of us have read this author before, but this seems to be book 3 in the Ben Walker series, about a "weird science expert." It begins with a terrifying opening scene, on the 4th of July, where one guy drives into a crowd at a parade, then stumbles out of his car. Every person the man touches dies within seconds. Soon, a woman named Maeve also develops "the killing touch," which seems to be highly contagious, and she escapes into the wilderness to try to keep from killing anyone inadvertently. That's where Ben Walker, with the weird science expertise, steps in. This sounds like an intriguing twist on the classic thriller formula, with the main character not the typical cop, detective, or coroner, and with a touch of science fiction woven in. Oddly, Ken says it feels familiar, though it is a new release and a pretty unique premise! He's enjoying it so far.

Our son, 27, finished reading Battlemage by Taran Matharu, book 3 of The Summoner trilogy, which he loved. It was a birthday gift from his girlfriend, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, he is re-reading A Crucible of Souls by Mitchell Hogan, book one of the Sorcery Ascendant Sequence. His girlfriend gave him the third and final book of the trilogy for his birthday, so he is first re-reading books one and two (as he does!) before moving onto the last one. His summer internship allows for some downtime each day when he is allowed to read, so he's taking full advantage of that!

 

 

Last week's blog posts:

Movie Monday: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things - two teens are stuck in the same day: uplifting, fun, and full of heart

Fiction Review: The Accidental Further Adventures of the 100-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson - a quirky, outrageous, often hilarious journey around the world that was very enjoyable on audio

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 Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man

On audio, I finished another Big Book, The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson. This was a sequel to The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, and I did not read the first book, but that was OK. This unusual novel is hard to describe, but it was very entertaining.

 Allan is the 100-year-old man of the title, and at the start of the novel, he is relaxing in Bali with his friend, Julius, a petty thief. They are both Swedish, and seem to have come into some money at the end of the first book because they are living a life of luxury in Bali. When their money begins to run out, Julius makes a new friend and comes up with a money-making asparagus-farming/importing business scheme. For Allan’s 101^st birthday, Julius hires a hot-air balloon, but the two friends crash-land in the ocean. They are picked up by a North Korean ship coming from the African coast and carrying four kilograms of refined uranium. They end up in North Korea as “guests”/prisoners of Kim Jung-un, with Allan pretending to be a nuclear weapons expert! That’s just the first of the many surprising, outlandish adventures the two friends have together. They travel all over the globe, pick up a third person, get into crazy situations, and somehow manage to escape each time, culminating in a happy ending for all.

 

As you can probably tell just from that brief description, the novel is aptly titled, and Allan and Julius have a lot of adventures. In fact, the chapters are labeled with the countries they are visiting, and there are a lot of different ones included here. I learned a lot about each country and its history! Allan is quite a character who says whatever he is thinking, has plenty of opinions, and, in this book, has discovered technology in the form of a tablet and is constantly regaling his companions with the latest news, whether they want to hear it or not. Besides Kim Jung-un, Allan meets President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (and has opinions about them all!). The book is light and funny and often outrageous. But the novel is also filled with facts (and hilarious commentary) about world history and current global events, since Allan has lived through much of history and now has his tablet at hand. It's quirky and sometimes absurd, but it is also fascinating, entertaining, and very funny.  It was a fun change of pace, sandwiched in between a post-apocalyptic audio book and a mystery/thriller. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it on audio.

 

448 pages, William Morrow

HarperAudio

 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

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, as the Korean War and the current state of North Korea are explained as background for Allan's current adventures there, 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 Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Movie Monday: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

One evening when my husband had a late online meeting for work, I set out to find just the right "me movie" to watch on my own. I wanted something uplifting and fun but with some depth to it; not just mindless fluff. I found just the right movie for my mindset in The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, a time-loop movie (ala Groundhog Day) with plenty of fun and a lot of heart.

Teen-aged Mark, played by Kyle Allen, has been stuck re-living the same day over and over ... and over. It's not even an especially good day: he doesn't get to see his mom at all, his dad wants to have an uncomfortable talk about his future, and nothing particularly exciting is going on. He takes to walking around town, witnessing the same people doing the same things every day and even gets some pleasure from helping to avert potential disasters that only he sees coming. But he's bored. Then one day at the pool, he notices Margaret, played by Kathryn Newton. He notices her because she's the only person in the entire place that isn't in the same place, doing the exact same thing as every other day. He works up the courage to introduce himself and eventually, to ask her the rather awkward question of whether she is stuck re-living this day, too. She is! Gradually, the two of them team up, the only people in the world who understand what they are each going through. Mark can tell Margaret is hiding some sort of secret because she rushes off at 6 pm every day without telling him where she's going. Otherwise, they really start to bond over their shared experiences and even get some enjoyment out of their situation when Mark comes up with the idea to make a map of "tiny perfect things," little moments of synchronicity they have discovered in this otherwise boring day. But Margaret's secret is coming between them, and they still can't figure out how to get unstuck.

If you've read my blog before, you know that I absolutely love any kind of fictional plot that plays with time: time travel, time shifts, or yes, time loops. So, of course, I loved the premise of this movie right from the start. But there is so much more to it that just the plot. The two main actors--who are really the stars of this show, with others in small parts supporting them--are both excellent in their roles. The writing is good, with plenty of smart, clever dialogue and nothing too trite or expected. The concept of the tiny perfect things is very cool, and it's fun to go along with them on their repeated journeys through town to document these moments. Best of all, though, is that this movie also has emotional depth to it, with some serious issues examined (including what's behind the time loop) and real feeling between the main characters. In short, it has heart and soul. I really enjoyed it; this was just the kind of uplifting and meaningful (but fun!) movie I was looking for.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is an Amazon Original movie, so it is available exclusively on Amazon Prime.

It's Monday 8/23! What Are You Reading Today?

We took a big step forward last week and finally chose an Assisted Living facility for my 96-year-old father-in-law! It was a tough decision to make because they are all very different and each one has its own pricing structure, but we're happy with the one we chose. And, just in time to remind us we are doing the right thing, he had a rough week and reinforced that he really needs 24/7 help available (which is now my husband driving 20 min each way to help him!). We scheduled movers for just after Labor Day, and after that, our stress and time should both loosen up a bit. Unfortunately, when we picked him up Saturday for our usual weekly picnic in the park, he was in really bad shape mentally (his dementia is very up and down), so we couldn't tell him about the move yet; it just would have confused and upset him. We'll do that next weekend and start packing. So, we've still been very busy and now have piles of forms to fill out, phone calls to make, packing, etc. but things should get better in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, we did make time Saturday for some fun, too. My husband and I ate breakfast out at a local coffee shop/cafe and sat outside on a nice morning. 

 

A Saturday treat: breakfast out!

Then, we stopped at the library and went INSIDE to browse!! Our library only recently fully re-opened for browsing so this was exciting! Even though we have en entire bookcase (with double rows!) of books waiting to be read at home, this felt like a special occasion, so I chose a graphic novel (and Big Book) I've been wanting to read, and he chose a new-release thriller by an author we haven't read before.

Our library haul - exciting to be back inside!

Saturday evening, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at our close friends' house. We've known them for over 30 years, have very similar interests, and many shared memories, so it was an enjoyable evening. It was also the first time I'd seen any friends in about 5 weeks, so I needed that! My chronic illness flared up badly again mid-week, so I've been quite limited lately. The evening out was a great mood lifter.

I uploaded just one new video last week, my usual Friday Reads update, so if you want to hear me talk about my current reads, check it out at the link. I included a recent graphic novel that I forgot to mention here on the blog.

And here's what we've all been reading this past week:

Surprise! I am still reading the biggest book of my summer, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. My copy is "only" about 600 pages, but they are very big, densely-printed pages. Most versions show almost 900 pages. Believe it or not, this is my first-ever classic Russian novel! Really! We didn't read any in school. I'm past the halfway point now so am feeling more confident that I will finish by the end of #BigBookSummer (Sept. 6).  It's set in 19th-century Russia (I had to look that up - there's really no mention of the timing of the novel), about Anna, a charismatic woman of the aristocratic class who is married and has a son. While visiting her brother in Moscow, she meets Count Vronsky, and the two are instantly attracted to each other and eventually begin to have an affair, making Anna's life very difficult. So far, I'm finding it easy to read (no archaic language), with short chapters and a lot going on. It's interesting that the title features Anna's name because there are actually a lot of characters, and the story follows others, too, completely apart from Anna (though they all know each other). I'm working hard to keep the Russian names straight (everyone seems to have at least three names plus a nickname). It feels like I'm making slow progress, but it's a very big book with very long pages! I'm enjoying it.

On audio, I finished another Big Book, The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson. This unusual novel is hard to describe! First, it's a sequel, and I did not read the first book, but that was OK. Alan is 100 years old and is relaxing in Bali with his friend, Julius (a petty thief). They are both Swedish, and seem to have come into some money at the end of the first book. The two of them do have a lot of adventures, and the book is light and funny and often outrageous. From Indonesia, the friends end up in North Korea as prisoners of Kim Jung Un, with Alan pretending to be a nuclear weapons expert! But the novel is also filled with facts (and hilarious commentary) about world history and current global events, since Alan has lived through much of history and seems to know a lot about the world. The friends travel all over, get into crazy situations, and somehow manage to escape. It's quirky and sometimes absurd, but it is also fascinating, entertaining, and very funny. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it.

Now, I have started my last audio Big Book of the Summer, A Better Man by Louise Penny. I chose this audiobook because it qualifies as a Big Book, to close out my summer reading challenge, which ends September 6, and it will kick off my annual fall reading challenge, the R.I.P. Challenge for reading darker books in September and October! However, this is sort of an odd choice for me because the only other Louise Penny novel I have read was book 1 in this series, Still Life, and this novel is book 17. I missed a little bit in between. But I enjoyed that first book and have been wanting to read another. I do think I missed something big at the end of book 16 because this one starts with Inspector Gamache newly demoted to head of homicide in Quebec's Surete (police force). This time, during catastrophic spring flooding, a woman has gone missing, and the local police don't seem to be taking it seriously. I just started it this weekend, but I am already fully immersed in the story.

My husband, Ken, finished the last of his Father's Day gift books, The Hotel Neversink by Adam O'Fallon Price. I chose this one from the list of 2020 Edgar Award winners (it won for Best Original Paperback). It's about a spooky hotel in the Catskills (a favorite vacation spot of ours). When the hotel opens, children begin disappearing, and that mysterious vanishing continues for generations. Asher Sikorsky is the ruthless patriarch who bought the hotel in 1961, and the novel follows his family, as his daughter tries to make the hotel profitable, and his grandchildren later grapple with the hotel's legacies. My husband enjoyed it OK, but there are disappearing children at the center of the plot (he loves thrillers but kids in peril is always tough to read about), so he said it was good but too sad for him. It sounds like a creepy, ghost-y kind of story, so I may add it to my huge stack to read in the fall for the R.I.P. Challenge.

Now, Ken is reading the book he picked up at the library, Red Hands by Christopher Golden. Neither of us have read this author before, but this seems to be book 3 in the Ben Walker series, about a "weird science expert." It begins with a terrifying opening scene, on the 4th of July, where one guy drives into a crowd at a parade, then stumbles out of his car. Every person the man touches dies within seconds. Soon, a woman named Maeve also develops "the killing touch," which seems to be highly contagious, and she escapes into the wilderness to try to keep from killing anyone inadvertently. That's where Ben Walker, with the weird science expertise, steps in. This sounds like an intriguing twist on the classic thriller formula, with the main character not the typical cop, detective, or coroner, and with a touch of science fiction woven in. Sounds interesting to me!

Our son, 27, finished reading Rebel Spring, book 2 in the Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes, after re-reading book 1, also called Falling Kingdoms. He's enjoying that series. Now, he's moved onto one of his birthday gifts from last week, from his girlfriend, Battlemage by Taran Matharu, book 3 of The Summoner trilogy, which he loves. He must be enjoying this one because he is already three-quarters of the way through it! He loves to read and was thrilled with the stack of books he got for his birthday (and I only got one that he had already read - not bad, considering how fast he flies through them!).

 

Last week's blog posts:

Movie Monday: The Nice Guys - a funny, action-packed thriller with a great cast, set in the '70's

Fiction Review: After the Flood by Kassandra Montag - post-apocalyptic story of a mother searching for her daughter in a flooded 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?

 

Fiction Review: After the Flood

I listened to another Big Book on audio this month, After the Flood by Kassandra Montag, a post-apocalyptic novel with a unique premise that kept me riveted.

 

It 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, as the flood waters neared their home in Kansas, Myra's husband kidnapped their older daughter, Row, and Myra has been unable to find them. But now, during a resupply stop, 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. They meet a group of people in a larger boat, but can they trust them? This is a dangerous world they live in (apocalypses never seem to bring out the good in people, do they?), filled with pirates and other perils.

 

The novel was gripping and suspenseful from the very first chapter. I liked Myra and especially Pearl, as well as some of the other characters (there are still some good people left in this world!), and I could relate to Myra’s desperation to find Row. It’s a fast-paced story, with almost non-stop action, as they and their new companions make the treacherous journey north. It is dark at times, but hope is woven throughout and is a major theme. In fact, I liked this quote so much that I paused my audio to write it down:

 

“Hope would never come knocking on your door. You had to claw your way toward it, rip it out of the cracks of your loss, where it poked out like some weed, and cling to it.”

 

I think that one sentence expresses both the darkness and the theme of hope in the novel. It was very compelling and kept me interested from start to finish, with an excellent audio production.

432 pages, Harper Collins

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

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 After the Flood from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Movie Monday: The Nice Guys

During our brief respite this weekend, we enjoyed takeout dinner and a movie at home Saturday night. I was browsing through the available movies on our streaming channels when I spotted The Nice Guys, a movie from a few years ago (OK, five years ago) that I remembered hearing about and wanting to see. It was a very entertaining action/thriller with a great sense of humor, set in the 1970's.

Ryan Gosling stars as Holland March, a private investigator in 1970's Los Angeles, with a little girl, Holly (played by Angourie Rice). He's been hired to find a woman's niece who's named Amelia, played by Margaret Qualley, who it seems is being sought by a lot of different people. Along the way, he runs into (OK, gets beat up by) fellow investigator Jackson Healy, played by Russell Crowe, who's been hired to stop him from looking for Amelia. Instead, the two of them team up because it seems that the mysterious Amelia is in trouble from some very dangerous people. Later, Amelia's mother, played by Kim Basinger, officially hires them to find her. But the story she tells is very different from what others have told them. Who do they believe? The plot gets very twisty, as they race around L.A. amid fancy Hollywood parties, shoot-outs, car chases, and lots of strange people, including a wide variety of criminals. March keeps telling his daughter, Holly, to stay home, but somehow she always ends up in the middle of the action (and danger). To add to their problems, an infamous hit man named John Boy, played by Matt Bomer, has been sent to kill them. 

As you can probably tell from this description, The Nice Guys is an action-packed mystery/thriller, but it is also very funny. The backdrop of '70's fashions, cars, and music makes it all extra-fun, as the two unlucky investigators try to figure out what's going on and who to believe while searching for Amelia. The lead actors are both excellent in their roles; you get a bit of the usual dark brooding from Gosling, but he's not quite as silent in this movie as in some of his others. Crowe's character is a violent-prone but happy guy. Underneath it all, they are both "nice guys" who just want to do the right thing. Rice, as March's daughter, Holly, is an excellent young actress who holds her own among all the big names here. Aside from the recognizable names I mentioned, it's one of those movies so chock-full of talent that we kept pointing to the screen to say, "Oh, look it's that guy! What do we know him from?" Thank goodness for IMDb. There's some serious danger here, but it's all a bit tongue-in-cheek. Bottom line is that it's a fun, entertaining movie for when you don't want anything too somber. Grab the popcorn, sit back, and go along for the ride.

The Nice Guys is currently available on Hulu, with subscription, or for $3.99 rental fee on most streaming channels, including Amazon.

Check out the trailer below, to get an idea of the tone of the movie and the entertaining banter between Gosling and Crowe:

And if you enjoy this kind of entertaining action-packed thriller with a sense of humor, you might also like these movies (reviews and trailers at the links):

• American Ultra - about a stoner turned secret agent
• The Lovebirds - date night goes very wrong for this couple in New Orleans
• Shaft - the 2019 remake starring Samuel L. Jackson
• A Simple Favor - smart, twisty thriller with a great sense of humor - a favorite!
  

It's Monday 8/16! What Are You Reading?

Today is a very special day: it's my oldest son's 27th birthday! It's also his first birthday ever that we haven't all spent together, so that's a little sad. But, we had a brief but wonderful visit with him last weekend, and he received his gifts in the mail. He lives out of state now, with his girlfriend, and is working today (but a nice birthday surprise: a late start so he could sleep in!). In short, he is happy, and after all of his very difficult medical struggles the past 17 years, we are thrilled to see him taking these steps toward independence - best gift ever! 

My son's 1st birthday - how'd it all go by so fast?

 

Birthday party memories! For his 8th, we transformed our house into Hogwarts!

Of course, his birthday gifts include a stack of books! I had a lot of fun picking them out for him. If you've read my blog for a while, you know that he loves to read epic fantasy series - the longer, the better. So, I chose a couple of books that were next up in some favorite in-progress series, but I had the most fun picking out some new stuff for him to try. I got a great suggestion from an old high school friend and got lots of great ideas from this video, Top 10 Fantasy Series by Daniel Green - I may be watching Daniel's videos before every holiday, as he seems to like the same books my son does! If you or someone you love enjoys reading fantasy, definitely check out his videos!

I ordered from Bookshop. It's a new website with the convenience of shopping online (and easy shipping) that also supports indie bookstores! So, even though I had to ship my son's gifts, I could still buy on Bookshop and credit some of my purchase to our little local indie bookstore, where I usually shop. It worked perfectly, and shipping was quick, too.

Here are the books I ended up choosing for him, for fantasy fans:

• Charmcaster by Sebastien de Castell, book 3 of the Spellslinger series (thanks to Beth Fish Reads blog for that suggestion - he loves the series!)
• Call of the Hero by Robert J. Crane, book 10 of The Sanctuary series.
• NPCs by Drew Hayes, book 1 of Spells, Swords, Stealth series, about an NPC in a game who must become an active player to save his world - very cool premise (this is the one my friend mentioned).
• Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames, book 1 of The Band series - this is the one I heard about in Daniel Green's video linked above - he says it is funny, too, so a perfect fit.
• The Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester, because it has long been my son's dream to try his hand at writing fantasy, and I am happy to help.
  

Life here is still pretty stressful and overwhelming, so I declared another Respite on Saturday evening. We didn't have much time (about 18 hours) and couldn't go anywhere, but we pledged to relax and enjoy each other's company during our respite. I wrote about it on my chronic illness blog. So, that brief break helped us both to relax a bit and de-stress. Today, I am on my own and pretty wiped out from the weekend, so I am trying to take care of myself and recharge.

I did manage to upload a couple of new videos to my YouTube channel last week (click the links to watch):

• July Reading Wrap-Up - brief summaries of the books I read in July and what I liked about them.
• Friday Reads, my weekly quick video on what I am currently reading and listening to.

Here's what we are all reading this week:

I am, of course, still reading the biggest book of my summer, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. My copy is "only" about 600 pages, but they are very big, densely-printed pages. Most versions show almost 900 pages. Believe it or not, this is my first-ever classic Russian novel! Really! We didn't read any in school. I'm already a third of the way through it so am feeling more confident that I will finish by the end of #BigBookSummer (Sept. 6).  It's set in 19th-century Russia (I had to look that up - there's really no mention of the timing of the novel), about Anna, a charismatic woman of the aristocratic class who is married and has a son. While visiting her brother in Moscow, she meets Count Vronsky, and the two are instantly attracted to each other and eventually begin to have an affair, making Anna's life very difficult. So far, I'm finding it easy to read (no archaic language), with short chapters and a lot going on. I'm working hard to keep the Russian names straight (everyone seems to have three names). It's starting to get pretty tragic for poor Anna, so I am hoping things get better for her.

On audio, I am listening to another Big Book (from my large audio backlog), The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson. I've been thinking about how to describe this very unusual novel! First, it's a sequel, and I have not read the first book, but that seems to be OK. Alan is 100 years old and is relaxing in Bali with his friend, Julius (a petty thief). They are both Swedish, and seem to have come into some money at the end of the first book. The two of them do have a lot of adventures, and the book is light and funny: from Indonesia, they ended up in North Korea! But the novel is also filled with facts about world history and global events, since Alan has lived through much of history and seems to know a lot about the world. He is also a first-class BSer, who seems able to talk himself out of anything! The friends travel all over, get into crazy situations, and somehow manage to escape. It's quirky and sometimes pretty outrageous, but it is also fascinating and very funny. I'm really enjoying the audio book so far.

My husband, Ken, finished his latest Big Book (his 3rd or 4th?), Genesis, a medical thriller by Robin Cook, the king of that genre. Neither of us has read a Cook novel in many years (decades?), but my neighbor dropped a couple of them off for us - thanks, Mari! This one has a fascinating plot. It's about a medical examiner in NYC who's performed an autopsy on a woman who seems to have died of an overdose, but her family and friends swear she's never touched drugs. The victim was also pregnant, and no one knows who the father was. The Assistant ME turns to a controversial new technique on her own: collaborating with an ancestry DNA website to try to find the identity of the mystery father. This one sounds ripped from the headlines and very current. Ken enjoyed it.

Now, Ken is back to the last of his Father's Day gift books, reading The Hotel Neversink by Adam O'Fallon Price. I chose this one from the list of 2020 Edgar Award winners (it won for Best Original Paperback). It's about a spooky hotel in the Catskills (a favorite vacation spot of ours). When the hotel opens, children begin disappearing, and that mysterious vanishing continues for generations. Asher Sikorsky is the ruthless patriarch who bought the hotel in 1961, and the novel follows his family, as his daughter tries to make the hotel profitable, and his grandchildren later grapple with the hotel's legacies. So far, my husband's not thrilled with disappearing children at the center of the plot (he loves thrillers but kids in peril is always tough to read about). It sounds like a creepy, ghost-y kind of story, so I may add it to my huge stack to read in the fall for the R.I.P. Challenge.

Our son, 27 today!, is still reading Rebel Spring, book 2 in the Falling Kingdoms series by Morgan Rhodes. He recently finished re-reading book 1, also called Falling Kingdoms, and was eager to move onto the next book. His summer internship includes some down periods each day when it's OK for him to pull out a book, so he's taking full advantage of that. That's pretty much a dream job for him--one where he is allowed to read throughout the day! 

 

 

Just one new blog post last week, besides my Monday post:

Fiction Review: The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin - a quiet, compelling story about family, relationships & secrets, set against a gorgeous backdrop.

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?