It's Monday 8/2! What Are You Reading?

My guilty confession? While everyone else is lamenting August and the upcoming end of summer, I am thrilled to turn the calendar page and get one month closer to fall! I used to enjoy summer, just like everyone else, but now I just find the heat and humidity intolerable. And summer used to mean family vacations, including our annual 3-week road trip out west to explore new places with our camper. These days, we can't travel further than 30 min from home because my father-in-law (96) needs daily care. My husband is over there once or twice every day, and we spend time with him every weekend. But we have almost come to a decision on an Assisted Living facility for him, which will help, and we are also considering a close-by quick getaway for the two of us sometime soon, someplace within an hour from him and with some back-up help from our son.

I'm missing our road trips, like this one to RMNP in Colorado

We had a beautiful campsite there.

We actually did get some nice weather this weekend and continuing today; the temperature dropped by more than 10 degrees and the humidity dropped, too. I am thrilled to have the windows open right now! And the cooler weather has allowed me to take a couple of walks this week - I've been missing my walks very much.

My favorite walking trail is lushly green in the summer!

My neighbor's gorgeous flowers!

Overall, though, I had a very rough week. I just pushed myself too hard with work (my chronic illness limits my stamina) and did too much. That, combined with a lot of stress over worrying about family members, left me totally depleted by Friday. So, with our younger son away for the weekend, my husband and I spent a very quiet weekend mostly at home (other than visiting my father-in-law and taking him out). We focused on relaxing and recuperating and reverted to our pandemic-style Saturday night with take-out and a great movie (review to come!), which was just what we needed.

A pizza picnic in the park Saturday with my FIL

So, I am feeling a bit better today, mentally refreshed, and am enjoying a quiet, productive day at home.

Books always provide comfort and escape for us! Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

I am taking a short break from #BigBookSummer 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.  It's an intricate novel about relationships, secrets, and of course, that gorgeous, remote setting and is every bit as compelling as Cronin's more famous sci fi thrillers! 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 forgot to mention in my Monday posts that I squeezed in a quick middle-grade graphic novel last month, in among the Big Books. I read Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter, and I'm glad I did! All Maggie wants for her tenth birthday is a dog, and she wakes up that morning so excited for her family's trip to the animal shelter. She finds the perfect puppy, who seems to like her as much as she likes him, until ... she breaks out in hives and her face swells up! A visit to an allergist reveals that Maggie is allergic to anything with feathers or fur. She tries out other pets, and even a secret pet, but nothing seems to work. She's also starting at a new school, where she feels left out, but her life improves when she makes a new friend named Claire. I expected just a light story here, but this novel had surprising depth to it and really dug into Maggie's struggles (and other issues), leading to a very satisfying conclusion.

I am listening to a 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 older 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. 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?). The novel has been gripping and compelling from the very first chapter, and I'm enjoying it.

My husband, Ken, is reading another 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. He's enjoying it so far.

Our 26-year-old son has been reading like crazy! 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. He finished 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. Then he finished two more books! He says he's currently reading Falling Kingdoms, book one of the fantasy series of the same name, by Morgan Rhodes. He explained to me last night that he's read book one before and enjoyed it, and he wanted to re-read it before reading book two - that's my book lover!

Last week's blog post (like I said, it was a rough week!):

Fiction Review: Blackout by Connie Willis - outstanding time travel historical novel set in WWII

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?