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?