It's Monday 9/13! What Are You Reading?

Huh? It's Monday? What happened to the weekend? It's been a bit of a rough ride here!

I got hit with a nasty stomach virus Friday night that knocked me out for the weekend. We were at a friend's house (outdoors, apart, each eating our own takeout, thankfully!) enjoying dinner and a campfire, and I couldn't figure out why I felt so wiped out all of a sudden. We went home (they are used to the whims of my chronic illness) and then the awful nausea hit, aches all over, and well, I'll spare you the details! Suffice it to say that I pretty much lost my weekend ... though I did read more than usual and indulged in some bingeable TV (loving Dickinson so far!).

My husband left for a business trip this morning - his first in two years! - so we were very careful this weekend. He spent much of his weekend wiping down surfaces with disinfecting wipes, checking on his dad, and doing long-neglected yardwork.

Oh, yeah, that was the positive part of last week--the reason why my husband had time for yardwork. We finally got his dad moved to Assisted Living! He's 96 and has needed help for over a year, but we weren't going to move him to where we couldn't visit. 

 

 His new place is great. His apartment looks very much like his old one in Independent Living, and both staff and residents all seem wonderful - kind and friendly. The first few days were rough for him, a difficult transition, but he seems to be settling in now. He is at least beginning to understand that those annoying people who keep checking on him are actually there to help and he should let them help! So, Wednesday (moving day) was a very long day, and then I was there for three hours on Thursday (I figure I picked up the stomach virus there!).

All of that is my way of explaining why I didn't get to visit many blogs last week! I usually catch up on the weekend, but I was pretty out of it and offline mostly. I did balance the laptop on pillows on the couch yesterday to visit some #BigBookSummer reviews and wrap-ups! Congratulations to everyone who participated!

Even before I got sick, it was pretty crazy of me to think I could manage as many blog posts and videos as I'd planned during moving week! I did get my weekly Friday Reads video recorded on Friday and posted (a quick overview of what I'm currently reading). And I recorded my own #BigBookSummer Wrap-Up but haven't edited it yet. So that and the summary here on the blog (along with the wrap-up of the whole challenge for everyone!) is coming this week.

Here's what we have all been reading this past week:

I am still reading The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd, the selection for my book group this week. I will admit that this is one of those books I really didn't want to read, even though plenty of people have told me how great it is, but as usual, I was wrong! That's the great thing about book groups - they get you to read books you might never have picked up on your own. It's the fictional story of Ana, a young woman who marries Jesus (yes, that Jesus). At the start of the novel, Ana is 14 years old, but she is already an admirable character to root for. She's incredibly smart (and educated, in spite of the times) and has an indomitable spirit. Her wealthy father has betrothed her to a cruel older widower, in order to raise his own status, and, despite Ana's vehement refusal, it seems she has no choice. She has just met Jesus for the first time in the market when her father announces her betrothal. From there, Ana's story moves to unexpected places, with many surprising twists in her life, as she tries to stay out of trouble while respecting her true calling, as a writer (which was, of course, forbidden for women). It's been a good novel to lose myself in while sick this weekend, and I should have known what a great writer Kidd is from The Secret Life of Bees. I'm totally immersed in Ana's story, and it's fascinating to read the details of life in the first century.

I chose my next audio for the R.I.P. Challenge (still need to post about that, too! Link is to my post from 2020), A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty. This is a YA fantasy, and I don't normally read much fantasy. As I explained in my Friday Reads video, I'm not a huge fan of fantasy set in a completely made-up world, though I sometimes enjoy a real-world setting with some fantastical/magical elements. This novel is working for me! There are two parallel storylines, set in two worlds. In the real world, in modern Cambridge, England, a group of young teens are homeschooled together and are friends. One of them is Madeleine, who lives with her mother. They used to live a life of luxury, traveling all over the world, but then Madeleine's father left. Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Cello, a young teen boy named Elliot is determined to find his own father, who went missing, along with the Physics teacher, the same night Elliot found his uncle dead. Most people believe his dad killed his uncle and ran away with the teacher or that some sort of creatures called Purples got them, but Elliot won't give up searching for him. A sort of crack appears between the two worlds, and Madeleine and Elliot begin communicating. And that's as far as I've gotten so far! Intriguing, right? I'm enjoying it.

My husband, Ken, is now reading one of my own top picks from 2021 Big Book Summer, Blackout by Connie Willis, a favorite author for both of us. This novel is part of her outstanding Oxford Time Travel series, where Oxford grad students in the History department in the near future (2060) travel back in time to observe historical events first-hand as part of their studies. In this case, multiple students are all studying WWII in England. So, one woman is in rural England, helping with the evacuation of children from London, while another is posing as a shop girl at the start of the Blitz in London, to observe how ordinary people reacted. One of their fellow students is posing as an American reporter and has traveled to Dover at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation to observe how ordinary people became heroes by volunteering themselves and their boats to bring soldiers back to England to safety. This time, though, with so many people traveling back to similar times/places, things begin to go wrong with the time travel technology, and they may not be able to get home. As with her other novels in this series (our favorite so far was Doomsday Book), she combines historical fiction with time travel for a very suspenseful, compelling story. He's loving it so far, as I knew he would!

Our son, 27, always enjoys epic fantasy, and he had some time off from work last week. He's been enjoying re-reading the first two books of the Sorcery Ascendance series by Mitchell Hogan to prepare for reading the third and final book of the trilogy, A Shattered Empire, which his girlfriend gave him for his birthday. He finished book 1, A Crucible of Souls, and is now re-reading Blood of Innocents, book 2. He loves to tear through these big fantasy novels--it's always Big Book Summer for him!

 

Last week's blog posts:

Graphic Novel Review: Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang - outstanding graphic novel for teens and adults, about a winning high school basketball team and the people behind it.

Fiction Review: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - Finally finished a classic Russian novel!

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?