It's Monday 2/28! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

It's very late on Monday already, and I am pretty exhausted after a whirlwind week and a very long day.

Mostly, we are still focused on my father-in-law, who is declining in a local nursing home. We visit every day and spend a lot of time managing his care and trying to get what he needs (challenging in a busy care home still under-staffed from COVID). This past weekend, my husband and younger son spent all day moving Grandad's stuff out of his assisted living apartment, which was very sad. Our basement now looks like a storage facility, with all of our son's stuff (he's between apartments) and all of my father-in-law's stuff, too. Look for us on an upcoming episode of Hoarders!

The highlight of the week, even though we were all exhausted, was our tradition of celebrating Mardi Gras on Saturday evening. I cooked a huge pot of jambalaya Saturday, then traded some for the delicious bread pudding our friends made (we all used to live in New Orleans). Normally, we'd have a big party Saturday night before Mardi Gras, but for the second time, we did a Zoom celebration instead. We gathered virtually with our closest friends, including several that used to live in New Orleans when we did. We haven't seen any of them in a long time, so it was great to catch up! I didn't take any photos, but I'll include some food photos from previous years.

Jambalaya

Bread Pudding and King Cake

If YOU want to celebrate Mardi Gras (tomorrow, March 1, is Mardi Gras Day), check out my tips, Celebrate Mardi Gras at Home!, which includes lists of great movies, TV shows, and books set in Louisiana, plus foods to cook or buy and even some travel tips if you're planning a trip down South. We will be at our oldest friends' house tomorrow (the ones who made the bread pudding) for our annual Mardi Gras Popeye's dinner (yes, Popeye's is authentic!).

Somehow, I managed to upload two new videos last week:

All About Me Tag - a fun new get-to-know-me video

Friday Reads 2-25-22 - my weekly update on what I'm reading

Here's what we are all reading this week:

After finishing Kindred by Octavia Butler (amazing!!), I moved onto another book group pick, The Editor by Steven Rowley. This is a fun story about a first-time author in the 1990's whose book is acquired by a publisher. James goes to his first meeting at the publisher's only to discover that his new editor is Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis! The book has fun with that premise (she was an editor in the 90's), but it also has plenty of emotional depth. James' novel is autobiographical, about a difficult relationship between a mother and son. His mother is none too happy about it, and James has a lot of stuff to work through before the novel has a satisfactory ending.

 

I fit in one last audio book for Black History Month, Behind the Mountains by Edwidge Dandicat, a middle-grade book set in Haiti and New York. Celiane (about 13 years old) lives with her mother and older brother in a remote village in the mountains of Haiti, while her father lives in New York, where he can earn money to send home. During a visit to Port-au-Prince, Celiane and her mother are both injured in a bombing due to politic unrest, and their U.S. visas are finally approved. The first half of the autobiographical novel takes place in Haiti and the second half in Brooklyn, as Celiane and her family adjust to life as U.S. immigrants. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this engrossing story with a unique setting.

 

For my husband, Ken's, next book, he chose A Blizzard of Polar Bears by Alice Henderson (it seemed like an apt choice for February). He really enjoyed A Solitude of Wolverines by the author last year, so I gave him this second novel for Christmas. Both books feature Alex Carter, a wildlife biologist who studies endangered species, and this second installment takes her to the Canadian Arctic. I want to read these, too!

 

Our son, 27, has been reading up a storm! He finally finished Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook, a volume that contains the first several books in the series (which he really enjoyed). 

 

Next, he tackled the Spellslinger series, a favorite. He re-read book 2, Shadowblack, so that he could move onto book 3, Charmcaster, which I gave him for his birthday last year. He was telling me all about this series in the car today and loves it, as it includes magic and also has a great sense of humor, including a magical squirrel-cat who acts as the main character's partner! It was another book blogger, Beth Fish Reads, who first told me about this fun series!

 

And now, our son has returned to another favorite series, The Magic of Recluce,. He's reading book 4, The Order War, which we gave him for Christmas. There are 22 books in this epic fantasy series, so it should keep him busy for a while!

Blog posts last week:

Fiction Review: Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead - 

Memoir Review: Black Boy by Richard Wright - 

Celebrate Mardi Gras at Home! - books, TV, movies, and foods to celebrate this week!

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?