It's Monday 3/14! What Are You Reading?

Happy Pi Day! (Get it? Today is  March 14, aka 3.14) And thanks to the Today Show for reminding my groggy self this morning, so I could change my menu plans for dinner tonight to making Chicken Pot Pie and mini Apple Pies for dessert. Join the fun! Here's a previous Pi Day (half homemade and half store-bought):

Chicken pot pie (on right) and pie for dessert!

The weather's been crazy here, as is the norm for March. On Friday, I took a photo of crocuses that had just opened, and on Saturday, we got snow. Today and the rest of this week are going up into the 60's and maybe even 70, so that last blast of winter was short-lived, thank goodness!

First crocuses

 

Snow Saturday!

As I've mentioned, we are arranging hospice for my 96-year-old father-in-law, so he is nearing the end of his life. We each visit every day and much of the time, he is either asleep or pretty out of it. But I had an extraordinary visit with him Saturday. He was wide awake and alert--completely in another world but so very happy! He pointed out his world-record fish on the wall (there's nothing on the walls of his tiny nursing home room) and told me fishing stories for the next 90 minutes. He loves to fish, so he was just immersed in happy memories the entire time. He thought he was at a lake--even encouraged me to put my line in!--but he was so happy and so fully engaged in that imaginary world of his memories. After watching him suffer so much in recent months (and years), it just filled my heart with joy to see him so happy again. By dinnertime when my husband and son visited, he was back to his usual state. I feel blessed to have been there with him during that brief, magical respite.

My father-in-law with his world-record fish!

Back to the reading world! I recorded and uploaded a video of my February Reading Wrap-Up, so check that out to hear about the seven wonderful books I read, mostly for Black History Month. It was an outstanding reading month!

As of the end of February, here's my progress on my 2021 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge - I've read six books from my own shelves so far - my goal is 48!

Monthly Motif Challenge - February was Girl Power, and Kindred by Octavia Butler was an perfect choice!

Back to the Classics 2022 - My goal is to read 6 classics this year, and I've already read two! I'm so proud of myself. In February, I added Black Boy by Richard Wright, a 1945 memoir that I counted in the Nonfiction Classic category.

Alphabet Soup Challenge - I have 8 letters filled in so far (of 26).

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - Black Boy by Richard Wright also counted for my Nonfiction Challenge, bringing my total to 3 so far, with a goal of 12.

Diversity Challenge - I've read 12 diverse books already this year! That's almost everything I've read so far.

Travel the World in Books - In February, I added Indonesia and Haiti, two places I have rarely read about before.

Literary Escapes Challenge - I've filled in 8 of the 51 states (including DC) so far.

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

I finished my first book for Booktopia 2022 (for more info at the link, click Events and scroll to the bottom), Country of Origin by Dalia Azim, and I loved it! The booksellers at Northshire Bookstore always choose amazing books/authors for the event, and this debut novel is no exception. It begins in Egypt in 1952 when Cairo is set aflame, and the revolution for independence begins. Fourteen-year-old Halah is pulled out of the British girls' school she is attending and begins to feel like a prisoner in her own home. She's grown up privileged and protected and experienced very little of the outside world. A few years later, she runs away with a soldier to New York. The novel has different parts from the perspectives of Halah, her husband, and their daughter. It was engrossing and compelling, and I am still thinking about it (always a good sign).

 

 

Now, I am reading one of my Christmas gifts from my husband, The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, a book I have been looking forward to! I loved Station Eleven, and so far, this second novel is just as good. A young woman named Vincent grew up on the remote far end of Vancouver Island in a small town, Caiette, with just a few other houses. Her mother went out canoeing one day when Vincent was fourteen and disappeared. Vincent wanders through her life, unable to put down roots, living in Vancouver, working as a bartender at a luxury hotel built right in Caiette, fake-marrying a wealthy man, and working as a cook on a container ship. I am totally immersed in this novel about an unusual life.

 

I finished listening to Room to Dream by Kelly Yang, for Middle-Grade March (see #Booktube) - it was really great (and apparently the third book in a trilogy, so the first two books are probably good, too). Now, I am listening to another middle-grade book on audio, Set Me Free by Ann Claire LeZotte. It's about Mary, a fourteen-year-old deaf girl in the early 18th century who lives on Martha's Vineyard in a loving family and supportive community. A friend working on Boston asks Mary to come help a young girl who is deaf and mute and is being treated like an animal. Mary is excited to teach the eight-year-old girl, but is it even possible to teach someone who has never known any language at all? It's excellent so far.

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading Never by Ken Follett. We have both been fans of Follett's books since the 80's, when he mostly wrote thrillers, and here, he returns to his roots with a modern, globe-spanning, unique race against time. The author's note at the beginning says he was thinking about how a series of seemingly small events dominoed to start WWI, so he's setting up a similar set of scenarios in today's world (with a female U.S. President!). It sounds fascinating, and knowing Follett's writing, I'm sure it's gripping as well.

 

 

Our son, 27, is back to reading a favorite series, The Magic of Recluce, by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. He finished book 4, The Order War, which we gave him for Christmas. OK, now try to stay with me on this--he explained it to me when he was home last week. Before he moves onto book 5, The Death of Chaos, he's gone back to re-read book 1, The Magic of Recluce, because book 5 is actually a direct sequel to book 1. This series is hard to follow! (for me, not for him). In the chronological order of the series, book 4 was #18, book 1 is #21, and book 5 is #22. Got that? Anyway, he loves this series and is enjoying it.

 

New blog posts: 

 

YA Review: Kent State by Deborah Wiles - powerful, first-person accounts of the event from multiple perspectives - outstanding on audio

Middle-Grade Review: Behind the Mountains by Edwitch Dandicat - moving story of immigration from rural Haiti to Brooklyn, NY

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?