It's Monday 3/21! What Are You Reading?

Happy Spring!

We had a beautiful week here and managed to get outside on Saturday to do some much-needed clean-up in the yard/garden. My husband's back has been bothering him, and I am very limited, so we were glad to have our son's help. He's actually in sales management for the company that sells tool brands like Hart and Ryobi, so he was happy to make use of his large collection of battery-operated lawn and garden tools! I know it doesn't look like much, but we got all the dead stuff cleared out and I can see little green shoots coming up. The new native plants I put in last spring are coming back. Some color should follow!

Our forsythia bush (my favorite sign of spring) isn't fully blooming yet, so I brought some branches inside to enjoy the first day of spring!

We enjoyed our traditional corned beef dinner with our son on St. Patrick's Day and just finished the last of the leftovers this morning with a delicious corned beef hash for breakfast!

As for my father-in-law, to misquote Twain, "rumors of his demise have been greatly exaggerated"! We can't explain it, but as we were arranging hospice, he suddenly and very abruptly came back to life. I went to visit Monday at noon, and he was sitting straight up, completely alert, and had an appetite! We talked for an hour, he ate and drank well, we looked through a family photo book I made him last Christmas, and he even FaceTimed with his grandson in Texas who he hadn't seen in years. It was the same on Tuesday, and my husband said he ate a huge dinner (he's barely eaten anything in months). By Thursday, he was eating his meals sitting up in a wheelchair in the hallway with other residents--out of bed! We can't explain it, but I guess at almost-97, he's not ready to go yet! Unfortunately, his dementia was bad this weekend--he was telling us all sorts of crazy stories about taking a train, just coming from St. Louis, trying to buy a truck, etc. He was better mentally yesterday, but now he has a very painful hernia. That brings his PT to an abrupt stop, just as he was getting close to being able to stand on his own and help with wheelchair transfers. So, more ups and downs! It was quite a rollercoaster last week.

In my reading life, I recorded my usual weekly update, Friday Reads 3-18-22, about a book and audio book that were both excellent!

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

I finished reading The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel and it was outstanding! I loved Station Eleven, and this novel was just as good (maybe even better?). 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 who later gets into big trouble, and working as a cook on a container ship. It's hard to describe just what made this novel so special, but I found it completely immersive, thoughtful, and engrossing.

 

Next up, I continued my Middle-Grade March by re-reading one of my favorite novels from my childhood, Katie John by Mary Calhoun, first published in 1960 (so it counts for the category of "published before I was born"!). As a kid, I absolutely loved this novel about a lively ten-year-old girl who moves with her family from California to a small town in Missouri to live in an old inherited house from her great-aunt. She makes a new friend (Sue!), and they have lots of adventures. But, here's the thing: I finished it last night, and it's not the book I remembered! All these years, I have been remembering a different book that I thought was this one ... and it's not. I have no idea what that other book was called! It was about a girl in the Midwest who goes exploring in the woods and fields and finds an old, abandoned farmhouse. She looks for clues about the pioneer owners of the house and imagines what their lives were like. Does anyone know what book that was?? Anyway, I did enjoy re-reading an old favorite, and I can see why I liked it so much as a kid to have kept it all these years!

 

On audio, I finished listening to Set Me Free by Ann Claire LeZotte. It's about Mary, a fourteen-year-old deaf girl in the early 19th century who lives on Martha's Vineyard in a loving family and supportive community. A friend working in 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 was a wonderful novel with an interesting, suspenseful plot but also a fascinating historical backdrop. Did you know there really was a large population of deaf people on Martha's Vineyard, from the 1600's until about mid-1800's? Author's notes at the end about the deaf community and the local Native Americans filled in more history for me (some of it stunning).

 

Now, I am listening to my last audio for Middle-Grade March, The Graveyard Riddle by Lisa Thompson. This is a companion novel to The Goldfish Boy, which I enjoyed on audio several years ago (see my review at the link). The main character of that book, Matthew, is still in this one, but here, the focus is on his friend and neighbor, Melody. One day, while walking her dog, Frankie, through the graveyard, Melody discovers a very old, abandoned house in a corner of the cemetery and begins to uncover some mysteries and secrets associated with it. I've just started it, but I'm enjoying it 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, has been 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. Before he moved onto book 5, he went 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?  When I checked in with him this morning, he said he already finished book 5, The Death of Chaos! Now he gets to choose his next book--we both agree that's so much fun!

Last week's blog posts:

TV Tuesday: The Handmaid's Tale - What an AMAZING show!! We finished season 4 this weekend, and it just gets better and better - they took a brilliant, thought-provoking novel and deepened it with incredibly complex characters to root for (and hate). Watch it.

Fiction Review: The Editor - a fun, funny novel about writing and mother-son relationships with surprising emotional depth.

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?