Fiction Review: The Violin Conspiracy

I've been reading books for the upcoming Booktopia weekend (my 2019 summary at the link; info for Booktopia 2022 here - click Events and scroll), and they have all been outstanding, as always. The booksellers at Northshire Bookstore always choose amazing books and authors. My latest Booktopia read, The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb, was perhaps my favorite of the bunch so far! It starts out as a mystery but turns into so much more: family drama, history, up-close look at racism, romance, and more. It was so compelling that I could hardly bear to set it down!

Ray McMillian is a rising star in the world of classical violin, but he is often not recognized as such for one simple reason: he's Black. But Ray has struggled against racism his whole life and has finally proven himself; he's soloing with top orchestras and will be competing in the Tchaikovsky Competition, the Olympics of classical music. Then one day, as he leaves New York for his home in North Carolina, his world crumbles. His beloved violin--a Stradivarius valued at $10 million--has been stolen. This violin is not only a big part of what helped him finally rise in others' estimation, it also has great personal importance to him, given to him by his beloved grandmother. That violin is like one of his own limbs, and its absence is unbelievably painful. Given its value, a whole team jumps in to investigate its disappearance: the NYPD, the FBI's Art Crimes Division, and a top investigator from his insurance company (which stands to lose $10 million). As the investigation continues with few good leads, the story moves back in time to show how Ray came to this extraordinary life he's been leading. We learn about his very unsupportive family, his loving grandmother, his family's history, and the astounding history of the violin, going back to slavery times. Along the way, we also watch Ray's rise to stardom, from a poor kid excelling with a cheap rental violin from school to the extraordinary international reputation he now has as a top violinist. Oh, yes, and we finally find out what happened to the missing violin but not before some big surprises.

This is such an extraordinary novel, with so much depth to it and so many layers. It's a twisty mystery, particularly at the beginning and the end. In between, though, the underlying story completely engrossed me with its fascinating family history, the horrifying racism Ray experiences (based on the author's own experiences as a Black musician), his rags to riches rise to fame, and even a love story. Through it all, the author maintains a steady tension that kept me glued to the book, staying up much too late each night because I just had to know what happened next. This novel is, itself, a virtuoso performance incorporating complexities and emotions that kept me on the edge of my seat and building to a stunning crescendo. I can't wait to meet the author next week at Booktopia!

337 pages, Anchor Books

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Alphabet Soup Challenge - V

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Russia

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The narrator, JD Jackson, sounds great!

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 

 

Or you can order The Violin Conspiracy from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

TV Tuesday: Transplant

I know, I know - there are so many medical shows on TV! And we already watch Grey's Anatomy, New Amsterdam, and The Resident. But, last winter, we started a new one, Transplant, that comes at the genre from a whole new perspective. We couldn't wait for season two, which just began a couple of months ago. We're really enjoying this medical show about an immigrant doctor trying to make a new life in Canada.

Bashir Hamed, played by Hamza Haq, is a Syrian refuge living in Toronto, struggling to build a life for himself and his little sister, after their parents--and almost everyone else they knew--were killed in Syria. He can't seem to get hired as a doctor in Toronto, since there is no infrastructure left in Syria to transmit his documentation and qualifications. But when a terrible crisis occurs, Bash lets instinct takes over and puts him own life at risk to save the lives of several strangers ... including Dr. Bishop, the Chief of Emergency Medicine of a local hospital who previously interviewed and rejected him. Now, Dr. Bishop is convinced and adds Bash to the ER staff, though he has to restart his career as a resident, in spite of his extensive experience. The rest of the ER staff isn't so sure about Bash, but his skills and compassion slowly win them over. In his personal life, Bash is struggling to care for his young sister, Amira (played by Sirena Gulamgaus), as they both try to assimilate into Canadian society, while still grieving their terrible losses. On top of all that, Bash is probably suffering from PTSD, as he experiences flashbacks of his horrific experiences in wartime and as a prisoner.

It's refreshing and enlightening to see a person of color and a refuge at the center of an excellent drama like this. The refuge crisis is huge in the world, and there are so many skilled immigrant workers--engineers, scientists, doctors--toiling away at manual labor jobs and barely making a living because they can't get hired in their field in the U.S. or Canada. Bash's story highlights these crises but never in a preachy way. His and Amira's stories are engaging and sometimes heart-breaking but also warm and sometimes joyful. And, while Bash is at the center of this show, it is still a medical drama, complete with new patient stories in each episode and the kinds of crazy experiences we have come to expect from TV ER's. The actors playing Bash and Amira are outstanding, but so is the rest of the cast, and the writing is excellent. Through each episode, as Bash and his fellow medical staff tackle new patients, the audience learns a little more about his backstory and his challenges (and joys). It's a thoroughly engrossing story, and we look forward to each new episode, rooting for Bash and Amira to find happiness in their new lives. And now I see a Season Three is planned; I can't wait!

Transplant is currently airing its second season on NBC. It is also available on Peacock and Hulu streaming services.

Fiction Review: This Tender Land

I've been hearing great things about William Kent Krueger's novels for years now, but I hadn't yet read one. So, I was thrilled when our library system chose This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger as our All-County Reads selection for this spring. My own neighborhood book group then chose the novel as our April book. This engrossing, warmhearted, suspenseful historical novel just blew me away. I loved every minute of it and never wanted it to end. And though I missed our discussion, I think my book group agreed because this novel got one of our highest ratings ever (8.4 out of 10).

It's 1932, and a group of orphans are living in the Lincoln Indian Training School in southern Minnesota along the Gilead River. Though most residents at the school are Native American children (both orphaned and those sent to the school by well-meaning or desperate parents), there are two white brothers who have lived there since their parents died four years earlier. Odie O'Banion is twelve in 1932, and his older brother, Albert, is sixteen. While Albert is a model citizen, Odie is always getting into trouble. But regardless of behavior, Lincoln School is a frightening and dangerous place to grow up. The superintendent of the school, Mrs. Brickman, widely known to the students as the Black Witch, is cruel, and some of the adults she has hired are even worse. She's been threatening to send Odie to reformatory school, so the brothers know they need to get out of there soon. When disaster strikes and things become even more dangerous for the boys, they set off in a canoe, along with their best friend, Mose. Mose is an Indian boy about Albert's age who was found as an infant in a ditch next to his dead mother. His tongue had been cut out, so he could not speak as he got older. The school officials named him Moses for the way he was found, abandoned in the rushes. One reason he's so close to the O'Banion boys is that they taught him sign language, having learned it as small children because their mother was born deaf, which opened up his world. When the three boys set out in the canoe, a younger girl they've pledged to protect comes along. The four children head down the river, knowing that it will intersect with the Minnesota River and eventually, with the Mississippi River. They hope to make it to St. Louis, where Odie and Albert have an aunt they barely remember. Along the way, they encounter many kind people--and many dangerous ones as well. Through it all, the Brickmans have law enforcement searching for them, and all four of the kids just dream of having a home and a place to belong.

Their journey begins at about page 90, and the novel is almost 450 pages long, but I wanted to avoid any spoilers (as always) in my plot summary above, so I focused on the backstory. But theirs is an epic journey, covering months and many miles and many lessons learned. There is plenty of suspense here, as the kids face one challenge after another: being held captive at one point, one of their lives in imminent danger at another, a constant fear of getting caught and sent back, and more. It is also a very thoughtful novel, as each of the kids grapples with question of identity, family, and destiny. We get to know Odie, as the narrator of the novel, especially well, and he is struggling with the question of God, feeling as though God is a destructive force after all they've been through. Here, a farmer they meet along the way shares his own ideas of God (Buck is Odie's alias here):

"Everything's hard work, Buck. You don't wrap your thinking around that, life'll kill you for sure. Me, I love this land, the work. Never was a churchgoer. God all penned up under a roof? I don't think so. Ask me, God's right here. In the dirt, the rain, the sky, the trees, the apples, the stars in the cottonwoods. In you and me, too. It's all connected and it's all God. Sure, this is hard work, but it's good work because it's a part of what connects us to this land. This beautiful, tender land."

This passage highlights Krueger's beautiful writing and the thought-provoking ideas woven throughout the novel. While the kids see many new things and tackle many difficult challenges on their trip down the rivers, this is far more than an adventure story. It is also a fascinating piece of historical fiction, bringing to life the difficult years of the depression and how it affected different people. Krueger has even woven in elements of fairy tales and myths throughout the narrative. Most of all, this novel is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. These poor kids endure so much and struggle so hard, but ultimately, they discover they are each other's family, and the story comes to a satisfying conclusion, though not before many surprising plot twists! All in all, it's a nearly perfect novel, which is why my vote for my book group was for a perfect 10. I just wish I could have gone to our discussion; I am still itching to talk to someone about it! I can't wait to read more of Krueger's novels, now that I know what I've been missing.

444 pages, Atria Paperback

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Alphabet Soup Challenge - T

Diversity Challenge

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from Odie's Prologue and the beginning of Chapter 1 and gives a good introduction to the story. The narrator sounds wonderful!

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
     

 

Or you can order This Tender Land from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

It's Monday 4/18! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date 

Both our weather and my health continue on a rollercoaster course here! It was over 80 F one day last week, and I wore shorts and drove my car with the top down. Today, though, it's in the 40's, with heavy rain headed this way (and ice and snow predicted not too far from here!), and I am back in flannel. Likewise, I am still struggling with low energy and stamina, but I had a couple of good days early last week.

80 degrees and sunny last week!

Of course, the big event was Easter yesterday. Isn't it cool that holy days for three different major world religions all coincided in the same week this year? 

Easter morning at our house - our baskets include books!

Normally, we would travel to Rochester, NY, to spend Easter with my family, but we really can't leave my father-in-law for that long. He's in a nursing home nearby, but his dementia is really bad lately, so we visit every day to try to reassure him and keep him grounded. So, it was just the four of us for Easter, but it was so nice to have both "boys" home and all of us together. 

 

So nice to get all four of us together

We enjoyed our traditional Ukrainian feast: holubtsi (cabbage rolls), pierogies, hrain (a beet-horseradish relish), plus ham, Polish sausage, green beans, and of course, colored eggs. As an added bonus, my mom baked and sent a box of Ukrainian prune pastries. They're delicious, and we haven't had them in years, since she's the only one who knows how to make them. I made way too much food for the four of us, and both boys leave today (one for the work week and one for his home in NY), so my husband and I are going to be eating a lot of leftovers!

Ukrainian Easter feast!

 

Mom sent homemade Ukrainian pastries (individually wrapped!)

We watched old home movies after Easter dinner, from when our sons were 2 and 5--what a riot! Life was chaotic but a lot of fun back then. And they were both so darn cute! 

One of the scenes from our home movies - they loved to play dress-up!

With such limited energy last week (and a lot of cooking!), I only managed one video, my usual quick Friday Reads update. Check it out to hear more about the two books I am currently reading.

Friday Reads 4-15-22

I did, though, finally finish my reviews for March (the last ones are linked below), so here's my 2022 Reading Challenge Update, as of the end of March (click the link to see the details of my challenges):

Mount TBR Challenge - I'm only up to 9 books from my own shelves ... and my goal is 48! This happens with Booktopia because all of the featured books are new releases, so my April reading is much the same.

Monthly Motif Challenge - March was Buzzed About Books, and The Editor by Steven Rowley fit, since I'd been hearing about that one.

Back to the Classics 2022 - My goal is to read 6 classics this year, and I've already read three! I'm so proud of myself. In March, I added Katie John by Mary Calhoun as my Wild Card category (children's book).

Alphabet Soup Challenge - I have 11 letters filled in so far (of 26). It gets harder once the common letters are used!

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - I added one more nonfiction book in March, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Ben Shattuck, for a total of 4, with a goal of 12.

Diversity Challenge - I've already read 18 diverse books this year! My goal is 40, so I'm doing well with this one.

Travel the World in Books - In March, I added Egypt, UK, and Canada (Vancouver) for a total of 8 countries so far.

Literary Escapes Challenge - I've filled in 12 of the 51 states (including DC) so far. This one also gets more difficult once you get the more common states, like NY and California.

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

 

I am currently reading a book for Booktopia (details for this May at the link - click Events and scroll down; my recap of Booktopia 2019 here), Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Faladé. This is civil war historical fiction about a real-life unit of all Black soldiers, who were mostly ex-slaves just recently emancipated. As the Union army made their way through coastal Virginia and North Carolina, the newly-freed slaves rushed to enlist and join the African Brigade. The story is narrated by Richard Etheridge, the son of a slave and her master, who is now a Sergeant in the brigade. It's an engrossing, thoughtful story, and I'm learning a lot about this part of the Civil War I wasn't familiar with. I can't wait to meet the author in May!

 

 

On audio, I am listening to another new-release historical novel, The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn. For years, I've been hearing fellow readers rave about Quinn's historical fiction, and this is my first of her novels. During WWII, a Russian woman becomes one of the war's deadliest snipers, better than most of her male counterparts. Mila is a single mother at the beginning of the book, working on her degree while managing a job in the library and bringing up her young son. Her shooting skills catch the eye of the Russian military, and she soon finds herself in the midst of war. The novel begins with a scene several years later, where she is in Washington, DC, and meets Eleanor Roosevelt. It's all based on a real story. I'm enjoying it so far.

 

My husband, Ken, just finished The Sense of Reckoning by Matty Dalrymple (my review from last fall at the link). I love this series! It's about a woman named Ann Kinnear who can sense spirits and sometimes helps to solve mysteries. In this novel, Ann travels to Mount Desert Island, Maine, to help investigate a haunted hotel. That just happens to be one of our favorite places (the island is home to Acadia National Park), and the author always includes lots of details of the setting and location. Like me, my husband enjoyed all those familiar place names, learned a bit of history we didn't know about the island, and enjoyed the mystery of the haunted hotel.

 

 

 

Now, Ken is reading another book I read last fall, I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara. Neither of us reads a lot of nonfiction and rarely true crime, but I got this book as a gift from my son's girlfriend and really enjoyed it. This chilling, captivating true story is about a serial rapist and killer in California who outwitted police for decades, mainly by moving around. Writer McNamara heard about some of the cases and began investigating on her own, eventually helping police to connect diverse cases all over the state before her untimely death. Her husband, actor Patton Oswald, and her research assistant finished the book. It's a riveting read, and I think Ken will enjoy it!

 

I got a full reading update from my 27-year-old son, since he was home all weekend! He just last night finished reading an enormous paperback, Temple of the Winds by Terry Goodkind, book four in the Sword of Truth series. He really loved this series, and  book four was a re-read for him in preparation for reading book five, Soul of the Fire, which he'll be starting tonight. I think he has book six lined up, too!

Blog posts last week:

Movie Monday: The Adam Project - This twisty, action-packed, funny time travel adventure is a whole lot of fun!

Fiction Review: The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel - I devoured this unique novel and loved every minute with these characters!

Memoir Review: Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Ben Shattuck - a beautifully written nature memoir - I can't wait to meet the author!

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?

Memoir Review: Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau

Booktopia 2022 is quickly approaching (click Events for more info; my recap of Booktopia 2019), and I am continuing to read the new releases from the authors who will be there for the weekend. Last month, I read a memoir,  Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, by Ben Shattuck. This unique nonfiction book is filled with nature, beautiful outdoor writing, and the kind of introspection I love in memoirs.

The author began retracing some of Thoreau's walks spontaneously during a low point in his life. He set out to walk the coast of Cape Cod, wholly unprepared and poorly equipped, on a whim (it felt a bit like Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods at that point!). But he met some fascinating people, saw some amazing sights, and came out of that walk a little bit better in mind and body, so he continued his mission. He based the six walks on both the published books and essays written by Thoreau and also on Thoreau's personal journals (which I guess have been published). As often as possible, he tried to re-experience the exact same places in similar ways to Thoreau, though of course our modern world has changed things quite a bit. Besides two walks along Cape Cod (along the inner and outer shores), he also ventures up a mountain in Massachusetts, along the MA/RI coast starting from his own home in the salt marshes where his family has lived for generations, up Mount Katahdin in Maine's Baxter State Park (the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail), and canoeing with a friend in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in northern Maine, to the exact island where Thoreau and his colleagues camped on his own canoe trip there. Throughout the book, Shattuck shares his most intimate thoughts and feelings, as well as his observations of nature, and quotes from Thoreau himself. The result is both an emotional and physical journey.

From Thoreau, on how walking echoes life, quoted in the book:

"There is, however, this consolation to the most wayworn traveler, upon the dustiest road, that the path his feet describe is so perfectly symbolical of human life,--now climbing the hills, now descending into the vales. From the summits he beholds the heavens and the horizon, from the vales he looks up to the heights again. He is treading his old lessons still, and though he may be very weary and travel-worn, it is yet sincere experience."

From Shattuck, comparing nature to life:

"Grief and joy are in the same life, but it's only in the forest where you notice the shafts of sunlight spilling through."

As someone who loves nature, loves walking (as much as I am able), and has visited Cape Cod and Maine (one of my favorite places), I thoroughly enjoyed taking this journey with Shattuck. His nature writing is lyrical, bringing the forests, lakes, and coastlines to life on the page. I'm embarrassed to admit I have never read any Thoreau (I plan to rectify that), so I also enjoyed reading these passages from his many writings. And I could appreciate the healing power of nature and the author's own personal journey in this book. He accompanies this lovely writing with his own sketches, which were so beautiful that I ordered a hardcover copy of the book, even though I've already read an ARC on my Kindle. All of these elements come together in a beautifully written memoir that combines nature, travel, literature, and personal experience. I can't wait to meet Ben Shattuck at Booktopia in a few weeks!

175 pages, Tin House Books

Audio: Blackstone Publishing

PLEASE NOTE: Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau will be released on April 19, 2022.

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Nonfiction Readers Challenge (category Wild Animals)

Literary Escapes Challenge - Maine 

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. There is an audiobook, narrated by actor Jonathan Todd Ross. I'm guessing the audio sample will be posted on the book's publication date.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

    

 

Or you can order Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: The Glass Hotel

I was a little late to the party (as usual) but once I read Station Eleven, I loved it (my review at the link). So, I was thrilled when Emily St. John Mandel released another novel after that, but as usual, it took me a while to read The Glass Hotel. My husband gave it to me for Christmas, and I devoured it last month. I was totally immersed in the story and never wanted it to end.

The novel centers around the life of a young woman named Vincent, who grows up on the remote tip of Vancouver Island, in the tiny, isolated town of Caiette. When Vincent is fourteen years old, her mother takes a canoe out into the water and disappears, which drastically alters the course of Vincent's life. Her father travels for work, so Vincent goes to live with an aunt in Vancouver. By the time she is seventeen, she is living on her own, in a tiny apartment with a friend. When an ultra-luxury glass-walled hotel is built in their little hometown of Caiette, the two young women get jobs there and move back home. Vincent is bartending at Hotel Caiette when she first meets Jonathan, the wealthy owner of the hotel. She ends up moving back East with him, where they act as a married couple (though they never actually marry). Vincent is bored at the big estate in Connecticut, where she swims every day in the infinity pool, so she spends many days in Manhattan, shopping and living a life of luxury. One day, disaster hits, and Jonathan's business--and life--fall apart, so Vincent just disappears again. She creates a new life for herself working as a cook on a huge container ship. The story comes full circle when a victim of Jonathan's fraud is hired to investigate the mysterious death of a woman from a container ship (not a spoiler, as the novel opens with Vincent's plunge from the ship).

This is one of those books where describing the plot does not do the novel justice. I was completely engrossed in this original story from its first pages, and I've spent some time trying to figure out exactly what makes Mandel's novels so incredibly compelling. One of the elements that shines through is her characters. They are fully-developed, eccentric, and oddly likable. There's something special about Vincent, who just sort of drifts through her life aimlessly, that you just can't put your finger on. And it's not just Vincent. Chapters are narrated by a wide variety of characters, including Vincent, Jonathan, Vincent's half-brother Paul, and other minor characters who come into the story, so the reader gets the full account from multiple perspectives. Another thing I love about Mandel's novels is the unexpected connections, the way that one character, in a far-off time and place, is somehow connected to another or how two characters may cross paths in unexpected ways. And, of course, her writing is exquisite and at the heart of what makes her novels so special. I loved everything about this beautiful novel, and I never wanted it to end.

Emily St. John Mandel's latest novel, Sea of Tranquility, was just released this month, and I can't wait to read it! I won't wait years this time. A friend told me it includes mentions of some of the characters from The Glass Hotel - more unexpected connections! 

301 pages, Vintage

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Canada (Vancouver) 

Literary Escapes Challenge - Connecticut

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from the start of the novel and one of Paul's chapters, and/or download it from Audible. It sounds like a great audio!

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
   

 

Or you can order The Glass Hotel from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Movie Monday: The Adam Project

Time travel and meeting up with your younger self? I'm in! When I heard about the plot of the new Netflix movie The Adam Project, I knew it was right up my alley and was even more excited to watch it after hearing some good reviews. My husband and I enjoyed this fun sci fi adventure that is also surprisingly heartwarming.

Ryan Reynolds plays Adam, a high-tech time travel pilot in 2050. His own dad, played by Mark Ruffalo, invented the technology that made time travel possible, but now it's fallen into the hands of unscrupulous leaders. In an attempt to go back in time and save his wife, Laura, played by Zoe Saldana, Adam ends up crash landing in 2022 near his childhood home. Wounded himself, and with his aircraft damaged, he seeks help from his 12-year-old self, played by Walker Scobell. Of course, his enemies track him there, and what follows is a fast-paced, high-tech chase through the present day with futuristic weapons. Big Adam is trying to save his wife, save the world, and keep his young self safe as well. The two Adams head back further in time to seek out their father (who's dead in 2022). There are lots of space-age chase scenes and lots of explosions, as the two Adams race against time (quite literally) to save themselves and the world.

This unusual multi-generational sci fi film has everything I love about time travel stories: twisty plots, paradoxes that make you think, and here, even reuniting with long-lost loved ones ... and your child self! It's all very cool and very twisty. The acting here is excellent all around, with an all-star cast, and newcomer Walker Scoville fits in perfectly. The Adam Project is a bit too heavy on explosions, chase scenes, and high-tech fights for my personal taste, but it is all balanced by humor and a whole lot of heart for an overall package that I loved. It's a very entertaining movie, with typical Reynolds' witty banter (times two) plus all that action, but what I liked best was the time travel stuff and the family reunions. My husband and I both enjoyed this fun, fast-paced, warm movie that left us both smiling.

The Adam Project is a Netflix original movie, so it is available exclusively on Netflix.

It's Monday 4/11! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

More of the same this past week: visiting my father-in-law (whose dementia was really severe last week) daily, caring for my own chronic illness (a few good days and a few down days), and more cool, wet weather. It felt more like February than April yesterday!

We did get some sunshine and blue skies on Friday, so I went for a very short walk at our local nature center. I wasn't feeling well those last two days of the week, but I just had to get out, so I kept it short and slow and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine! After so much rain, our creek was full and muddy and every tree had new buds on it.

High water!

Our iconic covered bridge

New buds on all the trees!

On Saturday, my husband and I turned an errand into a mini-getaway. We took our camper to an RV center, about an hour south of here, for repairs. We've been unable to travel for so long that this felt like a tiny road trip! We listened to a favorite podcast, I read magazines in the car, and we stopped for lunch while we were down there. We enjoyed the break from routine!

Wish we were going camping now!

I added two new videos to my YouTube channel last week:

• March Reading Wrap-Up
• Friday Reads 4-8-22

 

Remember, I'm not doing monthly summaries here on the blog this year, but you can hear about the great books I read in March in that video. I'll post my challenges summary here next Monday, after I finish my March reviews!

I finished This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger, our All-County Reads selection for this year and our next book for my neighborhood book group. I loved everything about it! I have been hearing rave reviews of Krueger's books for years, so I was excited to read this novel (my first of his). It's set during the Depression, beginning in 1932 at the Lincoln Indian Training School in Minnesota, which houses, among hundreds of other kids, two white orphaned brothers named Odie and Albert and a mute Indian boy found abandoned as a baby and named Moses. These three, plus a six-year-old girl, set off down the river on their own in a canoe to escape from violence. It's suspenseful adventure but also a moving and powerful coming-of-age story. This will definitely be one of my top books read this year.

 

This weekend, I started my next Booktopia book (click on Events and scroll down for more information), Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Faladé. This is Civil War historical fiction about a real-life unit of all Black soldiers, who were mostly ex-slaves just recently emancipated. As the Union army made their way through coastal Virginia and North Carolina, the newly-freed slaves rushed to enlist and join the African Brigade. The story is narrated by Richard Etheridge, the son of a slave and her master, who is now a Sergeant in the brigade. I'm only 50 pages in so far but am already immersed in the story and learning a lot about this part of the Civil War I wasn't very familiar with. I can't wait to meet the author in May!

 

On audio, I've been listening to a relatively-unknown classic, The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. This is not a detective story/mystery but science fiction! I didn't even know Doyle ever wrote in this genre. It's set before WWI and begins in England, when a journalist looking for adventure signs on with an eccentric scientist who claims to have found an isolated spot in the Amazon where prehistoric animals (including dinosaurs) still survive. It was the first novel that introduced his Professor Challenger character. Given that it was published in 1912, it has some cringy instances of racism, but the story is intriguing and compelling, and I want to see what happens next. It's a fascinating premise.

 

 My husband, Ken, just started a new book, The Sense of Reckoning by Matty Dalrymple (my review from last fall at the link). I love this series! It's about a woman named Ann Kinnear who can sense spirits and sometimes helps to solve mysteries. In this novel, Ann travels to Mount Desert Island, Maine, to help investigate a haunted hotel. That just happens to be one of our favorite places (the island is home to Acadia National Park), and the author always includes lots of details of the setting and location. So far, my husband is enjoying all those familiar place names, learning a bit of history we didn't know about the island, and enjoying the growing mystery of the hotel.

 

I don't know what our son is reading this week, but he'll be home for Easter!

Last week's blog post - just one! I have some catching up to do on reviews:

Middle-Grade Review: The Graveyard Riddle by Lisa Thompson - a mystery in a cemetery, plus some great middle-grade issues

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?