It's Monday 6/27! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Well, I don't have lots of lovely pictures to share like I did last week, because I barely left the house. Looking back, these are the only photos I took all last week:

In the recliner

Ready to donate!

Enjoying Big Book Summer!

The first represents a large part of my week, spent lying on the couch or in the recliner. My chronic illness flared up--who knows why? Sometimes, there's just no explanation ... though my father-in-law in the nursing home has a cold and sort of forgot how to blow his nose. So, while I always wear a medical mask while visiting (and it's required), I was literally wiping his nose for him. Being exposed to a cold might have been all it took to trigger my immune system and knock me out for a few days. I'm feeling better now.

The second photo is of the large pile of boxes and bags ready for donation. I finally called last week for a charity pick-up. Much of this has been piling up for months, but I made a special effort this weekend to go through my closet and filled two more boxes! This pile makes me very happy, even though it's just a drop in the ocean of clutter in our home (including all my father-in-law's stuff and all our son's stuff, too). It's a start!

But, we did have some fun this weekend, too. We had dinner at our friends' house Friday night. We've been friends with them for over 30 years, and we hadn't seen them in a long time (since before I got COVID in January), so we very much enjoyed an evening of great company, great food, great conversation, and plenty of laughs.

And our older son came home for a postponed Father's Day visit. He was only here for about 18 hours, but we enjoyed his company, ate some good meals, and watched the finale of season four of Star Trek: Discovery, a show we only watch when he's home! I really need to take photos when the four of us are together because it's becoming less frequent. Here we are, all together on Easter:

You may have noticed in one of the photos above my Big Book Summer Challenge mug! Since it's the 10th anniversary of the challenge, I made up all sorts of fun products to celebrate, including different sized mugs, notebooks, tote bags, t-shirts, stickers, and a car magnet (which I also got!).

Just one new book-related video last week:

Friday Reads 6-24-22 - my brief weekly chat about what I'm reading

 

And here's what we're all reading this week:

I finished The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, my Big Book classic for this summer! I've been hearing great things about it for years, from friends and my husband. It is a very readable, fast-paced novel, full of action that can be summed up as: the greatest revenge story of all time! I'm not really into revenge stories, but this had a very intricate, twisty plot that was engrossing. And it had a sort of weird but basically happy ending!

 

Now, I am onto my next Big Book of the Summer, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I gave this book to my husband for Father's Day last year and have been wanting to read it. We both enjoyed Weir's two previous novels, The Martian and Artemis (don't know why that one didn't get much buzz). This book is about a man who wakes from a coma to find he is all alone on a spaceship, and the rest of his crew has died. He has amnesia and doesn't even remember his own name, let alone what he's doing on a spaceship and what his mission is. Great premise, right? It starts off like a shot, with Weir's trademark tense suspense combined with science and a great dose of humor. I'm loving it so far and staying up much too late reading every night! And guess what? I see on IMdB that movie adaptations of both Artemis and Project Hail Mary (starring Ryan Gosling) are in development!

 

On audio, I am still listening to another Big Book, Gone by Michael Grant. This is YA science fiction, about a coastal town in California where all of the adults (in fact, everyone 15 or older) suddenly disappear one day in an instant. And that's just the beginning of super-strange happenings. Young teens are left on their own to take care of themselves--and of the younger kids--while trying to figure out what caused this inexplicable disaster. It's actually the beginning of a long series that's been called Lord of the Flies for the 21st century! I'm enjoying it very much so far, though I don't love the audio narrator. It's a gripping, intriguing story.

 

My husband, Ken, is almost finished with his first Big Book of the summer. He chose a chunkster I loved, All Clear by Connie Willis. This is part 2 of the duology that began with Blackout, which I read for Big Book Summer 2021. Both books are outstanding and among my very favorites. The premise is that, in 2060, a group of Oxford historians have all gone back in time to different places and times within England during WWII. Their goal (as in all of this Oxford time travel series) is to study history by witnessing it first-hand. But this time, something goes wrong with the technology and some of them get stuck back in the 1940's in the midst of war-torn England, with three of them in London during the Blitz. These books are both so great! They're a mix of fascinating historical detail, nail-biting suspense, and the kind of twisty time travel problems that I love, plus humor, too. My husband is loving it, and I'm trying hard not to give anything away! You can read my reviews of both books (no spoilers) at the links above.

 

Our son, 27, loves epic fantasies and was recently hooked on the series Art of the Adept by Michael G. Manning. Since book 6 isn't out yet, he switched over to one of Manning's other series (and another favorite of his), Mageborn. He hasn't yet read the last two books of this series, so he started back at book one, The Blacksmith's Son, re-reading to get ready for books four and five. He finished book one while he was here and immediately started book two, The Line of Illeniel. Clearly, he loves this author!  

No new blog posts last week! Just not enough energy to write. I will try to catch up 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?