It's Monday 3/27! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

It's a big day for our family! It's our older son's first day in his new job, his first-ever full-time job in the professional field he studied in college (environmental engineering/sustainability). He's had the same chronic illnesses as me (an immune disorder and tick infections) since he was ten years old, so he's had a long, challenging road to finally get to this point where he is well enough to manage working full-time. Plus, this sounds like his dream job! It's exactly what he wanted to do when he graduated. We are so proud of his hard work, determination, and persistence. 

He came to visit this weekend. I just love having all four of us together, which doesn't happen often enough these days! We all enjoyed a nice dinner together Thursday night, and my husband and I enjoyed his company on Friday, too.

Saturday, we got to see friends we hadn't seen since last fall, which was wonderful. And yesterday, my husband and I enjoyed a hike on a gorgeous sunny spring day. After three days of rain, everything was in bloom!

 

Forsythia in bloom in our yard!

Lesser Celandine in bloom along the trail.

Bubbling creek and a brilliant blue sky, with green buds.

Enjoying a beautiful day

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On the Blog

Two Great Middle-Grade Novels on Audio - short reviews of two excellent novels I listened to for Middle-Grade March - both very different but very good!

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On Video

Friday Reads 3-24-23 - my weekly update about the books I am reading

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What We're Reading

 

I finished reading We Love to Entertain by Sarah Strohmeyer, my first book for Booktopia 2023! That's a fabulous annual book event held in Vermont the first weekend in May, where readers and authors hang out together--tickets are still available! (Click Events and scroll down to the bottom.) Here's my summary from Booktopia 2022. The booksellers choose about 8 authors with new books coming out. This one is a thriller that will be released on April 25. It's about a home renovation reality show featuring Robert and Holly, who purchased property in Vermont super-cheap, and are creating an expensive, eco-friendly mansion there. Unfortunately, the previous owner who was evicted isn't too happy about that. And now the two TV/social media stars are missing ... or are they? This unique novel was great and filled with suspense!

 

Now, I am taking a break from Booktopia reading for a book group read, The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. I enjoyed The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Benedict, so I've been looking forward to this one. It's historical fiction based on the real life of Belle da Costa Greene, personal librarian for J.P. Morgan and his famous Pierpont Morgan Library of historical manuscripts, books, and art, beginning in 1906. Belle had Mr. Morgan's complete authority in purchasing decisions for the esteemed collection and became famous in her own right, doing a job that was typically handled by men at that time. But Belle had a secret: she was actually a Black woman, passing as white in very public persona and moving among the upper echelons of Gilded Age society. It's excellent so far, detailing Belle's fascinating job as well as the pain and anxiety she endured in hiding her true self from the world.

 

I've been enjoying Middle-Grade March with novels on audio. I finished It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds. It starts as a story about a pretty typical twelve-year-old boy named Eddie, who is grounded and can't go to the beach with his family because he hasn't done his laundry in 40 days, since school ended! But then the power goes out (just as he starts his second load), and he ends up alone with four other kids from his neighborhood. Both power and cell service are out, everyone else in town is at the annual Beach Bash, and the kids begin to realize something very strange is going on. I enjoyed this audio book, though I wish I had known that it's book one of a series! The questions as to what has happened are not answered in this book, though it's a great story about a group of kids coming together to help each other. I talk about it more in my Friday Reads video.

Now, I am listening to another middle-grade audio, The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart, released last summer. I always enjoy Gemeinhart's novels; The Honest Truth and The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise are two of my favorites. Here, a boy named Ravani Foster lives in a town called Slaughterville. He's a nice kid, but he's lonely and is bullied a lot. One night, looking out his bedroom window at midnight, he sees seven children of different ages carrying suitcases get out of a truck and enter an abandoned house on his dead-end street. Ravi gradually gets to know the kind and quiet Virginia and eventually, the other kids, too. But this family carries some deep--and dangerous--secrets. It's an intriguing story so far, with perhaps a hint of magic, set against the gruesome backdrop of a town named after its main industry, a slaughterhouse.

 

My husband, Ken is still reading Across the Sand, book two in a post-apocalyptic series by Hugh Howey (book one is Sand). We both absolutely loved Howey's Silo trilogy: Wool, Shift, and Dust. If you haven't read it yet, you should! It's one of our favorites. He says this newer series is just as good, and he's enjoying it.

 

I won't be able to check in with our son, 28, on Monday mornings anymore because he'll be at work! But this weekend, he gave me a reading update while visiting. He finished reading book 5, Wildfire in the Street Rats of Aramoor series by Michael Wiseheart. This was a prequel series to Wiseheart's The Aldoran Chronicles, so now he's gone back to that series and is reading book 3, The Four-Part Key. He really enjoys this author's novels.

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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