Fiction Review: We Love to Entertain

I have been reading new releases to prepare for Booktopia 2023! That's a fabulous annual book event held in Vermont the first weekend in May (next week!!), 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 first book I read for Booktopia back in March is now available: We Love to Entertain by Sarah Strohmeyer. I enjoyed this tense thriller set, appropriately, in Vermont.

Holly and Robert are the "it" couple on a new house renovation reality show, To the Manor Build. Robert's father is a famous real-estate mogul, and following in his footsteps, Robert buys 80 acres of beautiful Vermont wilderness super-cheap when its owner fails to pay his taxes. He and Holly, who has the opposite background and was homeless as a teen, are working together to build a luxury home on the property. This reality show is a contest, and Robert and Holly are competing with two other pairs. Each contestant needs a hook for their build, so Robert and Holly's house will be super eco-friendly without giving up any luxuries (think geothermal heating for the fancy outdoor patio and pool). The winners, determined by viewers, will get their entire build paid for. During the renovation, Robert and Holly fall in love and livestream their wedding with the beautiful Vermont autumn as a backdrop. But, after the wedding, the couple goes missing. Are they really off on an impromptu honeymoon in Quebec the week before the final reveal? Or did something more sinister happen to them? Robert told their assistant, Erika, a young local woman, they were leaving on a quick honeymoon, but as the days go by, and the producers get more and more upset, the press and their followers begin to wonder if something happened to the beautiful couple ... and the police begin looking at Erika.

Besides being a twisty mystery, this novel is all about our modern world of reality TV, instant celebrities, social media, and the never-ending pursuit of more followers. The tension here grows the longer that Robert and Holly are missing. Police and Holly's mom, who works for the town, are looking into the property's previous owner and following other leads. There is plenty of suspense in this thoughtful and fast-paced thriller that kept me engrossed right through the last pages.

338 pages, Harper Paperbacks

HarperAudio 

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.

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - W

Literary Escapes Challenge - Vermont

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the full-cast audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The multiple narrators sound great.

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

 

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!

 
  

It's Monday 4/24! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

You may have noticed I skipped last week's Monday post because ... we were on vacation! This was our first week-long trip since 2019 and our first camping trip of the year, and we had a wonderful time. We took our pop-up camper down to Virginia and stayed in two beautiful (and very different) state parks, with perfect weather.

Our first stop was Bear Creek Lake State Park, west of Richmond, in the foothills. We had a lovely site overlooking the water.

 

Hilly campground - we could see the lake through the trees

We enjoyed a short hike along the lakeshore and went kayaking out on the small lake. It was very windy the day we went kayaking, but we paddled along the edges of the lake (better for seeing wildlife) and spotted lots of turtles and a Great Blue Heron.

 

My husband kayaking Bear Creek Lake

Reflections in the water

A hike along the lakeshore

Great Blue Heron

Turtles lined up on the logs, warming in the sun

Mid-week, we moved to Belle Isle State Park on the eastern side of the state, along the Rappahannock River, just before it feeds into the Chesapeake Bay. This park is very flat and has huge campsites, surrounded by tall trees.

 

The view during my morning yoga

Our campsite at Belle Isle

We also kayaked there, along some of the inlets of Deep Creek. We were the only ones out on the water, and it was calm and peaceful. We'd been to this park before and seen osprey, but we didn't spot any this time (thought we did see a nest).

 

Wide open water on Deep Creek

Along with quiet inlets - perfectly calm water

We started and ended the trip with some great visits with family and friends, visiting my cousin who recently moved to Arlington, VA, for her first job and a college friend and her husband in Suffolk. Then, we enjoyed a nice drive home up the Virginia Eastern Shore, through Maryland, and back to Delaware.

 I love traveling over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

A great lunch stop with fresh seafood, recommended by Road Food

I'll be posting a travel vlog on my YouTube channel tomorrow, with more photos and lots of video footage from the trip.

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On the Blog

I posted two reviews before we left home:

Middle-Grade Review: It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds - a funny novel about friendship

Middle-Grade Review: The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart - another wonderfully warm and engaging story from this favorite author, all about friendship and found family  

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On Video

Just one book-related video before we left (see my YouTube channel for chronic illness-related videos, too):

Friday Reads 4-14-23 - quick overviews of two novels for Booktopia, a YA graphic memoir, and a YA audio book. 

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What We're Reading

My reading has been focused on Booktopia 2023, a wonderful book event held in Vermont the first weekend in May, which is now just a week and a half away! At Booktoipia, readers and authors hang out together and do all kinds of fun bookish stuff--tickets are still available! (Click Events and scroll down to the bottom.) Here's my summary from Booktopia 2022.

 

I read a very creepy psychological suspense novel, A Flaw in the Design by Nathan Oates, for Booktopia during the first half of our vacation. Gil is a literature professor at a small college in Vermont, where he lives with his wife and their two daughters, ages 11 and 15. As the novel opens, Gil is picking up his nephew, Matthew, at the airport. Seventeen-year-old Matthew is coming to live with them because his parents were just killed in a horrible car crash in New York City. They were very wealthy, so Matthew has lived a very different life than Gil's family. Right from the start, there are references to some awful, violent incident that happened between Matthew and one of the girls six years earlier. Gil and his wife think that Matthew may be a psychopath and are worried about him living in the midst of their family. The tension is there right from the start of the narrative and builds throughout the story. It was suspenseful and engrossing and kept me guessing.

 

Now, I am reading another Booktopia selection, Brother and Sister Enter the Forest by Richard Mirabella, an intimate novel about family relationships. Willa lives a quiet life on her own and works as a nurse. One day, her brother, Justin, appears on her doorstep, after being absent from her life for years. He's homeless and looks unhealthy, and Willa reluctantly lets him in to stay with her. The novel moves back and forth between the present and their childhoods, slowly filling in the blanks of what happened to both of them. The focus here is mainly on Justin and his coming-of-age story as a gay teen--he is clearly suffering from severe anxiety and perhaps additional mental illness--but the relationship between brother and sister is at the heart of the story.

My husband and I started listening to an audio book in the car, The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz. This is book four in his Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery series, where he himself is one of the main characters! Here, he has written a play, Mindgame, that is opening in London's West End (all of which really happened). When something goes horribly wrong and Anthony is accused of a violent crime, he calls on Hawthorne, a retired detective, to help solve the case and clear his name since the police are certain he is guilty. I listened to book one in the series, The Word Is Murder, last fall and enjoyed it. Our road trip wasn't quite long enough, so we'll have to find time to finish it at home now!

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I love Dickens, and this one is my favorite, so he bought a copy recently when we visited an indie bookstore last month. I love to hear him laughing while reading it and reading passages out loud to me because this novel really shows off Dickens' wit. He's enjoying it and keeping me up on Pip's escapades.

 

Our son, 28, is still reading book 4, The Tunnels Beneath, of The Aldoran Chronicles by Michael Wiseheart. He really enjoys this author's novels. He said he hasn't had much reading time with his long days at work!

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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?

 

Middle-Grade Review: The Midnight Children

For Middle-Grade March, I listened to four middle-grade audio books (check out my first two reviews here and the third review here), and enjoyed them all.

I'm a big fan of Dan Gemeinhart and especially loved his middle-grade novels, The Honest Truth and The Remarkable Story of Coyote Sunrise. In The Midnight Children, Gemeinhart again creates an engaging story with great characters in unusual circumstances. Ravani Foster lives in Slaughterville with his mom and dad and is lonely. He spends his summer days delivering town newspapers, taking his dad's lunch to the slaughterhouse at noon, and trying to dodge the nasty bullies who cruelly pick on him. One night, unable to sleep, Ravani looks out his bedroom window at midnight and sees a group of seven children of varying ages get out of a truck and carry their suitcases into the abandoned house across the street. With the help of his excellent frog-catching skills, he gets to know these new kids in the neighborhood and becomes good friends with a girl his age named Virginia. But the kids have some deep and dangerous secrets. Will they trust Ravani enough to take him into their confidence?

This is a unique story that includes some light elements of magic, though it is set in the real world and focuses on real-world problems. The setting is also unique, in this town that is defined by its only industry, a slaughterhouse. The novel does not shy away from the realities of that industry! Ravani and Virginia (and the other kids) are wonderful characters that I was rooting for. It's a story about friendship and found family, with a happy ending for all of the characters, including many of the people in town. I very much enjoyed this original story that reminded me of Kate DiCamillo's novels (as well as Gemeinhart's other books).

352 pages, Henry Holt & Co.

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

Alphabet Soup Challenge - M

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the excellent audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. In this sample, Ravani watches the children appear in the middle of the night.

 

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!       
  

Disclosure: I received these books 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.

Middle-Grade Review: It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit

For Middle-Grade March, I listened to four middle-grade audio books (check out my first two reviews here), and enjoyed them all.

In It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds, twelve-year-old Eddie has a great plan for the summer. He has some chores and is responsible for his own laundry, but Eddie decides to wear every piece of clothing in his room first. Then he'll only have to do laundry once, in the middle of the summer! Brilliant, right? Maybe not so much because on Day 40, wearing his last item of clothing (his bathing suit), his enormous pile of dirty laundry is discovered by his mom. She grounds Eddie, even though it's Beach Bash day, the highlight of the entire year in his town, when everyone heads to the beach for a fun day in the sun. Everyone except Eddie, who will be home doing his laundry. As Eddie starts his second load, thinking of his family and friends all enjoying the beach, the power goes out. He tries to text his mom, but cell service is out, too. Eddie's best friend comes by, and the two of them go through the neighborhood and find three other kids. As evening comes and they remain without power or cell service, the five kids band together. No one comes back from the beach and there is no sign of anyone else in the neighborhood, so the kids gather supplies and take care of themselves.

I enjoyed this funny novel about friendship, though it is unusual. Despite the promise of its intriguing premise, not much happens here. It's not really an adventure or apocalyptic story, and it ends without knowing what is happening in the wider world (it's unclear if it's a standalone or the set-up for a sequel). The focus is just on these five kids. Eddie is a very charming and amusing narrator. He explains early on that he has ADHD, so his narrative tends to ramble with lots of tangents. The overall tone is not dark or scary; it's all very fun and light, about the kids getting by on their own ... and having fun!

304 pages, Scholastic

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - I

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes - Ohio

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

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!

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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.

It's Monday 4/10! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

I hope everyone who celebrates enjoyed a nice Easter or Passover this weekend! We drove to my hometown of Rochester, NY, and had a wonderful weekend with family. We stayed with my step-mom and always enjoy spending time with her in her lovely home. 

Easter Treats!

We celebrated Easter on Saturday since we all had a long drive back home, and our son had to be back at work this morning. This worked out really well, and we enjoyed a relaxed day with my aunt, uncle, and cousin.

Wonderful Easter celebration with my family

 

Easter for us is the holiday where we have all the traditional Ukrainian foods (my great-grandparents immigrated from Ukraine and settled in Rochester when they were both teens). We all look forward to this annual feast! 

Mmmm ... Ukrainian Easter feast!

Our older son and my younger cousin weren't able to be with us this year, but for a great reason: they both just got their first full-time professional jobs in the past month! Our son is in Long Island (and didn't get any days off), and my cousin is in Virginia, so we did Zoom with them at least. Even though the "kids" present (including my cousin's boyfriend) are all 25 years old, my aunt and uncle still kept up some fun traditions. The young people enjoyed their Easter egg hunt (my uncle made it worth the effort with some gift cards inside eggs - ha ha).  And though they weren't into the Silly String war my cousins used to do as kids, they did have fun aiming the Silly String at targets. 

Grown-up Easter Egg Hunt

 

Silly string target practice

As much as I enjoyed the lovely weekend with my family, it was nice to get back home where it actually looks like spring! It was still pretty brown up in Rochester, though we had blue skies all weekend, which is very unusual (7th cloudiest city in the nation!).

 

Back home and everything's in bloom!

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On the Blog

TV Tuesday: Shrinking - we loved this new comedy starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford (and my husband doesn't normally enjoy comedies) - warm, uplifting, and very, very funny! My review and a trailer at the link.

Middle-Grade Review: A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat - this wonderful graphic memoir is part coming-of-age story and part travelogue, as the author describes the trip to Europe with classmates at age 13 that changed his life. 

__________

On Video

March 2023 Reading Wrap-Up - I talk about the 9 books I read or listened to in March, including two challenges: Middle-Grade March and March Mystery Madness

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What We're Reading

 

 

I'm reading my second 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. I am loving Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett, an unusual novel narrated by a group of dead people in a town cemetery! Yup, you read that right. In a small New Hampshire town, 22-year-old Emma returns home, a medical school drop-out. Her father is dying from a mysterious brain disease and sees animals all over, as well as Harold, a long-dead naturalist in the area who once lived in their house ... with a lot of wild animals. Emma and her brother, fresh out of rehab, are trying to find their ways in the world, while caring for their ailing father. Emma gets a job as a long-term substitute fifth-grade teacher, and I love the parts about her interacting with the kids. This novel is often hilarious and quirky, but it's also warm, thoughtful, and poignant. I'm really enjoying it and can't wait to meet the author!

 

 

I just finished a YA graphic memoir, In Limbo by Deb JJ Lin, all about the author's teen years in high school. Born in Korea and brought up in New Jersey, Deb struggled with mental health issues (including a suicide attempt), her relationship with her mother, and her heritage--as well as all the usual things a teen deals with, like friendships problems and academic work. With the help of therapy and her art, Deb gradually heals and makes her way to adulthood. It's a moving, deeply emotional story.

 

I've been enjoying listening to This Is Our Place, a YA novel by Vitor Martins that caught my eye for its setting and its unique story. It's set in a small town in Brazil and is narrated by a house! Yes, I've got some unusual narrators going on right now. In this novel, we hear (from the house) about three different teen residents of the house. In 2000, Ana celebrates the new millennium with her father, until she learns they will be moving to the city for his job and she will have to leave her girlfriend. Greg, in 2010, is temporarily living with his aunt, who runs a (failing) video store out of the garage. And in 2020, Beto is in lockdown in the house with his mother and older sister, who moved back home at the start of the pandemic. The narrative moves back and forth between these three teens in three different times, all living in the same house. It's clever and inventive, and I'm enjoying it very much.

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I love Dickens, and this one is my favorite, so he bought a copy recently when we visited an indie bookstore last month. I love to hear him laughing while reading it and reading passages out loud to me because this novel really shows off Dickens' wit. He's enjoying it so far and keeping me up on Pip's escapades.

 

 Our son, 28, finished reading reading book 3, The Four-Part Key, of The Aldoran Chronicles by Michael Wiseheart, and yesterday, he started book 4, The Tunnels Beneath. He really enjoys this author's novels. Unfortunately, he had more reading time last week because he got bronchitis (only his second week of full-time work!), but after spending the weekend resting and reading, he's feeling much better.

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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?