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. 

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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?