It's Monday 6/19! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

Did you miss me? We are back home after a lovely 5 days camping in the Catskills. The weather wasn't great, but we saw the sun a few times and enjoyed a nice mix of relaxing in the outdoors (Mongaup Pond) and visiting the very cool nearby towns (Livingston Manor and Roscoe). I'll give you a brief photo tour here, but tomorrow, I will be posting a travel vlog on my YouTube channel, with lots of videos and photos from the trip.   

Sunset from our campsite

My husband and I at our campsite

Do Good Spirits Distillery in Roscoe, NY

So many ducks, including adorable lines of ducklings, on the pond!

Perfect camp morning - fire, tea, Big Book, & great view!

Fabulous kayaking - love the reflections

Hiking the Frick Pond Trail

Delicious BBQ Dinner from The Smoke Joint

Our trip ended in an emergency that could have been a disaster. A wheel came off our trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike! Luckily, my husband noticed something was wrong and carefully drove us into the nearest rest area. By the time we parked there, there was nothing holding the wheel on but the weight of the trailer. If it came off while we were driving 65 mph, it could have been really bad. So, we had our trailer towed to a nearby garage, and they are working to repair it.

The rest of our weekend was wonderful, though. Our older son came for a relaxed visit at home, and we had both of our sons with us all day yesterday, to celebrate Father's Day. We ate lots of good food, took a nice hike along a stream, made homemade ice cream, and laughed a lot! It's rare for just the four of us to be together, and we all enjoyed it.

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On the Blog

I managed a couple of posts before we left on our trip:

Movie Monday: Missing - we watched this modern twisty thriller with our son and his girlfriend, and we all enjoyed it.

 YA Non-Fiction Review: The 57 Bus - this real-life story is eye-opening, about two teens whose paths crossed for a moment on a city bus that forever changed both their lives. 

And, remember, there is still plenty of time to sign up for the Big Book Summer Reading Challenge! It runs until early September, and you only need to read one 400+ page book between now and then to participate. There's a whole community in our Goodreads group with fun Big Book chat all summer long.

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On Video

 May Reading Wrap-Up - a summary of all the books I finished last month

Friday Reads 6-9-23 - my thoughts on my first two Big Books, which are both excellent!

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 What We're Reading 

 

My first Big Book of the Summer was outstanding: Billy Summers by Stephen King. This unique novel is about a hitman who's agreed to one last job (with a huge payday) and is then planning to retire. As you might suspect, things go wrong! King's amazing talent for creating in-depth characters that feel real and compelling plots you can't look away from is on full display here. Like many of his best books, this is not horror. It's a thriller (particularly the last third), but it's mostly a fascinating character study. It's well-titled because Billy, the hitman, is at the heart of this novel; it's the story of his life, and by the first couple of chapters, you are already rooting for Billy and hoping things turn out well for him. I absolutely loved it and was completely absorbed from beginning to end.

 

On vacation, I started my biggest book of the summer, Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, book 3 of the Outlander series. At over 800 (large) pages, this is an intimidating Big Book, and it's been on my shelf for two years and was in my Big Book Summer stack last year! But as soon as I started reading it, I thought, "why did I wait so long?" She writes such fascinating, detailed historical fiction, with a touch of time travel and an epic love story at the center of it. The series about a British woman in 1945 who goes back in time to 1700's Scotland. This book is no exception and was completely engrossing from the very first pages. I had extra reading time on vacation, but I'll be reading this one for a while!

 

 

My first Big Book on audio this summer is The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara. This unique novel chronicles the lives of a group of gay and transgender young people in NYC in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. The novel begins with different chapters each focusing on a different child/teen who knows that he/she is different and is trying to find their place in the world. These initial characters gradually meet each other and form a household. The novel is ultimately about finding community--and family--for these isolated young people who feel like they don't fit in. The audio production is wonderful, and the narrative is immersive. It's filled with joy and sorrow, love and life and has made me laugh out loud and tear up.

 

 

My husband is tackling his next Big Book, Matterhorn, a novel by decorated Marine Karl Marlantes. It's about a company of Marines during the Vietnam War. He says it's excellent so far, though intense.

 

 

 Our son, 28, is still reading book eight, Court Wizard, of the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour. He loves this series, and this is a hefty one at 1200 pages!

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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?