It's Monday 1/15! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

I am still feeling great, easily the best I have felt in many, many years. I still have my chronic immune disorder, of course (still need a nap!), but I have been feeling good every day, with plenty of energy. It feels SO good to be able to be productive again!

We had some fun last week. I had an event for my book on Wednesday in Chestertown, Maryland, hosted by the fabulous Bookplate indie bookstore there. We drove down (about an hour away) Tuesday, rented a house with gorgeous views, and enjoyed a mini getaway. Unfortunately, a storm came in just as we did, and knocked out power in half of the town! But the skies cleared by morning, and we enjoyed walking around town.

Enjoying our view

Pond behind our rental house, with ducks & egrets

The book event went well. It was held at a nice restaurant in town (a great idea, as people could order drinks and food). There were fewer people there than said they'd be attending (due to the storm, power outage, and clean-up), but all of the attendees were interested and engaged ... and they all bought books, even the waitress! I talked for about an hour, then signed books, and then my husband and I enjoyed a delicious dinner.

Last night, we celebrated our younger son's 26th birthday with a steak dinner, presents, and cake (not for me, but he enjoyed it!). It was wonderful to have that tie with him.

Our son liked his new sweater!

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On the Blog

Busy week, with 2023 wrap-ups!

Best Books Read in 2023 - my annual wrap-up with stats, fun facts, my top picks in each category, and my Top 10 (or whatever) lists. 

2023 Reading Challenges Wrap-Up and 2024 Challenges - how I did on my 2023 challenges and which challenges I've joined for 2024

Fiction Review: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng - my first book of the year was a good one! A scary dystopian setting with similar elements to our own world, with a wonderful young protagonist who goes on a journey to find his mother and get some answers - full of heart and hope.

I didn't get any responses to my What Do You Want to See in My Monthly Newsletter? so I am considering discontinuing it. 

If you read the newsletter, please let me know!

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On Video

Top 6 Nonfiction Books Read in 2023

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 What We're Reading

 

 

I finished reading Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng, a Christmas gift from my son and his girlfriend. It's set in a very scary dystopian near-future with elements that definitely come directly from our real world. A sweet 12-year-old boy named Bird, who is half-Chinese, is living in a dorm room in Cambridge with his father, who works at the library. Bird's mom left suddenly and without explanation three years earlier. After Bird gets a strange drawing in the mail that he knows came from his mother, he begins investigating and goes on a quest to find her. Along the way, he (and the reader) begin to learn more about how their world came to be the way it is. This novel is very immersive, especially as the reader is drawn further into its mysteries and secrets. And I love that librarians play an important role in quietly helping children and families in this novel. The setting is frightening, but it's full of heart and hope.

 

 

Now, I am reading A Blizzard of Polar Bears by Alice Henderson, book 2 in her outdoor thriller series about wildlife biologist Alex Carter. Book 1, A Solitude of Wolverines, made my Top 10 Novels of 2023 list! In book 2, Alex is in Manitoba on the Hudson Bay, studying polar bears. But not everyone wants to help her protect the bears. Like the first book, this is action-packed from beginning to end, with a lot of suspense and surprising twists. It's hard to set it down at night to go to sleep! January is the perfect time to read this very cold, snowy story.

 

 

 On audio, I am still listening to my neighborhood book group's January selection (our 200th book!), Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I've heard so many rave reviews of this novel and am very much enjoying it. It features multiple narrators, including Tova, a widow who has also lost her son, husband, and brother and works nights cleaning at the local aquarium; Cam, a young man at loose ends whose mother left him as a child; and Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus who is very smart and lives in the aquarium. He and Tova are both very isolated and lonely and begin to form an unexpected, unusual friendship. I'm at the point now, near the end, when different threads are starting to come together, revealing unexpected connections. I'm loving it so far, and the audio is great!

 

My husband, Ken, finished The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (my review at the link), a book I read for the Big Book Summer Challenge that was one of my #1 novels read in 2023! He enjoyed it very much, and I loved being able to talk to him about it. It's a novel that just begs to be discussed. Now, Ken is reading IQ by Joe Ide, one of his Christmas gifts from me. It's the first book in a 6-book (so far) mystery/thriller series, about a man in East Long Beach, an LA neighborhood, who's known as IQ. With so much crime in the area, he takes on the cases the LAPD doesn't have time for. 

 

Our son, 29, finished reading Pale Kings by Ben Galley, book 2 in the Emaneska series, and enjoyed it. Now he is rereading Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard, book 1 in her Realm Breaker series, in preparation for reading book 2 that we gave him for Christmas.

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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?