It's Monday 3/11! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

In typical March fashion, the last few days have brought warm sunshine, heavy rain, a brief (surprising) spate of hail/snow yesterday, and now cold temperatures and very high winds. It's just howling out there! All that changeable weather gave us a couple of gorgeous sunsets last week.

And we're seeing more signs of spring, with crocuses and snowdrops blooming, and my neighbors' daffodils already opening up (ours are in a shadier spot so are much later). When the sun came out after three days of heavy rain, I even saw beautiful red buds on another neighbor's giant maple tree.

Can you find all 6 cardinals?

Daffodils are starting to bloom!

Crocuses have come up

Snowdrops in full bloom

Red buds on the maple tree

It was a busy week, with a visit to my elderly Book Buddy (a program through our library), an hour-long appointment on Zoom with one of my medical specialists, and a shopping expedition (including the dreaded bra shopping - the worst!). It's a good thing I'm feeling well enough to go shopping now because none of my clothes fit. I'm trying to get used to tucking in my shirts again, after 20 years of wearing everything loose. And we finished out the week by having old friends over for dinner Saturday; we always enjoy catching up with them.

Thanks to everyone who voted for my book in the AllAuthors Nonfiction Book Cover Contest! I made it to the second round, so please take a moment to vote for it again.

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On the Blog

Fiction Review: Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall - warm, funny, moving story of the unique, healing relationship between a nine-year-old white girl and a Black woman in 1963 Mississippi that digs into some serious issues while also entertaining. Lots of plot twists but also lots of heart.

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On Video

February 2024 Reading Wrap-Up - my monthly summary, an all-fiction month with some outstanding, though very different, novels and great reads for Black History Month.

Friday Reads - brief update of what I am currently reading, in print and on audio.

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 What We're Reading

I finished reading Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane, a buddy read with my friend Nikki of the Red Dot Reads YouTube channel. It focuses on two families whose lives are intertwined and begins in 1973 when Francis, a recent Irish immigrant, and Brian, an Irish-American meet as trainees and then rookies on the NYPD. They end up buying houses next to each other in a small town outside of the city, where their children grow up together, until a tragedy changes the lives of both families. Keane is one of the featured authors at Booktopia at the end of April! I can't wait to meet her and read her latest book, The Half-Moon. Nikki and I both loved this novel, with its twisty plot and emotional complexity, and as always, it was made even better by discussing it.

 

Now, I have started reading my first book for Booktopia, the fabulous weekend book event I participate in every spring in Vermont (tickets available; my recap/vlog from Booktopia 2023). I started with Why We Read: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed, a nonfiction book. Reed is not only a reader but also a longtime English teacher and now college literature and writing professor. This is a fun mix between memoir and essays, with a hefty dose of humor. I'm really enjoying it. Any avid reader will recognize him/herself in Shannon's many memories and observations, plus it is loaded with book name-dropping!

 

I finished listening to Butterfly Yellow by Thanhhà Lai, my first book for the Fierce Reads event (for International Women's Day). I also thought I was reading it for Middle-Grade March, but it is actually a YA novel. It won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. At the end of the Vietnam War, Hằng takes her brother, Linh, to the airport to try to get on one of the flights to America for orphaned children. But Linh is torn from her arms and put on the plane, and Hằng stays in Vietnam. Six years later, in 1983, she makes the perilous journey to Texas to find her lost brother. Now a refugee with limited English, she is lost herself in this strange new place until a young cowboy-wannabe named LeeRoy agrees to help her. I'm glad I listened to the audio, where the language barrier and her struggles with American pronunciation are very clear (and I heard the correct pronunciation of the Vietnamese words). This was an outstanding novel. Determined to find her brother at all costs, Hằng certainly fits the prompt as a fierce female character!

 

Now, I am reading what I am certain does qualify for Middle-Grade March (and also works for the Fierce Reads event), Iceberg by Jennifer Nielsen. I'm a longtime fan of Nielsen's middle-grade historical fiction, and as you might guess from the title, this one is about the Titanic. Twelve-year-old Hazel is on a mission to save her family. Her mother has sent her to the docks to board the Titanic for New York, where Hazel's aunt has promised her a job in a garment factory, so she can send money home to keep her siblings from starving. But when Hazel tries to buy a ticket, she finds that all of her family's savings isn't enough for the fare for even a third-class ticket. She finds a way on board as a stowaway. With a dream of becoming a journalist one day, Hazel begins to hear rumors about the ship that make the reporter in her interested--and wary. We all know how the Titanic's story ends, but so far, this is an excellent novel with a wonderful main character.

 

My husband, Ken, is reading A Ghost of Caribou by Alice Henderson, book 3 in her outdoor thriller series about wildlife biologist Alex Carter. Here, Alex is in northeastern Washington state to investigate whether rumors of a caribou sighting (extinct in the contiguous United States for years) are valid. Ken says the story is already gearing up into Henderson's typical action-packed suspense!

 

Our son, 29, has been very busy with job interviews lately, but he's enjoying a book I gave him for his birthday last year, Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, one of his all-time favorite fantasy authors (and he has many favorites). This is book 1 in World of the First Law, a spin-off of his hugely popular First Law trilogy.

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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?