It's Monday 3/4! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

 Life

We made it to March! It's still light out at 6 pm, it was 65 and sunny here yesterday, and there are green shoots peeking up out of the ground and buds on the trees. I love the feeling of awakening and renewal in spring (ask me later this week after it rains for many days in a row!).

Buds in trees at the park

Snowdrops in our garden

Tiny flowers peeking out

I enjoyed a busy week--still feeling good! I'm just loving being out in the world again, living my life, and seeing friends. Tuesday morning was warm and sunny, so a friend and I met for a walk and talked for 90 minutes straight! It was fun to be out and catch up. Thursday was my neighborhood book group meeting. We had a great discussion and all (mostly) enjoyed the book. 

Walking (and talking!) with a friend

 

And our older son and his girlfriend came to visit this weekend. We hadn't seen them since Christmas, so we had a wonderful time just relaxing, chatting, eating good food (some minor diet cheats), and enjoying each other's company. Our younger son was also home on Saturday, so we all had dinner together and even played a game afterward; this mom's heart was full! (but I didn't take a single photo, so here's one from last year of the five of us)

Love when we're together!

Oh, and my book cover was nominated for the Cover of the Month contest at AllAuthors, so please take a moment to vote for it!

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On the Blog

Fiction Review: Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions by Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi - I loved this beautifully written novel, told in interlocking stories, about four Nigerian girls who meet as children and become lifelong friends. It's a unique approach that works wonderfully.

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On Video

 The Girl Scout Cookie Tag - this fun tag video features favorite book prompts based on Girl Scout cookies (plus, bonus, you can see home movies of me as a Brownie!)

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 What We're Reading

I am almost 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 immigrant who's been in the U.S. longer, 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. Nikki and I are both enjoying the twisty plot and emotional complexity of this one, and as always, it is made even better by discussing it.

 

I finished listening to Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall about 20 minutes before my book group meeting! In 1963 Mississippi, nine-year-old Starla lives with her grandmother, Mamie, who doesn't seem to like her much. When she gets in trouble on the 4th of July and fears Mamie's punishment, she decides to run away to Nashville to find her mother. Starla hasn't seen her mother since she was very young, though she sends her birthday cards and says she is going to be a famous singer. Starla starts hitchhiking and is picked up by a Black woman named Eula, and the two of them head off on a journey neither could have predicted. I loved this novel about the unique relationship between Starla and Eula, who find each other just when they both need it. It was excellent on audio: moving, funny, difficult, uplifting.

 

I am now listening to Butterfly Yellow by Thanhhà Lai, my first book for Middle-Grade March and the Fierce Reads event (for International Women's Day). 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 very limited English, she is lost herself in this strange new place until a young cowboy-wannabe named LeeRoy agrees to help her. It's excellent so far, and I'm really glad I'm listening to the audio, where the language barrier and her struggles with American pronunciation are very clear. Determined to find her brother at all costs, Hằng certainly fits the prompt as a fierce female character!

 

Just last night, my husband, Ken, finished Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia-to-Zion Journey Through Every National Park by Conor Knighton, a nonfiction memoir I gave him for Christmas. He was reading me passages out loud (we are both huge National Park fans), but he stopped because he said I will want to read this one myself! He loved it and said I have to read it. We are both itching to get back to our old habits of long road trips out west; we haven't done that since our kids grew up (and we were caring for my father-in-law for many years).

 

Our son, 29, finished Soulkeeper by David Dalglish, book one in The Keepers series, and enjoyed it. Next, he read Homeland by R.A. Salvatore, a gift from us last Christmas. He and his friends (best friends since kindergarten!) play Dungeons & Dragons together (by Zoom these days), and this series is based on D&D. There are dozens of books in the series, but I did my research to find that this one is considered the best starting place, book 1 in The Legend of Drizzt. Now, he is reading 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. My son and his girlfriend worked on cleaning out his old childhood bedroom this weekend (long overdue!), and he enjoyed looking back over favorite books from childhood.

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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?