It's Monday 10/28! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

We just arrived back home from a lovely weekend spent with our sons and one girlfriend at a rented lake house. This has become an annual tradition for us in the fall, one that we all enjoy. It was wonderfully relaxing, and the time spent together in such a beautiful place is always fun and comforting. We ate meals together, read books, enjoyed the stunning view, played games, talked, and laughed--lots of laughter! Our sons are now 26 and 30 and live busy lives of their own, and we are so grateful for this quiet time together and our shared family history. 

My husband & I waiting for the "kids" to arrive Friday!

Kayaking on a beautiful fall day

Fall colors were past prime in northern NJ but still pretty

Our son on a paddleboard & my husband kayaking

Our son  chilling on the paddleboard

Perfect reading spot in the sunshine!

Our family

Sitting around the firepit

Sunrise (which I rarely see but I woke too early!)

View from my bedroom!

Reading on the sunny dock

We carved pumpkins Sunday!

Gorgeous sunset from the upstairs balcony

Cloudy this morning but still beautiful - hard to say goodbye!

 

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On Video

 Travel & Camping Vlog: Killens Pond State Park, DE - come along on our recent camping trip, with lots of peaceful nature videos and a peak into our new-to-us camper.

Friday Reads 10-25-24 & Some Halloween Fun - decorated & dressed up for Halloween, as I share some books I've recently enjoyed that fit the season.

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 What We're Reading

Most of our reading has been for the RIP (Readers Imbibing Peril) event.

I finished reading November Road by Lou Berney, a road trip thriller I gave my husband last year after reading great reviews from Stephen King and others (and it won multiple awards). In 1963, Frank Guidry works for a crime boss in New Orleans and feels good about the status he has achieved in the organization ... until he realizes the boss wants him dead. In Oklahoma, Charlotte makes a sudden decision after Sunday dinner with her in-laws and afterward, her husband once again makes an excuse to go to a bar. She quickly packs up herself and their two daughters, seven and eight years old, and heads west toward California. Eventually, Frank's path as he flees the assassin sent to kill him intersects with Charlotte and the girls. We also get the assassin's perspective. It's twisty and suspenseful but also features in-depth characters, great settings, a touch of romance, and even a sense of humor. The ending was just right, and I really enjoyed it!

 

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail last week that I wanted to read right away: Not Quite a Ghost by Anne Ursu, a middle-grade spooky thriller with a twist from a favorite author and a virtual friend for almost the last 20 years. The main character, 11-year-old Violet, is going through a lot of changes in her life. Her family has just moved out of their old too-small house into an older house that needs some work, and Violet ends up in the creepy, ugly attic bedroom. She's also starting middle school, where her closest friends suddenly seem to change and to want a bigger friend group. Then, in the first weeks of school, Violet gets sick ... and she doesn't get better. Sometimes she feels OK and tries to act normal, leading some friends to think she's faking, and other times, her body just won't work and she can't get out of bed. Spending a lot of time in the attic bedroom, Violet begins to see strange things in the weird wallpaper and suspect that she's not alone. She calls on a new friend, who's been researching ghosts, to help her, but is there anything they can do? I loved this spooky, suspenseful novel full of heart and humor so much that I'm going to break my new rule and write a full review of it, so look for that later this week!

 

I just finished listening to a classic mystery, Arsene Lupin versus Herlock Sholmes by Maurice Leblanc, first translated into English in 1910. Read that title closely because the first few times I saw it, my brain read what it thought it should be instead of what was written! My husband and I have watched the Lupin series on Netflix, so I knew who this classic French literature character was: a gentleman thief who constantly outwits law enforcement. Here, in a series of interrelated stories, he pulls off several heists and ends up going up against the famous English detective (the author must not have been allowed to use the real name but there is even a tongue-in-cheek reference to Arthur Conan Doyle here!). It's intriguing and clever, and I enjoyed listening to it.

My husband has also been reading a spooky-season classic, Dracula by Bram Stoker. He picked it up at the indie bookstore we visited in Oneonta, NY. I enjoyed it on audio in 2015, and he's been meaning to read it for years. It's the perfect book for October!

 

And I finally had a chance to catch up with my son's reading! Even though he usually plows through epic fantasies one after the other, he admitted he didn't read much this summer after starting his new job because he got caught up in playing Civilization, one of his old favorite video games from high school. But he's back to reading and enjoyed the relaxed reading time this weekend. He is reading The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie (book 2 in the World of the First Law series) which we gave him for his birthday in August. This is one of his all-time favorite authors, and he said no one writes battle scenes 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?