It's Monday 10/13! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

 Life

I'm going to keep it short today because I'm still very sick, in a relapse of my chronic immune disorder. This happens to me every fall/winter and usually lasts for 3-4 months, but it seems to have started a month earlier this year than last year. With a Nor'Easter coming up the coast all weekend and hitting us today, I felt even worse (changes in the barometric pressure affect me). I'm lying on the couch under my blanket, but nothing really helps the horrible flu-like aches. It's really frustrating and depressing that this keeps happening to me and is lasting even longer now, but there's not much I can do but rest as much as possible. Resting won't make me better, but it will keep me from getting worse. I do have a phone appointment with my ME/CFS specialist in NYC this week, so I'm hoping she has some new ideas. 

A few highlights from my quiet week at home:

Reading on the porch last week.

Last remaining brown-eyed-Susans still blooming!

We started putting up Halloween decorations this weekend.

I love this season!

 

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 On Video

 

September Reading Wrap-Up: Fall Fun with Readers Imbibing Peril, Shorty September, and Ghost Stories! A record reading month for me with so many great fun fall books and short stories 

 

 

Letchworth State Park: Fall in New York State - Huge Waterfalls, Fall Foliage & Camping - Come along on our recent trip to experience one of NYS's most beautiful parks (and one of my favorite places) in this short video.

 Thousand Islands, New York: Gorgeous Waterfront Campsite, Fall Leaves, and More - The next stop on our NY trip was one of the best campsites we've ever had, in a beautiful part of the state. Enjoy the peace and tranquility of nature (plus some in-town fun) in this short travel vlog.  

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 What We're Reading

 

 I finished reading Burn by Peter Heller, one of my favorite authors of outdoor thrillers. I enjoyed Celine for Booktopia in 2017, and my husband and I both loved his novels The River, The Guide, and The Last Ranger. This one is a bit different, an apocalyptic thriller. Two men who have been friends since childhood, Jess and Storey, get together every fall for a hunting trip. This year, they chose the remote northern Maine woods. When they leave the wilderness, though, they encounter destroyed bridges, preventing them from driving south. As they walk with their gear, they come upon towns that have been completely burned down, and--strangest of all--there are no people anywhere. They find a couple of bodies, but where did everyone else go? What happened while they were in the woods? It's another compelling novel from Heller, particularly chilling and powerful in our current world. He is an outstanding storyteller, and even in this dark, dangerous world, his beautiful nature writing stands out. 

 

Now, I am reading The Splinter Effect by Andrew Ludington, a thriller I gave my husband for Father's Day that he recently enjoyed. It's about a time-traveling archeologist named Rabbit Ward who goes back in time to save valuable artifacts that would otherwise be lost. As the novel opens, Rabbit is at the Library of Alexandria during the Roman invasion of Egypt and the fire that devastated much of the library. His mission is to save six scrolls containing plays by Sophocles that were destroyed that day. A female thief (also a time traveler) who has been foiling his missions lately ends up with three of the plays. Aside from these recent failures, Rabbit is haunted by the biggest mistake of his career: twenty years ago, he lost the menorah of the Second Temple ... and his young mentee. He manages to fund a trip to 535 Constantinople to try to retrieve the menorah, but it's going to be his most challenging assignment yet. I expected fast-paced thriller action and my favorite kind of time-travel twistiness (and it has all that!), but what is surprising me about this novel is the fascinating historical detail. I'm loving it, though I keep setting my book aside to look up pictures and details on my iPad! 

 

On audio, I am listening to a fabulous YA novel, Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel. When my son was in middle-school, he and I enjoyed Oppel's novels like Silverwing and its sequels and Airborn (winner of the Printz Honor in 2005). This new novel is truly unique, a survival thriller with some surprising twists. Thirteen-year-old Xavier reluctantly accompanies his dad and his dad's new wife, Nia, to the family cabin at the lake for a weekend, leaving his mother and other brother behind. The three of them wake up the next morning at the cabin to find that the lake is gone, and the cabin has somehow been transported someplace entirely different, seemingly in the middle of a small farm. The cabin hasn't changed, but everything around them has, and there are no roads or other people. Exploring over the next few days shows they are in a dome with no way out. Oh, and Nia is very pregnant. As the family settles into their new life and learn how to survive, they wonder where they are and who is responsible for putting them there. This novel is so compelling that I've been listening much more than I normally do with audio books, plugging in my earbuds in every spare moment! Mysterious, suspenseful, and twisty.

 

My husband, Ken, is now reading The Spider by Lars Kepler, a husband and wife team (which I didn't realize before), that I gave him for Father's Day. It's the 9th book in their Detective Joona Linna series (oops, sorry honey, I didn't realize that!). In this Swedish thriller, the detective is after a serial killer. I'd heard good things about the author(s), so I thought he'd like it.

 

Our son, 31, finished reading A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall, a fantasy novel. I'm not sure what he's reading now, but we'll see him this weekend.

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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.

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What are you and your family reading this week?