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| Hosted by The Book Date |
Life
Whew, what a busy week! And Big Book Summer 2026 kicked off Friday (see below), so it's been extra hectic. We were in Long Island Tuesday through Thursday for our older son's fiancée's Master's graduation. It was a wonderful celebration with her family, and we were glad we could be there. But it took almost 6 hours to get there on Tuesday, with the usual NY-metro traffic, plus the LIRR workers on strike! Fortunately, the strike ended, and we got home in under 3 hours Thursday (NY traffic is crazy and unpredictable!).
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| The graduate! |
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| My husband and I, our son and his fiancée & her parents |
Memorial Day weekend, our younger son and his fiancée went up to Connecticut to help my mom and her husband get their sailboat ready for the season, so on Saturday, we puppy-sat adorable little Chester. Wow, he is a bundle of energy! It's like having a toddler around again--you have to watch him every single second. We enjoyed having him here for the day but were very relieved that we didn't have him overnight (have to take him out at 3 am and 6 am) or the whole weekend. We were both pretty exhausted by 6 pm, and I kept yawning at our friends' house for dinner that night!
Chester is so cute! Those ears! 
Playing with ALL the toys!
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| What happens when I try to take a photo! |
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| Luckily, he occasionally konks out! ha ha |
Our Memorial Day weekend (unofficial start of summer) here in Delaware did not feel at all summer-like, with temperatures in the 50's, constant rain, and dark, gloomy skies. The rain has finally stopped (for now), but the forecast says we won't see the sun until Friday! It was in the 90's here last week. Crazy weather lately. Despite the gray skies, the rain did stop this morning, so my husband and I took a little hike at nearby Auburn Valley State Park.
Wild phlox growing along the trail 
Red Clay Creek running through the park 
Family of geese
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Big Book Summer 2026 has begun! - All the details are in this post, but it's super easy. Any book with 400+ pages is a Big Book, and you set your own goals for the summer, to read one or two or a whole stack, by September 7. Plus, there's fun merch and great communities on Goodreads and Storygraph where you can chat about books with others all summer. There's a links list at the bottom of the page, if you want to check out other blogger's and Booktuber's Big Book Summer plans. Everyone is welcome to join the fun!
My 2026 Big Book Summer Plans - see my Pile of Possibilities (in print) for this summer, my first Big Book audio, and my husband's Pile of Possibilities. I'm hoping to make a dent in my overflowing TBR bookcase!
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The Howzat?! Tag - This tag is based on cricket (which I know nothing about), but the questions are really fun and interesting and allowed me to talk about lots of great books and favorite authors that I don't often have a chance to mention on my channel. Plenty of book recommendations in this one!
2026 Big Book Summer Reading Challenge - The official kick-off video, including everything you need to know to participate, how Big Book Summer started 14 years ago, and my own plans for Big Books I hope to read this summer.
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I finished reading Heartwood by Amity Gaige, which my husband gave me for Valentine's Day (he knows me so well!). Forty-two-year-old Valerie goes missing while solo hiking the Appalachian Trail in the last section, in the North Woods of Maine, a massive wilderness with dense tree growth. Beverly, lieutenant in the Maine Game Warden service, heads up the search efforts for Valerie, which include hundreds of law enforcement and volunteers and continues for over a week. In the novel, you get the perspectives of many different people: Valerie herself, as she writes letters to her mother in a notebook while lost; Beverly; interviews with Santo, who hiked with Valerie for much of the trail and bonded with her, and an older woman named Lena who watches the crisis unfold from afar while she chats with her electronic pen pal in Maine. It was excellent, filled with suspense and tension and great character development. I flew through the pages, wanting to know whether Valerie would survive and how they would finally find her.
I am now reading my first pick for Big Book Summer, The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. It's SO good!! I have been fully immersed in this propulsive follow-up. It focuses on three side characters from The Handmaid's Tale that you didn't hear much about in that first book. Here, you get their detailed backstories, how they came to be who they are, and what they are doing in the years after that first book ended. I'm purposely not saying who those characters are because their identities are gradually revealed in the novel. So far, it is absolutely gripping, horrifying (as any story about Gilead is), and thoroughly engrossing.
I am still listening to A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (my first Big Book on audio this summer). A group on Booktube is doing a group read of this in May. I enjoy John Irving but haven't read any of his novels in years, so I thought I'd join the fun! It's excellent so far, narrated by Owen's best friend, John, as an adult looking back at their eventful childhood together. It's warm, moving, funny, and completely engaging, as John recounts his adventures with Owen, a very unique boy, and the joys and tragedies that they shared together. Excellent on audio.
My husband, Ken, is still reading The List by Steve Berry, a book I put in his Easter basket. He is struggling a bit with the premise so far: an evil corporation that kills off its older retirees to save money! But he's still reading it.
Ken's daytime "slow read" is Moby Dick by Herman Melville, a classic we've both been meaning to read for years. He says he's enjoying it, and he's amazed by how witty and relevant the writing is, given how long ago it was written.
Our son, 31, is re-reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson, book 4 of his famed Stormlight Archive series, in preparation for reading book 5, which he got for Christmas. Sanderson is one of his favorite authors! But I doubt he'll be reading much of anything for the next 2+ weeks. The day after graduation, he and his fiancée left for another epic road trip. They're already in San Antonio, enjoying the beautiful city and visiting our nephews (our son's cousins). They stopped at Smoky Mountains National Park (and saw 3 bears!) and at our favorite Arkansas state park, Petit Jean, for our family's favorite hike, Bear Cave Trail.
Black bear in the Smokies! 
Hiking in the Smokies 
Classic Smokies view
Bear Cave Trail in Petit Jean SP, Arkansas
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