#AllSeasons Link-Up: Winter Hiking in Delaware

I've been looking for some sort of nature photography link-up, and I just discovered #AllSeasons, hosted by Lydia at Where the Wild Things Were (she is also a reader). Details below, if you want to join the fun!

I've been stuck on the couch with a nasty virus for the last week, so for my first post, I thought I'd focus on some short hikes I took before this hit, all taken at our local nature center. These show two sides of a Delaware winter: with a bit of snow and just cold!

Ice and snow in the creeks:

Our iconic covered bridge with snow ...

After some thawing, on a cold blue-sky day:
 

... and without!

 

#Allseasons linky runs from Thursday to Wednesday each week. 

Link one post that shows something seasonal. Traditional weather wise, a seasonal nature marker, or a seasonal celebration. 

Make sure you link back to the  #AllSeasons post at Lydia's blog, Where the Wild Things Were.

Fiction Review: Firekeeper's Daughter

For Christmas this year, instead of asking for specific books, I gave my family a list of authors I've never read and about whom I've heard great things. One of those was Angeline Boulley, and I was thrilled that my husband gave me The Firekeeper's Daughter as a gift. I finally see what all the fuss was about! While published as a YA novel, this story has so many layers and such complex themes that it will be loved by any adult, too. It's a mystery/thriller with great emotional depth, set against a fascinating cultural background.

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has always had a foot in two worlds, though she often feels as if she doesn't fully belong in either. She lives in Sault (pronounced Soo) Ste. Marie, Michigan, near the Canadian border, with her mother. Her mother's parents were French and Italian, and her father, who died, was a part of the local Ojibwe tribe, though her parents were never married. Her closest ties to the tribe are her half-brother, Levi, her beloved Aunt Teddie, and her best friend Lily. Levi is a part of the renowned Sault Ste. Marie Superiors hockey team, and as the novel begins, he introduces Daunis to a new member of the team who just moved to town. Jamie is gorgeous, polite, and charming to everyone he meets, including Teddie's twin six-year-old girls. Daunis soon starts to fall for him, though she senses he's hiding something. 

Daunis' town, where the tribe seems integrated into the larger community and hockey is king, includes a dark secret. The scourge of meth has reached their community, with tragedy seemingly around every corner now. Lily's ex-boyfriend, Travis, was a straight-A student in all of Daunis' AP classes until he got into drugs, discovered meth, and started dealing. He keeps begging Lily to take him back--and to try meth. Daunis' own Uncle David, her mother's brother, died recently of an overdose, stunning his family since he'd been clean for 15 years. Amid this community in crisis, Daunis discovers an FBI investigation is ongoing and is asked to go undercover as a part of it. She wants to help her community and find out who the source of the meth is and where it's coming from, but she doesn't necessarily agree with the FBI's approach. Her conflicted feelings increase, as does the danger, as she gets closer to answers.

While this is a mystery/thriller at heart, with plenty of suspense, action, and a twisty plot, there is so much more to it. We see the complex grieving process of Daunis and her family, her closeness to both sides of her family, and a burgeoning love in the midst of tragedy. In addition, this novel provides an in-depth look at the modern Native American experience, and Daunis' own particular challenges of living in two different worlds (though, to some extent, all members of the tribe live that way). The details of traditional ceremonies, healing, and customs, and the closeness of the tribal community, are beautiful and fascinating. These details are authentic because the author herself is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie tribe. I loved getting to know Daunis and her family, felt fully immersed in their world, and was rooting for the whole community to get to the bottom of the drug problems and begin to heal.

NOTES: 

The author says this novel is being developed into a TV series (which would be amazing!), but it doesn't show up in IMDb yet. 

The setting was described so beautifully that I wanted to visit and included stop in Sault Ste. Marie on our summer vacation to Michigan! Unfortunately, we had to cancel due to my illness, but I can't wait to see it in person next summer.

494 pages, Henry Holt and Company

Macmillan Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Alphabet Soup Challenge - F

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Michigan
 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample gives you an idea of both the suspense and the cultural setting.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

 
  

Fiction Review: Lonesome Dove

Ever since I started my YouTube channel in 2021 and heard about the annual June on the Range reading event there, I've heard people raving about how amazing the novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry is. I remember all the hype over the TV mini-series in the 80's (though I didn't watch it), and lots of friends with similar reading tastes said the novel was excellent. But I'm not a huge fan of westerns generally, so I put off reading it. I decided this would be the year, and I read it in June for both June on the Range and my own Big Book Summer Challenge. Wow. Why did I wait? This beautifully written, moving novel blew me away and left me sobbing (three separate times!) and often laughing out loud. It was everything I'd heard and more.

In 1873, Augustus McCrae and Captain Woodrow Call are retired Texas Rangers, living a quiet life on the Texas/Mexico border along the Rio Grande, in the tiny, dusty town of Lonesome Dove. A couple of their ex-Ranger fellows, Pea Eye and a Black man named Deets, along with a teen boy named Newt make up the rest of their Hat Creek Cattle Company, which doesn't get a whole lot of business there in the desolate, tiny town. Both Call, often just called Captain, and Pea Eye are both reticent men, but Gus talks enough for the whole outfit. He can--and often does--talk about absolutely nothing for hours. The town mostly consists of a few meager farms and ranches, a general store, and a saloon, featuring a beautiful whore named Lorena. The few travelers that come to Lonesome Dove often come just for Lorena, though there is also a lot of drinking and card playing in the saloon, as a man named Lippy plays the piano. Into this quiet life on the edge of nowhere, another ex-Ranger named Jake stops by the Hat Creek outfit to visit his old friends. He regales them with tales of his recent trip to Montana, which is still a vast wilderness. He emphasizes that it is excellent cattle country (as opposed to Lonesome Dove, where grass for grazing is nearly non-existent), and Call is unusually moved from their typical routine to suggest a cattle drive all the way to Montana. First, they round up thousands of cattle from Mexico and a few more men, including a couple of experienced cowhands, two lost Irishmen they rescued from Mexico, and some teen boys from town. The expanded though ragtag Hat Creek outfit sets off, leaving behind their quiet existence, for the unknown wilderness ahead and untold dangers on the way, from Indians, horse thieves, and nature. Along the way, they meet many other people, whose paths they may cross for just a day or for much longer, following Call's unusual and emphatic need to drive their new herd of cattle all the way to the unknown territory of Montana.

This novel surprised me so many times and in so many ways. Yes, it's a western adventure with plenty of action. But McMurtry has also created fully-drawn, three-dimensional characters that soon feel like old friends. I expected an all-male cast in this cowboy novel, but he's included many fascinating, well-developed female characters, too. The writing is beautiful, but the novel is also plot-driven, with so many unexpected twists and turns that I never for a moment got bored through its gripping 850 pages. I was also surprised by the emotional depth and intensity of this story that had me sobbing, hard, three different times and also often laughing out loud (the first, wonderful instance of this is in chapter 8, about the origins and details of the sign for the Hat Creek outfit that Gus created). Here's another fun moment, as two people ride into camp:

 "The most surprising thing was that [she] was wearing pants. So far as [Gus] could remember, he had never seen a woman in pants, and he considered himself a man of experience. Call had his back turned and hadn't seen them, but some of the cowboys had. The sight of a woman in pants scared them so bad they didn't know where to put their eyes. Most of them began to concentrate heavily on the beans in their plate. Dish Boggett turned white as a sheet, got up without a word to anybody, got his night horse and started for the herd, which was strung out up the valley."

There is violence and tragedy, yes, but also friendship, love, honor, and commitment. It's an epic story that kept me engrossed for a full month and then feeling like it ended too soon. I will definitely be reading its sequel, The Streets of Laredo (and there are also two prequels).

NOTE: Do NOT read the Preface, written by the author, as it contains spoilers--of this book and the sequel.

858 pages, Simon & Schuster

Phoenix Books, Inc (audio)

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif - "Comedy Club" - while not strictly a comedy, it did make me laugh a lot!

Diversity Challenge

Big Book Summer Challenge
 

 

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/ordownload it from Audible. The sample sounds great - I bet it's excellent on audio.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

   
  

3 Great Middle-Grade Audio Books - Mini Reviews

In March, I participated in Middle-Grade March and the Fierce Reads event for International Women's Month. I listened to three excellent middle-grade novels on audio, all by women authors and featuring fierce female characters (and with great female narrators). The first was historical fiction, and the other two were modern-day realistic fiction. My brief reviews are below, and you can also check out my review of The Parachute Kids by Betty C. Tang, a middle-grade graphic novel I also read in March.

My first middle-grade audio was Iceberg by Jennifer Nielsen. I'm a longtime fan of Nielsen's middle-grade historical fiction (like Lines of Courage and A Night Divided), 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 after her father's death. 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. Luckily, she makes some friends on board, including Charlie, a boy working as a porter, and Sylvia, a girl her age in First Class. 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--so she sets out to investigate and learn more. We all know how the Titanic's story ends, so there is plenty of suspense here, as well as fascinating historical details. It was an excellent novel with a wonderful main character (and yes, don't worry--she survives).

 352 pages, Scholastic Press

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

Monthly Motif Challenge - "Thrill Me" - this was a historical thriller

Travel the World in Books - UK (and Atlantic Ocean!)

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

_______________

Next, I listened to Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy, my first novel from this very popular YA author (this is her first middle-grade novel). Twelve-year-old Sweet Pea feels torn apart by her parents' divorce, despite their efforts to keep everything "normal." She splits her time between her mom's house and her dad's, which are identical homes two doors down from each other! They've divorced because her father has come out as gay. She's also still grieving the loss of her first-ever best friend, Kiera, who's found prettier, thinner, more popular girls to hang out with. Luckily, Sweet Pea has Oscar, her new best (only) friend and her cat, Cheese. Her strange elderly neighbor asks Sweet Pea to help out while she travels to stay with her ill sister, and Sweet Pea makes some pretty big mistakes but also learns and grows. I enjoyed this warm, funny novel, focusing on several common adolescent issue--like divorce, life changes, and secrets--between Sweet Pea, Kiera, and Oscar and what it means to be a friend.

288 pages, Balzer + Bray

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Alphabet Soup Challenge - D

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Texas

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

_______________

My last middle-grade audio book in March was Home Away from Home by Cynthia Lord, an author I have enjoyed in the past. Mia and her mom always visit her grandma in Maine every summer, but this year, Mia's there alone. Her mom and her boyfriend are working to sell their old house and find a new one, for "a fresh start." Mia wishes everything would stay the same, but she loves visiting her grandma in the small, seaside town. Things are different there this year, though, too. Mia meets grandma's neighbor, Cayman, who's her age and seems to have made himself at home at grandma's house! The two kids spot an unusual white bird of prey when they go to check on the baby eaglets the town is known for, and Mia launches an investigation. This was a wonderful middle-grade novel that deals with lots of typical adolescent issues, including divorce and friendship, as well as the perils of social media, with a hefty dose of nature added in (which I loved).

224 pages, Scholastic Press

Scholastic Audio

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

 

Literary Escapes - Maine

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

 

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores (audio sample here, too).

 

You can buythe book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

It's Monday 4/15! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

We just got home last night from a wonderful week-long camping vacation in Virginia! It was relaxing, fun, and a much-needed break. Our first stop with our pop-up camper was Holliday Lake State Park, which was almost empty mid-week, so we had the place to ourselves! We enjoyed a hike along the lake and some beautiful streams and got our kayaks out on the lake.

Beautiful streams on our hike

Campsite at Holliday Lake

So many redbuds in bloom in the park!

Kayaking on Holliday Lake

Dozens of turtles, covering every log!

A cormorant floats by

 

And, of course, we saw the eclipse! It wasn't total in Virginia, and clouds began rolling in at about the exact moment it started, but it was still really cool. In fact, the cloud cover allowed us to take some photos.

 

See the little sliver of sun?

While there, we also visited Appomattox Court House, the famous site where Lee surrendered to Grant to end the Civil War. Just by chance, we were there on April 9, the 159th anniversary of that event! The National Historical Park includes the whole reconstructed town (which we learned is called Appomattox Court House) and the McLean house, a private home where the surrender actually took place. The details were pretty amazing: Lincoln was determined to rebuild the union and insisted on respect for the surrendering soldiers, allowing them to return home. He didn't even allow the Union soldiers to celebrate in front of the Confederates. He insisted they be welcomed back into the nation. At no other time in history did a war end so civilly and respectfully. Unfortunately, of course, he was assassinated just a few days later. Makes you wonder what Reconstruction would have been like if he'd lived ... and what a leader like that could do in our world today.

Part of the Appomattox Court House NHP

In front of the McLean House

"The room where it happened"!

Next, we drove to Fairy Stone State Park for another 3 days. While there, we got about 24 hours of rain, with huge thunderstorms Thursday evening that knocked out the power and water to the campground! We escaped the rain during the day with a trip into Martinsville to visit the Virginia Natural History Museum.

My husband in front of a giant sloth!

Me and the Allosaurus

By Friday, the storms had blown away, leaving behind colder temperatures and very high winds. We had a wonderful hike Friday morning on the Whiskey Run Trail, with stunning views. Unfortunately, it was far too windy to get our kayaks out on the lake.

Hiking in Fairy Stone State Park

Stunning views from the Whiskey Run Trail

We ended our trip with a weekend stay with my college suite-mate and her husband (another college friend) at their brand-now, gorgeous lake house. We enjoyed a boat ride on Smith Mountain Lake, some good meals, lots of catching up on the last seven years, reminiscing, and laughter!

Nothing like old friends!

Beautiful lake views from the house

__________

On the Blog

A couple of posts before I left:

TV Tuesday: Tracker - we're both loving this new CBS show starring Justin Hartley (of This Is Us) as a loner who finds missing people. It's suspenseful but also a road trip show so right up our alley!

 Nonfiction Review: Why We Read by Shannon Reed - I enjoyed this highly entertaining exploration of books and reading from an avid reader and English teacher/literature professor, with a great sense of humor! I can't wait to meet her at Booktopia.

__________

On Video

Friday Reads 4-5-24 - my brief weekly update of what I am reading, including 3 books for Booktopia

March Reading Wrap-Up - It was a great reading month, with lots of books read for Middle-Grade March, Fierce Reads Readathon, and Booktopia, including nonfiction, fiction, audios, graphic memoir, YA, and middle-grade.

__________

 What We're Reading

I finished Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy, who is the best-selling author of about a dozen books (though he's new to me) for Booktopia (tickets available; my recap/vlog from Booktopia 2023). This was a very quiet, tender story about a woman named Helen. She is 83 and living in a retirement cottage (in the UK) in the small village where she grew up. She's lived all over the world but decided to come home after losing her son and her husband. Helen is very lonely and lives each day in a quiet routine, until she has a surprise encounter with a mouse that leads to all kinds of adventures and new connections. It reminded me somewhat of A Man Called Ove, and I really enjoyed it.

 

Now, I am reading another book for Booktopia, The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane, the author of Ask Again, Yes, which I just read in February as a Buddy Read (and loved!). Malcolm is the owner of the Half Moon, a longtime bar in his hometown of Gillam (same setting as Ask Again, Yes). He's married to Jess, a lawyer who recently left Malcolm, saying she needed some time apart. The novel flashes back to the past, to show how Malcolm and Jess first met and the horrible infertility struggles they faced, as well as Malcolm's history with the bar and how he came to buy it. Besides Jess leaving, Malcolm is also having financial problems. As the novel opens, a series of huge snowstorms hits the town, cutting off power and shutting things down for a week. As with her previous novel, this one is all about relationships, with lots of emotional depth, though there are some plot twists, too. I'm almost finished with it now and have really been enjoying it.

 

On audio, I finished another novel for Booktopia, You Are Here by Karin Lin Greenberg. This was kind of a slice of life novel, about a cross-section of very different people in a town who meet because they all work in or frequent the local mall, which is rumored to be closing soon. Tina is a hair stylist who works in the mall's salon. She's the single mother to Jackson, a nine-year-old boy. Ro is an elderly woman who comes to the salon to get her hair done each week. Kevin works at the bookstore in the mall and lives next-door to Ro, in a tiny house (with his wife and twin kids!) in his in-law's backyard. And Maria is a teen girl who dreams of becoming an actress and works, wearing a chicken suit, in the food court. Each of these people has their own chapters, is dealing with their own issues, and interacting with the others. I really enjoyed this novel. It's got a good sense of humor, though it tackles some tough topics, and I loved the way it wrapped up.

 

During our road trip, my husband and I listened to Almost Midnight by Paul Doiron, book 10 in his mystery/thriller series about Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch. My husband read the first book in the series a few years back. There are two mysteries in this one, one dealing with a half-wolf that Mike has encountered in the past who's been shot with a cross-bow. The other mystery surrounds an old friend of Mike's who's serving time in prison when violence breaks out. Throughout the novel, Mike is supposed to be on vacation but gets pulled into these two cases for personal reasons. This was a good one for a long car ride, and we both enjoyed it. We had one minute left as we arrived back home last night, so the timing was perfect!

 

My husband, Ken, finished Red Knife by William Kent Krueger (a favorite author for both of us), book 8 in his Cork O'Connor series. Ken finally activated his library card and got this one from the library - clearly, he's enjoying retirement! Now, Ken is reading Righteous by Joe Ide, book 2 in his IQ series. I put this one in his Easter basket!

Our son, 29, finished 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. Now, he is reading Raven Caller by David Daglish, book 2 in his The Keepers series. We gave him that one for Easter!

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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?