Fiction Review: The Sense of Reckoning

Every fall, I love reading for the R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) Challenge and enjoying mysteries, thrillers, paranormal stories, dystopians, and other dark books. But the absolute best kind of book for fall is one that combines mystery, thriller-action, and ghosts all in one story! That's where the Ann Kinnear Suspense series by Matty Dalrymple comes in. I love this series and enjoyed every moment of the second book, The Sense of Reckoning.

Ann can sense spirits, and she sometimes uses her talents to help prospective home buyers find out if their dream home is haunted or to help the police solve a crime. In the first book, The Sense of Death, Ann aided the police in Philadelphia to solve a missing persons case by obtaining information from the spirit of someone who'd died. That story ended with an action-packed scene of violence that is still haunting Ann ... perhaps literally. Needing to get away from her normally peaceful cabin in the Adirondacks, Ann heads back to West Chester, PA, to visit her brother and his partner, Scott. While there, a fellow spirit-senser named Garrick who Ann had met before asks for her help with a case on Mount Desert Island, Maine. Thinking the road-trip vacation and a new case will be good for her, Ann's brother sends her off to Maine, accompanied by the affable Scott. The two of them settle into a charming B&B in Southwest Harbor, and Ann begins to help Garrick. His case involves a decades-old mystery that began during a historic fire in 1947 that destroyed almost half of the island and much of the town of Bar Harbor. The mystery is centered on a historic but run-down hotel on the water, and the hotel's sole remaining heir, who is desperate to save her family's legacy. Both Garrick and Ann seek to solve the mystery and save the hotel by speaking to the ghost of the owner's brother, who committed suicide in the hotel. As the narrative moves back and forth between the past and the present, tensions--and danger--increase for Ann in the quest to solve the mystery and also keep herself safe.

As with The Sense of Death, this book is a twisty mystery/thriller with plenty of action and ghostly goings-on, but it is so much more, too. I loved the historical side of this novel and enjoyed learning about this part of Mount Desert Island's history that I'd never heard before (the 1947 fire was real). And, as always, the author includes wonderful details of the location and setting that make it come to life for the reader. In this case, Mount Desert Island, Maine, is one of my family's favorite places, and we have spent plenty of time in Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, and Southwest Harbor, as well as exploring the island's gorgeous mountains, lakes, and coastline. I delighted in every mention of a place we've been--Jordan Pond House eating popovers, Echo Lake, Thurston's Lobster Pound, and more. I loved this novel and can't wait to read more of this series! In fact, I have been talking so enthusiastically about the series that I finally convinced my husband to read it, even though he says he doesn't like ghost stories. He's currently well into the first book ... and enjoying it. Highly recommended and perfect for fall!

301 pages, William Kingsfield Publishers

 

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.

 

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!

Middle-Grade/Teen Review: A Corner of White

One of my first audio books chosen for my annual fall R.I.P. Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge was A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty, a middle-grade/teen mystery fantasy. This is not my usual genre, but I thoroughly enjoyed this unique story with parallel narratives set partly in the real world and partly in a fantasy world, with many similarities to our world. I was engrossed in the story from beginning to end ... and I'm interested in reading the next book in the trilogy. 

In real-world present-day Cambridge, England, three young teens--Jack, Belle, and Madeleine--are homeschooled together and are friends. Their homeschool teachers include their parents, as well as some of their neighbors. Madeline and her mother live alone in a shabby apartment, and Madeleine is struggling to adjust to their new life. They used to be wealthy and travel all over the world to the most wonderful international cities, living a luxurious life. Then, Madeleine's father left, leaving them destitute, and now, she's beginning to worry about her mother's health, as she struggles with headaches and memory issues. Meanwhile, in a world called the Kingdom of Cello, in a farming town named Bonfire, a teen boy named Elliot is also living alone with his mother. Elliot's father is also missing from his life, but for a very different reason. His father and the local physics teacher both went missing on the same night that Elliot's uncle was found dead. There are two opposing theories in town: that Elliot's dad killed his brother and ran off with the teacher or that an attack of Purples killed his uncle and kidnapped the other two. In Cello, though their world is much like our own in some ways, colors are active forces that can change the weather, create natural disasters, or even, in the case of the violent Purples, kill and kidnap. Elliot, of course, believes this second theory and is determined to find his father. A small crack appears between the two worlds, and Madeleine and Elliot begin trading letters through it, though Madeleine thinks Elliot is a guy who plays too many video games and has made up an outrageous fantasy world. The two teens, both with missing fathers, continue to communicate with each other, as each tries to make sense of what is happening in their lives and find their fathers.

As I mentioned, I don't read a lot of fantasy, but when I do enjoy the genre, it is usually a story set in the real world with elements of fantasy or magic. This book hit that sweet spot for me, with its intertwined stories. I immediately came to care about Elliot and Madeleine (and the other kids in both worlds) and was rooting for both of them to solve the mysteries of the missing fathers. While this is listed as book 1 of 3, it comes to a very satisfying--and surprising--conclusion, while opening the door to the sequel. I was fully engaged in the story and there was plenty of suspense to keep me listening. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this original story on audio ... and though I don't read many series, I am interested in reading more about Madeleine and Elliot.

384 pages, Arthur A. Levine

Scholastic Audio

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review. My review is my own opinion and is not influenced by my relationship with the publisher or author.

 

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, with a multi-cast of narrators, and/or download it from Audible.

 

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: The Lying Game

One of the first books I read for this fall's R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) Challenge was The Lying Game by Ruth Ware, since she is a favorite thriller author of me and my husband, and you can always count on her novels to be gripping and suspenseful. This one was no exception.

Four adult women--Fatima, Thea, Isa, and Kate--went to boarding school together seventeen years ago, but they have lost touch as they have each moved onto their adult lives. Out of the blue, Kate texts the other three women, I need you. Immediately, all three of them drop everything in their lives to drive or take the train back to Salten, where they all went to school and where Kate still lives in the rickety house on the water--practically in the water now--where they all spent weekends while they were in school. Fatima leaves her husband and children in London, as well as her medical practice; Thea heads out after her late shift at the casino; and Isa tells her husband she is going to an impromptu reunion with her school friends and brings hear baby, Freya, with her on the train. Each of them texts, I'm coming, as they head toward the coast. When the girls were in school together in Salten, they played The Lying Game, trying to outdo each other with lies, scoring points for convincing someone else to believe them, the more outrageous the lie, the better. Something happened back then, some sort of disaster, to bring their time at Salten to an abrupt close, but they had always promised each other ... if one of them needed the others, they would come. Now, something has happened to bring the past into the present.

The narrative shifts back and forth from the past, when the girls were at Salten together, starting with Isa's first day, to the present, as their old secrets and lies begin to unravel. As with all of Ware's thrillers, this one is complex and super-twisty and kept me guessing right up till the end. About halfway through, I said to my husband, "I think I figured everything out, but I'm only halfway." He smiled and just said, "Keep reading!" As usual, Ware still had plenty of surprises in store. Here, as in many of her novels, the location and setting take center stage, with Kate's crumbling house on the sea and the surrounding marshland forming the basis for both their past memories and their present problems. This was a great choice for the R.I.P. Challenge, with the features I like most about the books I read at this time of year: it was fast-paced, compelling, and twisty, a can't-put-it-down book perfect for fall!

424 pages, Pocket Books

Simon & Schuster Audio

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.

 

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!

 

    
  

TV Tuesday: Big Sky

I love fall! Besides the perfect, cooler weather after summer's high heat and humidity and the beautiful colors of fall, lots of our favorite TV shows are back with new seasons! One of the shows we have most looked forward to, Big Sky, has just returned with its 2nd season. This mystery/thriller just gets more and more twisty, with surprises in every episode! To avoid any spoilers, I will just focus on the beginning of season 1 in my description.

As the title suggests, Big Sky is set against the gorgeous natural backdrop of Montana's mountains, forests, and rivers, but what's happening here is neither pretty nor natural. Two women and best friends, Cassie (played by Kylie Bunbury) and Jenny (played by Katheryn Winnick), run their own private investigator business in Helena, MT. Jenny is married to Cody, played by Ryan Phillipe (a local Delaware native!), and they have a teen son named Justin, played by Gage Marsh. In the first episode, Justin is waiting for his girlfriend and her sister to drive in from out of town for a visit. The two sisters, Danielle (played by Natalie Alyn Lind) and Grace (played by Jade Pettyjohn) are shown in their car, singing along to music and enjoying their road trip. Then disaster strikes as the two young girls are abducted on a deserted highway. Justin alerts his parents that they never showed up and aren't answering their phones, and soon both the police and Jenny, Cody, and Cassie are searching for the girls and investigating. Montana State Trooper Rick Legarski, played by John Carroll Lynch, is brought in to help with the search, but he doesn't seem worried and explains that lots of young women go missing from this area all the time. Soon, another young woman, Jerrie (played by Jesse James Keitel), is kidnapped from a truck stop by a creepy guy named Ronald, played by Brian Geraghty. And the twisty tale is off!

This is a tense and suspenseful story, with plenty of surprises you will never see coming. The acting is all top-notch from this ensemble cast, and the writing is excellent. The plot is classic thriller, with plenty of action and suspense in every episode. We have just started the newly begun second season, and I couldn't tell you anything about it without giving away all kinds of spoilers from season 1--a lot happens in every single episode, to keep you guessing (and watching). Oh, and it's got a great soundtrack behind the action, too! We've been waiting for this new season to come back, and this compelling, gripping show has already shocked us and taken us by surprise, in the first episode of season two. This is one of our favorites these days, in part because it doesn't fit the typical mold. Highly recommended for mystery/action/thriller fans.

Big Sky is currently airing on ABC on Thursday nights or you can catch it On Demand or streaming on Hulu.

It's Monday 10/4! What Are You Reading?

We did it! We finally got away for two nights, to the beach for our 32nd anniversary. It's been ages since we could go further than 30 minutes from home because we were caring for my father-in-law, so this little getaway was a real treat! We did get two phone calls from his assisted living place Friday but no serious emergencies.

When we arrived Thursday, we enjoyed a short walk on Lewes beach, which is on Delaware Bay, so it's a quieter beach. We had lovely weather all weekend.

We enjoyed an outstanding anniversary dinner at Harbour, a new restaurant right on the canal in Lewes with gorgeous water views at sunset, and some of the best food we've ever eaten!

Friday, we went to Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, which is only 15 minutes from the crowded beach towns but a world away! It was so peaceful and quiet looking out over the marshes and listening to the birds. Delaware has many wildlife refuges; I don't know why we've never been to one before!

Saturday, we drove one town further south to Rehoboth Beach, which used to be our go-to for our beach trips. It was insanely crowded there! We often go there this weekend for our anniversary and have never seen crowds like this--it's supposed to be the off-season! We had to park 4 blocks from the main street, but we enjoyed a short walk on the beach. Rehoboth is on the Atlantic Ocean side, and Hurricane Sam was out there, way off-shore, so the waves were incredibly powerful and violent! I've never seen the surf so rough. No one was able to go in the water, but it was fun to walk alongside it, and we saw a long line of dolphins just off-shore, heading south.

Before we escaped the crowds, we stopped at Browseabout Books (of course!). They ordered copies of my own book to carry in the store, and we had to buy a couple of books! You know, just to support the bookstore, of course.

The only downside to our lovely getaway is that I am still stuck in a relapse of my chronic illness. I got some IVs before we left, and they did help a little but only temporarily. I was pretty limited all weekend and am super achy again today. My immune system is stuck in the "on" position, basically. I'm trying a new immune treatment this week, so fingers crossed. This is getting pretty old!

And today is my husband's birthday! Both of our sons were home yesterday for an early birthday dinner (takeout BBQ and gluten-free brownie sundaes), so it was wonderful to have us all together.

Oh, and I did finally get my R.I.P. Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge video posted last week! I had a lot of fun doing this one, talking enthusiastically about all the books I want to read this fall.

Here's what we've all been reading this week:

I finished the perfect book for the R.I.P. Challenge, The Sense of Reckoning by Matty Dalrymple, book 2 in her Ann Kinnear Suspense series. I am crazy about this series that combines mystery, thriller action, and ... ghosts! The main character in this series, Ann, can sense spirits. In the first book, The Sense of Death, Ann helped to solve a murder by obtaining information from the victim. Now, her skills are evolving, and she herself may even be haunted! In this book, she also gets involved with a decades-old case centered in Bar Harbor, Maine. Besides the mysteries and spooky ghostliness, another thing I love about these novels are the locations. The author lives locally to me, just over the DE/PA border, so I love her mentions of local landmarks. Ann has a cabin in the Adirondacks (possibly haunted now), which is another place we love. And this novel takes place mostly on Mount Desert Island in Maine, home to Acadia National Park, and one of our favorite places in the world! I love how the author incorporates local details into her suspenseful mysteries. It was outstanding, and I loved every page!

Next, I picked up one of the Big Books in my R.I.P. stack because I thought it would make good vacation reading: Broken Harbor by Tana French, the fourth book in her Dublin Murder Squad series (though they don't have to be read in order; each is a stand-alone). In this novel, the head detective who is the focus of the story is Mick "Scorcher" Kennedy, who last appeared in Faithful Place. This time, Kennedy's been assigned a big case--and a rough one: an entire family attacked in their home. Husband Pat and their two young children were murdered, and wife Jenny barely escaped the same fate and is in the hospital. It's a grisly scene, especially for the young rookie, Richie, who's been assigned as his new partner. The case is complicated, with several weird, unexplained details. I'm just past the halfway point, and Kennedy and Richie think they have the case all wrapped up, so you know there are some big twists coming up! I'm loving it, as I do every Tana French novel. It is so gripping and suspenseful that I have been staying up much too late at night reading it.

On audio, I am still listening to another pick for the R.I.P. Challenge, Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty, a new release. I have only read one other novel from this very popular author, Truly Madly Guilty, for Big Book Summer 2020, and I enjoyed it. In this new book, a mother named Joy in her 60's disappears, and her four adult children are trying to figure out what happened. They're not sure whether she just left on her own for a break or whether something more sinister happened to her. The police immediately suspect Joy's husband, Stan, because they can tell he's lying about something. And there is  a mysterious stranger who could be involved. As the novel moves forward, the reader gradually gets to know each member of the family better, with parallel narratives following the months leading up to Joy's disappearance and the investigation afterward. I'm enjoying it very much and have no idea how it's going to end up!

This weekend, my husband, Ken, finished one of my own top picks from 2021 Big Book Summer, Blackout by Connie Willis, a favorite author for both of us. This novel is part of her outstanding Oxford Time Travel series, where Oxford grad students in the History department in the near future (2060) travel back in time to observe historical events first-hand as part of their studies. In this case, multiple students are all studying WWII in England. So, one woman is in rural England, helping with the evacuation of children from London, while another is posing as a shop girl at the start of the Blitz in London, to observe how ordinary people reacted. One of their fellow students is posing as an American reporter and has traveled to Dover at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation to observe how ordinary people became heroes by volunteering themselves and their boats to bring soldiers back to England to safety. This time, though, with so many people traveling back to similar times/places, things begin to go wrong with the time travel technology, and they may not be able to get home. As with her other novels in this series (our favorite so far was Doomsday Book), she combines historical fiction with time travel for a very suspenseful, compelling story. Now we are both ready to read book 2, All Clear (which is on our shelves).

Our son, 27, just left this morning. He was home for the wedding of one of his college roommates and one of his friends from his freshman dorm, so it was a huge reunion of his closest friends! He and his girlfriend enjoyed it, and we were glad they were here for his dad's birthday celebration, too. He finished A Shattered Empire, book 3 in the Sorcery Ascendance series by Mitchell Hogan. He really enjoyed the trilogy and is excited that the author is considering a follow-up series! Now, he is re-reading The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham, book 1 of The Dagger and the Coin series, to prepare for book 2, The King's Blood, which I just gave him for his birthday! He always re-reads earlier books in a series before reading the latest sequels. It was good to see him this weekend.

 

Last week's blog post - just one, before we left on our trip:

Fiction Review: The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd - about Ana, a remarkable woman in the 1st century (oh, and the fictional wife of Jesus, too, but the story is mostly about her) - high ratings from my book group!

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?

 

Fiction Review: The Book of Longings

This is a familiar story for me with my book groups: my neighborhood book group chose a book I was really not interested in, I read it reluctantly ... and ended up loving it! Such is the magic of book groups in introducing you to books you never would have picked up on your own. The book this time? The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. Now, I loved her first novel, The Secret Life of Bees (as did everyone else I know), but this novel, about the fictional wife of Jesus (yes, that Jesus), just didn't interest me. I am happy to have been proven wrong! I loved this female-centric historical novel set in the first century.

The novel focuses on a young woman named Ana, beginning in 16 CE in a town called Sepphoris, just outside of Galilee. Ana is just 14 years old, but she is passionate and driven. Although girls are not typically educated, she begged her wealthy father to allow her to learn to read and write, and he obligingly hired tutors for her. He didn't realize, though, that writing would become a passion and a life goal for her. Ana writes in secret, documenting the stories of women in the Bible and in real life, since women's stories are rarely told. All of her plans come to an abrupt halt when her father announces she is betrothed to an older widower who has his own children ... and a reputation for cruelty. The marriage will help her father politically, but Ana is crushed and terrified. About this time, she meets Jesus, who is a few years older than her, in the marketplace. In fact, he saves her life. The two meet again and get to know each other and realize they are kindred souls, Anna driven by her passion to write, share the stories of women, and have a voice, and Jesus driven by an equal passion to serve God and do good in the world. Ana's life follows an unpredictable, often rocky, path, leading her to Nazareth with Jesus, and later, to Egypt. Through it all, she is accompanied by her kind and faithful aunt, Yaltha, as Ana longs to bring her dreams to fruition.

Ana's story is a rich and winding one, filled with passions and peril. Though, yes, Jesus is a main character here, the focus of this novel is on Ana and the other women, including Jesus' mother, Mary. One of my concerns was the Biblical setting of the novel. I went to church sometimes as a child but really am not involved in organized religion now and am far from a Biblical scholar! But that was OK. The Book of Longings is basically historical fiction set in the first century, and as with all historical fiction, it is based on some known facts, with a fictional story built around those. Interestingly, our book group included a good mix of people, from the very religious, who know the Bible extremely well, to those like me, who can't always answer the Bible questions on Jeopardy! Yet, almost all of us loved this novel. The author explains in a note at the end that the Bible really doesn't say anything about what happens in Jesus's life from the age of about 12 until the crucifixion, when he's in his thirties, so her intent was to fill in those blanks with this fictional story. Though, again, the focus is really on Ana and how all of that affects her life. All of my book group agreed that it is a fascinating, compelling, and unique historical novel; it led to some great discussions about the role of women through the ages.

416 pages, Viking

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 is a scene with Ana and her beloved aunt, Yaltha, from the beginning of the book.

 

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!

    
  

Or you can order The Book of Longings from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

It's Monday 9/27! What Are You Reading?

How can it be the end of September already?? The month just flew by.

We enjoyed the rest of our older son's (and his girlfriend's) visit last week. They left Tuesday night, after we managed to get the whole family together, including 96-year-old Grandad, for a big pot roast dinner. I was so busy that I completely forgot to take the family photos I'd planned while we were all at the table, but I did ask my son to snap this selfie before they got on the road! I don't look quite so short from this angle!

Me and my boys

The rest of the week went really downhill from there. My chronic immune disorder flared up badly for mysterious reasons (I really hate when I can't figure out the cause and effect) and stayed that way all week. I have been slightly better yesterday and today, but still achy. I've tried everything in my bag of tricks, and I think (maybe?) that adjusting my Lyme treatments helped a bit, but who knows? We're also struggling with some issues with my father-in-law's care that have been upsetting and stressful.

Anyway, I felt like I was missing all this gorgeous fall weather we've been having, so my husband encouraged me to lie outside in my reclining chair this weekend. He was right, of course! It was lovely to enjoy being outside for a bit. And we have something BIG to look forward to this week--our 32nd anniversary is Thursday, and we are going away for two days to the beach, about two hours away. We weren't able to do this before, but with my FIL in Assisted Living, we can finally take a quick trip on our own (assuming we get everything straightened out there this week). We so need a break and are looking forward to it!

Reading in the sunshine!

I have a couple of longer videos waiting to be edited and uploaded, so I just added one quick video to my YouTube channel last week, my usual brief Friday Reads update, where you can hear me gush about my current books!

Here's what we have all been reading this past week:

I finished reading The Lying Game by Ruth Ware for the fall R.I.P. Challenge, as she's a favorite author of ours whose novels are always dark and creepy. This is one that my husband has read already that I hadn't gotten to yet. The set-up is pretty simple: four women were best friends at a boarding school, and now, as adults 17 years later, one of them calls the others back to their school's town (where she still lives) for a crisis. From the start, the reader knows that something happened all those years ago that abruptly ended their time at school together but not the details. The three women immediately drop everything in their adult lives to return to their friend, and tension grows as they all return to town and attend a very unpleasant school reunion. It was gripping and fast-paced and super-twisty, which is just what I love about my R.I.P. books in the fall.

Now, I am almost finished with another novel for the R.I.P. Challenge, this one combing mystery and thriller action with  ... ghosts! I absolutely love the Ann Kinnear Suspense series by Matty Dalrymple, and it is perfect for the season. I am engrossed in book 2, The Sense of Reckoning. The main character in this series, Ann, can sense spirits. In the first book, The Sense of Death, Ann helped to solve a murder by obtaining information from the victim. Now, her skills are evolving, and she herself may even be haunted! In this book, she also gets involved with a decades-old case centered in Bar Harbor, Maine. Besides the mysteries and spooky ghostliness, another thing I love about these novels are the locations. The author lives locally to me, just over the DE/PA border, so I love her mentions of local landmarks. Ann has a cabin in the Adirondacks (possibly haunted now), which is another place we love. And this novel takes place mostly on Mount Desert Island in Maine, home to Acadia National Park, and one of our favorite places in the world! I love how the author incorporates local details into her suspenseful mysteries. I may finish this one today--once I pick it up, it is so hard to set it down!

On audio, I am also listening to books for the R.I.P. Challenge! I finished A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty. This is a YA fantasy mystery, and I don't normally read much fantasy. As I explained in a recent Friday Reads video, I'm not a huge fan of fantasy set in a completely made-up world, though I sometimes enjoy a real-world setting with some fantastical/magical elements. This novel worked very well for me! There are two parallel storylines, set in two worlds. In the real world, in modern Cambridge, England, a group of young teens are homeschooled together and are friends. One of them is Madeleine, who lives with her mother. They used to live a life of luxury, traveling all over the world, but then Madeleine's father left. Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Cello, a young teen boy named Elliot is determined to find his own father, who went missing, along with the Physics teacher, the same night Elliot found his uncle dead. Most people believe his dad killed his uncle and ran away with the teacher or that something called Purples got them, but Elliot won't give up searching for him. A sort of crack appears between the two worlds, and Madeleine and Elliot begin communicating. Intriguing, right? I really enjoyed this novel that comes to a satisfying conclusion but also sets up the rest of the series.

Now, I am listening to another R.I.P. Challenge novel on audio, Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty, a new release. I have only read one other novel from this very popular author, Truly Madly Guilty, for Big Book Summer 2020, and I enjoyed it. In this new book, a mother named Joy in her 60's disappears, and her four adult children are trying to figure out what happened. They're not sure whether she just left on her own for a break or whether something more sinister happened to her. The police immediately suspect Joy's husband, Stan, because they can tell he's lying about something. Amd there is possibly a mysterious stranger involved. I'm still at the beginning of the novel, but the author is doing a great job of gradually introducing the members of the family along with the mystery at the heart of it. I'm fully engaged and looking forward to finding out what happens next!

My husband, Ken, is still reading one of my own top picks from 2021 Big Book Summer, Blackout by Connie Willis, a favorite author for both of us. This novel is part of her outstanding Oxford Time Travel series, where Oxford grad students in the History department in the near future (2060) travel back in time to observe historical events first-hand as part of their studies. In this case, multiple students are all studying WWII in England. So, one woman is in rural England, helping with the evacuation of children from London, while another is posing as a shop girl at the start of the Blitz in London, to observe how ordinary people reacted. One of their fellow students is posing as an American reporter and has traveled to Dover at the time of the Dunkirk evacuation to observe how ordinary people became heroes by volunteering themselves and their boats to bring soldiers back to England to safety. This time, though, with so many people traveling back to similar times/places, things begin to go wrong with the time travel technology, and they may not be able to get home. As with her other novels in this series (our favorite so far was Doomsday Book), she combines historical fiction with time travel for a very suspenseful, compelling story. He's loving it so far, as I knew he would!

Our son, 27, returned home Tuesday, so I'm not entirely sure what he's reading now, but I'm guessing he is working on the same book still. He's been working his way through the Sorcery Ascendance series by Mitchell Hogan. He first re-read books 1 and 2,  A Crucible of Souls and Blood of Innocents, which he last read seven years ago in his early college years. He loved the series back then and is enjoying it again now. Those re-reads were to prepare for reading the third and final book of the trilogy, A Shattered Empire, which his girlfriend gave him for his birthday and which he was reading when he was here last week. He loves to tear through these big fantasy novels--it's always Big Book Summer for him!

 

Blog posts last week:

TV Tuesday: Dickinson - a creative, fun show about the life of young Emily Dickinson

2021 Big Book Summer Wrap-Up, including my own Big Book Summer and a summary of the full challenge, including the winner of the giveaway!

#RIPXVI Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge - my official kick-off for the annual fall challenge, a bit late, but check out the stacks of awesome books I want to read.

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?

 

#RIPXVI Readers Imbibing Peril Challenge

It's that time of year again! Fall is my favorite season, but it is also time for one of my favorite reading challenges, R.I.P. Readers Imbibing Challenge! This is the 16th year of the challenge (hence the XVI) that was originally started by Carl V. Anderson. It has evolved over the years so that there is no longer an official sign-up. Just read some books that fit and post about them on social media using the tags below. Here are the details:

The purpose of the R.I.P. Challenge is to enjoy books (and movies and podcasts) that could be classified as:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.
Basically, read scary.

“Are you reading for spooky season? We need more wicked good books (and screen) in our lives, so being the rule-breakers we are, #RIPXVI BEGINS NOW. How do you play? Tag @PerilReaders, #ripxv, and #perilreaders in your Twitter and/or Instagram posts. It’s that easy. Wicked easy.”

This challenge works for scaredy cats, too! I don't read much horror or anything too gory or gruesome. I will be reading mostly mysteries, thrillers, suspense, a couple of mysteries with ghosts in them (oooh!), and that sort of thing. Even cozy mysteries count!

Here are the very large stacks I pulled off my TBR shelves this month:

There's WAY more here than I can possibly finish in just two months (but it's fun to dream!). I have plenty to choose from and chose a mix of adult, YA, and middle-grade titles. I will also continue listening to audio books in these categories for the challenge--I have a huge backlog of those, too!

Even though I am late with this post, I have been reading for the R.I.P. Challenge since Big Book Summer ended. So far, I have finished/am currently reading:

• A Better Man by Louise Penny on audio
• The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
• A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty on audio
  
• The Sense of Reckoning by Matty Dalrymple (just started)
• Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty on audio (just started)

 What are you reading this fall? Are you planning to join the Readers Imbibing Peril fun?

2021 Big Book Summer Wrap-Up

The 2021 Big Book Summer Challenge officially wrapped up on September 6 (Labor Day in the U.S.), ending its 9th year! I host this challenge every summer and always enjoy participating in it myself. You can read all the details at the challenge page linked above, but the basic idea is to read books of 400 pages or longer during the summer - just one or a few or as many as you want! What I really love about this challenge is that it gives me the extra incentive I need to finally tackle some of the longer books I've put off reading. I always end up reading some really amazing books, and I make a (small) dent in my overflowing TBR bookcase, too.

My plans for Big Book Summer

We'll start with my own Big Book Summer, and then I'll wrap up the whole challenge, too. As usual, I picked out a stack of Big Books from my shelves back in May, which you can see here and at the link. I didn't get through all of these, added some others, and also added a bunch of Big Book audios! Here's a full list of the Big Books I finished this summer--I think, perhaps, my best year ever! My reviews are at the links:

• End of Watch by Stephen King (400 pages)
• The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Julia Grames, on audio (464 pages)
• The Lost Time Accidents by John Wray (491 pages)
• All of This Is True by Lygia Day Peñaflor, YA on audio (432 pages)
• The Air You Breathe by Frances de Ponte Peebles (449 pages)
• Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton, on audio (464 pages)
• Blackout by Connie Willis (491 pages)
• After the Flood by Kassandra Montag, on audio (432 pages)
• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (864 pages)
• The Accidental Further Adventures of the 100-Year-Old Man by Jonas Jonasson, on audio (448 pages)
• A Better Man by Louise Penny, on audio (464 pages)
• Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang, graphic novel (446 pages)

As you can see, most of my Big Books came in at under 500 pages, which is why I fit in so many (that, plus listening to half of them on audio). My Biggest book, Anna Karenina, took me a full month to finish! It was a fun Big Book Summer, and I enjoyed all of these.

That was my Big Book Summer, but lots of other people participated in the challenge, too! We had a total of 53 participants. Of those, 19 people participated through their blogs and YouTube channels, 32 readers participated through the Goodreads group, and 2 more signed up by leaving comments on the sign-up page. You can visit the Goodreads group to read some great discussions on everyone's Big Books this summer.

And, the winner of the annual Big Book Summer Giveaway is ...

Deb, from Chicago, who participated through the Goodreads group!

Deb will be receiving a gift certificate from Bookshop.org, a great website where you can buy books conveniently online while supporting indie bookstores.

Congratulations, Deb!!

And a Big Book Congratulations to everyone who participated in the challenge this year! Whether your goal was to read one Big Book or as many as possible, I hope you had fun reading and sharing your reading adventures through the challenge. If you missed it this year, you can sign up for Big Book Summer 2022 next May!

TV Tuesday: Dickinson

I got a nasty stomach virus last week and spent several days on the couch. I did get some extra reading done, but sometimes, my brain felt like jelly, and I just needed to relax with some bingeable TV. Dickinson turned out to be just the thing! This smart, funny, slightly modernized version of Emily Dickinson's life is still keeping me entertained.

Acclaimed, Oscar-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld stars as poet Emily Dickinson. As in real life, Emily and her family live in Amherst, MA, and are well-off and prominent in their local community. Her father, played by Toby Huss, is involved in local politics, and her mother, played by the brilliant Jane Krakowski, takes great pride in her role as homemaker, even though they are wealthy enough to afford servants. The family is completed by Emily's brother, Austin (played by Adrian Enscoe), and her younger sister, Lavinia (played by Anna Barishnikov). Austin is dating Emily's best friend, Sue, played by Ella Hunt, to whom Emily is very close (as in real life). Emily lived during the mid-1800's, so the show is set during that period, with appropriate clothing, styles, housing, etc. However, and this is hard to explain, the show adds small elements of modern time here and there in a very fun, effective way. For instance, sometimes a character, in the midst of a period-appropriate conversation will use some bit of modern slang, as when they are all engrossed in Charles Dickens' Bleak House (which was released as a serial) and one says to another, "Hey, no spoilers!" In the midst of a period dance scene, you might suddenly see some modern moves. The soundtrack is sometimes modern as well. The story uses Emily's brief poems as a framework for each episode, showing circumstances that may have led to her penning the lines. Emily struggles against current expectations for women (to marry, for instance), and though her father adores her and encourages her "hobby" of writing poetry, he forbids her to publish, saying it is not proper for a young woman.

I had heard rave reviews of this show, but as is sometimes the case, it took me a while to try it myself. As soon as I did, though, I loved it! When I heard about it, I thought the insertion of bits of modern culture sounded strange, but it works really well and is so much fun! Steinfeld is delightful as Emily, and it's great to root for her to beat back the contemporary ideals of her time and be true to herself. The plot is intriguing, including not only Emily and her family, but the other young people in town and even a potential romantic interest for Emily. Besides the drama, the show is very funny and highly entertaining. I love the creativity of the writers, in fitting the action of the episodes to Emily's brief poems; the episodes often end with her written words flowing across the screen and being recited. Somehow, the show's creators have taken all of these elements, including an outstanding cast, and woven them together into a wonderful, cohesive whole that I am thoroughly enjoying.

Dickinson is an Apple TV show, so it is exclusively available on that platform. I know--another streaming service? But our free year recently expired, and we chose to keep paying ($5 per month) for Apple TV because its shows that we've tried have all been enjoyable and of very high-quality. If you have Apple TV or are considering it, check out my reviews of Home Before Dark, a crime show featuring a 9-year-old girl detective, based on a real-life story, and For All Mankind, an alternate history of the space race where the Russians got to the moon first, changing the history of NASA (and everything else). It's one of the best TV shows we've ever watched. We are also loving Ted Lasso, have just started Truth Be Told, about a true crime podcaster, and just started season 2 of The Morning Show, but I haven't reviewed those yet.

Dickinson has two seasons currently available on Apple TV, with a third on the way!