2022 Big Book Summer Wrap-Up

The 2022 Big Book Summer Challenge officially wrapped up on September 5, ending its 10th 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 Big Book Summer 

I'll start with my own Big Book Summer, and then I'll wrap up the whole challenge below You can also watch my video, Big Book Summer Wrap-Up, where I briefly discuss each of the books I read. As usual, I picked out a stack of Big Books from my shelves back in May, which you can see at the link. I read every book except one in my stack this summer, plus 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:

• Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly (433 pages)
• A Lite Too Bright by Samuel Miller (480 pages) - audio
  
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (511 pages)
• Gone by Michael Grant (576 pages) - audio
  
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (476 pages)
• Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane (432 pages) - audio
  
• Lucky Turtle by Bill Roorbach (404 pages)
• The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd (400 pages) - audio
  
• The Overstory by Richard Powers (502 pages) - left over from Big Book Summer 2021
• Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian (432 pages) - audio
  
• Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King (522 pages)
• The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny (448 pages) - audio
  
• Sycamore Row by John Grisham (447 pages) - - left over from Big Book Summer 2021

So, that's 13 Big Books in all (which just might be a record for me). I did not get to the biggest book in my stack this summer, but I did read the two I didn't get to last year.

Participants in the Big Book Summer Challenge

That was my Big Book Summer, but lots of other people participated in the challenge, too! We had a total of 49 participants. Of those, 17 people participated through their blogs and YouTube channels, and 32 readers participated through the Goodreads group, though everyone enjoyed the book discussions on Goodreads! You can still visit the group to see what everyone else read for their Big Book Summers.

Since this was the 10th anniversary of the Big Book Summer Challenge, I drew two names for the giveaways.

The winners of the annual Big Book Summer Giveaway are ...

Laurie of Bay State Reader's Advisory blog

and

Donna, who participated through the Goodreads group.

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

Congratulations, Laurie and Donna!!

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 2023 next May! 

Fiction Review: Sycamore Row

It's been many years since I last read a John Grisham novel. In fact, searching my blog, I didn't find a single review of a Grisham novel ... and I started the blog in 2006! So, I was glad to finally read one again because I know I enjoyed them years ago. I finally tackled Sycamore Row by John Grisham, which has been on my shelf for years, for Big Book Summer 2022, and I'm so glad I did. Just as I remember of Grisham's novels, it was a thought-provoking, gripping page-turner.

Lawyer Jake Brigance of the small town of Clanton, Mississippi, is at the center of this novel. Jake was the main character of John Grisham's very first novel, A Time to Kill, which I read back in the early 90's! In that story, Jake defends a Black man who takes vengeance after two white men attack his young daughter. Jake's actions shatter the norms in this still deeply-segregated Southern town. In this novel, several years later, in 1988, race is again front-and-center in a high-profile case for Jake. This time, a wealthy white man named Seth Hubbard, who is dying of cancer, commits suicide. He carefully planned everything out ahead of time, including a last-minute handwritten will that he mailed to Jake the day before he died. In this will and a cover letter to Jake, Seth (who's never met Jake) clearly states that this will supersedes the one created by a big law firm in Tupelo a year ago. This new will completely cuts out Seth's two ex-wives and his estranged adult children and grandchildren. Instead, Seth leaves 90% of his sizable estate to his Black maid, Lettie. When the news gets out, this causes an uproar in town, of course. Jake takes his role to defend the new will very seriously, and the town sees its biggest courtroom drama since Jake's last big case. With so much money at stake, big-city lawyers from Memphis and Tupelo try to disrupt things, as Jake and a few local helpers struggle to win the case. The big question on everyone's minds is ... why would Seth do such a thing?

I had forgotten what a good writer Grisham is and how wonderful he is at creating tension in a story. This one begins with Seth's suicide, and I was completely hooked right from those first pages. The case here is a complicated one, as the prosecutors try to prove that Seth didn't know what he was doing and was unduly influenced by Lettie. For her part, Lettie is stunned at the news of the will and is not happy with all the attention on her, as the whole town judges her , and "family" she's never met come out of the woodwork to claim a piece of her new-found fortune. What I think was meant to be the big reveal at the end--why Seth did what he did--I thought was pretty obvious from early foreshadowing. However, the book was still very compelling and gripping, especially once the trial begins. Grisham writes amazing courtroom drama scenes, and this novel is no exception. And there were still many plot twists along the way that took me by surprise. It was a fast-paced, enjoyable, and suspenseful read. I'm so glad I finally got to it, and I won't let so much time go by again before reading another Grisham. I see he has a newer novel out, A Time for Mercy, that also features Jake Brigance, so I'm adding that one to my list!

447 pages, Doubleday

Random House Audio

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge (I should get double credit for this one!)

Diversity Challenge

Big Book Summer

RIP Challenge

 

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, read. by Michael Beck, 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!

    

 

Or you can order Sycamore Row from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: The Madness of Crowds

My very last audio book for #BigBookSummer 2022 was also my first audio for the fall R.I.P. Challenge, The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny. This is #17 in her Inspector Gamache series. I haven't read the whole series (just #1, Still Life, and #15, A Better Man, before this one), but I always enjoy these thoughtful mysteries set in a small town near Quebec, where the characters and community are as much a part of the story as the crime being solved.

This novel begins in 2021, just after the COVID vaccines have become available and the worst of the pandemic and lock-down are over. As life "gets back to normal," Gamache and his team are called in to provide security for a talk at a small nearby university. This seems like a strange assignment to Gamache. It's the middle of the holiday season, between Christmas and New Year's, and the speaker is a statistician. Why would they need police protection? Then he looks up some of Professor Abigail Robinson's past speeches and is stunned by what he sees. She carefully presents statistics from the recent pandemic and other events and presents her conclusions that in the future, there will not be enough resources for the whole population. Most startlingly, she presents her own solution to these problems, a solution that horrifies Inspector Gamache and would affect his own family personally. Now he understand why Professor Robinson is attracting so much controversy and why police protection will be needed at her local talk, though he still hopes there won't be a large crowd, given the timing. The evening of the talk, a huge crowd shows up, and despite Gamache's team's presence, someone somehow manages to get a gun inside and fires shots at the professor on stage. Gamache saves her life, and the police manage to calm the crowd and prevent a riot. Over the next few days, while they are working to solve the case, an actual murder occurs to someone near Professor Robinson, and they now must solve two--possible related?--cases. At the same time, Three Pines is hosting another famous visitor, a woman known as the Hero of the Sudan, who underwent unspeakable torture as a young girl and managed to escape and free the other girls. She's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but she seems to be very unlikable, even among this welcoming community. While the team works to solve the crimes, the controversy over Professor Robinson's proposals rages, and the town of Three Pines proceeds with its holiday celebrations.

This novel is the perfect example of what I most like about Louise Penny's Gamache novels; they are thoughtful and thought-provoking. As she herself explained in an interview I recently watched, her novels aren't actually about murder; they are about life, choices, and love. In this one, especially, she uses this fictional controversial person and proposal, as well as the paradox of the unlikable hero, to help readers think about the extremism we see in the real world right now, as her characters grapple with some very difficult, disturbing questions. As always, the mystery is a twisty and complicated one. I changed my mind a half dozen times about who the murderer was and why they killed. It's not until the very end that Gamache himself finally figures it out, so there is plenty of tension and suspense here. All of these difficult questions and criminal evidence, though, is set against the beautiful, comforting backdrop of Three Pines and its quirky but lovable residents. In this way, Penny provides a completely engrossing story that is part mystery, part family and community drama, and part thoughtful expression of modern issues.

448 pages, Minotaur Books

Macmillan Audio

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Canada (Quebec)

Big Book Summer Challenge

R.I.P. Challenge

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, excellent as usual and narrated by Robert Bathhurst, 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!

 

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

Movie Monday: The Lost City

My chronic illness has been badly flared up lately, so our holiday weekend was very low-key. I'd hoped to maybe take a short hike with my husband or get together with friends for dinner, but I was in rough shape. So, on Sunday, we decided to watch a movie--in the middle of the day! Normally, I look for award winners, check reviews and viewer's ratings, etc. This time, I just wanted something light and fun. I always enjoy actress Sandra Bullock, so I chose her latest movie, The Lost City, and it delivered.

Bullock plays Loretta Sage, a reclusive romance writer. Loretta writes a series of romance novels about a female archeologist, Dr. Angela Lovemore (yup. laughing yet?). Lovemore's romantic interest in the novels is Dash McMahon, and ever since the first book, a handsome man named Alan (played by Channing Tatum) has been the cover model, so that millions of fans think of Alan as Dash. Sales have started lagging, though, so Loretta's editor, Beth (played by Da'Vine Joy Randolph) wants both Loretta and Alan to go on a huge book tour to promote the latest addition to the series. Loretta is clearly depressed and unused to being in public; she actually did work as an archeologist with her late husband and has been isolated since his death. After their first stop (a hilarious scene where they dress timid Loretta in a sequined jumpsuit and Alan arrives with a Fabio-esque head of hair to great fanfare), things immediately go wrong as they travel on, and Loretta is kidnapped. An evil narcissist named Abigail Fairfax (played amusingly by Daniel Radcliffe) wants Loretta to decode ancient hieroglyphs from the lost tribe in Loretta's new book (which was based on real-life work she did) and find the priceless treasure buried in a long-lost tomb. He flies her out to the island where he has found the tribe's lost village. Alan saw Loretta get kidnapped, but the police refuse to do anything until 24 hours have passed. Alan calls in an ex-military trainer he knows, played by Brad Pitt, to help rescue Loretta (who's wearing a tracker device), and the two follow her and her captor to the island. As you might have guessed, Alan is nothing like the capable, heroic man he portrays from the books. Finally, Beth also joins the search, so that they are all on the island, racing against time.

In case you couldn't tell by the description, this is a very silly story, though it pays tribute to adventure-romance novels. The characters are over-the-top, the story is twisty, and there is a lot of action. It is all a whole lot of fun, which was just what we wanted! We were laughing right from the beginning. The actors all do a great job of inhabiting their larger-than-life characters, and Loretta and Alan get plenty of serious, poignant moments, too, so it's not all just farce. The Lost City was filled with laugh-out-loud humor, plenty of action and suspense, and--of course--some romance, too. It was the perfect entertaining choice for a sick day!

The Lost City is currently available on Amazon Prime and Paramount+ for free, and all the usual places where you can buy videos on demand.

It's Monday 9/5! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Happy Labor Day to those in the U.S! 

Today also marks the official end of 2022 Big Book Summer Challenge. I finished my last big audio book last night and am on track to finish my very last Big Book of the summer later today. Your Big Book reading has to be finished today in order to count for the challenge, but the links list will be open until the end of the month for your Big Book reviews and/or end-of-challenge wrap-ups (neither is required, but if you do a post or video for the challenge, be sure to link it up so others can find you). The Goodreads group is still open, too, so you can share your Big Book reviews and wrap-ups there as well. We've had some great book discussions there all summer!

I will post official Big Book Summer wrap-ups later this week, here on the blog and on my YouTube channel. I haven't done my final count yet, but we had a wonderful Big Book Summer (it's 10th anniversary!), with lots of participants, including bloggers, Booktubers, and regular readers. I'll announce the TWO winners of the end-of-summer giveaway in that last post.

Welcome Fall!

While I have, as always, enjoyed Big Book Summer, I have to admit that I'm very glad summer is over, and it's September - yay! Like many other places all over the world, we had a horrendously hot and humid summer, and I have been missing my outdoor time. Fall is my favorite season, both for the weather and colorful foliage, and for the change in reading seasons ...

September 1 marked the beginning of the annual R.I.P. Challenge (Readers Imbibing Peril), now in its 17th year #RIPxvii (details at the link) This challenge is super easy-going, with no official sign-ups. The idea is simply to read (or watch or listen to) darker stuff in September and October and then post on social media (or your blog) about it. There are different categories, so you can read book(s), read short stories, watch TV shows or movies, and/or listen to audio books or podcasts--all with darker themes like mystery, suspense, thrillers, horror, Gothic, true crime, or anything supernatural. Fun, right?

I love the R.I.P. Challenge because our bookshelves are filled with mysteries, suspense, and thrillers. Those are the genres my husband prefers, I buy him a stack of books for every holiday, and most of them are books I'd like to read, too! But I read a lot of other books, too, so they pile up.

You can hear all about my plans for the R.I.P. Challenge (and see my big stack of books) in my video:

Fall Into Reading and R.I.P. Challenges - Fall Into Reading is another easy fall challenge, with a book bingo card, so check that out.

And here's what we've all been reading this past week:

Today, I will be finishing my final #BigBookSummer book, Sycamore Row by John Grisham. It is also a cross-over book that fits with the R.I.P. Challenge. I haven't read a Grisham novel in years, but this one pulled me right in. It's set in the same town as his first novel, A Time to Kill, and focuses on the lawyer from that novel, Jake Brigance, and the town of Clanton, Mississippi, in 1988. A wealthy man who is dying of cancer commits suicide. The day before, he handwrote a new will and mailed it to Jake, cutting out his ex-wives and horrible adult children and leaving everything to his Black housekeeper, Lettie. This sets off a massive war between the family and Lettie, with Jake in the middle and the whole town watching (and gossiping). It's been gripping and intriguing, and the ending, during the trial, has been especially compelling.

 

Last night, I finished listening to my last audiobook for Big Book Summer, The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny, another cross-over book for both Big Book Summer and the R.I.P. Challenge. This is book 17 in her Inspector Gamache series. I enjoy this mystery series set in Quebec but have not been reading them in order. I read book 1, Still Life, and then skipped to #15, A Better Man and now this one. This novel deals with a fictional controversial woman in Canada who is proposing a shocking solution to some of the world's problems (and one that affects Gamache's family personally). When she comes to a small university near Three Pines to speak, violence breaks out, and she is almost shot. Then, a murder occurs near her. The story deals both with her extremist theories and the controversy, as well as Gamache's team's investigation of the crimes. It's very thoughtful as well as suspenseful, and as with all Penny books, includes all the quirky characters in town.

 

My husband, Ken, is reading The Survivors by Jane Harper, one of those many I gave him recently as gifts! He and I both enjoy this series of mysteries/thrillers set in Australia (I have a Jane Harper in my R.I.P. stack also). This one, like her first, The Dry, is about a man returning home, where a terrible tragedy occurred years earlier. It's a seaside town, and while his family is vacationing there, a dead body washes ashore that stirs up old secrets. Sounds like another good one!

 

I'm not entirely sure what our son, 28, is reading right now! His health has been great lately (unlike mine), so he's been out having fun this weekend, which makes my heart so happy. Last I heard, he was rereading Charmcaster, book three of the Spellslinger series by Sebastien de Castell to prepare for reading books four and five! He loves that series--I first heard about from Beth Fish Reads blog and have been gifting him the books!

Last week's blog post (almost caught up on reviews!):

Middle-Grade/Teen Review: Button Pusher by Tyler Page - an intriguing graphic memoir about growing up with ADHD - educational and entertaining!

Fiction Review: Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King - one of King's best! Interconnected novellas and short stories set in the real world, with in-depth characters and emotionally-complex and thought-provoking stories. Outstanding! (and not horror)

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: Hearts in Atlantis

When my dad died seven years ago, my husband and I inherited his Stephen King and Dean Koontz collection. We all shared a love of reading, and these were two of his favorite authors. Most of the books are beautiful hardcovers, and the collection means a lot to both of us. For Big Book Summer Challenge each year, I often include a book from these shelves, to remember my dad and also because both authors write excellent books. My pick this summer was Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King, a unique work of fiction that my husband read last summer and said might be his favorite King novel ever (that's saying something!). This riveting, powerful piece of realistic fiction (no, not horror) includes multiple stories that are interconnected, from 1960 through 1990.

The book includes two novellas and three short stories, with clever connections between them. First up is a coming-of-age novella, Low Men in Yellow Coats, that is focused on 11-year-old Bobby in a small town in Connecticut in 1960. In many ways, Bobby is experiencing a classic summer for a kid at that time, hanging out with his two best friends, playing baseball, and going to the park and beach. But Bobby also has some very adult concerns that are black clouds over his summer. He can tell that something is upsetting his mother (and that it must be a very bad something), but he doesn't know what it is. He and his best friends, Sully and Carol, are being picked on by older bullies, and by the end of the summer, their bullying escalates to real violence. The other unusual thing about this summer for Bobby is their new 3rd-floor boarder, an older man named Ted. The two of them become friends, and Ted helps Bobby to choose some outstanding books after Bobby gets an adult library card, setting Bobby up with a lifelong love of literature as the two of them discuss books that summer, including Lord of the Flies. 

In the second novella, Hearts in Atlantis, set in 1966, Bobby's friend Carol is attending college in Maine, though she's not the main character of that story. Pete is a freshman at the same college and has gotten caught up in his dorm floor's obsession with the card game Hearts. Even as one boy after another either fails out or leaves the dorm, Pete is still under the spell of the game and in danger of failing also. Next comes a short story, Blind Willie, set in 1983, about a Vietnam vet who grew up in Bobby's hometown and appeared in that first novella. This vet now lives a secret double-life as an adult, as he has devoted his entire life to penance for something that happened when he was a child. The next short story, Why We're in Vietnam, is set in 1999 and focuses on another Vietnam vet, who served with the guy in the previous story. This vet happens to be Bobby's childhood buddy, Sully. He attends the funeral of a fellow vet from his unit and talks to another guy who was there, and during the funeral and all his way home to Connecticut, Sully is remembering what happened back then. Finally, Heavenly Shades of Night Are Falling also takes place in 1999, as the narrative finally returns to Bobby and his friend, Carol, bringing the story full-circle.

These brief descriptions of each story and their connections don't begin to do justice to this original, clever work of fiction. King's writing is, as always, absolutely astounding, and I was so riveted by this book that I read it in record time, in spite of its size. Every story is outstanding on its own, and the way they all hang together is ingenious. King is especially brilliant when he writes from the perspective of a child (11-year-old Bobby), as we've seen in IT and the short story, The Body (adapted into the movie Stand By Me). Here, Bobby and Ted are discussing Lord of the Flies, Bobby's first-ever grown-up book:

"'Lord of the Flies wasn't much like the Hardy Boys, was it?'

Bobby had a momentary image, very clear, of Frank and Joe Hardy running through the jungle with homemade spears, chanting that they'd kill the pig and stick their spears up her arse. He burst out laughing, and as Ted joined him he knew that he was done with the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and Bomba the Jungle Boy. Lord of the Flies had finished them off. He was very glad he had an adult library card."

In fact, I was thoroughly engrossed in every one of these five very different poignant stories. There is some suspense here, especially in the first story, though these are, for the most part, real-life stories, not horror (other than some real-life horrors like assault, bullying, and war). There is a small thread of fantasy in both the first and last stories (in the first one, King briefly mentions some things from his The Dark Tower series, which I'm told is something he inserts into almost every book!), but the focus throughout this book is on real people, real situations, and real feelings. The characters are fully fleshed out and all of the stories are emotionally complex and thought-provoking. I have to agree with my husband that Hearts in Atlantis is one of the best King books I've ever read. I only wish I could talk to my dad about it! Inside my dad's copy of the book, he wrote on the title page that he re-read it on 11/2010, and this is a book I can definitely see myself re-reading at some point.

522 pages, Scribner

Simon & Schuster Audio 

And I heard that there's a movie adaptation of Hearts in Atlantis, starring Anthony Hopkins, so I'd like to see that.

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Big Book Summer Challenge

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, narrated by William Hurt, and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from the first novella, featuring 11-year-old Bobby's perspective.

 

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 Hearts in Atlantis from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Middle-Grade/Teen Review: Button Pusher

I noticed last weekend that one of my 2022 Reading Challenges, The Monthly Motif Challenge, had for its August theme, "Quick Lit," to read something short. Since I have been immersed in my own Big Book Summer Challenge, all I've read all month (and all summer) have been books with over 400 pages! So, I chose a shorter graphic novel from my shelves to squeeze in. I thoroughly enjoyed Button Pusher by Tyler Page and learned a lot from this intriguing graphic memoir about growing up with ADHD.

Tyler tells his childhood story mostly from the perspective of the age he was at the time, starting at just eight years old. Through a novel-like story, we see that Tyler is a happy, friendly kid who does well in school but is always in constant motion. He gets in trouble in school for fidgeting and not staying in his seat, he gives into impulses and does things that get him into big trouble, without understanding why, and even in the doctor's office, Tyler is moving nonstop, touching and playing with everything in sight. But Tyler is also a sweet kid who enjoys playing video games with friends, building with Legos, and who loves to draw. Visits to his pediatrician start him down the path to an ADHD diagnosis, which was relatively new at the time, and eventually to treatment with Ritalin, as it becomes clear that his behavior is disruptive both at school and at home. Tyler and his family have other issues, as well, though. Money is very tight, Tyler's parents fight constantly, and his dad often loses his temper and screams, hits things, and spanks Tyler. Things get so bad that Tyler starts to spend most of his time either in his room, drawing, or at friends' houses. The story follows Tyler and his family all the way from elementary school to middle school to high school. It ends as Tyler heads off to college to start a new chapter of his life ... though he points out on that last page that his hardest challenges with ADHD were still ahead of him.

Sample page from Button Pusher

On its surface, this is a very enjoyable, beautifully-drawn graphic story of childhood and adolescence, told from a boy's perspective. But there is also so much emotional depth to this memoir, plus fascinating information about ADHD. The colorful panels depicting Tyler's story are interspersed with copies of notes from his pediatrician and a few brief sections of informational graphics, explaining the science behind ADHD, Ritalin, labels, and other related topics. It's the perfect combination of entertainment and education, and I learned a lot while enjoying the story. It actually made me think back to my own childhood classmates and perhaps better understand certain behaviors from them. I'm sure back in my day, some kids (especially boys) were labeled trouble-makers and written off at a young age when they probably had ADHD. The age recommendations from the publisher say 10-14 years old, but I think any kids or teens who have ADHD or know someone who does (probably most kids in school) would benefit from reading this enjoyable book. I hope there's a sequel about his college years!

245 pages, First Second 

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Monthly Motif - Quick Lit

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - Medical Memoir

Diversity Challenge (August mini-challenge: mental health)

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!

 

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 Button Pusher from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

It's Monday 8/29! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

As expected, last weekend's family gathering here knocked me out for a bit, due to my chronic illness. It's what those of us with ME/CFS (an immune disorder) call a "crash," when doing too much leads to a sudden worsening of ... well, everything. The first few days of my week were very low-key, spent in the recliner and on the couch, recovering. Next time, I'll listen to my body, I swear! Hey, it's only been 20 years--I'm a slow learner. By Thursday, I was starting to feel better and was able to get out and about a bit, though I was still taking it easy.

We had a nicely balanced weekend. Friday evening, our oldest and closest friends came over for a take-out dinner (no work!). We normally get together frequently, but between our funeral and travels and their travels and a wedding, we hadn't seen them since June! It was great to catch up and hear about their summer and enjoy some delicious food with no cooking required.

Our friends & my husband camping circa 1989

Saturday, we went out shopping for a new oven, which is desperately needed. The problem is that our old one, which came with the house (probably built about 35 years ago) is built into the wall and is much smaller than most ovens on the market right now. So, we soon we realized we can't just shop for this at Home Depot or a big appliance store, but we think our local appliance company--who've done all our repairs since we moved in 28 years ago--can help us, but they're not open on weekends.

It wasn't a wasted trip, though, because on the way home, we passed a furniture store we've been meaning to check out. In about 15 minutes, we found a new sofa and loveseat that we really like for our living room! The furniture in there now is 35 years old--it was the stuff I bought right after college for my first apartment. As you can imagine, it's a bit dated and beginning to show some wear. We don't use our living room all that much, but it's time for a change!

My living room furniture when it was brand-new, 1987!
And who are those young, skinny people??

And Sunday was a very productive day at home. I had SO many things that have been on my to-do list for ages, and I just zoomed through one after another. I was worn out by afternoon, but it felt so good to get some things done finally! And I did enjoy some down time reading on our porch before dinner.

Just one new book-related video on my YouTube channel last week:

Friday Reads 8-26-22 - My last books for Big Book Summer!

And here's what we've all been reading this week:

I finished Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King. It's two novellas and several short stories that are all interconnected, taking place from 1960 to 1999. Each stands on its own but also has connecting threads to the others, like characters from one story that pop up in another. The first part, a novella, is about 11-year-old Bobby in 1960, and it showcases King's incredible talent in writing from a kid's perspective. It's mostly set in the real world (though there is a thread of something vaguely supernatural in a couple of places). I's not horror, but there are some real-world horrors that Bobby and his friends and family must deal with. It has so much emotional depth (including loads of literary references, as Bobby begins reading "adult" books that summer) and is gripping, moving, and engrossing. That guy can write. I was sorry to finish the book (though it's a satisfying conclusion) and am missing the characters--a sure sign of an excellent novel!

 

Since I finished the King novel so fast, I had time to fit in one more Big Book! I am reading Sycamore Row by John Grisham. At this point in Big Book Summer (which ends on September 5), I like to choose cross-over books that also fit with the R.I.P. Challenge (to read darker books in the fall) that begins September 1. I haven't read a Grisham novel in years, but this one has already pulled me right in. It's set in the same town as his first novel, A Time to Kill, and focuses on the lawyer from that novel, Jake Brigance, and the town of Clanton, Mississippi. This time, a wealthy man who is dying of cancer has committed suicide. The day before, he handwrote a new will and mailed it to Jake, cutting out his ex-wives and horrible adult children and leaving everything to his Black housekeeper, Lettie. This sets off a massive war between the family and Lettie, with Jake in the middle and the whole town watching (and gossiping). It's already great--gripping and intriguing.

 

I am also squeezing one non-Big Book into the last days of August: Button Pusher by Tyler Page. While updating my 2022 Reading Challenges, I noticed that the Monthly Motif category was a short book or quick read. Well, of course, I've been reading all Big Books! So, I pulled this middle-grade/teen graphic novel off my shelf. It's a memoir about the author's struggles with ADHD, from elementary school through high school. I'm almost finished with it already, and it's been excellent so far and very enlightening.

 

I am still listening to my last audiobook for Big Book Summer, The Madness of Crowds by Louise Penny. This is also a cross-over book to finish up Big Book Summer and kick off the R.I.P. Challenge. This is book 17 in her Inspector Gamache series. I enjoy this mystery series set in Quebec but have not been reading them in order. I read book 1, Still Life, and then skipped to #15, A Better Man and now this one. This novel deals with a fictional controversial woman in Canada who is proposing a shocking solution to some of the world's problems (and one that affects Gamache's family personally). When she comes to a small university near Three Pines to speak, violence breaks out, and she is almost shot. Then, a murder occurs near her. The story deals both with her theories and the controversy, as well as Gamache's team's investigation of the crimes. It's very thoughtful as well as suspenseful.

 

My husband, Ken, is almost finished with The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb, one of my favorite books from Booktopia this year (my review at the link). This is a twisty, suspenseful mystery about the disappearance of a $10 million violin. What's great about this novel is that there's a mystery, but it also incorporates family drama, history, romance, and an inside look at racism through the centuries. It's an outstanding novel. He's enjoying it.

 

Our son, 28, finished re-reading The Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter, book one in The Burning series and then immediately read book 2, The Fires of Vengeance. Now, he is rereading Charmcaster, book three of the Spellslinger series by Sebastien de Castell to prepare for reading books four and five! He loves that series--I first heard about from Beth Fish Reads blog and have been gifting him the books!

Last week's blog posts:

Fiction Review: The Overstory by Richard Powers - unique, powerful, engrossing story of connections

Teen/YA Review: Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian - engaging, emotionally complex coming-of-age story set in 1989 New York

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?