Snapshot Saturday 9/21

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

I noticed a few glimpses of fall last week while I was walking in my neighborhood, though it is still very green here:

The first few maple leaves on the ground

Japanese maples lose their leaves early here.

But we still have plenty of flowers blooming!

And lots of green in our neighborhood!

 Hope you are enjoying the weekend!

Fiction Review: The Fever Tree

I read The Fever Tree, Jennifer McVeigh’s first novel, last week for my neighborhood book group. Most of our members enjoyed this historical novel set in South Africa in the 1870’s, at the start of the diamond mining era there.

The book begins in 1877 London where seventeen-year old Frances has been brought up in a very sheltered life of privilege. All of that changes when her father dies unexpectedly, and she finds out that he recently lost all of his money in a bad investment. The wealthy part of Frances’ family are her mother’s relatives, who never accepted Frances or her father (who was Irish) as a part of their world, and now see her father’s death as an excuse to drop all support. Left penniless and alone, Frances has few options. She does not want to go live with her father’s sister, in a poor, crowded household where she would work as nursemaid to 3 young children and be forever labeled as unsuited for marriage or society.

Frances reluctantly accepts her only other option: a marriage proposal from Dr. Edwin Matthews, a distant cousin who lives in South Africa. This young woman who has never ventured beyond the confines of London society sets off alone to an unknown world. While traveling on the ship, Frances meets William Westbrook, an attractive and charismatic diamond trader who seems to be everything that Edwin is not.

South Africa turns out to be a desolate and rugged place, and her new home with Edwin has none of the luxuries and amenities with which she is accustomed. She is lonely and isolated and pines for William, who lives in a distant town. Frances encounters all sorts of challenges (some of her own making) and battles illness, loneliness, and extreme weather. Eventually, she begins to open up to the new world around her and learns more about herself as well.

I found the historical context here fascinating, since I knew nothing at all about South Africa’s more distant past. The descriptions of the towns, the desert, the mining operations, and even the politics of the time held my rapt attention. However, like many others in my book group, I had trouble with Frances. She was just so helpless and so naïve and seemed  - from my modern perspective – to be taken in so easily by those out for their own needs. Of course, much of this was common for that time in history, but it made it hard to relate to Frances or empathize with her. Other readers in our group didn’t have that problem. Overall, I was glad to have read the novel, Frances grew on me a bit as the story progressed, and I learned a lot about South Africa’s history.

432 pages, Amy Einhorn Books (Putnam)

It's Monday 9/16! What Are You Reading?

We had a busy week and a fun weekend. My dad and his wife came to visit this weekend, and we enjoyed watching my son's soccer game Friday night, playing games with the kids, and eating lots of good food! The guys played golf on Saturday, while my step-mom and I visited a lovely natural garden that features local flora.

We also enjoyed our books last week:

• I finished The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh for my neighborhood book group and enjoyed discussing it. Most of us liked it but didn't love it, though there were some outliers on each end of the spectrum! It's set in 1877, about a young British woman who must emigrate to South Africa. I found the historical context fascinating, as I knew nothing at all about South Africa's distant past.
• Now that I am caught up (temporarily!) on book group reads, I am reading Hold Fast by Blue Balliet, a middle-grade novel that is part mystery and part realistic story about a family that suddenly find themselves homeless. It is an amazing novel, with plenty of emotional depth and suspense.
• I started - and finished! - a new audio, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. It normally takes me a month or more to finish an audio book, so this is remarkable! True, it is a short novel, but it is also riveting and kept me listening during every spare moment. It helped that my own (old) car was in the shop last week, so I was driving the newer car with the iPod dock.
• My husband, Ken, is reading Time and Again by Jack Finney, a classic time travel novel that he gave me one Christmas.
• Since they were here this weekend, I'll include my dad and his wife in our weekly update. They were reading novels by Lee Child and Sandra Brown on their Kindles this weekend. They left with a stack of books rescued from my charity give-away box on Saturday! We all love to share our books.
• Craig, 15, is reading Beowulf for his Brit Lit class. I remember my older son having trouble with this one at that age - I've never read it myself! Maybe I should download it onto my new Kindle and give it a try while my son is reading it.

I didn't have much writing or blogging time last week but managed a few posts:

Review of Charlie Bumpers vs. The Teacher of the Year by Bill Harley, a great start to a new series for younger middle-grade readers.

Wrap-Up of Two Writing Challenges

Books Read in August 2013 summary

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.)
 

Books Read in August 2013

August was a good reading month, with plenty of relaxing vacation time, but I didn't read a lot of books. That's because I was focused on longer books for my 2013 Big Book Summer Challenge, so I spent half of the month just working on one book! I also see in looking back at my July 2013 Summary that I cheated a bit (gasp!) - I included an audio book that I ended up not finishing until mid-August.


So, here is what I (really) read in August:

• The Twelve by Justin Cronin, the Big Book that kept me busy all during my vacation (Iowa)
• The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, Book 2 in Chaos Walking trilogy and another Big Book
• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, on audio - that was my cheat - oops! (England)

• Charlie Bumpers vs. The Teacher of the Year by Bill Harley, a new middle-grade series

And that was it for August, just four books. I spent most of the month reading those first two books. They were both well worth the time investment! My favorite? Hmmm...tough one...probably The Ask and the Answer because I am really enjoying that series - can't wait to read Book 3!

Update on 2013 Reading Challenges:
I added only one new state (Iowa) to my 2013 Where Are You Reading Challenge. I read two more books off my TBR shelves (my Big Books all tend to be from the TBR shelves because I set them aside until I have time to read them!), bringing the total up to 13 so far this year for my 2013 TBR Pile Reading Challenge.

Which books did you most enjoy reading in August?

Wrap-Up: Two Writing Challenges

At the start of September, I decided to jump-start my fall writing season (kids back in school!) by joining two writing challenges. I'm a bit late with the wrap-up, but here's what I accomplished:

The Monster Review-a-thon focused just on writing reviews. It was  just one week (when I had only two days with the kids in school), so my goals were modest:

• Write reviews of 3 books
• Write a Big Book Summer Challenge Wrap-Up post

In all, on my book blogs that week, I managed:


Review of Defending Jacob

Review of The Ask and the Answer

Post on Book Adaptations on TV

Weekend Cooking Post

So, not quite as many reviews as I'd hoped, but the challenge did serve as an extra motivator to get back into my normal blogging routine. And I wrote another review, plus the Big Book Summer Challenge Wrap-up Post the following week.

I also joined Sit Down and Write 4 Challenge, hosted by Stories Inside: the Writing Blog of the True Book Addict. My goals were:

• The book review goals listed above, plus two more reviews and/or book blog posts next week.
• Write and publish 3 new posts for my chronic illness blog, Learning to Live with CFS, which has been badly neglected this summer.
• Write and send 4 new pitches, including 2 for travel articles.
• Finish the first draft of chapter 1 of my book on living with chronic illness.
• Edit my article on CFS into brief guest blog posts for a supplement website (paid work!)

Wow. Yeah, OK, I might have been a bit overzealous! But again, joining the challenge sort of gave me permission to focus mainly on writing last week. I finished:

• The reviews and book blog posts listed above, plus a review of The Time Machine the next week.
• I wrote four posts for my chronic illness blog.
• I wrote and sent four pitches, and yes, two of them were for travel articles.

I didn't have time to work on my book (that always seems to be the case!) and I still haven't received the background materials for the paid job, but I felt good about the progress I made in those two weeks. Next time, I think I may try to focus on one area of writing at a time to see what I can accomplish that way.

The only problem is that I put priority on writing last week and let everything else slide...so now I've spent most of this week running around, catching up on all the household necessities and to-dos I put off last week! As a result, I've had no time for writing at all. Sigh. There must be a way to find a nice balance!

Anyway, I enjoyed both writing challenges and found them helpful in re-focusing my writing work. Have you tried any writing challenges? Or do you have any tips on finding time for writing along with all the other things that must be done?

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

Ahhh....Monday, and all is quiet here at home. I enjoyed my first week alone last week, with the kids back at school and tried hard to keep the stress levels down and the vacation mindset alive! I did a lot of writing (check back tomorrow when I will recap how I did in two writing challenges) and tried to get caught up on a lot of things that I got behind on during the summer. I also spent a lot of time out on our deck, manages a couple of walks, and finally began watching some of the TED talks my husband has been telling me about - I'm hooked!

We enjoyed plenty of reading last week:

• I finished Hope's Boy by Andrew Bridge, an excellent memoir about a boy who grew up in foster care. It was an emotionally moving book, and I can't wait to talk about it at my library's book discussion group this week.
• I also finished A Matter of Days by Amber Kizer, the teen/YA audio book I've been listening to this summer. It's a post-apocalyptic tale of a teen girl and her younger brother making their way across the country after a viral pandemic kills 95% of the population. I really liked it and enjoyed the audio production.
• I am now reading The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh for my nieghborhood book group, also this week. It's about a young British woman in the 1870's who emigrates to South Africa to marry a man she barely knows. I'm enjoying it so far, but I better start reading faster if I want to finish it by Wednesday!
• My husband, Ken, finished Break No Bones by Kathy Reich. This was the first Reich novel that any of us have read - this series is the basis for the TV show Bones - and Ken said it was very good though different from the TV show.
• He just started Time and Again by Jack Finney, a classic time travel novel that Ken gave me for Christmas one year. I hope he likes it as much as I did.
• Jamie, 19, probably hasn't had much personal reading time at all lately - he is busy with college and friends!
• Craig, 15, got his reading list for this year's Brit Lit class. He's not too excited, but I am! Lots of excellent novels on the list, both classics and modern, and I think he may actually enjoy some of them (though he'd never admit that). So far, they are discussing their summer reads, The Lord of the Flies and The Housekeeper and the Professor. And guess what? His first writing assignments are blog posts for their classroom blog! I like this teacher.

My writing challenges kept me busy with other writing projects, but I managed a few book blog posts:

Review of The Time Machine, a new audio production of H.G. Wells' classic story.

Snapshot Saturday, in case you want to see pictures of my recent vacation in Cape Cod and Maine.

Wrap-up of My Big Book Summer Challenge - if you were participating in the challenge, be sure to link your own wrap-up post to the challenge page. There is also a separate list of links for reviews of Big Books. If you didn't participate, check out some of the reviews listed to get some ideas for your own Big Book reads!

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.)

Snapshot Saturday 9/7

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

As promised, today I will post part 2 of our recent vacation photos - a few of my favorite photos from our recent trip to Maine. I absolutely love Maine, and Acadia National Park, where we spent most of our time, is one of my favorite places in the world. We've traveled all over the country and seen some amazing places, but I love coming back to the Maine coast.

Acadia coastline from the top of Beech Mountain.

My son is beside himself with joy over his 3+ lbs lobster!

My husband and I on the Beech Mountain Trail, with Acadia's lakes in the background.

My sons kayaking on Echo Lake.

Ahhh...there's that rocky coastline that I love so much!

My husband and sons climbing on the rocks.

Sunset from the top of Cadillac Mountain - highest point on the eastern seaboard

Hunter's Beach at dusk

Another beautiful sunset, from Hunter's Beach

My husband and sons on top of Great Head - we think - it was very foggy!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend and enjoying weather as nice as ours!

Fiction Review: The Time Machine

For the last several years, I have wanted to read more of the classics that I somehow missed in school or since, and that goal fit in perfectly with the Those Books I Should Have Read 2013 Reading Challenge. I also love novels with a time travel plot, so I don’t know how I missed reading H.G. Wells’ classic, The Time Machine, for so long. When I saw a new audio production had been recently released, I knew it was just the thing for me. My husband and I listened to it together over the course of several car trips this summer, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it!

The basic plot of The Time Machine is quite simple. A gentleman scientist living near the turn of the century invents a machine capable of traveling through time with its passenger able to control when it stops. The scientist tests out his invention, moving more than 800,000 years into the future. There he finds the Eloi, a race of small humans, living peacefully and contentedly among meadows, forests, and very old, crumbling buildings. The people live on a simple diet of mostly fruit and seem to have no purpose in life and no challenges to solve, though the scientist later discovers another race, the menacing Morlocks, that live underground and prey on the Eloi at night. The scientist has many adventures and encounters plenty of danger while exploring this world, but he eventually makes it back to his own time.

The whole story is told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator who simply refers to the scientist as the Time Traveller. He’s a frequent guest at the Time Traveller’s home for dinner, where he hears of this fantastic invention and, later, the amazing journey. The rest of the dinner guests think that the Time Traveller has made the whole story up, though the narrator is more inclined to believe him.

I was fascinated by the details of Wells’ imagined far future world. For a time, many future-predicting books presumed that humanity’s ever-advancing technology would someday produce a utopia of sorts. More recently, dystopia is all the rage, with most futuristic novels imagining a devastated and doomed earth, created by man’s ever-increasing greed and consumption. Wells wrote this novel (originally published as a serial) way back in 1895, and the future world he foresaw was one where humans have created such a perfect society that eventually, they evolved to a race that no longer needed intelligence or strength because there were no challenges left to solve (granted, this is 800,000 years into the future, much further than most authors delve). I read that Wells was a socialist, so perhaps this was his view of socialist perfection.

Of course, the novel later reveals that this new world is not as perfect as it first seems. There is plenty of action and suspense here, as the Time Traveller and his Eloi friend, Weena, explore the future world and strive to stay safe from the Morlocks (now I understand why Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory TV show has nightmares about Morlocks!) I enjoyed listening to Wells’ imaginative descriptions and adventures, but what I most liked was the thought-provoking nature of the novel, as I tried to imagine how Wells came to this unusual interpretation of the future. It was fun listening to this classic along with my husband; now I want to see the movie adaptation!

Listening Library

Listen to a sample:

My Big Book Summer Challange 2013 Wrap-Up

I am running a few days behind, as always, but Labor Day is past, so it's time to wrap-up my 2013 Big Book Summer Challenge.

You can see on my introduction post from May (and in the photo here) that I planned to read 5 Big Books this summer (each over 400 pages). I did meet my goal and read 5 Big Books, but I made a swap at the last minute, skipping over Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon for now, so that I had time to read The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness because I was enjoying the Chaos Walking series so much! I won't wait for next summer's Big Book Challenge to finish this trilogy!

I read and reviewed these 5 Big Books this summer:

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 552 pages (a re-read for a book group)
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, 479 pages
• Defending Jacob by William Landay, 421 pages
• The Twelve by Justin Cronin, 564 pages
• The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, 

I can't wait to hear about YOUR Big Book Summer! How many Big Books did you end up reading? Please leave a link to your wrap-up post either here or on the main challenge page (the lists are the same). Also remember to leave links to your Big Book reviews on the challenge page - I will leave the page up for a while.

I thoroughly enjoyed tackling these Big Books this summer, and I hope you did, too. If you didn't participate this summer, there is always next year!

It's Monday 9/2! What Are You Reading?

Happy September! Fall is my favorite season, so I am happy that September is here. We had another very busy week, capped off by a frantic Friday after my college son spent much of the previous night/early morning in the ER. Just stupid college stuff! Thank goodness, his injury isn't quite as bad as first thought, and it looks like he won't need surgery, but he has a torn tendon in his finger that needs to be kept splinted for 6 weeks. Both he and his brother spent the holiday weekend at the beach with friends, so my husband and I had a lovely, quiet respite for a few days - just what we needed! They both return today (college son only long enough to do laundry and refill his medicines), so we will be returning to the real world, but we enjoyed our quiet downtime together.

Not a lot of time for reading last week, but we all managed some:

• I finished The Ask and the Answer (see my review) by Patrick Ness and loved it as much as the first book. This Chaos Walking YA trilogy is fabulous! I can't wait to read the third and final book.
• I squeezed in a short middle-grade novel before turning to my book group obligations for September. I read Charlie Bumpers vs. Teacher of the Year by Bill Harley, one of our all-time favorite authors/singers/storytellers. It was excellent - reading it was like listening to Harley tell one of his stories from his own childhood.
• I am now reading Hope's Boy by Andrew Bridge, a memoir for my library's discussion group. The author was taken from his young, mentally ill mother at the age of 7 and grew up in foster homes and horrible child welfare institutions. Amazingly, he grew into a caring, intelligent adult who is devoting his life to helping abandoned and foster children. I'm a little more than halfway through, and it is both horrifying and hopeful.
• I am still listening to a teen/YA audio, A Matter of Days by Amber Kizer, the post-apocalyptic journey of a teen sister and her younger brother across the country to find their remaining family. It's been excellent all the way through - I'm on the last CD now!
• My husband, Ken, finished Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag and enjoyed it.
• Ken is now reading Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs, one of the novels that inspired the TV show Bones (a favorite in our house). We've been meaning to try the series for ages and found a couple of Reichs' novels in the bargain bin on vacation.
• Jamie, 19, is still reading Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling, book 1 of The Nightrunner series. I doubt he had much reading time this weekend at the beach with all of his best friends! Now that he's back at school, his reading time will be filled with chemistry and calculus instead of fantasy.
• Craig, 15, finished The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa just in time before school started on Wednesday! He didn't love it, but he said it was OK- I want to read it when he's done using it for school. He won't read anything unless it is assigned to him, so I am hoping his Brit Lit teacher this year will come up with some good novels for his class!

Thanks to school starting up again, I was able to get back to some writing this week, including these posts:

I signed up for Two Writing Challenges to help jump-start my fall writing season (kids back in school - yay!)

Book Adaptations on TV - looks like a good season coming up!

Weekend Cooking, with a couple of quick, healthy dinner ideas for back-to-school time.

 Review of Defending Jacob, a suspenseful and disturbing legal drama.

Review of The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, book 2 in the Chaos Walking YA trilogy.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.)

If you have been participating in the Big Book Summer Challenge, summer is officially over after today! Be sure to add your links for any Big Book reviews to the review link list on the challenge page. Later today or tomorrow, I will post a summary post with another link list for your own wrap-up posts. 

Fiction Review: Defending Jacob

My Big Book Summer Challenge gave me the push I needed to finally read Defending Jacob by William Landay. I’d heard all the rave reviews and bought it for my husband for his birthday last fall. I’m glad I made the time to read this riveting and disturbing legal thriller.

As the novel opens, Assistant District Attorney Andy Barber is assigned to investigate a shocking crime in the wealthy Boston suburb where he and his family live. A fourteen-year old boy has been brutally murdered, and the community wants the horrifying case solved quickly. The boy was a classmate of Andy’s son, Jacob, but they weren’t close, so Andy sees no conflict of interest in his role…until his own son is accused of the murder, and Andy is taken off the case.

It all seems surreal to Andy, as he suddenly finds himself in the role of helpless parent instead of powerful prosecutor. He and his wife believe in their son’s innocence, and Andy does all he can to help in his defense. From there, the novel follows the boy’s case and is in turns a courtroom thriller, murder mystery, and every parent’s worst nightmare.

The reader goes on a rollercoaster ride with Andy and his wife. New evidence comes to light, and you wonder whether Jacob might actually be the killer. Then, in another scene, you see him as a scared little boy and think it must be a set-up. Landay takes you back and forth again and again, as the story continues, until you don’t know what to think. The courtroom verdict is not the ending; Andy is brought up on charges of obstruction of justice (this is actually how the book opens), as the family’s saga continues. The final ending is a shock that I never saw coming.

Besides being a compelling and fast-paced suspense novel, Defending Jacob is also a thought-provoking book. As a parent, it is impossible to read this story and not think, “What would I do?” It’s an unthinkable situation for any parent, and Andy and his wife each react differently. All in all, it’s a very disturbing, thoughtful novel that kept me reading long past bedtime.

421 pages, Delacorte Press 

 

Weekend Cooking 9/1

Each weekend, Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking.  This is perfect for me since I love food and cooking almost as much as I love books!

September 1! Woohoo! I know most people are mourning the end of summer, but I am excited for the start of fall. It is my favorite season, I love the cooler weather, and the kids go back to school so that I can get back to writing and get more rest (it's tough juggling family demands when you have a chronic illness).

We had another very busy, exhausting week, so I stuck to super-easy meals again - and we actually ate out a lot more than we normally do! The kids are both away at the beach with friends for the weekend, so my husband and I closed the kitchen and are taking a well-deserved break. Food-wise, we still have all the fabulous fresh produce of summer here - tomatoes, sweet corn, local peaches. My oldest son is back in college, so it is mostly just the three of us again.

Monday night, I made a quick past meal that is perfect for summertime, Shrimp and Squash Penne. This simple dish is perfect for all that extra zucchini and summer squash coming from the garden and CSA now, with simple but tasty flavors. I added a bit of fresh parsley from the farm at the end, and it was delicious.

All I had left from last week's CSA was lots of juicy tomatoes and some jalapenos, so on Tuesday, we had an old favorite school-night recipe, Chipotle Bean Burritos, with the addition of fresh homemade salsa instead of plain tomatoes. Very quick and easy...and very tasty.

My Mom reminded me that I used to make the kids a special surprise on their first day of school, like this School Bus Cake (directions from Family Fun magazine) - ours didn't look quite like the one in the magazine, but the kids loved it! So, when my youngest son started his sophomore year of high school on Wednesday, I decided to make him a favorite dinner. Then, I realized that all of his favorite meals revolve around seafood! So, I surprised him and ordered a dozen steamed and seasoned crabs for dinner (we live near the Chesapeake Bay, so blue crabs are a tradition every summer). The fresh sweet corn from our CSA were a perfect accompaniment, with some simple boiled red potatoes. He was thrilled, and we all enjoyed the treat!

My sons on the first day of school 2001

The next night, with both boys gone for the weekend, I used the meager 3/4 cup of leftover crabmeat to make some crabcakes for my husband and I, along with leftover potatoes, and some lovely yellow beans from the farm. I loosely used this Maryland Crab Cakes recipe but cut by 4, left out the milk (I'm dairy intolerant), replaced it with a small spoon of olive oil mayo, and added some Old Bay seasoning. And, since then, we've been eating out! I love to cook when I have the time and energy, but I am enjoying this little break.

Hope you are enjoying the end-of-summer food this week, too!

Snapshot Saturday 8/31

Snapshot Saturday is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

I haven't participated in Snapshot Saturday most of the summer - just too busy with kids home from school, vacations, etc.

So, I thought I'd share some photos from our recent vacation. I thought I'd do some this week and some next week. So, today's photos are from the Cape Cod area, where we camped for 6 days - next week, I'll post pictures from Maine. Hope you enjoy the pics:

My Sons on the Boardwalk in Sandwich, MA

The Sandwich Town Beach - empty on a rainy day!

One of the local residents.

Gorgeous multi-colored rocks just under the clear water.

Morris Island, near Chatham, MA - tide is in!

Our home away from home.

My sons enjoying a beautiful evening on Race Point Beach.

A perfect day on Head of the Meadow beach at Cape Cod.

Enjoying a campfire with my sons after a wonderful day!

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Book Adaptations On TV

We all know about the huge trend of making popular books into blockbuster movies which has exploded in the past few years, following the big successes of the Harry Potter movies and The Hunger Games adaptation. It seems like half of the movies being released these days are derived from books, which is fine with me.

Now Hollywood is cashing on on that trend for the small screen, with 10 new shows this fall based on books, both new and classic. As an avid reader, I'm excited to hear this! Of course, the adaptations have to be done well, but I think starting with a great book provides a greater chance of ending up with a great TV show.

There are quite a few vampire adaptations here, which don't't really interest me much. Some of the others sound really intriguing, though. Interestingly, I haven't read any of the books these shows are based on, but maybe seeing a decent TV show will lead me to discovering some new reads!

The shows I'm looking forward to on this list include:

• Sleepy Hollow (I'm a sucker for time travel plots!)
• The 100
• Resurrection
• Surviving Jack
• About a Boy (loved the movie)

I know my sons will be excited about Crossbones.

Which of the shows on this list are you interested in watching? Have you read any of the books they are based on? I'm always open to suggestions!

Two Writing Challenges

I am trying something new this week!

I have joined reading challenges for the past several years and enjoyed them. This weekend, I was reading Mom's Small Victories, one of my favorite blogs (the author writes about books and lives with chronic illness, just like me), and the author posted about two writing challenges she had signed up for. At first I thought, "Why bother? I don't have time to write anyway," but then I remembered my kids start back to school this week, and I will finally have some writing time again! So, the timing is perfect, and I really need this extra motivation after a stressful, non-writing summer, so I am signing up for the same two writing challenges.

The Monster Review-a-thon is hosted by The Book Monsters (another bonus - finding new blogs!). That one is just this week and just reviews. Since my kids just went back to school today (and my son has Friday off!), my writing time is somewhat limited, so my goals for this one are modest:

• Write reviews of 3 books
• Write a Big Book Summer Challenge Wrap-Up post

Sit Down and Write 4 is being hosted by Stories Inside: the Writing Blog of the True Book Addict. Just the name of this challenge is perfect for me! This is what I need help with - ignoring the long list of to-dos nagging me and the messy house and just Sit Down and Write! This one lasts two weeks which is great because I will have 4 days next week with the kids in school and the house QUIET for a change. So, here are my goals for this one:

• The book review goals listed above, plus two more reviews and/or book blog posts next week.
• Write and publish 3 new posts for my chronic illness blog, Learning to Live with CFS, which has been badly neglected this summer.
• Write and send 4 new pitches, including 2 for travel articles.
• Finish the first draft of chapter 1 of my book on living with chronic illness.
• Edit my article on CFS into brief guest blog posts for a supplement website (paid work!)

Yes, it's a lot for two weeks (one and a half at this point, really), but that's the point of a challenge, right? I want to use this as motivation to kick off the fall writing season and make up for a very unproductive summer.

So, join in the fun! Do you have a backlog of reviews you'd like to catch up on or some other writing project you have trouble finding time for? There is still plenty of time to sign up for these challenges - just follow the links here. Wish me luck!

It's Monday 8/26! What Are You Reading?

Two more days! My oldest son moved back into the college dorms yesterday, and my youngest starts back to high school on Wednesday, so in two more days, the house will be quiet during the day and I can stop the constant running to doctor's appointments every day! Not that I'm counting... I love my kids, but it's been a difficult summer and I am looking forward to being productive again.

With the end of vacation and school looming ahead, we had a very busy week and all had far less reading time than usual:

• I am still reading The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, book 2 in the fabulous Chaos Walking trilogy. I am enjoying this book as much as I did the first one!
• My husband, Ken, is still reading Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag, a psychological thriller.
• He and I did manage to finally finish an audio book, a new release of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. I'd never read the original, and we both enjoyed this classic time travel story very much. Now I understand why Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory has nightmares about the Morlocks!
• Jamie, 19, spent the week at the beach with his friends, so he had very little reading time! He is still reading Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling, book 1 of The Nightrunner series.

I spent a lot of times in waiting rooms last week, so I did bring my laptop along and managed to post a couple of book reviews last week:

Review of The Twelve by Justin Cronin, sequel to The Passage.

Review of The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, Book 1 in the Chaos Walking series.

And a Weekend Cooking post with a couple of very tasty summer recipes.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.) 

If you have been participating in the Big Book Summer Challenge, summer is almost over! Be sure to add your links for any Big Book reviews to the review link list on the challenge page. Later this week, I will post a summary post with another link list for your own wrap-up posts.

Weekend Cooking 8/25

Each weekend, Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking.  This is perfect for me since I love food and cooking almost as much as I love books!


I see that it's been a month since I wrote a Weekend Cooking post - that's because we have been busy with an unexpected surgery (successful), a 2-week vacation, a weekend with extended family, and getting ready for the kids to start school next week. Whew. The house is quiet for the moment since I am the only one up, so I want to take advantage of this brief window of me time!


My plan for this week was to make all of my older son's favorite meals before he moves back into the dorms (today) for his sophomore year of college, but he ended up spending the entire week at the beach with his friends! So, we had mainly quick, easy and traditional meals since the week was so hectic. A couple of great dishes stand out, though:


One night, I made Grilled Pork Chops with Shallot Butter, a favorite of ours for summertime. The flavors in this simple dish are incredible, thanks to an abundance of fresh herbs, plus finishing the pork chops with a touch of lemony shallot butter - so good! I usually follow the recipe exactly, but this time I subbed fresh parsley and lemon basil for the other herbs, since we had those from our CSA pick-up this week, and it was just as good. On the side, we had some fabulous yellow beans from the farm and a simple cucumber-tomato salad (also made with fresh farm ingredients). Perfect summer meal!


My older son was home for just one dinner this week, on Friday, and since it was his Last Dinner with us for a while, I made one of his all-time favorites, Adobo Flank Steak with Summer Corn and Tomato Relish, another Cooking Light recipe that is packed with flavor. It takes a bit of prep the night before, to make the rub for the steak, but the result is amazing. My son loves the spice in this dish (plus, it's steak - his favorite!), and I love the depth and complexities of the flavor. It's another great meal for a summer evening, made with fresh corn and tomatoes.


So, those were the culinary highlights of our past week. I hope you are enjoying some of those great fresh summer flavors, too!

Fiction Review: The Twelve

I finally found time to read The Twelve, Justin Cronin’s sequel to the critically acclaimed and popular The Passage, as a part of my Big Book Summer Challenge. I was saving this hefty novel for summer, when I knew I’d have more time to read, but I wish I had read it sooner after finishing The Passage. I enjoyed The Twelve and never had trouble finishing it, but it’s a complicated and sometimes confusing novel. It was, however, well worth the effort to find out what happened next in this unique post-apocalyptic trilogy.

This second novel fills in more details of the action in The Passage and also follows some of its characters further, beyond the point where the first novel left off. In The Passage (don’t worry – no spoilers here!), a secret government project to create an indestructible soldier goes awry when the virus they were experimenting with is unleashed on the public. The first half of that first novel deals with the events surrounding the virus’ release, and the rest of the book focuses on a small surviving colony of people 90 years later.

The Twelve goes back to the time when the virus was first let loose and the events immediately following. The author focuses on a number of different characters – some familiar from the first book and others new to the reader – with varying viewpoints and roles. At the same time, the novel also continues the story where the first book ended, 90-some years after the virus (A.V.), and it also looks back in time to certain critical events that occurred earlier and affected the future.

So, perhaps you can begin to understand how confusing this novel is at times! It jumps around among dozens of different characters’ viewpoints and also skips from one time to another. So, you might be reading about the ex-wife of the main FBI agent (Wolgast) during the time of the viral release…and then all of a sudden you are reading about a new character 79 years A.V…then jumping to a character from the first book in 97 A.V. I often found myself starting a new chapter and just saying, “Whaaat??”

However, Cronin is an excellent writer, as anyone who read The Passage can attest, and the disparate strings of the story do eventually come together. For me, the initial confusion was worth the pay-off, as the story builds to a startling and action-packed climax (though some questions still remain – hopefully to be answered in Book 3!). I was never tempted to set the book aside, and the suspense kept me reading and (patiently) waiting for things to come together.

I highly recommend that anyone who isn’t reading The Twelve immediately after The Passage remind themselves of the characters and plot-points first. I found a couple of thorough plot summaries of The Passage online (just search for “plot synopsis the passage”), and reading those helped…somewhat. There are still some characters in this novel that were only vaguely mentioned in the first book. I also discovered – after finishing the novel – a list of characters in the back of the book! I wish I’d known that was there before I read it.

Overall, as with The Passage, Cronin has created a fascinating and compelling story about an unthinkable kind of apocalypse and the future world that it creates. This trilogy is a unique combination of post-apocalyptic fiction, thriller, and paranormal fiction, and the story pulls you in and keeps you reading. Although The Twelve is complex and sometimes confusing, it is a gripping sequel for fans of The Passage. I can’t wait to find out what’s in store in the final book!

564 pages, Ballantine Books

 

It's Monday 8/19! What Are You Reading?

We're back! I haven't posted since July because we took a 2-week camping vacation to Cape Cod and Maine, then headed to Pennsylvania for a weekend with our extended family. Lots and lots of fun all around - hiking, kayaking, and eating way too much delicious food! If you want a peek at our vacation adventures, check out our Road Trip Blog - scroll down to August 1, 2013, to see the photos in order.

So, with all that vacation time, we read a LOT of books these last few weeks!

• I read The Twelve by Justin Cronin, sequel to The Passage and my fourth Big Book of the Summer. I enjoyed it and am glad I read it, but I liked The Passage more (and just gave it to my sister for her birthday this weekend). I wish I'd read The Twelve sooner because I'd forgotten a lot of what happened in the first book. 
• This weekend, I started The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness, sequel to The Knife of Never Letting Go which I read earlier this summer and loved (another big book). The two books are part of a YA trilogy that is a mixture of science fiction, dystopia, and post-apocalyptic fiction, with a heavy dose of action and adventure.
• My husband, Ken, had eye surgery before we left. Fortunately, it went well, and he was able to get back to reading during vacation. He read The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins, an Edgar Award winner that I gave him for Father's Day. He really enjoyed it and is looking forward to reading more by Atkins.
• Now, Ken is reading Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag, a freebie I picked up for him at the library when I completed their adult summer reading challenge (I got a total of 5 free books!).
• Jamie, 19 (as of Friday!), took full advantage of vacation and read at least 6 books over the past two weeks! He is lucky that he can read in the car and not get sick. First, he finished the David Eddings' trilogy The Tamuli, reading Book 2, The Shining Ones and Book 3, Hidden City. He liked this fantasy series that his dad lent him.
• Jamie also read a couple of free books on his Kindle. When he first got it for last year's birthday, he downloaded a dozen free fantasy novels and has been making his way through them. One of the ones he read last week was The God King by James A. West, Book 1 of the Heirs of the Fallen series. He loved it and is looking forward to reading more of the series.
• Jamie and I were thrilled to find a bookstore in Bar Harbor, Maine, so I treated him to two more books for his birthday. He already finished the 700-page novel The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks and absolutely loved it!
• Now, Jamie is reading his other birthday book, Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling, Book 1 of The Nightrunner series (as you can see, he loves fantasy). He says this one is good, too. His reading is going to come to a screeching halt next week when college starts up again, so he's enjoying it while he can!
• Craig, 15, finally started his second book for required summer reading, The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. He's not too excited about this one, even though his brother told him it's pretty good! I want to read it when he's finished.
• Despite all those hours on the road, we didn't listen to much in the way of audio books (to my great disappointment!). The boys don't like listening to books with us anymore (sniff, sniff) - Craig would rather listen to music, and Jamie would rather read on his own. I did talk Jamie into listening to Insurgent by Veronica Roth with Ken and I - all three of us read the first book, Divergent, and enjoyed it. However, he got frustrated because he didn't remember much from the first book and soon gave up. Ken and I still listened while the boys had their earbuds in, but we didn't get very far - I'm not sure when we'll find time to finish it now that we're home!

Believe it or not, I did manage a couple of posts before we left, in the flurry of packing:

Review of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain, an amazing and moving novel.

My summary of Books Read in July.

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.)