It's Monday 2/20! What Are You Reading?

I was just looking back at my post from last Monday, about all the emergencies that cropped up that week and how things were returning to normal! ha ha I should know better than to say that! Our older son went back to campus Wednesday afternoon (after a stomach virus), and his younger brother came home Thursday morning with strep throat! He got on antibiotics and went back to school Friday afternoon...and his brother came home from work last night with a fever and cough. Seems like a bout of bronchitis, which he gets a lot due to his immune disorder. Oh, and now I just got a text from our younger son saying the strep is better but now his chest hurts, and he's coughing. Sounds like another bronchitis...sigh. Yup. We need to install a revolving door here. And invest heavily in antiseptic wipes, which we have been using by the truckload!

The good news is that my husband and I have stayed healthy through all of this (where's some wood to knock on?), and we had a very nice weekend. Lots of work on our mortgage refinance (we got a great deal, but it is a LOT of work) but also two great hikes in lovely, sunny 70 degree weather. We definitely needed that.

And, of course, we make time for reading every day! Here's what our family is reading now:

• I finished The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, JK Rowling's pen name for her mystery series starring private detective Cormoran Strike. I gave it to my husband for his birthday and am glad to have finally gotten to it myself. It was excellent - as you'd expect!
• Next, I returned to Anne Frank Remembered: the Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family by Miep Glies and Alison Leslie Gold. I started this book on audio back in early January, but my audio download was defective and  ended abruptly in the middle of a sentence! It's a memoir, and the audio narrator was wonderful, with an accent and warmth that makes you feel as if Miep herself was sitting next to you telling her story. I REALLY wanted to finish it on audio, but after waiting for over a month for the audio to come in from my library, I gave up and requested the book. So, I finally got to finish this amazing book (highly recommended!), and there turned out to be a benefit to seeing the book - lots of photos included! Besides, I could still hear the narrator's voice in my head as I read. 
• And, that led me to return to The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank, to re-read the story in Anne's own words. I haven't read it since I was a teenager. My own copy (which was my mother's originally) cost 35 cents and every time I turned a page, it fell out! So, I got a copy at the library this weekend. Even knowing what happens, it is still a compelling, amazing story. I am totally hooked (again).
• On audio, I am listening to a teen/YA novel, The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron. It's intriguing so far, about a fantasy dystopian world where everyone forgets everything every 12 years...except the main character who remembers everything but keeps that a secret, as she begins to uncover the secrets of her community.
• My husband, Ken, finished a Christmas gift from me, The Trespasser by Tana French, the latest (#6, I think) in her books about the Dublin Murder Squad. He loves her literary murder mysteries.
• Now, Ken is reading a review book I got, a noir thriller, Lucky Supreme: A Novel of Many Crimes by Jeff Johnson. The author (it's his debut novel) has been compared to Elmore Leonard and Dennis Lehane. The novel is due out April 4.
• Jamie, 22, has been reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. He is up to book 3, The Dragon Reborn, and enjoying it. Even though he's been sick a lot, I think he's been watching more TV than reading lately.

 Blog posts from last week:

Movie Monday: The Accountant, an intriguing & original thriller

Fiction Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, WWII from the perspective of two children

Middle-Grade Review: The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart, a moving, exciting adventure

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.

What are you and your family reading this week?   

Saturday Snapshot 2/18: National Parks of New England

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda at West Metro Mommy Reads.

For today's post, I thought I'd follow Melinda's lead from a few weeks ago (yes, behind, as usual!) and pay tribute to our National Parks. In fact, over the next few weeks for Saturday Snapshot, I plan to pay tribute to all of our beautiful federally protected lands, including National Parks, National Forests, National Seashores, and more.

We love all of these places and for over 25 years have devoted our family vacations to visiting them. It's our favorite kind of vacation - camping in a National Park or other protected area, surrounded by the beauty of nature. It's so rejuvenating!

With so many vacations' worth of photos to choose from, I will hit them regionally, so this week is National Lands of New England week! Here are some highlights of some of our favorite places in New England:

Cape Cod National Seashore

Our sons at Cape Cod National Seashore, 2013

Acadia National Park, ME - view from top of Beech Mtn

The rocky shores of Acadia NP - one of our favorite places!

Bald Mtn in White Mountains National Forest, NH

Coosauk Falls - White Mtns National Forest

Hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend - 67 here in Delaware today, so I plan to get outside!

Middle-Grade Review: The Honest Truth

In early January, I was sick and looking for some literary comfort. I decided to choose something from my over-filled shelves of middle-grade and YA books, but what to choose? I happened to read a Best of2016 list on one of my favorite blogs, Unleashing Readers, that day and so chose a book on Ricki’s list: The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart. It was an excellent recommendation! This tale of adventure is suspenseful but also very moving, with great emotional depth.

Twelve-year old Mark is running away from home. He has obviously planned this out very carefully, with money, a disguise, and his dog, Beau, hidden in his duffle bag. We learn some things about Mark right from the beginning: he likes to take pictures with an old-fashioned camera and he writes haiku, recording his poems in a notebook he carries with him. Soon, though, we learn something else: Mark is very sick. He’s been sick for seven years, and his life throughout that time has focused on his illness. He’s running away to get away from all of it – the doctors, the hospitals, the medicines – but also to achieve his biggest dream, to climb to the top of Mount Rainier. We gradually realize that Mark is doing this now because he thinks he may not get another chance.

Mark is well loved by his parents and his best friend, Jessie. They’ve been friends since they were very young, since before the sickness, and Jessie is very, very worried when she realizes that Mark is gone. He left her a hidden haiku – their favorite mode of communication – so she has an idea of where he’s headed, but she doesn’t want to betray his confidence. The longer Mark is gone, and the more dangerous his journey becomes, the more Jessie agonizes over whether to tell his kind parents (and the police) where he’s going.

It’s a difficult journey that Mark has embarked on, and his illness makes it even more challenging. He’s weak and can’t hold much food down. Along the way, through Seattle and onward to the base of Mount Rainier, Mark meets a lot of people. Some of them are cruel but most of them are kind and compassionate and want to help him. Through it all, Beau is by his side, and Mark is determined to see his mission through.

Chapter alternate between Mark’s journey and what is going on back at home, with Jessie and with his parents and the police, and Mark’s haiku enhances the narrative. Suspense is created not only by whether or not Mark will meet his goal in the face of so many challenges but also by the tension of wondering if the police will find him first. As a reader, you are torn between wanting to root for Mark and wanting him back home, safe, with his family and his best friend. This is an adventure story, with plenty of action and suspense, but it is also a tender, moving story about dealing with serious illness, family, friendship, and loyalty. The Honest Truth is a quick and exciting read that is heart-breaking at times but also heart-warming and insightful.

229 pages, Scholastic Press       

Honest Truth by Keith AblowTrade Paperback

Fiction Review: All the Light We Cannot See

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After winning the Pulitzer Prize, being a finalist for the National Book Award, and being on pretty much every top 10 list in 2014, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr was definitely on my own must-read list. My husband even gave it to me for Christmas last year. I finally found the time to read this hefty World War II novel and discovered what earned it so much praise.

Although this is a novel about WWII, it centers on children, one in France and one in Germany, who spend their childhoods and adolescence in wartime, each involved in the war in very different ways. Marie-Laure lives with her beloved Papa in Paris, where he works at the natural history museum, a place that they both love. When she is just six years old, Marie-Laure goes blind. Her father works hard to teach her how to find her way around their part of the city and learn to be independent. He even creates a scale-model of their neighborhood, detailing every curb, doorway, and step to help his daughter quite literally learn every inch of the area.

Meanwhile, in a rural mining town in Germany, Werner, and his little sister, Jutta, live in an orphanage, presided over by a caring though overworked woman. Werner becomes very adept, at a young age, at fixing and even building radios. Fascinated by these new devices, Werner has a unique talent with them, and he and Jutta secretly listen at night to broadcasts from all over the region, including their favorite, a children’s program about science coming all the way from France.

The coming war soon intrudes on both children’s lives. In France, the Nazis invade and occupy Paris. Along with many thousands of other citizens, Marie-Laure and her father set off on foot to leave the city and its dangers. Papa is carrying a famous, enormous diamond – one of five that may or may not be the real thing – in order to keep the invading Nazis from the museum’s greatest treasure. They head toward Saint-Malo, a walled city by the sea where Marie-Laure’s great-uncle lives a reclusive life in a tall house. They are welcomed by this distant relative and settle into the big house, though eventually, the war comes to them, even in Saint-Malo.

Back in Germany, an officer recognizes Werner’s unique talents when he fixes his radio and recommends him for an elite academy for Hitler Youth. Although Werner does have opportunities there to work on even more advanced technologies, he is frightened and appalled by the violence and brutality among both the officers and the children. Eventually, he is conscripted – at an early age – into the armed forces officially, to use his radio skills to find members of the resistance.

This is an epic novel, covering the years from 1934 through the end of the war, and even forward as far as 2014. The focus is on these two children – in different countries – who have never met each other, yet whose lives are both touched in different ways by the war and its brutality. Marie-Laure’s and Werner’s stories eventually converge, in unexpected ways.

This intertwining of two disparate stories is compelling (and something I love in a novel), but the reason for all the awards and recognition is Doerr’s writing. Each scene is depicted in intricate detail so that both Werner and Marie-Laure come to life on the pages. The places where they each live and travel also come to life, especially the walled city of Saint-Malo, a place so unique and fascinating that I searched for photos online after I read the book and now want to travel there to see it for myself.

The walled city of Saint-Malo in France

I came to care deeply for Werner and Marie-Laure (and their loved ones) while reading this book and was both anxiously anticipating and dreading how it would end (it is, after all, a war story). I have mentioned that I have sort of overdosed on WWII novels lately, and the last two I read – this one and The Nightingale – were both set at least partly in occupied France and were both lengthy books. So, I did feel this one ran a bit long, but I think that is just my own bias due to reading too many similar novels recently. All the Light We Cannot See is an engrossing novel that transports you into the lives of these two children, growing up during a horrific time in history. It is not just about the tragedies of war but also about the strength and resilience of the human spirit, even (especially?) in children.

530 pages, Scribner

Movie Monday: The Accountant

With my college son home sick all weekend, the three of us decided to escape with a movie last night. We watched The Accountant, an exciting and unusual thriller about math! We all enjoyed it very much.

Ben Affleck stars as Christian Wolff, the accountant in the title, a quiet but brilliant man with few people skills. He has been hired by a robotics company to "uncook" their books - that is, to review all of their accounting information with a fine-toothed comb because a junior accountant named Dana, played by Anna Kendrick, found an anomaly amounting to millions of dollars. What Christian finds quickly results in several deaths.

Meanwhile, a Treasury Department investigator named Ray King, played by J.K. Simmons, is getting ready to retire and is obsessed with the mysterious Accountant who he knows is behind the money laundering of major crime families all over the world. He appears in many photos with known criminals, but you can never see his face. Ray blackmails a younger employee named Marybeth Medina, played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson, into helping him track down The Accountant. Although they don't know his name, we immediately see from the partial photos they have that they are after Christian.

Flashbacks reveal that Christian had a difficult childhood and has autism, which explains his quirks and inability to relate to those around him. However, he senses something different in Dana, right from their very first meeting, and is uncharacteristically drawn to her. She shares his aptitude, fascination, and all-around geekiness with respect to math and has also felt like an outsider much of her life. She was the first one to recognize the anomaly in the books, after all. When the violence begins, he feels protective toward Dana.

This is a very violent movie, with a lot of fighting and shooting and a huge death toll. I don't generally like that in a movie, but I still liked this one because it is very clever. The reasons behind the violence are complex and interesting. The pieces of the puzzle that are Christian's childhood and current life only gradually fall into place, at the same time that we are learning about the scam going on in the robotics company and watching the two renegade Treasury Department investigators slowly closing in on Christian, unaware of the current chaos he is embroiled in.

It's all very suspenseful, exciting, and action-packed but also very smart. The entire cast is excellent (and also includes Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow), but Affleck is mesmerizing in this role, holding his emotions close as we slowly see flashbacks of what made him the way he is. In fact, the child actor who plays Christian as a boy, Seth Lee, is also very good. I don't always like the action-packed thrillers that my husband and sons prefer to watch, but all of us thoroughly enjoyed this one - especially seeing all the pieces slowly come together in the end.

Have you seen The Accountant yet? Do you like thrillers and action movies?



The Accountant was recently released on DVD and is available in Redbox. It is available to rent starting at $3.99 on Amazon Prime (link below); it is only available on DVD from Netflix.

It's Monday 2/13! What Are You Reading?

Whew, I'm glad THAT week is over! Just one of those weeks when things kept cropping up unexpectedly, which just made me feel even more overwhelmed than I have been lately. Took my father-in-law back to the doctor again for a recurrent infection, spent most of the week negotiating between two companies for a mortgage refinance (lots of work but it paid off with a great deal!), our college sons temporarily thought our car had been stolen, so that was a good 18 hours of stress and panic (they forgot where they parked it), and by Friday, both sons were very sick with a stomach virus. One came home immediately; the other stayed in the dorms until yesterday, when he came home and slept 14 hours straight! Now, he is back to campus, and the other is still asleep but hopefully will be also heading back today. Like I said, whew!

The good news is that I did end up getting a LOT done over the weekend, so I feel less "everything is late" kind of overwhelmed. And there's that awesome refinance I negotiated, too! Quite proud of myself for that.

Whether the week was good or bad, we always enjoy our books! Here's what we've been reading:

• I am still reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, JK Rowling's pen name for her mystery series starring private detective Cormoran Strike. I gave it to my husband for his birthday and am glad to have finally gotten to it myself. It's excellent - as you'd expect! Engrossing and suspenseful novels are perfect for hectic times like this. I am almost finished.
• I finished listening to a middle-grade audiobook, The Scourge by Jennifer Nielsen. It's about a fantasy dystopian world where a disease is ravaging its citizens and one young girl learns some secrets while being held in a quarantine colony.
• Now, I am listening to a teen/YA novel on audio, The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron. It is turning out to be somewhat similar to the one I just finished, but it's intriguing so far, about a fantasy dystopian world where everyone forgets everything every few years...except the main character who remembers everything but keeps that a secret.
• My husband, Ken, is still reading a Christmas gift from me, The Trespasser by Tana French, the latest (#6, I think) in her books about the Dublin Murder Squad. He loves her literary murder mysteries, though he's been laughing over some of the Irish slang! Skangers, jacks, gaff,  gaffer, and bickied! It's weird that he and I are both reading Irish/British mysteries right now.
• Jamie, 22, has been reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. He is up to book 3, The Dragon Reborn, and enjoying it. Even though he's been sick, I think he's been watching more TV than reading this week.

As promised, I focused on some book review catch-up last week (though I did not have time for my usual movie and TV reviews). I enjoyed all of these:

Middle-Grade Review: Friends for Life by Andrew Norriss, a moving novel about friendship, bullying, and ghosts.

Fiction Review: Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill, a story about a marriage, uniquely written

Middle-Grade Review: Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke - an exciting graphic novel

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.

What are you and your family reading this week?  

Middle-Grade Review: Mighty Jack

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Although I’d heard of author/graphic novelist Ben Hatke before, I’d never had a chance to read one of his books. So, I was thrilled to read his latest graphic novel for middle-graders, Mighty Jack, which was released in September. This modern retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk was inventive, engrossing, and a lot of fun.

A boy named Jack lives with his mother and his younger sister, Maddy, who doesn’t speak. His mom works very hard to support them, but money is always tight. Jack is often left in charge of Maddy while his mom is working, especially now, during summer vacation. While wandering around the flea market one day while their mom shops, Maddy is drawn to a booth manned by a strange-looking guy, and Jack follows her. He shows them some unusual things and then offers them a box full of odd-looking seed packets.

The pictures on the seed packet are strange designs, not vegetables, and unlike anything Jack has ever seen before. They can’t afford to buy anything, but Maddy is insistent, as is the seller. Somehow, before he knows what is happening, Jack has traded his mom’s car keys for the seeds. His mother is furious, of course, but Maddy is thrilled.

Back home the next day, Maddy immediately starts digging. Thinking that maybe growing some of their own food will allow him to help his mom, Jack joins in. The day before, Jack had noticed – and been drawn to – a girl about his age sword fighting with a dummy in her driveway. The girl, named Lilly, noticed Jack staring and seeks him out. She is also fascinated by the odd-looking seeds and helps them plant them.

Of course, these seeds don’t grow into anything any of them has ever seen before. The garden grows – very quickly – and there are no giant beanstalks, but there are plenty of other strange plants that are even more unique and magical. The three children gradually figure out some of the secrets of their new garden and also realize that it could be dangerous. Luckily, Lilly grew up among three older brothers who liked to play knights and pirates, so she equips the three of them to defend themselves against some of the garden’s more virulent creations.

This is the kind of fantasy that I most enjoy – where fantastical elements are set within a real-life world with real-feeling characters. I was immediately drawn to Jack, Maddy, and Lilly (especially Lilly, a brave and strong girl) and enjoyed the suspense of seeing what their bizarre garden would yield each new day. The illustrations are also my favorite kind in a graphic novel: full-color, realistic pictures of both the human characters and the magical things that come out of their garden. You can see the close, touching relationship that Jack has with both his mom and his little sister in these pictures. I enjoyed this unique take on a classic tale that blends the real world and fantasy so beautifully. It ends with a cliffhanger, so I can’t wait to see what Jack’s next adventures will be!

205 pages, First Second

NOTE: Book 2, Mighty Jack and the Goblin King is planned for release on September 5, 2017.

   

Fiction Review: Dept. of Speculation

I finally read Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill in January. It was first published in 2014, made many “best of the year” lists, and my husband gave the paperback to me for Christmas last year. Eventually, I make my way through the books on my shelves! This moving novel is the story of a marriage, told in a very unique way.

The unnamed narrator writes in the first-person at the beginning, in short little sentences and paragraphs that don’t lead logically from one to the next but nevertheless tell a cohesive story from the start of her relationship with her husband through many milestones, joys, and bumps in the road, including some serious problems. She writes as I or we, though later, she refers to him as the husband, to their child as the girl, and to herself as the wife, switching to third-person as if to distance herself from her story, as things begin to get difficult.

It’s a very unusual narrative that jumps between brief descriptions of their life together or their past lives before they met to random facts (she worked as a fact-checker at a science magazine for a while) to quotes. The quotes are from sources as varied as literary greats, self-help books, and people in their life. One of my favorite passages is a quote that any female reader will love:

“Advice for wives circa 1896: The indiscriminate reading of novels is one of the most injurious habits to which a married woman can be subject. Besides the false views of human nature it will impart…it produces an indifference to the performance of domestic duties, and contempt for ordinary realities.”

This disjointed narrative style is a bit jarring at first and takes some getting used to. Those first few pages are disorienting and a little confusing. However, I soon got into the rhythm of the story. It’s actually quite clever because it is a sort of stream of consciousness, with the narrator recalling single moments of her history with her husband. Isn’t that the way our minds really work? On the very first page, she says:

“Memories are microscopic. Tiny particles that swarm together and apart. Little people, Edison called them. Entities.”

After a couple of short chapters, you can easily see the narrative thread in these seemingly random bits. The memories are more or less chronological, beginning with when they first met. Despite their brevity, each little paragraph gives you more information – about the narrator, about her husband, about their marriage – that link together to tell a cohesive story. There is even some suspense here, which is why I didn’t say much about the plot, wondering whether they will be able to work out their problems and whether they will stay together. This is a novel that seems strange at first, but it is compelling, and by the end, you realize what a clever way it is to tell the story of a marriage from the inside.

177 pages, Vintage Contemporaries

Middle-grade Review: Friends for Life

To give you an idea of just how big my to-be-read pile (actually, an entire bookcase) is, I pulled an interesting looking middle-grade novel off the shelf a couple of weeks ago and discovered it was an Advanced Reader’s Copy….due to be published in August 2015! So, I am a bit behind the times on this one, but I am so glad that I didn’t miss it. Friends for Life by Andrew Norriss is a story about a misfit boy who becomes friends with a girl ghost his age (yes, ghost). Though it starts out light, this warm and moving novel ends up tackling some very serious and important issues through its ghostly friendship.

Francis is sitting outside his school on a sunny bench, eating lunch by himself as usual, when a girl walks over and sits beside him. He is surprised, since he doesn’t recognize her and no one ever pays much attention to him. She is even more surprised, though, that he can see her and hear her, too. Her name is Jessica, and she explains to a shocked Francis that she’s been dead for a year and wandering around, but he is the only person who’s ever seen her or heard her. They agree to meet up again after school, and a very special (and unique) friendship is born.

Francis has become adept at being invisible himself because life is just easier if no one notices him. Unfortunately, though, Quentin goes out of his way to notice him and tease him. Francis has some unusual interests that he learned at a young age not to mention in front of his classmates, but Quentin has never forgotten and never misses a chance to taunt him. Jessica is introduced to Francis’ hobbies on her first visit to his house. He has a huge attic room devoted to fashion and making clothes. He loves fashion and draws and creates his own designs. Francis even has a huge collection of dolls, lined up on shelves and each dressed differently in Francis’ own creations, to represent the history of the last 50 years of fashion.

As two misfits, Francis and Jessica quickly bond. Francis’ mother, though, is more worried about him than ever because he spends all of his time up in the attic alone, and he seems to be talking to himself up there. She decides that he needs a friend and makes him meet the new girl down the road, Andi. Much to his surprise, Francis and Andi – despite being very different – actually get along well and discover they have something in common. Francis, Andi, and Jessica are now all good friends. Soon, they meet a boy named Roland, and he joins their small band of friends – more friends than any of them has ever had before.

These three live friends all share something in common. They are all misfits who have been bullied and teased by other kids for not fitting in. They love spending time together and – with their ghost friend, Jessica – are happy for the first time in a very long time. Jessica provides the impetus that takes their friendship to another level, though, as details from her history are gradually revealed (there are things she doesn’t remember at first). They eventually come to see that Jessica is even more important to them than they first thought and that their friendship can serve an even more important purpose for other kids who don’t fit in.

I wish I could tell you what important issues this wonderful book delves into, but I don’t want to spoil the surprising twists in the plot. Suffice is to say that, despite its light-handed touch and ghostly theme, Friends for Life is more than just a fun story (though it is that, too). It carries some important messages about not fitting in and bullying and more, with the misfit kids at the center of it as its heroes. I absolutely loved this warm, funny novel about ghosts and friendship that gradually reveals its layers of meaning and depth.

240 pages, David Fickling Books (Scholastic)

It's Monday 2/6! What Are You Reading?

Another insanely busy week, trying to get everything done before my sons returned to college this weekend for spring semester. I am utterly exhausted this morning, but I am alone in a quiet house! I am currently cranking up my Happy playlist (which starts with I Will Survive!) to try to perk up my energy a bit.

So, I had almost no time all week for blogging - either writing posts or visiting blogs (sorry). This will be my "dig out and catch up" week!

Luckily, we always have time for our books:

• I finished - and really enjoyed - a middle-grade book, Friends for Life by Andrew Norriss, about a boy who becomes friends with a ghost. It seems light and fun at the beginning (and it is), but it also has surprising depth and deals with some very serious mental health issues. Excellent overall.
• Now I am reading The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, JK Rowling's pen name for her mystery series starring private detective Cormoran Strike. I gave it to my husband for his birthday and am glad to have finally gotten to it myself. It's excellent so far - as you'd expect! Engrossing and suspenseful novels are perfect for hectic times like this.
• I am still listening to a middle-grade audiobook, The Scourge by Jennifer Nielsen. It's about a dystopian world where a disease is ravaging its citizens and one young girl learns some secrets while being held in a quarantine colony.
• My husband, Ken, is reading a Christmas gift from me, The Trespasser by Tana French, the latest (#5, I think) in her books about the Dublin Murder Squad. He loves her literary murder mysteries, though he's been laughing over some of the Irish slang! Skangers, jacks, gaff,  gaffer, and bickied! I'm checking with my UK/Irish friends on Facebook for translations.
•  Jamie, 22, has been reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. He is up to book 3, The Dragon Reborn, and enjoying it. His reading time will plummet now, with classes starting up again today.

Like I said, not much blogging time last week. Just two new posts:

Movie Monday: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an excellent addition to the canon!

My 2017 Reading Challenges - yes, finally! Some oldies and some fun new ones

I must catch up on reviews this week - I am 6 reviews behind at this point.  

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.

What are you and your family reading this week? 

2017 Reading Challenges

Ha! I swore I would get to my new reading challenges in January this year - alas, I did not. But at least, it's early February - that's better than last year! It took me all week to figure it out (there are SO many cool reading challenges out there!)...Here are my 2017 Reading Challenges. You can check in on my progress all year at my 2017 Reading Challenges page.

On the top of the list, as always, a TBR challenge:

Read Your Own Damn Books hosted by Estella's Revenge

I have an entire bookcase of books waiting to be read! In 2015, I managed to read 24 TBR books off my own shelves, and in 2016, I set a goal of 25 TBR books...and missed it by 2! For 2017, I will aim (again) to read at least 25 of My Own Damn Books, and I would love to clear even more off the TBR shelves!

2017 Monthly Motif Reading Challenge hosted by Girlxoxo.

I really enjoyed this fun challenge last year, where there is a different theme every month. My plan this year is to try to remember to check for the monthly motif before the end of the month! Here are this year's categories:


JANUARY – Diversify Your Reading
Kick the reading year off right and shake things up. Read a book with a character (or written by an author) of a race, religion, or sexual orientation other than your own.
FEBRUARY – Undercover Thriller
Read a book involving spies, detectives, private investigators, or a character in disguise.
MARCH – Time Traveler
Read a book set in a different dimension, a book in which time travel is involved or a dystopian or science fiction book where reality looks very different than what we’re used to.
APRIL – Award Winners
Read a book that has won a literary award or a book written by an author who has been recognized in the bookish community.
MAY – Book to Movie or Audio
Read a book that has a movie based off of it. For an extra challenge, see the movie or listen to the audio book as well.
JUNE – Destination Unknown
Read a book in which the character(s) take a trip, travel somewhere, go on a quest, or find themselves on a journey toward something.
JULY – Believe the Unbelievable
This month it’s all about fantasy. Epic fantasy, urban fantasy, fairytales, magic, etc.
AUGUST – Seasons, Elements, & Weather
Read a book in which the season, the elements, or the weather plays a role in the story.
SEPTEMBER – Creepy, Chilling, & Frightful
Cozy mystery ghost stories, paranormal hauntings, murder mysteries, weird and scary creatures- it’s up to you!
OCTOBER– Games, Challenges, & Contests
Read a book that involves a game of some sort. Video games, war games, psychological mess-with-your-mind games, characters who participate in a contest, or a story in which the character takes on a challenge.
NOVEMBER – Last Chance
Read a book you’ve been meaning to get to all year but haven’t yet or read the last book in a series you started.
DECEMBER – Picking Favorites
Read a book by one of your favorite authors or read a book that Girlxoxo has recommended this year.

Back to the Classics Challenge 2017 hosted by Books and Chocolate.

I always like to join some sort of Classics Challenge because it gives me extra incentive to read classics, which I want to do but often ignore for more current books. To be honest, I am joining this one somewhat reluctantly because it is a bit more restrictive than I wanted (I did this one two years ago), but there are very few classics challenges this year, apparently! A book must be published no later than 1967 to count for this challenge (I sometimes like to include slightly more modern classics), but it does look like they lifted the restriction on no re-reads (a major stumbling block for me as I often return to classics I read in high school, 35 years ago!). My own personal goal for this one is to read 6 classics this year (that would beat last year's total of 4). They have 12 different categories to fit your classics choices into (you can see the categories at the link above).

A 2017 Reading Challenge to Keep You Well-Rounded hosted by /r/books.


This one is kind of non-traditional - no sign-ups or links list - but it looks like fun! The idea is to expand your reading horizons by aiming to read one book in each of the following categories - 52 books in a year (I read 75 last year, so that's not a problem, but we'll see how much variety I have!). There is also an easier version, where one book can count for multiple categories, so you could do it with far fewer than 52 books.


Genre
Read a book in the Science Fiction genre
Read a book in the Fantasy genre
Read a book labelled as Young Adult
Read a nonfiction book
Read a History book, fiction or nonfiction
Read a Biography, whether normal, Auto, or Memoir.
Read a book about Politics and/or Religion
Read a book in the Thriller or Suspense genre
Read a Mystery book
Read a book labelled as Dystopian
Read a book in the Paranormal genre
Read a book labelled as a Satire or Allegory
Read a book from the Self-Help, Health, Travel, or Guide category
Read a collection of poetry
Read a book from the Horror genre
Read a Romance and/or Erotica book
Publishing
Read a book originally published in a language you do not know
Read a book written before 1950
Read a book written after 1949
Read a book published this year
Read a self-published book
Read an indie book, where the publisher is a small or niche house and not one of the top 6 publishers
Read a book published under one of the Big 6 publishing houses
Read a debut book from this year
Popularity and Notoriety
Read a book that was turned into a movie
Read a popular book, with at least 1 million ratings on any one website
Read an unknown book, with no more than 100 ratings on any one website
Read a book that won a literary award
Read a book labelled as a Best-Seller from this year
Read a book that was, or currently is, banned by a government
Author
Read a book by an author born in the same country as you
Read a book written by a man
Read a book written by a woman
Characters or setting
Read a book with a contemporary setting
Read a book that features animals
Read a book where the main character goes on a journey
Read a book where a stranger comes to town
Read a book by or featuring a character that is LGBT
Read a book set in your country
Read a book not set in your country, but exists today
Book features
Read a short story, one with less than 5,000 words
Read a short book, one between 5,000 and 100,000 words
Read a long book, one between 100,000 and 250,000 words
Read an epic book, one with over 250,000 words
Read the first book in a series
Finish a series
Listen to an Audiobook
Read a book on paper
Read a book with pictures in it
Combining all the letters of all the titles of all the books you’ve read this year, complete the Alphabet
Other
Read a book for the second time
Read a book that’s been on your to read-list for more than a year

Travel the World in Books Reading Challenge hosted by Mom's Small Victories, one of my favorite blogs. I signed up for this one back in 2014, so this is a continuation - I can't wait to see what places I visit in books in 2017! Last year I read 30 books set in other countries/cultures (20 different places), so I hope to do even better this year!

2017 Literary Escapes Challenge hosted by Escape with Dollycas Into a Good Book.

Hurray! After a year off, I found another reading challenge that tracks where books take place. I enjoy this so much that I kept tracking my states even when there was no challenge. I read books set in 27 different states last year, so I hope to do even better in 2017!

Bookish Bingo hosted by Chapter Break - not really a challenge per se, but a fun game that I play each month! I really enjoyed it last year, so stop by to print out this month's Bingo card and play along!

Big Book Summer Challenge hosted by Book by Book (me!)

I will once again host the Big Books Summer Challenge in 2017, so watch for the sign-up in May!

Movie Monday: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Two weeks ago, my husband and I went out to the theater to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. We don't often get out to the theater, but this is one we definitely wanted to see on the big screen. It didn't disappoint. Rogue One is an excellent addition to the Star Wars canon, and we both enjoyed it very much.

First, let me explain something that took me a while into the movie to figure out: when Rogue One takes place in the Star Wars timeline. The events in this movie take place immediately before the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope (that would be the fourth episode, but the first one to come out, in 1977). So, it is kind of like Episode 3 1/2. Once you see it, you understand that the events in the original Star Wars movie occurred just after this.

OK, now that that is out of the way, here is a brief overview of the plot set-up. A scientist named Galen Erso is kidnapped in the first scene by Empire stormtroopers and forced to work with them to complete building the Death Star. Galen's little girl, Jyn, successfully escapes and hides from the stormtroopers and is then rescued by Saw Gerrera (played by Forest Whitaker), a friend of her father's. Saw brings Jyn up and when she is a young woman (played by Felicity Jones), she meets up with Cassian (played by Diego Luna). Eventually, she decides to join the Resistance with him. They are accompanied by an old Empire robot named K-2S0 and an old, blind man named Baze (played by Wen Jiang) who knows how to use the Force.

After joining the Rebel Alliance, they go off on their own on a rogue mission to steal the plans for the Death Star from a heavily armed Empire data facility and name their ship (you guessed it) Rogue One. As I'm sure you know if you've ever seen any Star Wars movie, this is a great simplification of a very complex plot. Suspense builds, with good versus evil, their rogue mission, and a great battle scene at the end.

My husband and I both enjoyed Rogue One and found it to fit nicely into the Star Wars canon, with all of the elements you would expect: interesting characters, nasty bad guys, a noble but seemingly doomed mission, and massive battle scenes. I was a bit hesitant to see this one because I had heard some reviewers criticize it for a lack of humor, pervading darkness, and too-lengthy battle scenes (something I don't have much patience for). I didn't find any of this to be true, though! We both thought the tone of the movie was well-balanced and that it had a nice sense of humor (much of the humor comes from the robot, K-2S0). As for the battle scene at the end, it was just right - exciting and suspenseful, not at all boring, and just the right length. Bottom line: we both enjoyed it very much and liked seeing what led to the events in the original Star Wars movie.

You can still find Rogue One in a few theaters, but it is on its way out, so hurry! It is due out on DVD in April 2017 and should be available via streaming sometime before that (TBA) - you can use the Amazon link below to pre-order.

Have you seen Rogue One yet? Which is your favorite Star Wars movie?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Another busy week but a good one. Both sons are home from college for winter break, and we got to spend a little time with each of them this weekend, including having 8 young men here for breakfast on Saturday! Piles of pancakes, eggs, and sausage. It was great to have them all here, back together - felt like old times! I had a very social week myself, with my neighborhood book group on Wednesday and a lunch meeting with our local chronic illness support group on Friday (that's a lot for me in one week). Still plenty of time for reading, of course.

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

• I finished The Whip by Karen Kondazian, a novel based on the real-life story of Charley Parkhurst, a woman who moved out West in the 1800's and pretended to be a man in order to work as a stagecoach driver. It was very interesting, though also heartbreaking to read about the losses she suffered. Most in our book group enjoyed the story, though some thought the writing was too simple and shallow, so this one got mixed reviews from our group. I enjoyed it - review to come!
• I also finished a review book (due out in May), 'Round Midnight by Laura McBride, author of the highly acclaimed We Are Called To Rise (which I haven't read yet). This new novel is about four women in Las Vegas whose lives are intertwined. I would definitely recommend this one - it was warm and absorbing and fascinating to see the surprising ways that these very different women's lives intersected over time.
• I forgot to include this one last week: I read a middle-grade graphic novel, Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke. I like graphic novels because you can squeeze them in when you don't have much reading time! This one was very good, a modern take on Jack and the Beanstalk, a fantasy story about a boy and his mute sister who grow a very unusual garden with the help of a neighbor friend. Both story and pictures were very well done, and I look forward to the next book in the series.
• I just started another middle-grade book, Friends for Life by Andrew Norriss, about a boy who becomes friends with a ghost. It's great so far - I am really enjoying it.
• On a bit of a middle-grade binge, I am still listening to a middle-grade audiobook, The Scourge by Jennifer Nielsen. It's about a dystopian world where a disease is ravaging its citizens and one young girl learns some secrets while being held in a quarantine colony. It's good so far.
• My husband, Ken, is reading a Christmas gift from me, The Trespasser by Tana French, the latest (#5, I think) in her books about the Dublin Murder Squad. He loves her literary murder mysteries, though he's been laughing over some of the Irish slang! I have only read the first one so far - I have some catching up to do!
•  Jamie, 22, has been reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. He is up to book 3, The Dragon Reborn, and enjoying it.

I'm not yet completely caught up on blog posts (still need to sign up for 2017 Reading Challenges), but I did manage quite a few posts last week:

Movie Monday: Mr. Holmes, an elderly Sherlock Holmes with dementia looks back on his last case

TV Tuesday: Mercy Street, a Civil War drama set in a hospital, with a great cast

Fiction Review: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch - I loved this mind-bending thriller!

Best of Books Read 2016 - Finally! My 2016 book summary

Saturday Snapshot: Sunshine and Blue Skies - a rare glimpse of blue skies this week!

What are you and your family reading this week?    

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.

Saturday Snapshot: Sunshine & Blue Skies

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads. 

Well, this is starting to get repetitive, but our weather continues to be mostly dark and gloomy here (including today), which really gets me down. But, as with last week, we did have a couple of little glimpses of sunshine and blue skies this week...amazing how much that can lift your spirits! My son said the same thing to me this week - he spend our nice, sunny day playing sports outside with his friends all day.

Anyway, here are a few pics from one day of sunshine and blue skies:

Brilliant blue sky with one puffy little cloud

I saw my shadow! Does that mean 6 more weeks of winter?

Bare branches against blue sky & sunshine!

Ah! Love that bright sky!

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!