It's Monday 5/20! What Are You Reading?

Wow, that week went by fast! It was wonderful to just be at home and not traveling anywhere, but my overflowing to-do list still seems just as long as last week! And I still have almost 100 unread e-mails - every time I clear some out, more come in. It's going to take me a while to catch up on everything. That's most of what I did this weekend - paid bills, cleared e-mails, and did a bit of yard work. Baby steps!

My reading life was busy last week, too, with two book groups meeting back-to-back, plus an author interview. Juggling three books resulted in my having to set one down halfway through and start another, so I could at least read a bit of it before the discussion. I really don't like doing that - I'm a monogamous reader! Luckily, they were all really great books.

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

• I (eventually) finished reading Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman for my neighborhood book group last week. I LOVED this novel!! I want to shout it from the rooftops - it's just so good. My whole book group agreed, giving it one of our highest ratings ever. The titular character is socially awkward, to put it mildly, but also endearing, and the reader gradually finds out that her odd behaviors actually stem from some pretty horrific traumas in her early life. Eleanor takes things very literally and is completely clueless about pop culture, so the book is very, very funny, even as she digs down into that trauma and begins healing. One of my favorite passages was when she encounters a SpongeBob balloon! This is a must-read.
• My second book group this week discussed Inheritance by Dani Shapiro, which I am still reading. This memoir has gotten a lot of buzz this year and with good reason. It's the fascinating story of a woman who sent her saliva off to Ancestry.com (just because someone gave her and her husband kits as a gift) and was shocked to discover that her father was not actually her biological father and she was only half-Jewish, not 100% Orthodox Jewish, as she'd thought. Her parents are both dead, so she can't ask them and sets off to dig into her own history, find her biological father, and figure out how this happened. It's just as good as everyone said and is a very moving story - not just about genetics but also about family, culture, and identity.
• On audio, I decided to choose a YA novel because I haven't read one in a long time, so I am listening to The Knowing by Sharon Cameron, the sequel to The Forgetting, which I listened to on audio two years ago (review at the link). It's an original and engrossing science fiction dystopian novel about memory, but to say any more about the second book would give away spoilers about the first book. Suffice it to say, it is a suspenseful and compelling story that I am enjoying.
• My husband, Ken, is reading Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones, a Booktopia book that I read recently and passed onto him. You can read my review at the link - it's a fast and funny thriller about an ex-cop in Detroit who stumbles onto a crime involving young undocumented immigrant women. I think he is almost finished with it. We are both getting ready for the Big Book Summer Challenge, starting this weekend!
• Our son, Jamie, 24, is reading a novel that we put in his Easter basket, The Wolf, by Leo Carew, book 1 in the Under the Northern Sky series. I picked it out for him at an awesome indie bookstore at the beach in Delaware, Browseabout Books, because the epic fantasy sounded right up his alley. He's loving it so far!

Blog posts last week:

TV Tuesday: Proven Innocent - a legal drama about wrongful convictions

Fiction Review: Sunburn by Laura Lippman - psychological thriller perfect for summer!

Fiction Review: Mudbound by Hillary Jordan - moving, powerful, captivating story about racial inequity in 1940's rural Mississippi

Saturday Snapshot: Spring Blooms - catching up with some of the lovely signs of spring from the past two months.

Remember, my annual Big Book Summer Challenge begins this weekend, so take a look through your shelves or your TBR list and pick out a book or two of 400 pages or longer so you can join in the fun (even if it's the start of winter where you are)! I already have a stack of Big Books that I can't wait to tackle. I'll be posting the sign-up page on Friday, but in the meantime, if you are unfamiliar with it, you can take a look at last year's Big Book Summer Challenge to see what it's all about. I can't wait to begin - and I am starting with a whopper this year!

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?

Saturday Snapshot: Spring Blooms

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda at A Web of Stories (same host as always but with a new blog - check it out!).

Whew, 6 weeks of non-stop travel is finally over, and I am thrilled to just be HOME. Since I've missed so many Saturday Snapshots, here are some photos of the spring blooms from the past couple of months, in rough order, from around our neighborhood (I was home in between trips for a few short walks and some photos!). I love watching the different blooms mark the stages of spring:

First crocuses of spring!

My favorite sign of spring - brilliant yellow forsythia!

Daffodils in bloom

Daffodils and one of the first trees to bloom here.

A redbud tree - we saw these in early April in VA then at home.

Weeping cherry tree - almost missed this one!

I think a regular cherry tree in bloom.

My own lilacs - another favorite - I love the scent!

Azaleas popped out all over the neighborhood in gorgeous colors.

Neighbor's rhododendrons are in bloom now

Our own purple irises are just beginning to bloom - they don't last long!

Hope you are enjoying the weekend and the spring!

Fiction Review: Mudbound

I read Mudbound, Hillary Jordan's award-winning novel, for the first time back in 2010, and I remembered liking it. So, when my library system chose Mudbound as its All-County Reads book for this year and then my book group chose it as our April selection, I decided to re-read it. It didn't matter that I had read it before; I was blown away by this powerful, moving, thoughtful book set in the Mississippi Delta in the 1940's.

Laura is 31years old and living in Memphis with her parents in 1939. She is resigned to being a spinster teacher when her brother, Teddy, brings home an older man named Henry to dinner one night. Laura and Henry enjoy dinners together, stroll along the city streets, and attend theater performances, while Henry works for the Army Corps of Engineers. Eventually, they marry, and after the war ends, Henry announces that he wants to return to his home state of Mississippi and be the farmer he has always wanted to be. He finds a house in a town near the farm for Laura and he and their two young daughters to live in, but when that deal falls through, the entire family - plus Henry's miserable father, Pappy - are all forced to live in the ramshackle farmhouse, which is really just a stark cabin with no running water or electricity. Laura struggles in this hardscrabble life with the help of Florence, a black woman sharecropper on Henry's land who lives with her husband, Hap. In addition to being generally cruel, Pappy is also a malicious racist who is none too happy with Florence's presence. Henry's brother, Jamie, and Florence and Hap's son, Ronsel, both return from the war and come to live on the land as well. When the two men bond over what they experienced in the war and become friends, there are many in the area - including Pappy - who are incensed by the sight of a black man and a white man together. Ronsel became used to being treated as a hero in Europe and is unprepared for this cruel and patronizing treatment at home. As storms roll through the area during the rainy season, cutting the farm off from the surrounding area, tensions also build among the people.

Jordan has written this stunning, compelling novel from the perspectives of multiple characters so that readers hear from Laura, Henry, Florence, Hap, Jamie, and Ronsel in alternating chapters, as they each tell their part of the narrative. In this way, the reader gets to know each of them and hear first-hand what they are each experiencing. The stark contrast between the treatment of the black characters and the white characters is shocking and disturbing, not only between Jamie and Ronsel but also Hap and Florence's position farming the land as sharecroppers versus Henry's role as the landowner. The climax of the story is as horrifying as it is inevitable, given the incidents leading up to it and the people involved. Through it all, the isolation and constant struggles of the literally-mudbound farm provide a metaphor for the lives of the people who live there. I was riveted by this heartbreaking story of love, friendship, and loss during a time of such inequities and upheaval. We typically think of those post-war years as prosperous and easy, but life in rural Mississippi was anything but, especially for those with darker skin. I am so glad that I re-read this remarkable novel.

324 pages, Algonquin Books
Winner of the 2006 Bellwether Prize for Fiction
Pen America Literary Award winner

 
Mudbound was also adapted into a movie on Netflix (which I plan to watch, even though my book group members said the novel is better!). It does look good - here's the trailer (no spoilers here, if you haven't read the book yet):

Note: This blog contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me at no extra cost to you.

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. It's a full-cast production with seven different narrators.

 

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

 

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

Fiction Review: Sunburn

At the beginning of April, my husband and I took our pop-up camper out for its maiden voyage of the year, and drove down to Virginia to enjoy a few days of vacation. For the ride, we chose a thriller on audio by local author Laura Lippman, who normally sets her suspenseful novels in the Baltimore area. This time, we were surprised to find that her latest creepy thriller, Sunburn, actually takes place across the bay in our own little state of Delaware.

Polly is vacationing with her husband and young daughter at the Delaware beaches in June 1995 when she packs a small bag and slips away. She gets a ride with a passing car that's heading west; Polly isn't sure where she's going or what she's going to do, but she knows she wants to go west. When the car passes through the small, inland town of Belleville, DE, Polly gets out, has a meal at a local bar and restaurant and decides to stay awhile. She easily gets hired as a waitress for the busy season, with tourists passing through on their way from Washington and Baltimore to the beach. While working there, Polly meets Adam, a handsome single man who comes in alone for a drink. Adam is clearly entranced by red-headed, sunburned Polly. He is also passing through but decides to stay. In fact, he's trained as a chef and soon gets a job cooking at the little place, giving the owner a break from the kitchen work. The two strangers end up working together and soon, sleeping together. They are mutually attracted to each other, but both of them carry secrets that they hold back, even as they get to know each other better. What is each of them hiding? Which secrets will be spilled first and will they destroy the newly formed relationship?

Sunburn is a gripping psychological suspense story, filled with a creeping dread as each new secret is revealed. The reader soon learns more about Adam and his reasons for being in Belleville, but Polly's mysteries are revealed more slowly, with edgy tension. The darkness of some of these secrets, combined with the passionate relationship between the two main characters, gives the novel a noir feel. We thoroughly enjoyed listening to this taut thriller on audio, and Susan Bennett provides the perfect voice for Polly. Both my husband (who reads a lot of thrillers) and I were captivated and finished the audio book that week, anxious to find out how it would all end. Lippman is always a good bet for a thriller, but we found this one to be uniquely compelling.

320 pages, William Morrow Paperbacks

Note: This blog contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me at no extra cost to you.

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

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

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

 

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

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

TV Tuesday: Proven Innocent

One of the many new spring TV shows my husband and I are enjoying is Proven Innocent, a legal thriller focused on wrongful convictions.

Madeline Scott, played by Rachelle Lefevre, and her brother, Levi, played by Riley Smith, were convicted of the murder of their friend, Rosemary, when they were just teenagers. The pair spent ten years in prison and then were finally freed, when a lawyer named Easy Boudreau, played by Russell Hornsby, overturned their conviction. Madeline got her law degree and is now in practice with Easy, focused on wrongful convictions. The man who put Madeline and her brother in prison is Gore Bellows, played by Kelsey Grammer, and he is now a powerful District Attorney running for State Attorney General, so Madeline finds herself going head to head with him in many of her cases. He still believes she is guilty and has no respect for her innocence project, but she could definitely get in his way of climbing the political ladder, as the overturned convictions make headlines.

Each episode features a different case, with a prisoner or someone who believes in their innocence asking the team to take on the case. In that way, it plays like many legal thrillers, with mysteries, evidence, and a courtroom scene or two. There are also flashbacks and a secondary investigation, running throughout the season, as Madeline is determined to find out who really killed Rosemary all those years ago. Many of the cases feature details that you could find in today's newspapers, making them current and relevant. Lefevre is convincing as the determined and single-minded Madeline, and Grammer makes a menacing evil politician, all the more frightening because he truly believes he is doing the right thing. We are nine episodes into season one, and so far, the team has won most of their cases and gotten wrongful convictions overturned, but we figure they can't always be successful, and a recent episode did end in a devastating loss. We are enjoying the suspense and action, as well as the personal drama behind the scenes and the varying stories in each episode. It might be a little bit too optimistic in the team's success rate, but it's fun to root for the good guys!

Proven Innocent airs on Fox Fridays at 9 pm, and we have been watching it On Demand (we are 9 episodes into the 13-episode season). All of the episodes have aired now, and all are still available On Demand or on the Fox website, but I see that the last episode expires on May 17 (I hate when they do that), so you might have to binge this week, like we will! I believe it is also airing on Hulu or you can watch on Amazon for $1.99 an episode or $19.99 for the first season.

Have you seen Proven Innocent yet? Are you enjoying it?

It's Monday 5/13! What Are You Reading?

Whew - whirlwind busy week & weekend...and still continuing! We had one more trip (my 5th in 5 weeks!!), this time to CT this weekend with our sons. Saturday was my mom's birthday, Sunday was Mother's Day, and we rushed home yesterday in the pouring rain because today is my father-in-law's 94th birthday! This is always a very hectic week for us. Steak dinner (Granddad's favorite) tonight here, more cake and presents, and my son and his girlfriend will be here, too (the other son has to work). Then, I think I will collapse.

We have also been struggling with some extra health challenges. My older son (who has the same immune disorder as me plus Lyme disease and two other tick infections) has been in really bad shape for the past few months. He and I drove to see a new Lyme specialist Friday (we still love our old one but are desperate for some new ideas). It was a great visit, and she provided the fresh perspective we were hoping for. Now, he has loads of testing to get done, forms to fill out, etc. and then we'll meet with her (and her genetic specialist) again. We have some hope for the first time in months, so that's great, but this weekend was still very, very rough for him (and for us, worrying about him).

Even my reading has been stressful since I have three book commitments for this coming week (yeah, I recognize it's impossible to finish them all in time!). But, of course, our books also provide much-needed comfort at times like this. Here's what we have all been reading:

• I finished another Booktopia book, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor. I know that's a strange title - and it's an unusual novel - but stay with me here. Paul, the main character, is a shape-shifter who can change from male to female and back again, also changing his physical traits, becoming taller or more muscular, etc. He's a college student struggling with identity and where he fits in the world. The author uses the unique premise of shape-shifting to explore gender fluidity, queer culture, and sexual exploration, giving the reader the perspectives of many different people, all through one main character. I ended up really enjoying it. It was warmer and sweeter than you might expect and completely immersive. (note that it does contain adult language and graphic sex).
• Next, I moved on to a novel due out on June 25, Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes. I will be interviewing Linda this week, and I am REALLY excited because she is the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour, one of my all-time favorite podcasts! I feel like I already know her from listening to her in my earbuds every week, so I am looking forward to the interview very much. This is her debut novel, about a newly widowed young woman who rents a room to a professional baseball player who washed out in a big, public way. Yes, there is romance, but it is mostly a story of healing. I loved it from the very first chapter - Holmes has a wonderful writing voice, filling with warmth and wit. I've only got a few pages left to read today.
• And then I will be starting (more than a little late!) Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman for my neighborhood book group this week. I've been wanting to read this novel for ages, so I am excited to dive in, even though I definitely won't finish by Wednesday!
• On audio, I finished listening to my final Booktopia selection, The Guest Book by Sarah Blake. I really enjoyed her novel The Postmistress, and this new one is equally engaging. It's the story of multiple generations of a family, the Miltons, who own a small island in Maine and run a successful financial institution, from the 1930's, in the shadow of the rising Nazis, through the 1950's and the first inklings of civil rights to present-day, where one of the grandchildren, Evie, a history professor and now an older woman herself, learns more about her own family history. I like novels that weave together stories from different characters and different times and enjoyed this one very much.
• My husband, Ken, finished a book I recently bought for myself, True Grit by Charles Portis, the classic western that the movies were based on. I got it for the Book Cougars podcast read-along, though I haven't had time to read it yet with everything else! He was excited to read a western, something a bit different for both of us, and enjoyed it.
• Now, Ken is reading Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones, another Booktopia book that I read recently and passed onto him. You can read my review at the link - it's a fast and funny thriller about an ex-cop in Detroit who stumbles onto a crime involving young undocumented immigrant women.
• Our son, Jamie, 24, just finished book 4, Kingdom Blades, of the series A Pattern of Shadow and Light by Melissa McPhail. He said he loves this series - he put it on a par with Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time - high praise and good company!
• Now, Jamie is reading a novel that we put in his Easter basket, The Wolf, by Leo Carew, book 1 in the Under the Northern Sky series. I picked it out for him at an awesome indie bookstore at the beach in Delaware, Browseabout Books, because the epic fantasy sounded right up his alley. He's loving it so far!

Just 2 blog posts last week, amid the chaos:

TV Tuesday: The Fix - a new legal thriller we are loving!

Fiction Review: Soon the Light Will Be Perfect by Dave Patterson - a sad, funny, hopeful coming-of-age 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.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week? 

Highlight of the weekend: Family Escape Rooms! So much fun!

 

Fiction Review: Soon the Light Will Be Perfect

One of the selections for Booktopia this year was a debut novel, Soon the Light Will Be Perfect, by Dave Patterson, a Maine writer who grew up in rural Vermont. I listened to this coming-of-age novel on audio and was thoroughly engrossed in the sad, funny, real-feeling story of a boy on the cusp of adolescence, trying to figure things out during one difficult summer.

The narrator is a twelve-year-old boy in a small town in rural Vermont whose older brother, at fourteen, is starting to pull away from him. Their father's job in a local factory that makes military tanks has allowed them to move out of the trailer park and into a small house. The novel opens with a hilarious story of a pair of new pet cats that quickly overrun the house with kittens, but the narrative soon turns more grim when the boys find out that their mother has lung cancer. It is the 1990's and the first Gulf War has just begun, so his father's job seems secure, though he's not sure how he feels about their family's good fortune being dependent on a war where people are being killed. Meanwhile, his mother's cancer treatment devastates her, and she becomes even more sick and sleeps a lot. The family is heavily involved in an evangelical Catholic church locally, and his mother continues to work for the food pantry through her illness. Both of his parents - and then his older brother - are also involved in protests against abortion clinics in neighboring towns, another thing that brings up conflicting and confusing feelings for him. On the Fourth of July, he meets Taylor, a teen girl from the local trailer park, and while his family's problems are bad that summer, he thinks that Taylor's are maybe even worse.

This is a remarkable novel covering a range of issues from chronic illness to extremist religion to war and politics to simply growing up. Those opening passages about the explosion of cats in their small house had me laughing out loud, while the next part of the story about his mother's illness sobered me up, in the way that real life provides alternating laughter and tears at times. The author was an entertaining, funny, and fascinating speaker at Booktopia, explaining that the novel is partly autobiographical and accurately represents some of the challenges his own family faced one summer in his childhood. The main narrator is unnamed, and when I asked him about this, Patterson explained that he wanted readers to relate to him as any kid in that rocky period of transition between childhood and adulthood, faced with confusing contradictions and new challenges. It's a moving, irreverent, thoughtful book about poverty, family, and growing up. I can't wait to see what this new author comes up with next.

256 pages, Hanover Square Press

(Note: this novel is not YA - it was written for adults - but I do think that older teens and young adults would like it and relate to it. Note that it has does contain adult language and situations).

Dave Patterson speaking at Booktopia

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

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

Listen to a sample of the audio book, which was excellent, with Timothy McKean reading.

You can purchase Soon the Light Will Be Perfect from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

One to consider is Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT, which hosts Booktopia every May:

Soon the Light Will Be Perfect

    

Or you can order Soon the Light Will Be Perfect from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

TV Tuesday: The Fix

I am a loyal listener of the Happier in Hollywood podcast, hosted by two TV writers who have been friends since high school and writing partners for 15 years, Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain (Elizabeth is also co-host on the Happier podcast, with her sister, famed self-help author Gretchen Rubin). For the past year or so, Liz and Sarah have been talking about a TV show they were working on - first writing a pilot, then pitching, and finally actually producing at ABC - and I have been excitedly looking forward to seeing it come to life. It is now on the small screen, a thriller called The Fix, that the partners created, wrote, and produced along with Marcia Clark, and my husband and I are both enjoying it very much.

Robin Tunney, who played Teresa Lisbon on The Mentalist, here plays Maya Travis, a famous lawyer who tried a handsome celebrity for the murder of his wife eight years ago in L.A. After that devastating loss - and certain that a murderer went free - Maya retreated to Washington state, where she met a horse rancher and settled into a quiet life. Now, though, Sevvy Johnson, the high-profile celebrity played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (who famously played Mr. Eko on Lost and more recently played Detective Bird on Ten Days in the Valley) appears to have killed another woman. It's enough to draw Maya out of retirement and back to L.A., where the D.A.'s office welcomes her back and asks her to head up this new case. Sevvy is a charming actor who has raised his children on his own. He was dating a young woman (best friend of his oldest daughter) named Jessica who worked as a personal trainer and recently showed up dead on the beach early one morning. Evidence - and suspicions - once again point to Sevvy, and this time, the D.A.'s office, and especially Maya, want to make sure he doesn't get away with murder. Sevvy's super-sleazy high-priced lawyer, Ezra Wolf, played by Scott Cohen, is confident he can once again win his case and keep his client a free man.

This legal thriller is fast-paced and twisty right out of the gate, with new surprises in every episode. Maya may be sure that Sevvy is guilty, but there is enough doubt planted - including his own tearful proclamations of innocence - to keep you guessing. And even if he is guilty, will he get away with it? In case you hadn't noticed the similarities and the role of Marcia Clark in the show's creation, there are definitely parallels here to the O.J. Simpson case. The cast is superb, especially Tunney and Akinnuoye-Agbaje in the lead roles. Both have been favorites of ours in their previous roles and are in top form here. The characters are well-developed, the dialogue is crisp and realistic, and the suspense is constant. We are watching about a dozen shows right now, but this one is at the top of our list, one of the few that we watch On Demand as soon as a new episode is available. We just finished watching episode 7 of 10, and we can't wait to see what happens next.

The Fix airs on ABC Mondays at 10 pm, and all episodes are available On Demand and on the ABC website (right now it looks like most are free though episodes 2 & 3 require your cable or satellite log-in). It is also available for streaming on Amazon for $1.99 an episode, and (I believe) on Hulu.

It's Monday 5/6! What Are You Reading?

Whew, I got back from another amazing Booktopia last night, so I am exhausted and achy today (very long travel day to get home)...but highly satisfied with my weekend of authors and book lovers all celebrating books and reading in lovely Manchester, VT, at the incredible Northshire Bookstore. As usual, every single author there said something like, "Wow, I am blown away by this event - I've never seen anything like it!" It is truly unique and nirvana for book lovers (like me). I'll share all the details in a post later this week (or next - we leave again Friday for my mom's house in CT for Mother's Day!), but if you are wondering what it is, you can check out my post on Booktopia 2018 in the meantime.

Mostly, last week was a flurry of getting ready for Booktopia, traveling to Vermont, and enjoying my bookish weekend with my mom and new and old friends - definitely not much writing time. But, of course, we all enjoyed some great books last week:

• I finished reading Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones, one of the Booktopia authors and books. It's a thriller set in Detroit and book 2 in a series featuring ex-cop August Snow (though I had no problem starting with book 2). It was suspenseful, action-packed, and funny, too, with plenty of surprises, and I enjoyed meeting Stephen this weekend. I enjoyed this novel so much that I bought the first one, August Snow, while at Northshire Bookstore this weekend.
• Next, I moved onto another Booktopia book, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor. I know that's a strange title - and it's an unusual novel - but stay with me here. Paul, the main character, is a shape-shifter who can change from male to female and back again, also changing his physical traits, becoming taller or more muscular, etc. He's a college student struggling with identity and where he fits in the world. The author uses the unique premise of shape-shifting to explore gender fluidity, queer culture, and sexual exploration, giving the reader the perspectives of many different people, all through one main character. I am almost finished with it and have been totally hooked this weekend. It's warmer and sweeter than you might expect and completely immersive. I am rooting for Paul to figure things out!
• I finished reading the YA graphic novel On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden. I enjoyed her YA graphic memoir, Spinning. Here, she turns her talents to a fictional story about an all-female world out in space, featuring a team of young women who work on reconstructing crumbling places and go on a mission to find a missing person, with flashbacks to the main character's time in boarding school. It gets a little confusing sometimes because of the imaginary world, but it was interesting and engaging.
• On audio, I am still listening to another Booktopia selection, The Guest Book by Sarah Blake. I really enjoyed her novel The Postmistress, and this new one is equally engaging. It's the story of multiple generations of a family, the Miltons, who own a small island in Maine and run a successful financial institution, from the 1930's, in the shadow of the rising Nazis, through the 1950's and the first inklings of civil rights to present-day, where one of the grandchildren, Evie, a history professor and now an older woman herself, digs into her own family history. I'm enjoying it so far and like novels that weave together stories from different characters and different times. 
• My husband, Ken, is reading a book I just bought for myself, True Grit by Charles Portis, the classic western that the movies were based on. I got it for the Book Cougars podcast read-along, though I haven't had time to read it yet with all the Booktopia reading! He was excited to read a western, something a bit different for both of us.
• Our son, Jamie, 24, has been reading the series A Pattern of Shadow and Light by Melissa McPhail, a favorite of his. He first re-read book 1, Cephrael's Hand, book 2, The Dagger of Adendigaeth, and book 3, Paths of Air. He is now reading book 4 (for the first time), Kingdom Blades, and he's really been enjoying it. He and I were talking during a long car ride last week, and he said he loves this series - he put it on a par with Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time - high praise and good company!

Blog posts from last week:

TV Tuesday: The Other Two - a warm, funny show about being fame-adjacent

Fiction Review: Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones - a fast, funny thriller set in Detroit

Fiction Review: Leading Men by Christopher Castellani - historical fiction about Tennessee Williams and his long-time partner, Frank Merlo, in Portofino in the summer of 1953

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week? 

Welcome, Booktopians! Authors signing books at Northshire Bookstore

 

Fiction Review: Leading Men

The first book I read for this year’s annual Booktopia VT event was Leading Men by Christopher Castellani. This novel about Tennessee Williams and his real-life partner from New Jersey particularly caught my attention because the author is originally from Wilmington, Delaware, where we live. Our local newspaper did a big story of him and this new fifth book shortly after the Booktopia line-up was announced, so I was doubly intrigued.

In real life, the famous playwright Tennessee Williams had a 15-year love affair with Frank Merlo, an exuberant young Italian-American man from New Jersey, raised in a blue-collar family. It has been well-documented that the pair spent the summer of 1953, at the height of their relationship, in Italy. In this novel, Castellani takes a real-life event – a party hosted by Truman Capote in the Italian coastal town of Portofino that summer – and imagines what might have happened between Tenn and Frank and their friends that forever changed each of their lives. Much of the action of the novel takes place over that one weekend in sun-drenched Portofino among the beautiful people, though there are also passages about Frank’s death from cancer ten years later and chapters that take place in the present-day, from the perspective of an aging actress named Anja who met Tenn and Frank over that sultry weekend that launched her career.

It took me a little while to get into this novel (possibly because I was reading in short spurts at the beginning), but once I got to know the characters a bit, I was hooked. Castellani takes full advantage of the exotic setting, painting a vivid image of the picturesque town and the lives of its wealthy visitors. There’s a lot more depth to the novel, though, than just the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Castellani frames this weekend as one where people meet for the first time and forever remain a part of each other’s lives. He also delves deep into the relationship between Tenn and Frank – the good, the bad, and the ugly – based in part on historical documents, letters, and memoirs of the famed playwright and filling in the rest with his imagination. There is even a long-lost final play by Williams to add to the intrigue.  This unique novel that mixes fact and fiction completely entranced me and brought me into its world, so far removed from my own. I was immersed from beginning to end and am looking forward to reading more from this new-to-me writer…and meeting him this weekend!

354 pages, Viking

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

Listen to a sample of the audio book. I read this one in print, but I think I would have enjoyed hearing the Italian sprinkled in on the audio.

 

You can purchase Leading Men from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

One suggestion: Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT, which is hosting Booktopia this weekend:

Leading Men: A Novel

   

 

Or you can order Leading Men from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Fiction Review: Lives Laid Away

I'm trying to squeeze in one more quick book review before I leave for Booktopia VT 2019 tomorrow morning (yay!). Appropriately, I just finished another book for the event last night, Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones. I really enjoyed this fast-paced thriller and can't wait to meet the author this weekend!

Detroit ex-cop August Snow is working on improving the neighborhood he grew up in in Mexicantown in South Detroit. It's a close-knit and diverse neighborhood, including his father's best friend, Tomas, and his activist wife, Elena; Jimmy, a young black man, and Carlos, a Mexican man, who are both helping August with the reconstruction projects; and a new neighbor, a Brit named Trent T.R. Ogilvy, who wears a man-bun and does yoga on his front porch. The neighborhood is shook up from the constant patrolling of ICE trucks, harassing anyone who even looks Hispanic, including those who've been U.S. citizens for many decades. When an unknown young Mexican woman shows up in the Detroit River, an apparent suicide but dressed up as Marie Antoinette, the county coroner asks his old friend, August, to show her photo around the neighborhood. Elena recognizes her as a local teen named Izzy, a recent immigrant who had disappeared. Alarmingly, this seems to be happening more and more to undocumented young women.The police don't seem too interested in digging into the case, so August, Tomas, and their friends begin investigating on their own, not realizing that Izzy is the tip of a very large iceberg. Their inquiries lead them from hole-in-the-wall Neo-Nazi biker bars to wealthy suburban neighborhoods, and everywhere in between. And things get more and more dangerous the deeper they dig.

I thoroughly enjoyed this suspenseful, compelling mystery/thriller that is both fast and funny. August is a wonderful protagonist, full of character, sketchy history, and plenty of flaws but with a huge heart. It's refreshing to see a different kind of detective at the center of a thriller, as August is not only a disgraced cop but also the son of an African-American cop father and a Mexican-American painter mother. This is actually book 2 in the series (book 1 is simply called August Snow), but I had no trouble at all jumping right in, with the author providing enough backstory that I never felt as if I was missing out. It is a rather violent story, with a bit more gun violence (and gun details) than I prefer, but the story itself was so interesting, unique, and compelling that I didn't mind. I stayed up way too late reading the past few nights because I was dying to see how it turned out, and my husband is next in line to read this exciting new thriller series.

296 pages, Soho Crime

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

Listen to a sample of the audio book (which sounds great!).

You can purchase Lives Laid Away from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

Or you can order Lives Laid Away from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

TV Tuesday: The Other Two

I usually watch a TV show on my own at lunchtime on weekdays, but sometimes I don't have time for a full hour show and just want a brief respite of comedy in 30 minutes (or less). My favorite podcast, Pop Culture Happy Hour, mentioned a new show on Comedy Central, The Other Two, so I gave it a try and am really enjoying it. It's a fun comedy that also is also insightful, very clever, and full of heart.

The premise is that an adorable thirteen-year old boy made a music video that went viral and now the whole world is going crazy over ChaseDreams ala Justin Bieber. But the show isn't about Chase. The title refers to his two older siblings, Brooke (played by Heléne York), a former dancer, and Carey (played by Drew Tarver), an aspiring actor and current waiter, and the effects of their little brother's newfound fame on them. Molly Shannon, of Saturday Night Live fame, plays their mother who is a bit ditzy but really cares about her kids and is getting swept up in Chase's fame. Ken Marino plays a goofy, inexperienced manager with dollar signs in his eyes, and in later episodes, Wanda Sykes is added to the cast as a hilarious publicity manager. Each 30-minute episode is titled about a different milestone in Chase's career, while the action really focuses on his two kind but hapless older siblings. For instance, when ChaseDreams releases a sweet new music video with the lines, "My brother is gay, and that's OK" (cleverly titled Chase Gets the Gays), Cary's life is suddenly thrust unwillingly into the spotlight. A few episodes in, Brooke becomes Chase's personal assistant.

I am loving this show! It is funny but also very clever in its portrayal of our fame-hungry, social media-driven society. It's not played just for laughs, though. With each episode and each new set of challenges, both Brooke and Cary begin to grow a bit, learning to respect themselves more, and, as young adults, trying to figure out what they really want out of life. As you can imagine, Molly Shannon is great in her role as the mom, as she, too, comes out of her shell and starts to find herself, as her young son's career skyrockets. It's a warm, fun, intelligent show about coming of age in our crazy world today, in the shadow of a sibling's spotlight.

NOTE: As with most Comedy Central shows, this one can sometimes be explicit in terms of language and sexuality. 

I've watched eight of the ten episodes in season 1 so far and want more! I've been watching it On Demand, where all episodes are still available. It is also available on Comedy Central's website, though only the first episode is free to all - you can see the other nine by signing in with your cable, TV, or satellite provider. You can also stream it on Amazon for $1.99 an episode or $16.99 for the season (or for the same prices on YouTube).