It's Monday 7/25! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

 

I am still not quite (or even close to!) caught up from our trip, so apologies up front for not being able to visit as many blogs last week as I wanted to. I signed up for an online course that began the day we returned from our two-week trip to Oklahoma, so that took ALL of my time last week! Not the best timing, but hopefully, it was worth it.

I had hoped to catch up a bit on the weekend, but Saturday was my birthday, and I had the best birthday surprise ever! My husband and I enjoyed a morning matinee of Where the Crawdads Sing, our first time in a theater in over a year. The movie was a wonderful adaptation of the novel, with gorgeous cinematography. We were also planning to go out to dinner, but I was wishing I could spend time with our sons or some friends, too. To be honest, I was feeling a little lonely and sorry for myself.

I got up from my afternoon nap (chronic illness necessity), came downstairs, and ... my best friend from childhood was sitting on our couch! She had planned the trip to surprise me, and my husband did a great job keeping it a secret. We've been friends since we were 4 and 5 years old, and we hadn't seen each other in over 10 years. As you can imagine, we talked nonstop for hours! She came out to dinner with us, spent the night, and had breakfast with us the next morning. It was so wonderful to reconnect with her and catch up. Lots of hugs and laughter!

We loved to play dress-up!

First Day of School 1971?

 

Reunited!

In book news, I posted two new book-related videos last week:

June Reading Wrap-Up - my summary of the 4 Big Books I enjoyed last month.

Friday Reads 7-22-22 - an update on the outstanding books I'm currently reading.

 

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

I finished Lucky Turtle by Bill Roorbach, a Booktopia pick this year and a Big Book, of course! I loved this unique novel. It's a love story covering decades but so much more, about friendship, found family, and motherhood. Nature plays a large role in the story and setting. It's beautifully written and so compelling that I stayed up much too late each night finishing it! Highly recommended.

 

Now, I am finally reading The Overstory by Richard Powers. This one was in my stack for #BigBookSummer 2021! It won the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and was on many Top 10 lists in 2018. It's a series of separate stories about people and families, all over the world and at different times. In each story, there is a tree or trees that grow and develop along with the people or otherwise deeply affect their lives. It's wholly original and so far, excellent. I'm really enjoying it.

 

On audio, I'm still listening to The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd, another Big Book (audios count, too!). In this unique, magical mystery, a woman finds a mysterious map after her father dies. She and her father--and many other characters here--are cartographers who have devoted their lives to working with maps, but none of them have ever seen a map like this one! The audio has been been completely engrossing, right from the first chapter, and it keeps surprising me with new twists and turns.

 

My husband, Ken, finished his second Big Book, The Kingdom by Jo Nesbo. He always enjoys Nesbo's dark Scandanavian thrillers. This one is a stand-alone novel, not about Harry Hole. Ken enjoyed it, but when I said I was missing the characters from Lucky Turtle (it's that good), he said the characters in his book were all pretty scary!

 

Now, Ken has picked up one of his Father's Day gifts, Trespasser by Paul Doiron. This is book two in a mystery/thriller series about Maine game warden Mike Bowditch. Ken enjoyed the first book in the series, so I'm hoping he likes this one, too!

 

Our son, 27, has been on a Michael G. Manning binge lately! After reading the Mageborn series and a follow-up trilogy, he's now onto The Riven Gates trilogy, set in the same world. He finished Mordecai, and The Severed Realm, and is now reading the last book of the trilogy, Transcendence and Rebellion. He really enjoys this author and this fantasy world. I'm happy to report he is much improved from COVID at the start of July and was able to go back to work on Friday. 

Blog posts from last week - again, struggling to catch up!

Fiction Review: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas - Big Book classic

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

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

What are you and your family reading this week?

Fiction Review: The Count of Monte Cristo

Every summer, for my annual #BigBookSummer Challenge, I choose one classic book among my stack of Big Books to read during the summer (note that you don't need a stack; you can participate in the challenge with just one Big Book). In recent years, I read Gone with the Wind, David Copperfield, and last summer, Anna Karenina. This year, my Big Book Summer classic was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, a novel my husband and many friends have told me was a great read. I'm glad I finally listened to them! I enjoyed this super-twisty, surprising story of the ultimate revenge.

Edmond Dantes sails into his home port of Marseilles on February 24, 1815, after a long voyage on the merchant ship that employs him. The captain died on this journey, so Dantes, as First Mate, took over leadership of the ship. He reports this to Monsieur Morrel, the owner of the ship, who confides to Dantes  that he is very happy with his performance and will officially make him captain when the chip leaves on its next trip in three months. Dantes is overjoyed, as he loves the ship and his job. One person who is not happy, though, is Monsieur Danglers, the ship's purser who feels that he should be made captain due to his seniority. Once onshore, Dantes heads home to see his beloved father and tell him the good news. Once they are reunited, Dantes' next stop is to his girlfriend, Mercedes. The two young people are in love and decide to be married the next day, now that Dantes is home safely. Once again, there is one man unhappy with the good news: Fernand, Mercedes' cousin who has proclaimed his love--and proposed marriage--many times, only to be turned down. The next morning at their betrothal breakfast, surrounded by family and friends, the couple's joyful celebration is interrupted by police, who arrest Dantes. He is brought before a magistrate, Monsieur Villefort, who explains to Dantes that he has been accused, in an anonymous letter, of being a follower of Napoleon, at a time when the former Emperor has been exiled to Elba and it is a crime to support him. Dantes denies the accusations, and Villefort assures him he will be acquitted. However, a short time later, with no explanation, Dantes is taken to prison. It's not just any prison but Chateau D'Or, an infamous fortress set by itself on a rocky island offshore. It's known to be the place for the worst criminals and impossible to escape from. Dantes' bitterness grows as he is held there without reason or explanation ... and that is all that can be said of this novel to avoid spoilers.

All of that happens in the very first chapters of the book. To avoid any and all spoilers, I will simply add that this is one of the greatest revenge stories of all time! Most of this 500+ page novel is a twisty, suspenseful labyrinth, with the action ranging from Rome to Paris. It's a suspenseful and surprising tale, peopled by French nobility amid great wealth. Characters are in-depth, though there are a lot of them, and many of them are related, so I sometimes had to flip back to remind myself who someone was. While I was initially disappointed to learn this was a story of revenge (not really my thing), it turned out to be an intricate and engrossing novel that easily kept my interest right to the very last pages.

 1276 pages, Penguin Classics

(note that my copy--no longer in print--was only 511 pages, so I'm guessing this version includes some front matter, essays, discussion, etc.)

Naxos Audiobooks

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Back to the Classics - 19th century classic

Travel the World in Books - France

Big Book Summer Challenge

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

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

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

 

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

   

 

Or you can order The Count of Monte Cristo from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

It's Monday 7/18! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

I'm back!

As I mentioned in my quick July 4 post, my husband and I left that day for a very long road trip out to Oklahoma and back. While there, in my husband's hometown, we had a funeral for my father-in-law and fulfilled his last wishes to be buried there, next to his wife and daughter. 

Friends and family came from near and far--all of whom we hadn't seen in many years (we moved him to Delaware 8 years ago)--and despite the circumstances, it was wonderful to see everyone again and reunite. Both my husband and I had best friends from high school in attendance (I grew up in Rochester, NY, but my best friend and I both married men from Oklahoma, and she lives there now--crazy, right?). And it's the first time all of our family has been together since my mother-in-law's funeral 12 years ago. The service was moving and very personal, filled with stories and memories from family and friends. I think my father-in-law would have loved it! He was known for his large collection of hats, so we brought them along to display at the funeral, and each grandson chose one to keep.

My husband with our three nephews in Grandad's hats

 

That was followed by a graveside military funeral, with the flag presented to our nephew, who was very close to his Grandad and also a Marine, so that seemed appropriate. We had a nice lunch afterward, before everyone headed back home. We hit the road again for another four-day drive the next day.

 
The only dark cloud on an otherwise perfect send-off was that our older son got COVID last week (caught at work) and was unable to fly out for the funeral. He has the same immune disorder I do, plus tick infections, so he is improving bit by bit but still quite debilitated. I know he was crushed to miss his Grandad's funeral. Both of our sons became very close to him these last eight years and helped to care for him.

Though this certainly wasn't a vacation, it was the first time my husband and I have been able to travel in several years (due to not wanting to leave my father-in-law for long because of his dementia), and the long days in the car gave us a chance for some much-needed downtime. You can see additional road trip pictures in my video, Friday Reads 7-15-22.

 

So, here's what we've all been reading the past two weeks, including lots of Big Book Summer reads (more details on the first three books listed here in my Friday Reads video):

I finished reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir on our trip. YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK!! Yes, it has some similarities to The Martian, with suspense, science, and humor, but this novel has so much more. It is incredibly heartwarming and moving, and I loved every page and never wanted it to end. It is an absolute delight and now in the running for my best book of the year!

 

Next up, I started another novel from my Big Book Summer stack, Lucky Turtle by Bill Roorbach. This was a Booktopia selection and is about a teen girl, Cindra, who gets sent to a rehabilitation camp in Montana after getting in trouble with the law. There, she meets a mysterious young man named Lucky, who is the subject of many rumors among the girls. It's a love story covering many decades (and going back generations), with plenty of action and unexpected plot twists. It's beautifully written and so compelling, I have been staying up too late reading!

 

In the car, my husband and I selected another Big Book to listen to on our long trip, Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane. This psychological suspense novel centers on Rachel, an up-and-coming journalist until she has a breakdown on-air. As Rachel's life comes undone, there is one bright spot: her perfect, supportive, kind husband. As you might have guessed, there are secrets behind the scenes of this ideal marriage. Lots of twists and turns in the last third of this book! It made the miles fly by.

 

My husband, Ken, has been reading his second Big Book, The Kingdom by Jo Nesbo. He always enjoys Nesbo's dark Scandanavian thrillers. This one is a stand-alone novel, not about Harry Hole, and Ken is enjoying it.

 

While recovering from COVID, our son, 27, has had LOTS of reading time. He caught me up this morning. He has been binging on Michael G. Manning series! First, he finished the Mageborn series, with book 5, The Final Redemption (after re-reading books 1, 2, and 3 and reading book 4). Next, he read the trilogy, Champions of the Dawning Dragons, which is about the sons and daughters of the main characters in the Mageborn series. And now, he's reading the next trilogy after that, which returns to the main character of the Mageborn series, with Mordecai, book one of The Riven Gates series. He says the main character is very compelling. Whew! I'm glad he has such wonderful distractions and escape while sick.

I only managed one blog post after we returned last week--so much to catch up on!

Fiction Review: A Lite Too Bright by Samuel Miller - excellent road trip mystery, as a young man searches for his grandfather's legacy (and a Big Book) - great on audio!

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

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

What are you and your family reading this week?

Fiction Review: A Lite Too Bright

My first audio pick for the #BigBookSummer Challenge was A Lite Too Bright by Samuel Miller. This unique book is officially listed as teen/YA, but I didn't realize that and think that anyone who likes thoughtful fiction would enjoy this novel. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the intriguing road trip-mystery at the heart of this young man's search for his grandfather's legacy.

Eighteen-year-old Arthur Louis Pullman, III, is struggling with a series of disasters in his life, the cause of which only becomes clear later in the story. He's lost his girlfriend, his best friend, his car, and his scholarship. He has no idea what to do with his life now. His dad wants him to spend time with his aunt and uncle in the family home this summer, so he reluctantly accompanies him there. On his first night in the house, sleeping in his grandfather's old room, Arthur discovers a journal written by his grandfather, the original Arthur, a Salinger-like famous but reclusive author whose first (and only) novel is still read by high school students. Arthur's grandfather had Alzheimer's, and a week before his death, he went missing and was found dead many hundreds of miles from home in Ohio. Given his state of mind, with late-stage dementia, the journal is sort of stream-of-consciousness and not written in a straightforward way, but Arthur picks out enough meaning to pique his interest. Maybe there was more to his grandfather than his father and uncle knew. There's a clue in the journal, a mention of a small town in Nevada, so Arthur does exactly what his grandfather did five years earlier and leaves the house in California in the early morning hours without telling anyone, walks to the nearby train station, and heads to Nevada. In this way, Arthur begins to retrace his grandfather's last week of life, following his trail through Utah, Colorado, Kansas, and eastward, as he travels by train and meets people who knew or were affected by his grandfather. Along the way, he begins to unravel the deep mystery of his grandfather's early life as the search itself and what he learns also begin to help him heal.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this audio book, with its many layers. It's a mystery, a travelogue, a coming-of-age story, and also dips into history, as well. Narrator Michael Chamberlain does a great job of inhabiting young Arthur's mind and thoughts, as he journeys across the U.S. It's an adventure but one with deep meaning, about Arthur's family history, his grandfather's legacy, and even a broader shared history. As Arthur learns more about his grandfather, he also begins to acknowledge and make sense of what has recently happened in his own life. The mystery unfolds slowly, gradually--for the reader as well as for Arthur--making this a very compelling book, as Arthur follows the clues his grandfather left behind. I very much enjoyed it, and the ending was surprising (but in an "of course!" kind of way), fitting, and perfect.

480 pages, Katherine Tegen Books

HarperAudio

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Monthly Motif Challenge: Supporting Pride Through Books

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Nevada

Big Book Summer Challenge
 

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

 

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

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here 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 A Lite Too Bright from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

 

It's Monday 7/4! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Just a SUPER quick update today because we are rushing to get packed for a very long road trip out to Oklahoma. 

My father-in-law passed away last week, at the age of 97. If you're a regular reader here, you know it's been a very challenging six months (several years, really) for us, as he broke his hip in December, went to a nursing home, got COVID in January, and his dementia quickly progressed. Although the kind, compassionate staff there took excellent care of him and we visited every day, he was always confused, unable to walk, and really didn't have much quality of life left. So, we are grateful that he is at peace now, and we are following his wishes to bury him in Oklahoma, where he spent all of his adult life (and where my husband grew up). 

Here's a picture of him on his last day - I had a great visit with him and brought him a milkshake, which he loved!

And a photo of him on his 95th birthday, in his better days.

Because we are bringing some things with us--and because flying right now with no one wearing masks is dangerous with my immune disorder--we are driving. It's about a 1500-mile drive, and we'll do it in about four days (again, I am somewhat limited). Honestly, I am looking forward to all that down time! This past week has been very hectic and exhausting. I will relax while my husband drives, and we will listen to music, podcasts, and audio books! I've downloaded five different thrillers (all Big Books, of course!) for him to choose from, so I'm looking forward to that.

As for a book summary this week, I'm going to refer you to my Friday Reads video, where I briefly talked about: 

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, which I am still reading and is absolutely AMAZING!!!
• Gone by Michael Grant, YA science fiction on audio, which I just finished.
  

I did somehow manage to post two new reviews last week:

TV Tuesday: The Old Man - outstanding new series starring Jeff Bridges as retired CIA on the run

Fiction Review: Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly - excellent thriller and my first Big Book Summer book!

It is much too hot to bring our camper (high 90's and 100's all the way out this week!), so I will have WiFi in the evenings in hotels, but my time online will be very limited - I look forward to catching up on your blogs when I return.

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

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

What are you and your family reading this week?

Fiction Review: Dark Sacred Night

My husband and I are long-time fans of author Michael Connelly, whose mystery/thrillers are not only suspenseful but also well-written and feature in-depth characters. His series about LAPD detective Harry Bosch is up to about 24 books now, as well as an excellent TV show adaptation, Bosch, on Amazon (my review at the link). Connelly is also well-known for his Lincoln Lawyer novels that also inspired movie adaptations and a brand-new TV series. In 2017, Connelly introduced a new series about a female LAPD detective named Renee Ballard with The Late Show, which we both really enjoyed. Dark Sacred Night is the second Renee Ballard novel and a cross-over with Harry Bosch (his 21st), and I loved it just as much as all of his other books!

Renee's background is a complicated one. She's half-Hawaiian and loves surfing, which she learned from her father, and pretty much lives at the beach in her off-hours. Renee reported her previous boss for sexual harassment when he tried to force himself on her. He got off with a scolding, and she got transferred to Hollywood Division (Harry's old group) on the midnight shift, referred to as "the late show." As a detective, she rarely gets to follow through because most cases that start on the late show are passed onto the day shift to follow up, so she misses doing that kind of in-depth casework. She returns to the station early one morning to find a stranger going through the department's files. She confronts him and learns he is the famous Harry Bosch, retired now but well-known in the division. Harry is following up on a very cold case that got under his skin. Fifteen-year-old Daisy Clayton was living on the streets when she was brutally killed. When Harry tells Renee about the case, she asks to team up with him to help solve it. Harry's motto is, "Everyone matters or no one matters," and Renee agrees. Meanwhile, as the two work the cold case during Renee's available time, she's also responding to calls each night and encountering other cases, as well. The two very different detectives form a tenuous bond that is tested when Daisy's case turns deadly.

This is classic Michael Connelly! It was my first choice for my annual Big Book Summer Challenge, and it was a perfect start for my summer. Fast-paced and gripping, I flew through this engrossing novel in record time. I have always liked the character of Harry Bosch, and I am really loving Renee Ballard, too. Both are complex, with deeply hidden emotional scars in their pasts, and here, they make a great team. My husband and I have both loved the Bosch TV series and the Lincoln Lawyer movies, and I am hoping that Renee gets her own TV series now, too. I don't read as many thrillers these days as I used to, and I rarely read series, but I will definitely continue this riveting series.

433 pages, Little, Brown and Company

This book fits in the following 2022 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Diversity Challenge

Big Book Summer Challenge
 

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

 

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. There are two narrators - for Renee and Harry - and they are now using Titus Welliver, the actor who plays Bosch on the TV series, to narrate audio books! Perfect.

 

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 Dark Sacred Night from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

TV Tuesday: The Old Man

Usually, my husband and I juggle a bunch of shows on both cable On Demand and streaming, so I was disappointed that there didn't seem to be many new or returning cable shows this summer. Then, we heard about The Old Man on FX (and on Hulu), about a retired CIA agent who suddenly has to go on the run again. Wow, we are loving this show so far!

Jeff Bridges stars as Dan Chase (his current name), the "old man" of the title and the retired agent. As the first episode opens, his quiet life in a remote cabin with his two dogs is shattered when a gunman visits his house one night. He tells the local police it must have been an armed robber, but when they see the intruder had a silencer on his gun, they wonder. Dan immediately grabs his go bag--he was obviously prepared for just such an incident--and hits the road. On the way, he calls his adult daughter to let her know she may not hear from him for awhile. He also talks to Harold Harper, played by John Lithgow. Harold is also retired, as a Director of the FBI, and it's clear the two know each other and have a long history. Harold warns Dan that an old nemesis is after him, with both the FBI and CIA involved. Harold ominously advises Dan to run so that old secrets will remain buried, but Dan doesn't want to break all ties with his daughter, as Harold suggests. After a stunning encounter with the agents pursuing him, Dan holes up in a rental house he knows about, not realizing there is now a divorced woman on site, Zoe (played by Amy Brenneman). He is trying to rest and heal before he heads west, but she is a complication he hadn't counted on. Meanwhile, the efforts to find him escalate within the FBI and CIA.

We have watched three episodes of this seven-episode season so far (since it is currently airing, that's all that's available so far; episode four will be released this Thursday), and we are totally hooked! Bridges and Lithgow are both outstanding in their roles, as is the supporting cast. Bridges in particular plays the role of the mysterious Dan with such emotional depth that you get pulled into his story. Some scenes flash back to when Dan was a younger man in the CIA, so the viewer slowly learns what happened in the past and why the agencies are so intent on finding him now. But Dan is a formidable opponent, even entirely on his own. Secrets (some shocking) are slowly revealed, and even when you aren't entirely sure what bad stuff Dan did in the past, you're still rooting for him! We are absolutely loving this action-packed and suspenseful yet warm and moving show and can't wait to see what happens next.

The Old Man is currently airing on Thursday nights on FX, with episodes available both On Demand and on Hulu.

It's Monday 6/27! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Well, I don't have lots of lovely pictures to share like I did last week, because I barely left the house. Looking back, these are the only photos I took all last week:

In the recliner

Ready to donate!

Enjoying Big Book Summer!

The first represents a large part of my week, spent lying on the couch or in the recliner. My chronic illness flared up--who knows why? Sometimes, there's just no explanation ... though my father-in-law in the nursing home has a cold and sort of forgot how to blow his nose. So, while I always wear a medical mask while visiting (and it's required), I was literally wiping his nose for him. Being exposed to a cold might have been all it took to trigger my immune system and knock me out for a few days. I'm feeling better now.

The second photo is of the large pile of boxes and bags ready for donation. I finally called last week for a charity pick-up. Much of this has been piling up for months, but I made a special effort this weekend to go through my closet and filled two more boxes! This pile makes me very happy, even though it's just a drop in the ocean of clutter in our home (including all my father-in-law's stuff and all our son's stuff, too). It's a start!

But, we did have some fun this weekend, too. We had dinner at our friends' house Friday night. We've been friends with them for over 30 years, and we hadn't seen them in a long time (since before I got COVID in January), so we very much enjoyed an evening of great company, great food, great conversation, and plenty of laughs.

And our older son came home for a postponed Father's Day visit. He was only here for about 18 hours, but we enjoyed his company, ate some good meals, and watched the finale of season four of Star Trek: Discovery, a show we only watch when he's home! I really need to take photos when the four of us are together because it's becoming less frequent. Here we are, all together on Easter:

You may have noticed in one of the photos above my Big Book Summer Challenge mug! Since it's the 10th anniversary of the challenge, I made up all sorts of fun products to celebrate, including different sized mugs, notebooks, tote bags, t-shirts, stickers, and a car magnet (which I also got!).

Just one new book-related video last week:

Friday Reads 6-24-22 - my brief weekly chat about what I'm reading

 

And here's what we're all reading this week:

I finished The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, my Big Book classic for this summer! I've been hearing great things about it for years, from friends and my husband. It is a very readable, fast-paced novel, full of action that can be summed up as: the greatest revenge story of all time! I'm not really into revenge stories, but this had a very intricate, twisty plot that was engrossing. And it had a sort of weird but basically happy ending!

 

Now, I am onto my next Big Book of the Summer, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I gave this book to my husband for Father's Day last year and have been wanting to read it. We both enjoyed Weir's two previous novels, The Martian and Artemis (don't know why that one didn't get much buzz). This book is about a man who wakes from a coma to find he is all alone on a spaceship, and the rest of his crew has died. He has amnesia and doesn't even remember his own name, let alone what he's doing on a spaceship and what his mission is. Great premise, right? It starts off like a shot, with Weir's trademark tense suspense combined with science and a great dose of humor. I'm loving it so far and staying up much too late reading every night! And guess what? I see on IMdB that movie adaptations of both Artemis and Project Hail Mary (starring Ryan Gosling) are in development!

 

On audio, I am still listening to another Big Book, Gone by Michael Grant. This is YA science fiction, about a coastal town in California where all of the adults (in fact, everyone 15 or older) suddenly disappear one day in an instant. And that's just the beginning of super-strange happenings. Young teens are left on their own to take care of themselves--and of the younger kids--while trying to figure out what caused this inexplicable disaster. It's actually the beginning of a long series that's been called Lord of the Flies for the 21st century! I'm enjoying it very much so far, though I don't love the audio narrator. It's a gripping, intriguing story.

 

My husband, Ken, is almost finished with his first Big Book of the summer. He chose a chunkster I loved, All Clear by Connie Willis. This is part 2 of the duology that began with Blackout, which I read for Big Book Summer 2021. Both books are outstanding and among my very favorites. The premise is that, in 2060, a group of Oxford historians have all gone back in time to different places and times within England during WWII. Their goal (as in all of this Oxford time travel series) is to study history by witnessing it first-hand. But this time, something goes wrong with the technology and some of them get stuck back in the 1940's in the midst of war-torn England, with three of them in London during the Blitz. These books are both so great! They're a mix of fascinating historical detail, nail-biting suspense, and the kind of twisty time travel problems that I love, plus humor, too. My husband is loving it, and I'm trying hard not to give anything away! You can read my reviews of both books (no spoilers) at the links above.

 

Our son, 27, loves epic fantasies and was recently hooked on the series Art of the Adept by Michael G. Manning. Since book 6 isn't out yet, he switched over to one of Manning's other series (and another favorite of his), Mageborn. He hasn't yet read the last two books of this series, so he started back at book one, The Blacksmith's Son, re-reading to get ready for books four and five. He finished book one while he was here and immediately started book two, The Line of Illeniel. Clearly, he loves this author!  

No new blog posts last week! Just not enough energy to write. I will try to catch up 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.

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?