It's Monday 1/8! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

What a difference a week makes! As I mentioned last week, I made a drastic change to my diet for my immune disorder and felt better by the holidays. Starting January 2, I went "whole hog" (so to speak, since it's a Carnivore Diet) and since then, I have felt great! The past three years have been a series of bad relapses and even my "good" periods in between weren't all that good, with the least bit of exertion sending me back to the couch. This past week was the best I have felt since 2019. I had lots of energy, was up and about and quite active, able to begin taking walks again and doing some strength training (slowly and carefully on both counts, to work my stamina back up), and it was just a joyful, productive week!

So good to be out in the world again & able to take walks!

Last year, I did a project called #sky365, to post a photo of the sky every day on social media, as extra incentive to get outside every day (which was very helpful during those very sick periods). This year, I have launched #nature365! The idea is simply to get outside (or even just look out your window), and notice and appreciate nature. 

Join the fun! 

Use #nature365 on whatever social media platforms you enjoy, and post a daily pic of trees, flowers, sky, birds, animals--whatever kind of nature you notice in the world around you. Here are some of my #nature365 photos from last week:

White sycamore trees against a brilliant blue sky

The unseasonably mild weather has some of our trees confused!

A local creek

Big winter storm left us only a trace of snow, quickly washed away by rain.

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On the Blog

Movie Monday: Flora and Son - we enjoyed this heartwarming, funny, uplifting movie about the power of music to connect us (plus a couple of similar movie recs at the end of the review).

Fiction Review: Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett - I finished this warm, funny, deeply moving novel about grief and family on December 30, and it made my Top 10 Novels of 2023 list!

What Do YOU Want to See in my Monthly Newsletter? - I send a monthly e-mail newsletter to my subscribers (click the Subscribe by E-Mail button at the top of this page to sign up) and wanted to check in to see which of the features people enjoy, which they skip, or if they don't read the newsletter at all (new year, fresh start!)

I'm still working on my 2023 wrap-up posts - coming soon!

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On Video

2023 Reading Wrap-Up and Top Category Picks  - an overview of my reading year, some fun facts, and my #1 picks in different categories

Friday Reads 1-5-24 - kicking off the new year with some great novels!

Top 10 Novels of 2023 - my picks for best novels read last year (note that I somehow forgot to mention Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, which is on that list!)

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 What We're Reading

My first book of 2024 is (drumroll ...) Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng, a Christmas gift from my son and his girlfriend. It's excellent so far, set in a very scary dystopian near-future with elements that definitely come directly from our real world. After a serious economic event (worse than the Depression), referred to only as the Crisis, Congress passed a law that has resulted in extreme discrimination against Asian Americans, which led to protests, which led to children being removed from homes deemed "unpatriotic" or "unAmerican." In the midst of this world is a sweet 12-year-old boy named Bird, who is half-Chinese and living in a dorm room in Cambridge with his father, who works at the library. Bird's mom left suddenly and without explanation three years earlier. This novel is very immersive, especially as the reader is drawn further into its mysteries and secrets. And I love that librarians play an important role in quietly helping children and families in this novel.

 

On audio, I began listening to my neighborhood book group's January selection (our 200th book!), Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I've heard so many rave reviews of this novel and am very much enjoying it so far. It features multiple narrators, including Tova, a widow who has also lost her son and her brother and works nights cleaning at the local aquarium; Cal, a young man at loose ends whose mother left him as a child; and Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus who is very smart and lives in the aquarium. He and Tova are both very isolated and lonely and begin to form an unexpected, unusual friendship. I'm loving it so far, and the audio is great!

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (my review at the link), a book I read for the Big Book Summer Challenge that is on my Top 10 list this year! He's enjoying it so far, and it's nice to be able to talk to him about it. 

 

Our son, 29, finished rereading The Written by Ben Galley, the first book in the Emaneska series, and is now reading book 2, Pale Kings (a birthday gift from us).

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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? 

What Do YOU Want in My Monthly Newsletter?

If you subscribe to my e-mail list,  then you receive each of my blog posts in your e-mail inbox, plus a monthly newsletter that I write, with exclusive content just for subscribers, usually sent on the 1st or 2nd of each month.

I've been sending out monthly newsletters to the mailing list for the past 15 months now, and to kick off the new year, I'd like to hear your feedback on what YOU want to see in the newsletter ... or if you don't read it at all. Whether you are a current subscriber who gets the newsletter or are just signing up for the e-mail list for the first time, I want to hear from you!

Currently, I usually include the following topics in the newsletter that gets emailed at the start of each new month:

• Book Quote of the Month - a quote that resonated with me, from a book I read.
  
• Blog of the Month - a link to someone else's book blog and what I like about it.
• BookTube Channel - my recommendation for a book channel on YouTube or podcast.
  
• My Reading Life - what's up in my life, what I've been reading recently, seasonal challenges or events I'm participating in.
  
• A Look Back on the Blog - an older post from my blog that is still relevant, perhaps something seasonal.
  

 

 Please let me know what you think:

Do you read the monthly newsletter at all or just delete it?

Which features do/would you enjoy?

Which features do/would you skip?

What would YOU like to see in the newsletter?

 

I spend a lot of time each month writing the newsletter, and I want it to reflect what YOU want to get in your inbox. Please tell me your thoughts!

You can leave a comment on this blog post (click on "Post a Comment") or e-mail me at sljackson@suzanjackson.com with your feedback.

You can also connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

Fiction Review: Rabbit Cake

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett was my last full-length novel of the year, read in the last days of December, and I absolutely loved it. I didn't review every book I read last year (a new approach for me), but I wanted to review my favorites and this qualifies! I met Annie Hartnett in May at Booktopia 2023, an annual event I attend every spring in Vermont at the Northshire Bookstore. I loved her novel Unlikely Animals (my review at the link) and really enjoyed talking to her, asking questions, and listening to her talk about the writing of the book. So, I wanted to read from her backlist, and my husband gave me Rabbit Cake for my birthday. This warm, funny, deeply moving novel lived up to my expectations!

Elvis, named after Elvis Presley because she shares his birthday, is ten years old when her mother sleepwalks to the nearby river and drowns. For the next eighteen months, Elvis, her fifteen-year-old sister, Lizzie, and their father each deal with their shock and grief in different ways. Like their mother, Lizzie is also a chronic sleepwalker, and that increases and worsens in her grief, leading to ever more bizarre sights greeting Elvis and her dad in the morning, including terrifying spates of sleep-eating and egg stealing. Lizzie also decides to set a world record for baking rabbit cakes, following in her mom's footsteps, since she always made a three-dimensional rabbit cake for special occasions. Their dad discovers a local parrot in the pet store who mimics his wife's voice and comments and brings it home. He also starts wearing his wife's lipstick and bathrobe at home. Elvis is pretty lost, mostly worried about her dad and her sister, and determined to uncover the details of her mother's death. She loves animals (her mom was an animal biologist), so she continues working on the book about animals and sleep that her mom was writing and starts volunteering at the local zoo. But this family has a long way to go through their grief and coping to heal and reconnect with each other.

As in Unlikely Animals, Hartnett here has created wonderfully real characters struggling with some very serious issues, but she writes about it all with a hefty dose of humor (listen to the audio sample to get a feel for the tone). You can probably tell from my description above, which is just the tip of the iceberg, that these are some very quirky characters--and that's where some of the humor comes from--but aren't we all a little weird in our own ways? In spite of their flaws, the characters are very likable, and smart, precocious Elvis is a wonderful narrator. We see her family's issues through her eyes, as she strives to understand grief. The family goes through some big challenges along the way, from a runaway to a stint in a mental hospital to some stolen rats, but in the end, they find each other again and start to heal. I enjoyed every minute of this tender, compassionate, hilarious look at grief and family ties. It was the perfect way to end my reading year!

327 pages, Tin House

Blackstone Audio

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

 

Mount TBR Challenge

Literary Escapes Challenge - Alabama 

 

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. Listening to it makes me want to reread the book!

 

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

 

Print and e-book from Amazon.

 

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!

    
  

Movie Monday: Flora and Son

On New Year's Eve, my husband and I watched a wonderful, uplifting movie, Flora and Son. A great way to end the year!

In Dublin, a young woman named Flora, played by Eve Hewson, is raising her son, Max (played by Oren Kinlan), with some occasional help from her ex-husband, Ian (played by Jack Reynor) who is a bass player, though not currently in a band. Flora had Max when she was only 17 years old, and he's now 14, so she's still quite young and was caring for a baby while her friends were out partying. She blows off steam by going to clubs and dancing with her best friend. Max is at an age now where he and Flora are always fighting, he gets in trouble a lot, and he doesn't want to spend much time with her. Flora sees a beat-up old guitar in the trash one day, pulls it out, and gets it fixed by a local music shop. She tries to give it to Max, but when he's uninterested, she searches online until she finds someone offering guitar lessons whom she feels a connection with. She hires Jeff, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, for a cheap price to give her online lessons. Jeff lives in Los Angeles and seems to be at loose ends in his own life, too. Over the course of many lessons, they get to know each other better, and Flora gradually transitions from bitter and derisive to engaged and committed to learning the guitar. Meanwhile, she realizes that Max is also interested in music, though he's focused more on synthesizer music and rap. Music just might be the thing to mend their relationship and bring them closer together, while changing both their lives for the better.

This is just a delightful movie. Flora, Max, and even Jeff are all in bad shape when we first meet them, each struggling with their own demons and challenges. Flora is especially rough at the start, smoking, drinking too much, and yelling and swearing at Max and anyone else who gets in her way. Seeing the way that music--and human connection--changes each of them is wonderfully inspiring. As you might expect, there is plenty of music integrated into the movie, from the electronic dance music in the clubs where Flora goes to the rap and hip hop Max loves to the beautiful harmonies and ballads Jeff is teaching Flora. All of the actors are excellent here, and it is a joy to see their characters' transformations. This heartwarming, funny movie is elevating and delightful, with an ending that will leave you with a smile on your face. 

Flora and Son is playing exclusively on Apple TV+.

And if you like this kind of uplifting, musical movie, I also highly recommend Sing Street (my review at the link), from the same writer/director, and Begin Again, currently available on Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu.

It's Monday, 1/1! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

Happy New Year!!

I love the start of a new year, with all its potential. My focus for the next few months will be on my health, since the past three years have been rough for me, with one relapse of my immune disorder after another. I spent most of the past few months lying on the couch, but with some extreme changes to my diet recently, I started to feel better on Christmas Eve and was able to enjoy the holidays with my family. It was just my husband, me, and our younger son for Christmas Eve, and we enjoyed a seafood feast with filet mignon on the side! Then we watched The Polar Express.

 

On Christmas morning, the three of us opened presents. Of course, I got a fabulous stack of books, plus some polka dot sneakers that make me smile.

Our older son and his girlfriend arrived in time for lunch and our traditional watching of The Snowman, and my mom and her husband arrived a couple of hours later. We had a nice dinner together and opened more presents.

Two nights later, we enjoyed a wonderful tradition with our oldest friends, our Cookie/Grinch Party. The "kids" are all grown up now and with partners, but we still enjoy gathering together to decorate cookies and watch The Grinch (the original, of course). Unfortunately, our older son got sick--just a cold but always a worry since he has the same immune disorder that I have--so they had to leave early and missed the cookie party.

And my husband and I enjoyed our usual New Year's Eve traditions last night: a delicious steak dinner, two movies at home (reviews to come), and joining in the countdown from NY at midnight. I was thrilled to be able to make it till midnight! And now I am ready to start the new year.

 

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On the Blog

Fiction Review: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - I loved this warm, moving story of a lifelong friendship. 

Fiction Review: How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu - an excellent, unique novel told in interrelated stories over generations, about the creativity and resiliency of humans in the face of disaster.

Books for Christmas! - photos and video of the books we gave and received in our family this holiday season.

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On Video

A to Z Hot or Not Book Tag - my quick review of an alphabetical list of bookish topics and whether I am "hot" or "not" on each one. This was fun!

Friday Reads 12-22-23 - my pre-Christmas update of what I was currently reading.

Christmas 2023 Book Haul - a quick overview of books given & received in our family.

Friday Reads 12-29-23 - my last reading update of the year (though I squeezed in one more book after this).

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 What We're Reading

 

 After I finished Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, I read my last full-length adult novel of the year, Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett. I read her newer novel, Unlikely Animals, in April for Booktopia and got to meet the author and talk to her at the annual book event in May in Vermont. I loved that novel so much that I wanted to read her backlist. Rabbit Cake is another outstanding novel! It's about 10-year-old Elvis, named after that Elvis, who loses her mom in a freak drowning accident (she was sleep-swimming, as was her habit). Elvis, her fifteen-year-old sister, Lizzie, and their father are each grieving in their own way. Lizzie is trying to set a world record for baking rabbit cakes (something their mother did on special occasions), but Elvis worries because Lizzie has inherited their mother's extreme sleepwalking and is doing some really strange, dangerous things in her sleep (though not swimming, thank goodness). This is a story about grief, loss, and family but told with a hefty dose of humor and warmth. Elvis is a fabulous narrator, and I absolutely loved this novel.

 

I finished that on December 30 and managed to squeeze in one more book for 2023! I looked for my shortest middle-grade graphic novel and read Saving Sunshine by Saadia Faruqi. Zara and Zeeshan are twins (about 12 years old) who constantly fight with each other. Zara loves animals and the animal protection club at school, while Zeesh is into anything to do with space and NASA. Their parents immigrated from Pakistan years ago as students. Zara recently chose to begin wearing the hijab. The one thing the twins agree on is that they are sick of people being cruel and judgmental because of their names, their skin color, or how they dress. On a trip to the Florida Keys with their parents, the twins are forced to spend time together, and their parents hope they can regain the closeness they once had. This was a wonderful middle-grade graphic novel.

 

 

 

My last audio book for the year was one more classic slipped in under the wire, Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. My only knowledge of Tarzan came from Hollywood TV shows and movies, so I really enjoyed hearing the original source material. Written in 1912, there are, of course, some cringey bits, especially about the Black natives of Africa. Overall, though, it's a fast-paced adventure story that kept me riveted. The book's history (told in the foreward and afterword) was fascinating; it had a major impact on pop culture, at the time and still continuing today. This was the first of 24 books that Burroughs wrote in this series, and it left me wanting more!

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, a book I read for the Big Book Summer Challenge that is on my Top 10 list this year! He's enjoying it so far, and it's nice to be able to talk to him about it. 

 

Our son, 29, is feeling much better now and finished reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson (one of his older standalone novels). Now, he is rereading The Written by Ben Galley in preparation for reading book 2, Pale Kings (a birthday gift).

I will be finishing my 2023 reviews and beginning my year-end wrap-up posts this week!

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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?