It's Monday 7/1! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

July 1? Yikes, the year is half over! How did that happen? I reviewed my annual goals this morning, and I'm behind on a lot of work/writing things. But, it's been a good year so far for my health, family, and travel!

Speaking of travel, we just returned on Friday from a 5-day camping trip to try out our new-to-us camper at Hickory Run State Park in Pennsylvania (about three hours from here), and we had a wonderful time! We love the new camper! It's a 2017 Jayco 17-foot hybrid (meaning it's a hard-sided trailer but the beds come out like in our old pop-up). The previous owners took amazing care of it, so it looks brand-new, and everything worked well. The addition of our own bathroom, air-conditioning, and other amenities (a microwave!) is wonderful, and it was very comfortable, even through a big thunderstorm.

Nice and lightweight & easy to tow

But roomy when it's opened up!

My husband relaxing on the couch

Me relaxing on my bed - perfect weather!

We hadn't been to Hickory Run since 2007, and we thoroughly enjoyed the park. It has 25 hiking trails, lots of beautiful waterfalls, a few small lakes, and a really cool 16-acre boulder field that's a National Natural Landmark. 

Really enjoyed the Shades of Death trail!

Gorgeous waterfalls!

Such a beautiful trail along the water

Biggest waterfall over a dam spillway

 

Boulder field was so cool!

I liked these little tree islands.

 

We had a great time there!

One day, we drove into the town of Jim Thorpe, which has a great historic area (though a bizarre history), and enjoyed a train ride along the Lehigh River, with beautiful scenery (including a bear!). I'll be posting a travel vlog tomorrow on my YouTube channel--I took a lot of videos, so check it out!

We enjoyed the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway

Beautiful views of the Lehigh River

Fun train ride - and we saw a bear!!

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On the Blog

Movie Monday: Hit Man - my husband and I both enjoyed this very entertaining, twisty thriller/rom-com!

Fiction Review: The Women by Kristin Hannah - wow, this was a stunning, powerful novel about the experiences of nurses during the Vietnam War. A must-read!

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On Video

Friday Reads 6-21-24 - my brief weekly update on what I am reading and listening to

The "It's Not That Bad" Book Tag - a fun, short video about "bad" reading habits that maybe aren't so bad! Do YOU do any of these?

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 What We're Reading

Yesterday, I finally finished reading my first print book for the #BigBookSummer Challenge, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. WOW! This is an epic novel, with a rollercoaster of emotions. It's set in 1870 with two older men, Augustus McCrae and Captain Woodrow Call, who are ex-Texas Rangers. They now own a small livery business in the tiny town of Lonesome Dove on the Mexico border, a desolate place. A small group of men live there and help them. Early in the novel, another ex-Ranger named Jake comes to visit, fresh from Montana, and Call gets the idea to put together a herd of cattle and drive them all the way to Montana. What an amazing novel! So much happens, with so many plot twists, but it also features in-depth characters and a great sense of humor (always a plus for me). I cried (hard!) three times and was often laughing out loud. My recent Friday Reads video includes a more in-depth discussion of what I was enjoying about it. So many other people participating in Big Book Summer were also reading this book that I made it our official readalong book, and I'm enjoying the discussions in the group on Goodreads. As soon as I finished the last page, I immediately logged into the group because I HAD to talk about it!

 

I finished another Big Book audio, Countdown by Deborah Wiles, middle-grade historical fiction and book one in her Sixties trilogy. In 2015, I read book 2, Revolution, which takes place in 1964 and is about the Freedom Summer in Mississippi. Countdown is set in 1962 and focuses on what was going on at that time: the Cold War, McCarthyism, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and fear of a nuclear bomb. The novel begins with 11-year-old Franny and her classmates enduring a terrifying "duck and cover" drill when the town's warning siren goes off during school. As with Revolution, Wiles has melded together real-life news reports, ads from the early 60's, radio broadcasts, and other documentary-style media with fictional kids experiencing it all. It's a very effective, powerful approach that shows Franny worrying about typical kid stuff while also afraid of being bombed at any moment. I read Revolution in print, which included all the real-life information in print (see my review at the link) in a scrapbook-like format. It's different on audio but equally engrossing and informative. She's a talented writer, and I definitely want to read the third book in the trilogy. 

 

I just yesterday started my next Big Book on audio, Mr. Nice Guy by Jennifer Miller and Jason Feifer, a wife-husband writing team. Lucas gave up law school, a fiancee (though technically, she gave him up), and his small southern town to chase his dream of living in the Big Apple. He got a job as a fact-checker at Empire, the glossy magazine that has long fed his visions of an exciting life in New York. One night, he meets an attractive woman named Carmen and goes home with her, feeling like his big city life is finally starting. But on Monday, he discovers--as does the rest of the city--that he has actually slept with the Carmen Kelly, his own magazine's sex columnist, and she has written a scathing review of their night together that's gone viral, referring to him as Mr. Nice Guy. Lucas writes a furious rebuttal that the magazine also publishes, and suddenly, all anyone is talking about is their budding (and doomed?) relationship. It's early in the novel so far, but it's fun, smart, and witty. I'm enjoying it.

 

My husband finished his first Big Book for the summer (yes, he joins the challenge, too!), The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, one of my favorites from last summer (my review at the link). He enjoyed this suspenseful, funny, heartbreaking classic, and it's fun to be able to talk about it with him. We keep repeating lines and phrases to each other (there was a lot of talk about "side meat" while we were camping - lol). 

 

Next, in only a week, he finished another Big Book, Code to Zero by Ken Follett, one of his older thrillers (and one of the books we inherited from my dad). He said this Cold War thriller was fast-paced and suspenseful. He was surprised how fast he read it, though we always enjoy more reading time while camping. Long before Follett began publishing his monster historical novels, he was famous for his gripping thrillers.

 

Our son, 29, is probably still reading book 2 of the Licanius Trilogy by James Islington, An Echo of Things to Come since he started a new job last week! I saw the book while he was here, and it is definitely a Big Book. But my son thinks Big Book Summer is funny because all he reads are enormous epic fantasies anyway. He's enjoying this one, but he won't have a lot of reading time now.

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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?

Fiction Review: The Women

My first audio book for this year's Big Book Summer Challenge was The Women by Kristin Hannah. I always enjoy her novels and had heard good things about this one, but this book astounded me. It was an absolutely stunning novel that will stick with me for a long time.

Frances "Frankie"  McGrath is just twenty years old in 1965 when she graduates from nursing school and decides to follow in her brother's footsteps. He's in the Air Force and has been sent to Vietnam, so Frankie signs up for the Army Nurse Corps. Her father is always talking about their family's proud history of service to the country (he even has a family "hero wall" in their house), but when Frankie announces her decision, he's not proud of her; he's angry. Both of her parents feel that Frankie should stay home, get married, and have children like a respectable woman, but Frankie heads to boot camp. A year later, she is shipped out to Vietnam. Frankie has almost no nursing experience, and in boot camp, the nurses were mostly taught how to roll bandages and change bed pans. But this is real life and real war. Frankie meets her new roommates, Barb and Ethel, and that very first day, she's thrown into the deep end when helicopters with wounded soldiers begin to arrive. She's immediately surrounded by blood, missing limbs, and dying boys. Though ill-equipped at first, Frankie soon becomes a surgical nurse and is eventually one of the most skilled nurses there. 

The three women finally return home, with their minds filled with the horrors of war, and try to go back to their lives. They return to a changed America, where veterans are no longer revered but reviled, and war protestors scream terrible things at them. Frankie's father will barely speak to her, and her mother expects her to settle down and get married. But Frankie suffers from horrible nightmares and crippling flashbacks (what would later be known as PTSD). Worst of all, when she says she was in Vietnam--even at the VA--people tell her over and over that there were no women in Vietnam. Her life is a mess, and she doesn't know where to turn,. She, Barb, and Ethel have become lifelong friends, and they're the only ones who truly understand. Frankie's path to normalcy and health is a long, slow, twisting one, but by the time the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial is dedicated in 1982, both she and the nation have begun to heal.

Where to start? Everything about this novel is completely engrossing and powerful. It's clear the author did a lot of research for this novel, including first-person accounts by women nurses who went to Vietnam and returned home, as well as details about the time periods. In an author's note, she explains that she's wanted to write this novel for a long time but felt she wasn't a good enough writer to do the story justice until now. It was worth the wait. The details--both during the war and of Frankie's experiences afterward--are vivid, horrifying, and realistic. I was very young during the war, but I remember my cousin and uncle being drafted and going to Vietnam, an experience that changed their lives forever. In fact, my uncle died from cancer (and suffered lots of other health problems) caused by Agent Orange. 

But this novel isn't just about the horrors of war. The reader experiences everything along with Frankie: the comradery among the troops, the need to let go and have fun once in a while even in the midst of war, the fierce friendships formed, and even the passion and love that develop between people put in such pressure-cooker situations. The audio was very well done, narrated by the talented Julia Whelan, and completely immersive; I couldn't bring myself to start another audio for a week after finishing it because it was still living in my head. This was an amazing, epic novel I won't forget that brings to light the contributions (and heavy price paid) of these brave women whose role and impact was mostly overlooked. It's a stunning, powerful story and so important to tell.

480 pages, St. Martin's Press

Macmillan Audio

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.

This book fits in the following 2024 Reading Challenges:

Diversity Challenge

Travel the World in Books - Vietnam

Literary Escapes Challenge - California

Big Book Summer Challenge

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

 

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible. The sample is from an early chapter, at Frankie's brother's going-away party.

 

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

 

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: Hit Man

In our hotel in Virginia this weekend (we were there for a wedding the next day), we only had access to Netflix and aren't currently watching any TV shows on it, so we chose a new movie I'd heard about: Hit Man. This fun, twisty thriller/rom-com turned out to be very entertaining!

Glen Powell stars as Gary Johnson, a classic mild-mannered professor who lives alone with his two cats, Id and Ego. He teaches philosophy at the University of New Orleans. As a hobby, he has a talent for electronics, so he works part-time for the NOPD, helping them with electronic surveillance. Undercover cop Jasper, played by Austin Amelio, pretends to be a hit man, someone tries to hire him, the police get him on audio (and often, video) with Gary's help, and they arrest the person. One day, Jasper gets suspended from the force just before one of these fake hit man appointments is to occur, and Detective Claudette, played by Retta, asks Gary to come out of the surveillance van and instead take Jasper's place and pretend to be the killer-for-hire. It turns out that quiet, introverted Gary does a great job in the role, and he becomes the new fake hit man for future sting operations. Gary, teaching philosophy to uninterested undergrads in his day job, gets really into making up a different persona to fit each new prospective "client," based on what he thinks they'll expect. He uses wigs, facial hair, different clothes, and even fake teeth, and fully inhabits the character he's pretending to be. His arrest rate speaks for itself. Then, a beautiful woman named Madison, played by Adria Arjona, tries to hire him to kill her husband. It's clear he's been controlling and abusive and Madison is scared, so Gary goes off-script. Instead of letting her clearly state that she wants to pay him to kill her husband (thus ensuring a conviction), Gary talks her out of it and convinces her to run away from him instead. His team is not happy with the outcome. When he met Madison, Gary was pretending to be Ron, an ultra-cool, handsome guy. They meet up again and are very attracted to each other. Though Gary knows it's wrong, he really likes Madison, and they begin seeing each other. Besides, he kind of likes being Ron. How can this relationship end well, when it's based on a lie? And how long can Gary keep his colleagues from finding out?

Crazy as it sounds, this movie is based on a real-life man named Gary Johnson who helped Houston police convict many people of hiring a contract killer over more than a decade. Of course, writer and director Richard Linklater (of Boyhood and the Before trilogy) gave the underlying story the Hollywood treatment here, with a lot of laughs, a hot romance, and some unexpected twists that didn't happen in real life. It's an intriguing premise for a movie, and Glen Powell is outstanding in the leading role, somehow easily transforming from nerdy teacher to slick criminal with dozens of different personas. This movie is filled with humor, from Gary's many disguises to his wide range of clients (including a teen boy who wants to pay him in video games--really happened!) to the sting operations. It's also very sexy, with Gary fully coming into his own as Ron, with Madison's help. But there is also plenty of suspense and lots of surprising twists, especially after Gary and Madison get involved and are in danger of being found out. It was highly entertaining, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of fun!

Hit Man is a Netflix original movie and is currently available there.

It's Monday 6/17! What Are You Reading?

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

Wow, what a week! 

Our older son and his girlfriend arrived here on Wednesday after a month on the road, driving all over the country, where they saw and did so many amazing things! (See the past month's Monday posts for photos.) They were tired but happy. We managed two family dinners with both of our sons (one dinner with all six of us, including girlfriends), a rarity these days! We loved hearing all about their epic road trip, though it was a hectic week, trying to deal with car troubles, a last-minute car rental, picking up our new camper, and getting ready for another trip.

Back home after a month on the road!

Our new camper!

Friday morning, we left for another busy weekend trip, this time to Virginia for the wedding of one of our older son's friends. They've been friends since kindergarten, and his mom is one of my closest friends. We were so happy they included us in their special day! It was a beautiful wedding, at a vineyard on top of a hill, overlooking the Virginia countryside with mountains all around. The guests included so many of our son's friends, from elementary school through high school and into college! My husband and I loved catching up with all of them (they're all about 30 now), and hearing what they're doing with their lives. We watched them all grow up! The wedding was a lot of fun. I've never seen so many people dance at a wedding--the dance floor was packed. I even got out there (wearing my heart rate monitor and being careful not to raise my arms too high - a challenge when "Shout!" came on! ha ha) and stayed up until midnight. That usually only happens on New Year's Eve when I'm mostly lying on my couch. And I felt OK the next day! More evidence of how much better I am doing this year. We had a great time, I loved being there to share in my friend's joy, and our son had an absolute blast with all his old friends.

Our son and his girlfriend

My husband and I

Fabulous views & a gorgeous setting!

Bride and groom had a spectacular first dance!

The four of us at the wedding

My friend (mother of the groom) and I

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On the Blog

TV Tuesday: Dark Matter - we are LOVING this new twisty sci fi thriller based on one of our favorite novels. After every episode, I yell, "It's SO gooood!"

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On Video

The Stay Gold Booktube Tag - this tag was inspired by The Outsiders (which I've never read--I know!!), but the questions are all about Booktube (i.e. YouTube for book lovers), with some of my favorite Booktubers, favorite book videos, and non-book channels & videos, too.

Friday Reads 6-14-24 - my brief weekly update of what I am currently reading (and my husband and son, too).

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 What We're Reading

Now (and probably until the end of the month!), I am reading my first print book for the #BigBookSummer Challenge, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. For years, I've been hearing readers rave about how wonderful this Western novel is, so I'm glad to finally be reading it for myself. It's set in 1870 with two older men, Augustus McCrae and Captain Woodrow Call, who are ex-Texas Rangers. They now own a small livery business in the tiny town of Lonesome Dove on the Mexico border, a desolate place. A small group of men live there and help them. Early in the novel, another ex-Ranger named Jake comes to visit, fresh from Montana, and Call gets the idea to put together a herd of cattle and drive them all the way to Montana. I'm about halfway now, and I'm enjoying it very much. They're not even out of Texas yet, but so much has already happened! The characters and setting are engaging, and it's got a great sense of humor (always a plus for me). My Friday Reads video includes a more in-depth discussion of what I am enjoying about it. So many other people participating in Big Book Summer were also reading this book that I made it our official readalong book, and I'm enjoying the discussions in the group on Goodreads.

 

After a massive book hangover from The Women by Kristin Hannah (so amazing!), I finally chose a new Big Book audio. Countdown by Deborah Wiles is middle-grade historical fiction, book one in her Sixties trilogy. In 2015, I read book 2, Revolution, which takes place in 1964 and is about the Freedom Summer in Mississippi. Countdown is set in 1962 and focuses on what was going on at that time: the Cold War, McCarthyism, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and fear of a nuclear bomb. The novel begins with 11-year-old Franny and her classmates enduring a terrifying "duck and cover" drill when the town's warning siren goes off during school. As with Revolution, Wiles has melded together real-life news reports, ads from the early 60's, radio broadcasts, and other documentary-style media with fictional kids experiencing it all. It's a very effective, powerful approach that shows Franny worrying about typical kid stuff while also afraid of being bombed at any moment. I read Revolution in print, which included all the real-life information in print (see my review at the link) in a scrapbook-like format. It's different on audio but equally engrossing and informative. I'm loving it so far!

 

My husband and I listened to more of our road trip audio (Big Book, of course) in the car this weekend:  Luminous Dead by Caitlyn Starling, a unique sci fi thriller. It's been compared to The Martian by Andy Weir (my review at the link) because it features only one character physically present, with a second monitoring from afar. The set-up here is a cave diver who signed up for a special expedition on a planet filled with caves. Gyre lied about her qualifications to get the job, but now she's on her own, well below ground, with only a voice, who says to call her Em, in her helmet to keep her company. Gyre expected a whole team to be backing her up, but she soon discovers it's just Em, who is keeping the reason for the expedition a secret. Em has full control over Gyre's high-tech suit, but Gyre doesn't like to give up control. As the mission gets more and more dangerous, Gyre must rely on Em, though she knows she's lied. Oh, and there's some sort of creature on this planet called a Tunneler who strikes fear into both women's hearts. It's good so far, different but very suspenseful and intriguing.

 

My husband's first Big Book for the summer (yes, he joins the challenge, too!) is The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, one of my favorites from last summer (my review at the link). He's enjoying this suspenseful, funny, heartbreaking classic, and it's fun to be able to talk about it as he reads it.

 

Our son, 29, is still reading book 2 of the Licanius Trilogy by James Islington, An Echo of Things to Come since he was pretty busy this past month! I saw the book while he was here, and it is definitely a Big Book. But my son thinks Big Book Summer is funny because all he reads are enormous epic fantasies anyway. He's enjoying this one, but he starts a new full-time job tomorrow, so he probably won't have a lot of reading time.

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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?

 

P.S. Apologies to all the wonderful book bloggers who've left comments here in the past two weeks! It's been crazy hectic, but I plan to catch up on blog visits this week!

TV Tuesday: Dark Matter

I absolutely love when a book I enjoyed is adapted into a TV show or movie, so I was incredibly excited to hear that Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (my review at the link) was going to air on Apple TV. This is one of my all-time favorite books, a twisty sci fi thriller, and so far, the TV adaptation, Dark Matter, is living up to its source material.

Jason Desson, played by Joel Edgerton, is happily married to Daniela, played by Jennifer Connelly, and they both adore their teen son, Charlie, played by Oakes Fegley. They live in Chicago, and Jason works as a physics professor at a small, local college. Daniela had dreams of being a professional artist, but she now works to help support their family. In the first episode, Daniela encourages Jason to go to a party at a local bar, honoring his best friend, Ryan (played by Jimmi Simpson), who just won a prestigious science award. From their conversation at the party, it's clear that Jason is just as talented but chose the path he did to support his family more reliably. Ryan asks Jason to join him in a new venture, but it would require moving to California, and Jason turns him down. Walking home, Jason is brooding over the path not taken when he is suddenly grabbed on the street and kidnapped. He's taken to a deserted warehouse by his masked captor and injected with something. The next thing he knows, he's waking up in a place he doesn't recognize, surrounded by people he doesn't know but that know him. They say he's been gone for over a year, and they're glad to see him. Jason finds out that this place has the technology to travel to parallel universes, a concept he understands because he himself did the initial research years ago, before he got married. He realizes that he is somehow in one of those parallel worlds, and he is desperate to get back to his wife and son ... but how?

As with the book, this TV show is based on a mind-blowing concept, that there are infinite worlds and that with every choice made or change in events, another variation splinters off. This isn't fantasy but science fiction, based on quantum mechanics (don't worry--it's all beyond my understanding, too!). Crouch put this fascinating concept to good use in this twisty, gripping, and thought-provoking thriller. My husband and I both loved this fabulous novel, and the TV show hews very closely to the book (much to our delight), probably due to the author being the one who created the show and did much of its writing to adapt it. Blake Crouch is adept at that, having written other TV shows, including Wayward Pines and Good Behavior (also based on his own novels). So, the writing is sharp and engaging. The actors all do a great job here, each portraying the same character in many different worlds, each one the same person but slightly different. And that plot! It's unique, suspenseful, and full of surprises. The cinematography is also outstanding for the small screen, as Jason visits Chicago in world after world (some of them apocalyptic). It's just an all-around outstanding TV show. Apple TV really seems to excel at science fiction shows (like their adaptation of Silo by Hugh Howey, coming back soon for season 2, and For All Mankind, an alternative history of the space program). We are loving this one and look forward to a new episode every week!

Dark Matter is currently airing on Apple TV. We've seen six of the nine episodes and will be watching #7 tonight. I can't wait!

I practically squealed in delight watching this trailer again: