It's Monday 6/8! What Are You Reading?

Ah, quiet Monday morning. Well, our mini vacation didn't work out quite as we'd planned. Shenandoah National Park - which is normally warm and sunny this week most years - was wet and cool last week. It was not very pleasant camping with temperatures in the 50's, almost constant rain, and heavy fog. We made the best of it - managed one nice hike, went into town one evening for dinner and a movie, and left a day early to continue our vacation at home! Check out my photos on Saturday Snapshot for a glimpse (the park is still beautiful in the fog!). We also enjoyed reading last week:

• I finished reading A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, companion novel to Life After Life which I read in January and immediately added to my list of Best Books Ever! My husband gave me this book for Mother's Day, and it was my first Big Book of the summer. Wow. Atkinson is an amazing writer. It is an epic story of one man's life (Teddy from Life After Life) and his family...with a twist. It was different than Life After Life, but I really enjoyed it - totally engrossing.
• I finished listening to Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, a teen/YA novel, on audio. This was one of my downloads from the first week of SYNC - be sure to check out this great source for free YA and classic audio books all summer long! They feature a new pair of audio downloads (one modern YA paired with one classic) each week. Another wow - I loved this supernatural YA novel and am wondering how I missed it all these years! The audio production was excellent, with sound effects, music, and more. I can't wait to read the sequel...and see the movie!
• I just started reading Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline - hoping to finish in time for my library's discussion on Wednesday (though it'll be close!). I downloaded this historical novel to my Kindle over a year ago, and missed TWO different book groups discussing it, so I am glad to finally be reading it. It's excellent so far, with the story alternating between a contemporary teen in foster care and an orphan sent out west on a train in 1929.
• I will start a new audio book today: Nest by Esther Ehrlich, a middle-grade novel.
• My husband, Ken, has also gotten into the spirit of the Big Book Summer Challenge and is reading A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, the fourth book in the Game of Thrones series. He said this one could take him all summer to finish, but he has already read over 500 pages!
• Jamie, 20, finished the semester and finished reading the sequel to Wolfshead, a novel about Robin Hood that he read last summer.
• Jamie is now reading a review book we received last year: The Grace of Kings by Ken Lui, book one in The Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy novel (his favorite kind!) and also a Big Book.
• Craig, 17, finished his final exams last week and took the SAT on Saturday, so he is decidedly NOT reading anything at all!

Only one blog post from last week - I was offline most of the week - and still catching up!

Saturday Snapshot, with photos of our trip to Shenandoah National Park

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.     

The Big Book Summer Challenge just started - you have plenty of time to join the fun! You only need to read 1 book (though you can read more if you want) longer than 400 pages to participate. And this year, for the first time, there'll be a Big Book Giveaway at the end of the summer for participants!

Saturday Snapshot 6/6

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

We took a mini vacation to Shenandoah National Park this week for a few days with our camper. It was cool, foggy, and raining the entire time, but we managed to enjoy our few days with the family together (though we did give up and come home a day early!). Here are some highlights:

Driving through the fog on Skyline Drive - one of the better sections!

My sons and husband hiking to Land's Run Falls

An orange salamander relaxing on the falls

Me at Land's Run Falls

The fog and tall trees looked primeval

Hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend!

It's Monday 6/1! What Are You Reading?

June 1??? How can that possibly be? I thought today was my last quiet day at home alone before summer, but my son doesn't have any finals today, so he's home. On the plus side, we are squeezing in a mini vacation later this week - three days was all we could fit in between our sons' many commitments and busy schedules. We are heading to Shenandoah National Park, one of our all-time favorite places, for a few quiet days of camping.

Meanwhile, we are enjoying our books:

• I am still reading A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, companion novel to Life After Life which I read in January and immediately added to my list of Best Books Ever! My husband gave me this book for Mother's Day, and it will count as my first Big Book of the summer. It is different from Life After Life but totally engrossing, about Ursula's brother Teddy's life.
• I am still listening to Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, a teen/YA novel, on audio. This was one of my downloads from the first week of SYNC - be sure to check out this great source for free YA and classic audio books all summer long! They feature a new pair of audio downloads (one modern YA paired with one classic) each week. This is only week 4, so you still have plenty of time. So far, I am enjoying this popular YA novel that I somehow missed before. The story and excellent audio production have been riveting.
• My husband, Ken, has also gotten into the spirit of the Big Book Summer Challenge and is reading A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, the fourth book in the Game of Thrones series. He says this one could take him all summer to finish!
• Jamie, 20, finished the semester late Thursday night, so he hasn't had much time to read yet, but he's started the sequel to Wolfshead, a novel about Robin Hood that he read last summer. He will probably read nonstop through our short trip this week!

 I had a busy week but managed a few blog posts:

Review of Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan, a novel about an Irish immigrant in the 1920's

Saturday Snapshot, with a few photos from a local hike last week

Weekend Cooking: Review of French Milk by Lucy Knisley, a graphic travel memoir

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.     

The Big Book Summer Challenge just started - you have plenty of time to join the fun! You only need to read 1 book (though you can read more if you want) longer than 400 pages to participate. And this year, for the first time, there'll be a Big Book Giveaway at the end of the summer for participants!

Weekend Cooking: Graphic Memoir Review: French Milk

I recently read and reviewed Relish, a graphic memoir by Lucy Knisley, so when I heard she’d written an earlier memoir called French Milk, I immediately requested it from our library. I enjoyed this journal-like memoir of writing and drawing from a month spent in Paris with her mother. Although it is a travel memoir, there is a strong focus on food, which you might expect if you read Relish.

When she was 21 years old, Lucy and her mother spent a month in Paris during winter break, in part to celebrate Lucy’s 22^nd birthday and her mother’s 50^th. She traveled from Chicago, where she was attending school, back home to upstate New York to her mother’s house, and then they traveled together to Paris where they had rented an apartment. Lucy chronicles their trip in this “drawn journal,” filled with drawings, photos, and hand-written text.

With a full month to spend in Paris, Lucy and her mother fully explored the ancient city, going to museums, cemeteries, churches, and other sights, as well as shopping and walking all over the city. Oh, yes, and they ate! Lucy details all the wonderful foods the encountered in Paris, from small cafes to bakeries to fancy dinners to the simple dinners they made in their little apartment with ingredients from the local market. Through her photos, drawings, and descriptions, Lucy takes the reader along on their foodie journey.

Sample page from French Milk

This memoir is much less polished than Relish. It is, as Lucy describes on the first page, truly a trip journal, something done as much for herself as for others. In addition to details about the sights they saw and the foods they ate, she also shares her somewhat rocky feelings. Turning 22 feels momentous to Lucy, and she often feels torn between adolescence and adulthood. She writes about these complicated feelings very openly and honestly.

I’ve only been to Paris myself once – back when I was 16 years old (a loooong time ago!) – and reading about Lucy’s adventures made me want to go back. Lucy had a unique opportunity to not just visit someplace as a tourist but to live there for a while and really soak in its ambience and flavors, both culinary and cultural. She does an excellent job of conveying that experience in this slim book. I enjoyed visiting Paris vicariously through Lucy’s charming journal, and I can’t wait to read her more recent graphic memoirs.

193 pages, Touchstone (Simon & Schuster)

           

Saturday Snapshot 5/30

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Last Sunday, my husband and I discovered a hiking trail very close to us that we never knew about - and we've lived here for 25 years! So, we set out for a very pleasant walk along a creek through the woods:

My husband walking through the shady tunnel

Me on one of many bridges

Lots and lots of raspberry blooms - will have to come back in July!

Hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend!

Fiction Review: Ellis Island

One of my cousins chose Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan as the most recent selection for our online family book group. Everyone in the group enjoyed this immigration story of a young Irish woman in the early part of the 20^th century, stuck between the new, exciting world of New York City and the family and husband she left behind in her home country.

Ellie fell in love with John when she was just eight years old and he was ten. They both lived in a small rural town in Ireland, attending the local public school, though John’s family lived on a small farm in the countryside, and Ellie’s lived in town. Until that point, Ellie’s life had been a bit sedate and somber, as the only child of two rather severe parents. John introduced her to running through fields and climbing trees, and John’s affectionate, loving mother and father welcomed her into their home and their hearts. Ellie went away to a convent school, while John stayed at the local public high school and eventually became involved in the Irish civil war, helping the local rebels in seeking independence from Britain.

Ellie and John married, as expected, but their lives weren’t easy. They were quite poor and mired in the revolution. Eventually, things came to a head when money was urgently needed. Ellie, along with many other young Irish women, headed for America, where an old school friend had a well-paying job waiting for her as a personal maid to a wealthy woman. Ellie’s plan was to work for a year, send as much of her income back to Ireland as she could, and then return home to John.

Once in New York, though, Ellie gradually grew to love her new life, filled with fashionable clothes, independence, relative wealth, and new friends. She and her friends worked together, went out to clubs, danced, and generally enjoyed the exciting life that was New York in the 1920’s. When a wealthy suitor expresses his love for Ellie, while John is urging her to come back home to their little house in the country, Ellie finds herself torn between the two worlds.

All of us enjoyed this immigrant story and felt Ellie’s pain in having to make this difficult decision. Some of us rooted for her to decide one way or the other, but all of us wondered what we would do in the same situation. The author offered to answer our questions through Twitter and said that, with Ellie, she was trying to show the “contrast between the life of her dreams (freedom) and life of her identity (Ireland).” Many of us were thrilled to hear that Ellis Island was not the only book of Ellie’s adventures – her story continues in the novels City of Hope and Land of Dreams.

Kerrigan did a wonderful job of describing both of Ellie’s worlds eloquently: her poor country house with her beloved John and the excitement and fun of New York in the 20’s for a young immigrant discovering the land of opportunity. Ellie and John feel real, and so does Ellie’s uncertainty over which life to choose. As difficult as that choice seems, Kerrigan manages to bring the book to a satisfying conclusion. I enjoyed the novel and the interactions with Kerrigan and look forward to reading more from her.

368 pages, William Morrow paperbacks

It's Monday 5/25! What Are You Reading?

It was another hectic week ('tis the season!), but my husband and I had a nice, relaxing holiday weekend mostly on our own. We've taken walks and a hike, had good friends over for dinner, and just spent some down time recovering from the busy week.

I also launched my annual Big Book Summer Challenge this weekend, so be sure to check it out and join the fun!

And, as always, we enjoyed our books this week:

• I finished Blue Lily, Lily Blue, book 3 in the Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater. I love this series! The third book was just as good as the previous ones and now I am ready for book 4.
• To kick off my own Big Book Summer, I started reading A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, companion novel to Life After Life which I read in January and immediately added to my list of Best Books Ever! My husband gave me this book for Mother's Day, and it will count as my first Big Book of the summer. It is different from Life After Life but totally engrossing.
• I have been listening to Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, a teen/YA novel, on audio. This was one of my downloads from the first week of SYNC - be sure to check out this great source for free YA and classic audio books all summer long! They feature a new pair of audio downloads (one modern YA paired with one classic) each week. This is only week 3, so you still have plenty of time. So far, I am enjoying this popular YA novel that I somehow missed before. The story and excellent audio production have been riveting.
• My husband, Ken, finished Enclave by Ann Aguirre, the first book in her YA Razorland trilogy. Our son recently read this novel and enjoyed it. I still need to read it!
• Ken has also gotten into the spirit of the Big Book Summer Challenge and started A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, the fourth book in the Game of Thrones series. He says this one could take him all summer to finish!
• Jamie, 20, has been overwhelmed with end-of-the-semester work (almost done!). He said he was reading Mountain Man by Keith C. Blackmore, a book his dad lent him, but then it disappeared from his Kindle (possibly it was a loaner and the time ran out). He says he is now reading the second book in a Robin Hood series, though I'm not sure what the title is. He should finish up the last of his projects today and then will go on a reading binge!

 Lots of reviews and other posts last week:

2015 Big Book Summer Challenge - Sign up and Join the Fun!

Review of Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli, a graphic novel

Summary of Books Read in April

Review of Get in Trouble by Kelly Link, a short story collection

My Big Book Summer 2015 - the books that I plan to read for my challenge

Saturday Snapshot 5/23 - flowers in our yard and neighborhood, welcoming summer!

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.     

The Big Book Summer Challenge just started - you have plenty of time to join the fun! You only need to read 1 book (though you can read more if you want) longer than 400 pages to participate. And this year, for the first time, there'll be a Big Book Giveaway at the end of the summer for participants!

Saturday Snapshot 5/23

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

Another very hectic week but made time for some walks around my neighborhood. Almost everything is green now - no more flowering trees, but some of the flowers in our own yard are blooming. Here are some highights:

Not sure what these are but I love the bright pops of color!

A close-up of the bright pink flowers

Our own irises - they don't last long!

My new azaleas are blooming!

Welcoming summer with nail color Not a Cloud on the Sky!

Enjoy the holiday weekend...and celebrate the unofficial start of summer by signing up for my Big Book Summer Challenge!

My 2015 Big Book Summer

I have just announced the 4th year of my challenge, Big Book Summer Challenge, so I guess I should be the first to sign up!

I really enjoyed tackling some big books the last few summers, and I'm looking forward to doing it again and finally reading some of these bricks that have been collecting dust on my shelf (NOTE: for this challenge, a Big Book is defined as anything with more than 400 pages).

I don't know if I will get to all of these, but I like to have some options to choose from.  These are all currently on my shelves, waiting patiently to be read (along with many others!). I actually chose 6 this year because none of them are 700-1000 pages long, as in some years - these are all in the 400-500 page range:

• A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson, 480 pages (companion novel to Life After Life!)
• UnDivided by Neal Schusterman, 464 pages
• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, 444 pages
• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, 440 pages
• One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus, 434 pages
• Revolution by Deborah Wiles, 495 pages

I like to alternate between grown-up books and kids/teen/YA books, so I have three of each on this list.  Some of these have been collecting dust on my shelf for many years! I also chose some books that will help me in other challenges this year, like Anne of Green Gables for my classics challenge, plus all of these qualify for my TBR Challenge. I also chose a couple of summer-themed books this year - Revolution and Prodigal Summer - just for added fun. This looks like a long list, but none of the books is over 500 pages, and I suspect the kids/YA ones will go pretty quickly.

I'm so excited for summer now! I do still need to squeeze in 3 more book group selections in June, but I have already kicked off my Big Book Summer by starting A God in Ruins today.

How about you?  Are you up for tackling a Big Book (or two or three) this summer?  Join me and sign up for the 2015 Big Book Summer Challenge!

My Big Book Summer books for this year!

Fiction Review: Get in Trouble

I haven’t read more than a couple of short stories since high school, and I’m not sure I have ever read a whole collection of short stories by a single author. So, when I started reading Get in Trouble, a book of short stories by Kelly Link, for Booktopia last month, I didn’t know what to expect. I needn’t have worried. I was completely pulled into each unique story and thoroughly enjoyed all nine stories in the collection.

Kelly’s stories are all a bit…well, weird (and I know from meeting her that she takes that as a compliment!). Most of them feature a world that is very much like our own, expect that it isn’t, quite. She weaves one or more unique – often supernatural or sci-fi type – elements into what is otherwise a story about human relationships. Her stories include ghosts, life-size animated dolls, real-life superheroes, and all kinds of other strange phenomena that defy easy classification.

In I Can See Right Through You, a famous movie star travels to Florida to visit his best friend/ex-girlfriend on location at her ghost-hunting reality show. Much of the story is about their relationship – past and present – but there is an ever-present tension in the story as the crew (all naked, by the way, since their current show is about an old nudist camp) waits for ghosts to show themselves.

Origin Story takes place mostly in an old, run-down Wizard of Oz amusement park. At first, it seems to be about the relationship between two old high school friends, though it quickly becomes apparent that one of them is a famous superhero and the other has an interesting power of her own. The two friends have deep discussions about life and love, reminiscing about their childhood together, bantering about fairy tales and the Wizard of Oz, but their conversations are also peppered with superhero topics – why tights?, which super powers kids from high school ended up with, and how exhausting it is to be featured in a parade. It’s all very realistic yet somewhat surreal at the same time.

In Two Houses, the entire crew of a spaceship are all woken up from stasis at the same time to celebrate a birthday. They sit around the table in their ship, enjoying the realistic earth settings that the ship’s computer creates for them, and chatting, like you would with good friends. They decide to tell ghost stories, many of them passed down in their families for generations. It gets a bit too scary for some of them, and then there is a Twilight Zone-like twist that makes your head spin.

In Light, the last story of the collection, Kelly pulls out all the stops. There are werewolves, people who drop suddenly into a mysterious sleep and are then stored in a warehouse, and pocket universes that people travel to on vacation or even move to. The main character, Lindsey, was born with two shadows, and her extra shadow eventually spawned a real twin. This is, apparently, not all that unusual, though there is some prejudice against people with two shadows. The story follows Lindsey through a week when her twin brother comes to visit and a hurricane hits her town in southern Florida.

All of the stories in the book, despite their weirdness, focus on people and their relationships. I was completely drawn into each new world, pulled into the story and attached to the characters, though each story felt like it ended at just the right time. This was something I’d worried about with short stories – I thought I’d feel suddenly yanked out of the story. Kelly tells each story in a way that feels complete – she packs so much into each one that you feel as if you’ve read a short novel. As you can see from the few descriptions above, she brings ample imagination and creativity to each new world, yet they all feel familiar in some ways. Get in Trouble has opened my eyes to the world of short stories, and I can’t wait to read more – both from Kelly Link and from other authors.

333 pages, Random House

 

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Listen to a sample of the audiobook, with full cast narration, here and/or download it from Audible.

 

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Or you can order Get in Trouble from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Books Read in April

Ooops - May 20 already! How did that happen? It's been a hectic month. I finally caught up on my reviews and found time to summarize last month's reading. That was a busy month, too, but I fit in a lot of good books:

• Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, novel (Spain)
• Relish by Lucy Knisely, graphic memoir (NY & Chicago)
• Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt, middle-grade audio book  

• The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley (CA)
• And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (Afghanistan)
• Masterminds by Gordon Kormon, middle-grade audio book (NM)

• Fram by Steve Himmer, novel read for Booktopia (the Arctic)
• Rainey Royal by Dylan Landis, fiction audio book read for Booktopia (NY)
• Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli, graphic novel (NY)

Wow, 9 books in a month - that is probably a record for me! I was really pushing toward the end of the month to fit in my Booktopia reading after I got off the wait list. Quite a mix, too - 8 novels and 1 memoir. Seven were for adults and two books were for middle-grade readers (no YA last month). Three audio books and two graphic novels/memoirs. With so much variety, choosing a favorite is almost impossible - there were no mediocre books in April - these were all outstanding! The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey probably affected me the most emotionally.

Update on 2015 Reading Challenges:

I traveled all over the world last month in my 2015 Where Are You Reading Challenge! I added 2 new states to my list and 3 new countries/regions internationally. Not a single book from my own shelves for my Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2015 - really need to work on that! I listened to three more audio books for my 2015 Audio Book Challenge, and added one more book to my 2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge. No classics last month (need to work on that one, too). I added 3 new countries/regions to my Travel the World in Books Challenge.

What was your favorite book(s) read in April? 

Graphic Novel Review: Asterios Polyp

I am still making my way through Flavorwire’s list of 25 Essential Graphic Novels and discovered yet another one with surprising emotional depth and quite a philosophical bent: Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli. This is a story about a man who loses everything and learns what life is really all about.

As the novel opens, Asterios, the main character, loses everything he owns when his apartment building in NYC is struck by lightning and burns – on his 50^th birthday. From the opening panels showing his stylish but trashed apartment before the fire, you get the idea that the fire is not the first bad thing to happen to Asterios but represents hitting bottom. The story then flashes back to fill in a bit of Asterios’ background. He is a well-respected architect whose esteemed designs have never actually been built. He teaches at a university in Ithaca, NY (presumably Cornell) and has experienced great success.

Oh, and Asterios’ story is being narrated by his twin, who died at birth. Yup, just a little weird.

After watching his apartment and all his worldly possessions (except for a watch, a lighter, and a Swiss Army knife) burn, he uses the last of his cash to buy a bus ticket to wherever his remaining money can take him. He ends up somewhere in the Midwest and proceeds to start over – finds a job, a place to live, and even makes some new friends. Interspersed with Asterios’ new life are flashbacks to his old life and the events leading up to the apartment fire.

I didn’t know what to make of this unique graphic novel at first, especially with it being narrated by someone who was never born! But it turned out to be thoughtful and thought-provoking, as Asterios strips his life down to its bare bones and considers what life is really all about. Since he started out as a somewhat snooty, wealthy academic, this requires some deep introspection on his part.

A 2-page spread from graphic novel Asterios Polyp

 The author has a unique drawing style, but it feels like it fits Asterios just right.  A range of styles – from big two-page spreads to geometric shapes to classic comic book panels – keeps your eyes roving across the pages and your mind engaged. All in all, I really enjoyed Asterios Polyp and found it made me think. This is definitely another graphic novel success for my growing list.

Pantheon Books

It's Monday 5/18! What Are You Reading?

I love the quiet solitude of a Monday morning. This weekend was mostly spent cooking and caring for our 17-year old son who had oral surgery on Friday to get his four wisdom teeth extracted. He seems to be healing well and went to school this morning. I've been feeling particularly stressed and overwhelmed lately. Between the oral surgery and my father-in-law's 90th birthday last week, it was a hectic week with little productive time, so I just feel like I am behind on everything. My big accomplishment for the weekend was getting the kitchen island cleared of clutter and paper - woohoo!

As always, we enjoyed our books last week:

• I finished Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan for my online family book group, and we finally started our discussion! I enjoyed this novel about a young girl growing up in Ireland in the early part of the 20th century who goes to America to earn some money and ends up feeling torn between her husband in Ireland and her exciting new life in NYC. The author responded to one of my Tweets and answered some questions from our discussion. It's always great to hear directly from the author!
• With my book group commitments finished for the month (well, I missed my neighborhood book group meeting last week), I moved onto some YA - my TBR shelves for kids/teen/YA books are overflowing! I finally started Blue Lily, Lily Blue, book 3 in the Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater. I love this series!
• I finished listening to Ask the Dark by Henry Turner, a teen/YA novel on audio. It was absolutely riveting, narrated by a boy who often gets into trouble, about a series of missing boys in his town and how he was the only person who could piece together what happened to them. Suspenseful and moving.
• I started listening to Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, another teen/YA novel, on audio. This was one of my downloads from the first week of SYNC - be sure to check out this great source for free YA and classic audio books all summer long! They feature a new pair of audio downloads (one modern YA paired with one classic) each week. This is only week 2, so you still have plenty of time. So far, I am enjoying this popular YA novel that I somehow missed before.
• My husband, Ken, finished Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley. He bought it after I read Mosley's amazing novel The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey and went to hear Mosley speak for our All-County Reads program. When I showed Ken the long list of books Mosley had written, he decided to try one. This is the first book in the Easy Rawlins mystery series. He said it was great - very well-written - and he is looking forward to reading the next book in the series. We are both new Mosley fans!
• Ken is going on a business trip this week (a hectic one with quick turnaround), so he chose a short YA novel for his next book. He is reading Enclave by Ann Aguirre, the first book in her Razorland trilogy. Our son recently read this novel and enjoyed it. I still need to read it!
• Jamie, 20, has been overwhelmed with end-of-the-semester work but is reading Mountain Man by Keith C. Blackmore, a book his dad lent him, to continue his Zombie obsession. A week from now, he will be done with the spring semester - then he can read nonstop for two weeks!

I tried to catch up a bit on the blog last week:

Review of Masterminds by Gordon Kormon, a suspenseful middle-grade audio book

Celebrate Mother's Day with a Good Book!, a reprint of my monthly book column in Vital! magazine

Review of Rainey Royal by Dylan Landis, an adult novel I read for Booktopia

Review of Fram by Steve Himmer, another adult novel I read for Booktopia

Saturday Snapshot, with photos of late spring in our neighborhood

What are you and your family reading this week?    

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Unleashing Readers.    

Our family on my father-in-law's 90th birthday last week

Saturday Snapshot 5/16

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by West Metro Mommy Reads.

I haven't been home on the weekend to participate in Saturday Snapshot in a few weeks. I attended Booktopia, an amazing weekend retreat in Vermont - you can check out the photos from that at my Booktopia post. Last weekend, we visited my Dad, and this week, we celebrated my father-in-law's 90th birthday! It's been busy!

I did find time for a couple of short walks this week in our neighborhood - our temperatures dropped 20 degrees to more normal springtime weather. Here are some of the sights I saw:

The azaleas my husband planted for me are starting to bloom!

It will be a while before my azaleas get this big!

The very last flowering trees in our neighborhood...

Everything is green now - no more blossoms until next spring!

 Hope you are enjoying a lovely weekend!

Fiction Review: Fram

I read the novel Fram by Steve Himmer for my recent Booktopia weekend. Steve was one of the featured authors there, so I had the honor of meeting him in person and discussing his book with him and 30 other readers, which only intensified my enjoyment of this unique, intricate novel about life, love, marriage…and polar exploration.

Oscar lives a quiet, routine life, working for a secret government agency called the Bureau of Ice Prognostication, begun during the Cold War simply because the U.S. discovered that Russia had one. Oscar and his partner, Alexi, work in a tiny basement office with a blank map of the Arctic on the wall. Their job is to invent Arctic discoveries and developments and then create a paper trail of documents that “proves” they exist, to save the cost of actual polar expeditions. The ironic part is that Oscar has dreamed since he was a little boy of being a polar explorer, so he is living out his fantasies from his neat desk in the basement under a single lightbulb.

During his off-hours, Oscar shares a small apartment with his wife, Julia, though they seem to have been drifting apart during the last few years. Oscar’s polar obsession continues at home, where he frequently checks his phone to watch the North Pole cam (which mostly just shows ice and wind) and peruses his extensive collection of National Geographic magazines.  This quiet, predictable routine is broken one day when Oscar and Alexi are unexpectedly – and suddenly – sent to the Arctic for real.

From there, the novel leaps into a higher gear, with elements of mystery, adventure, and espionage right alongside Oscar’s rich inner life. There are plenty of twists and turns from there, keeping the reader guessing right up until the last sentence (and beyond!). Alongside Oscar’s story are chapters that flash back to other related events: various polar expeditions, lives of Arctic residents, and earlier explorations.

One event in particular is returned to again and again, giving the novel its name and its main theme. An early Polar exploration team, on the ship the Jeanette, got stuck in the ice for the winter and everyone on board perished. A later exploration ship, the Fram, learned from the Jeannette’s mistakes and went to the Arctic planning to get stuck in the ice. The ship was reinforced to take the pressure of the ice into account and the crew stocked enough provisions, planning to get stuck for the winter, and used the natural drift of the ice to travel around and to the Pole. The author uses Fram as an important symbol of Oscar’s quiet, steadfast life and even his stagnant marriage:

“Fram was a reminder there was no failure in just staying put. That stillness was its own kind of motion, sometimes preferable to the real thing.”

Fram is not just an action novel set in the Arctic – it has some of those elements, but it is also a very thoughtful and thought-provoking novel. The author uses Oscar and his unusual experiences to delve into the mysteries of life and love and the intricacies of marriage. In fact, I loved the way that Steve characterized Oscar and Julia’s marriage, with all of its inside jokes that brought them together and secrets (Oscar’s job is top-secret) that pulled them apart.

What starts out as a tongue-in-cheek look at government bureaucracy turns into a race to the Arctic complete with evil people and agencies in the shadows. I thoroughly enjoyed every page of Fram – its suspense, its original story, but mostly the very clever, intricate, and thoughtful way that all of its disparate pieces come together. I can’t wait to read more from Steve Himmer.

288 pages, Ig Publishing

P.S. If, like me, you aren’t thrilled with the way the novel seems to end, take heart! When I asked about it at Booktopia, Steve said that the ending is open to interpretation…so I decided to choose the ending I wanted!

Steve Himmer at Booktopia