It's Monday 1/2! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Happy New Year! 2016 seemed to go by in a flash to me, but I always love the start of a new year – full of potential and a fresh start. Happy 2017!

It was another super-busy holiday week here. We drove to my hometown (Rochester, NY) to visit family this week – about a 7-hour drive each way (a bit longer on the way home with snow). It was wonderful to see everyone but also exhausting! I’m glad to be home now and starting off the new year, though I woke up with a killer sore throat this morning (a major warning sign for my immune disorder), so I guess some of my cleaning & organizing will have to wait. On the plus side, that means lots of reading time today!

Here’s what we’ve been reading this past week:

• I finished To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis, an acclaimed time travel novel published in the 90′s. I LOVE time travel plots, so I enjoyed  it – it’s also got a good sense of humor, which I always like. I think I would describe it as farcical time travel (perhaps a new genre?) where things keep going wrong and the characters try to fix them and make everything worse. It was a lot of fun.
• Next, for my First Book of the Year, I read Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill, another book (like To Say Nothing of the Dog) that my husband gave me LAST Christmas! This slim novel is written in a very unique way, a sort of stream of consciousness approach. It is written in the first-person, with a wife (who refers to herself as the Wife) looking back over her marriage, from the way they first met to the birth of their daughter to some rocky times. The format takes a little getting used to, but soon I was immersed in the story and enjoyed it. The first-person perspective adds a lot of emotion to the narrative.
• I finished listening to LaRose by Louise Erdrich, a National Book award winner. It is the story of a Native American community in North Dakota. A man kills his neighbor’s 5-year old son by mistake while out hunting and revives an old tribal custom by giving the family his own 5-year old son. It is a compelling, original story with great emotional depth, looking at what is happening from many different characters’ points of views. It was excellent and very moving.
• My husband, Ken, is still reading The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, a book he has been wanting to read for a while. He described it as secrets and double-crosses in slow motion! ha ha I got him a few thrillers for Christmas, and he said he will need a nice fast-paced novel next…but he is enjoying it.
• Jamie, 22, finished re-reading book 2, Crown of Midnight from Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series, which is a favorite of his. 
• Jamie also finished  The Castrofax by Jenna Van Vleet, first book in The Father of the Fifth Age series. He says it was right up his alley – epic fantasy with a Medieval feel to it – and he wants to read more of the series.
• Now, Jamie is working on one of his Christmas gifts from us, The Great Hunt by Robert Hunt, book 2 in the Wheel of Time series, which he’s wanted to read for ages! He’s heard about this classic series for years and is enjoying it – just 12 more books to go!

Now, I need to choose my next book! I have no idea what is next, though I’m thinking I might plow through some of the many middle-grade and YA novels on my shelves to start the new year off by making a dent in my TBR list!

Just a few blog posts last week:

A Bookish Christmas 2016 – the books we gave each other for Christmas this year

Fiction Review: The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker, a love story set in Burma, spanning decades

First Book of 2017 – Book Journey’s annual tradition

What are you and your family reading 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.