It's Monday 10/16! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

After such a flurry of trips and family things the past month, last week was a much-needed quiet week at home! I took my elderly Book Buddy (a program through our local library) out for lunch on Thursday. Last time I visited her, she mentioned she’s been very isolated and rarely leaves the house (she can’t drive anymore), so I thought she could use an outing. We sat on the outdoor patio of a local restaurant on a beautiful day, and we both enjoyed it!

In fact, we had a whole week of beautiful fall days–low 70′s and sunny every day–so I spent some time on our deck every afternoon. I know I will be longing for the chance to do that in another month! And, for the 4th or 5th weekend in a row, it rained on Saturday. My husband and I were lazy bums and just had a down day at home, which we both needed. Oh, and we booked one last vacation for the fall: campsites in two beautiful state parks in the mountains of Virginia next week. Sunday was household catch-up day, and I did some weeding, dusted upstairs (I can’t do much cleaning, so I dust and my husband does the rest), and got our Halloween decorations up. All of that was probably too much for me, but so far, I am still doing OK this morning.

Writing reviews on the deck

My book cover matched the view Saturday!

On the Blog

 Fiction Review: Upgrade by Blake Crouch – outstanding sci fi thriller with a chilling premise, great characters, and nonstop action & suspense

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On Video

 The King of Horror Stephen King Tag – while I rarely read horror, I greatly enjoy King’s non-horror novels and have a long family history with his books and movies, so I enjoyed this theme–perfect for the season!

Friday Reads 10-13-23 – my brief weekly update of what I am reading and listening to each weekend. 

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I finished reading The Butterfly Girl by Rene Denfeld, a sequel to her earlier novel, The Child Finder, which my husband and I both enjoyed. Naomi is an investigator who specializes in finding missing children. She herself was abducted as a child, but her memories begin with her escape from her captor. Naomi’s younger sister was abducted with her and is still missing, after all these years, and Naomi has promised herself that the next person she finds will be her sister. She heads to Portland, Oregon, where young girls have been going missing in recent months, with six of them turning up dead in the river. Despite her determination to focus only on her sister, Naomi can’t help noticing 12-year-old Celia who is living on the streets to escape an abusive stepfather and addicted mother. The novel was excellent, with the same suspense, attention to detail, and in-depth characters as the earlier novel. And the ending was not only satisfying but happy!

Now I am reading another book for the R.I.P. Challenge: Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick. This is a YA novel about the Witness Protection (WITSEC) program, a topic I always find intriguing (if you do, too, check out the TV show In Plain Sight). Way back in 2009, I enjoyed another novel by this author, Hush, Hush. That was paranormal romance, but this novel is firmly set in the real world. Estella witnessed a horrible murder by a dangerous criminal and has been taken into WITSEC to keep her safe and so that she can testify against him when he goes to trial. There’s a whole criminal organization behind him, so her life is truly at risk. The federal marshals give her a new name, Stella Gordon, and resettle her in Thunder Basin, Nebraska, which is very different from her home in Philadelphia. Her mom is an addict, so Estella is used to being on her own and has trouble adjusting to the rules of the ex-cop posing as her foster mother. She begins to find some positives in small town rural life, in spite of herself, but she is still in danger. I’m loving this novel so far!

I finished listening to When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash. It’s a mystery set in coastal North Carolina. Sheriff Winston Barnes is awakened one night by a loud noise and goes out to investigate. On the small airfield near his house, he finds a private plane crashed on the runway, and a man who’s been killed by a gun lying nearby. The man is a local, Rodney, who’s always been a law-abiding citizen. Other perspectives are woven into the narrative, including Winston’s daughter, Colleen, who is severely depressed after losing her baby, and Jay, Rodney’s wife’s younger brother, who’s been sent to stay with them after getting in trouble at home in Atlanta. This was my first Wiley Cash novel, and the writing was just as good as I’d heard, and it was excellent on audio. In addition to the mystery, there is deep characterization here, along with emotional complexity and issues of race, crime, and class. The ending … well, let’s just say it was one of those endings that makes you go, “Wait, what?”

My husband, Ken, is still reading Kidnapped, a classic by Robert Louis Stevenson. Treasure Island was a favorite at our house when our kids were young. He says that so far, the writing and time period reminds him a bit of Great Expectations (which he read earlier this year on my recommendation), though the story is darker. He had his flu and COVID vaccines yesterday, so he’s lying on the couch under a comfy blanket reading this now!