It's Monday 4/29! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Hosted by The Book Date

Whew, I am back from the whirlwind nerd marathon that is Booktopia! Just got back about 8 pm last night, had a doctor’s appointment this morning and had to refill my weekly medicine boxes, so this post is a bit late today.

We had a wonderful time at Booktopia in lovely Manchester, VT, at the fabulous (truly) Northshire Bookstore. I left Thursday morning at 9:30, stopped in Connecticut for lunch and a nap and to pick up my mom, and then I drove us to Vermont. We arrived at our guest house about 8:15 pm. so it was a very long day of travel! We stopped for dinner at the aptly named The Gnome Bistro in East Chatham, NY, and the food was delicious!

At The Gnome Bistro!

Friday morning I met two good friends from previous Booktopias at Up for Breakfast, one of many amazing restaurants in Manchester. I used my new gift card (which comes with the admission fee) to buy huge stacks of books (but all as gifts) and browse the many sections of the bookstore. 

Booktopia officially kicked off at 11 am, and then we had two days of interactive author events. I loved meeting Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes and The Half Moon!

Me with author Mary Beth Keane

She also sat with us for Friday night’s group dinner, so it was wonderful to chat and get to know her better. Our table did very well in book trivia, though we were disappointed not to place in the top 3 (tough competition there!). The dinner and trivia game are always a blast! In fact, I had so much fun, I completely forgot to take any videos or photos until the very end, when people were leaving.

The aftermath of Friday’s dinner & book trivia!

Me and my mom

I attended more author events the next day. I enjoyed all the ones I went to, and Simon Van Booy (I’ll review his excellent novel later this week), Shannon Read (author of Why We Read), and Ryan Chapman (author of The Audacity) were all interesting and entertaining. (Excuse the strange settings of some photos–the elevator at the bookstore was out of service, so many events were held at the church across the street.)

Shannon Reed

Ryan Chapman

Simon Van Booy was hilarious!

Booktopia ends with an event Saturday evening where every one of the nine featured authors has ten minutes to speak. I enjoyed hearing from the authors whose events I missed. There was a special extra event Sunday, at a local auditorium, with Chris Bohjalian (a local Vermont author) speaking, but with my chronic illness, I just couldn’t manage the extra day.

Caroline Leavitt

Amitava Kumar

Karin Lin-Greenberg

Then, we went out to dinner with some friends, old and new, and had a wonderful time talking and laughing (again, not a single photo). My mom and I capped off our weekend with a stop at Up for Breakfast before hitting the road for the long journey back home.

Our favorite breakfast spot anywhere!

Watch for my Booktopia vlog later this week–I didn’t get many videos or photos of participants, but I got lots of footage of the authors and the bookstore.

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On the Blog

Movie Monday: Dune and Dune: Part 2 – my husband and I both enjoyed these movies, based on his all-time favorite book.

Fiction Review: The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane – I enjoyed this intricate portrait of a married couple at mid-life.

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Old School Tag – I had an absolute blast making this video all about the books, movies, TV shows, games, and more that I enjoyed during my childhood and teens. Loads of fun nostalgia for you kids of the 60′s, 70′s, and 80′s!

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I’m still reading a Booktopia selection, My Beloved Life by Amitava Kumar. This is a multi-generational novel set in India that begins with a man named Jadu, born in 1935 in a small rural village. Part 1 focuses on Jadu, but Part 2 changes to the perspective of his daughter, Jugnu, and later parts on his grandchild (those parts also take place in the United States and elsewhere). It’s a sort of quiet read that I’m enjoying very much so far. There are a lot of fascinating details about life in India, against a historical backdrop, which has been interesting. It also delves deep into these characters, their lives, and their hopes and dreams. I enjoyed meeting the author who is a very engaging speaker.

I finished listening to The Boy Who Failed Dodgeball by Jordan Sonnenblick. I absolutely loved his novel, Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, one of the best middle-grade novels I’ve ever read that had me both laughing out loud and crying. I was delighted to discover that this isn’t just any novel; it’s autobiographical, focusing on Jordan’s own sixth-grade experiences. Right from the start, with mentions of Evel Knievel, the Green Machine, and going to the rollerskating rink on Friday nights, I was grinning from ear to ear (I love nostalgia). He is also, as always, hilariously funny and also honest and warm. And it’s read by the author! I enjoyed it so much that I’m going to look for his earlier autobiographical novel (about fourth grade), The Boy Who Failed Show and Tell.

For those long hours in the car this weekend, I chose a novel I’ve very much been looking forward to, Sand by Hugh Howey, which I got for my husband in print last year. We are huge Howey fans and were both spellbound by his highly acclaimed Silo trilogy (Wool, Shift, and Dust), and I enjoyed his short story collection, Machine Learning (reviews at the links). Like the Silo trilogy, Sand has a post-apocalyptic setting, where a whole new world has been created after some sort of disaster. In this case, it takes place centuries into the future, after the central U.S. has been transformed into a desert wasteland, but humans still carve out lives for themselves in this very different world. Our old world is buried deep under the dunes, and sand divers, like the siblings at the center of this novel, use new technologies to dive into the deep sand to look for “artifacts” that might be useful or valuable. It’s excellent so far, and really helped last night when I was exhausted and still driving!

My husband, Ken, is reading a book I read many years ago (2012), that’s been sitting on his side of the to-be-read bookcase for a very long time, Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (my review at the link). It’s set on Martha’s Vineyard in the 1660′s, about the unique friendship between a 12-year-old Puritan girl, Bethia, and the native son of a chieftan, Caleb. It’s inspired by a true story–Caleb was the first Native American to attend Harvard. Historical fiction is not my husband’s usual genre, but Brooks is such a talented writer (one of my favorites) that I know he’ll enjoy this as much as my book group did. I don’t think he did much reading while I was away this weekend!

Our son, 29, finished Raven Caller by David Daglish, book 2 in his The Keepers series. We gave him that one for Easter. He has been re-reading The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington, book 1 of The Licanius Trilogy and should finish today so he can start book 2, An Echo of Things to Come.

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