It's Monday 1/4! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We had a relaxing week off between Christmas and New Year’s, though–as usual–I didn’t manage to get done even a fraction of what I’d planned! I do that every year. Our older son went back to NY on Tuesday, and we enjoyed his company and are missing him. My husband and I had a quiet week and our usual quiet New Year’s Eve celebration. We watched two movies, Palm Springs (fun) and The Peanut Butter Falcon (excellent!), ate some delicious take-out food, and watched the ball drop at midnight. I made it! New Year’s Day was dark, gloomy, and wet here (lot of that lately), but we were able to take a nice walk together on Saturday and then visit my father-in-law (first time the weather allowed an outdoor visit in weeks, and it lifted his spirits).

I made a decision about my blog this weekend. As you’ll see, I just posted my November summary last week, as everyone else was posting their year-end summaries. I am so sick of being so far behind all the time (and my poor health last year didn’t help), and the thought of starting the new year so far behind was depressing. By the time I catch up on all my December reviews, it’ll be the end of January before I am “starting the new year” on my blog! So, I decided I will write a single post this week with short, 1-paragraph reviews of the books I read in December, and then I can move forward with wrapping up 2020 and starting 2021 on time. I feel like I’m short-changing my December books, but I will be very happy to catch up and start the new year with everyone else. So, look for that review post this week, along with my year-end wrap-ups.

As always, we are all enjoying our books. Here’s what we’ve been reading this past week:

I finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, which I received as a Christmas gift. I love any novel that plays with time–time shifting, time travel, alternate timelines–and my family loaded me up on those for Christmas. In this novel, a 35-year-old woman named Nora decides her life is a wreck, she’s useless to everyone, and she wants to die. But instead, she finds herself in a strange kind of library with infinite books and shelves, managed by her favorite school librarian. Here, the librarian explains, Nora can select a book and see what her life would have been like if she had made different choices. Since Nora has plenty of regrets, she begins requesting books and living different lives, based on the choices she has always wished she’d made differently or wondered about, trying out lives as a rock star, glaciologist, pub owner, mother, and more. This is what I like about novels that play with time, this endlessly thought-provoking stream of “what if’s.” In fact, my book inspired a conversation with my husband about regrets and other paths (don’t worry–we’re both happy with our choices!). I enjoyed this intriguing novel.

I finished that one just past midnight on New Year’s Eve, so I got to choose my First Book of the Year next! I chose The River by Peter Heller, a Booktopia author I like (I enjoyed Celine) and a book that my husband and many friends had enjoyed. It’s the story of two young men, college students and best friends, who have taken time off to paddle the lakes and rivers of Canada on a float trip leading to Hudson Bay. They are in a remote and isolated area, paddling and camping, and have rarely seen any other people on their trip. One day, after hiking to the top of a hill, they see a huge forest fire in the distance and soon they can smell the smoke and char in the air as it advances. They need to make the rest of their trip as fast as possible in order to outrun the fire, but they soon encounter other obstacles. In the fog one night, they hear a man and woman arguing on shore, and the next day, they encounter the man, alone. What happened to his wife? This is a gripping, super-suspenseful novel with the young men battling both natural and man-made horrors as they race against time.

On audio, I finished The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, a new release I have been dying to read/listen to! I’ve read one other book by the author, City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab, a middle-grade novel that I loved. Plus this new adult novel is being compared to The Time Traveler’s Wife and Life After Life, two of my all-time favorite books! In 1714, a young woman about to be forced into marriage makes a deal with a dark spirit to live forever in a life where no one ever controls her. The catch is that no one ever remembers her, either; she is immediately forgotten by anyone she meets, from her own parents to shopkeepers to men she falls in love with. The action jumps back and forth between her early years after the dark deal, and the present day in 2014, where she has lived for over 300 years but can never leave an impression on the world or even a single person, until she meets one person who remembers her. It was engrossing and excellent, and I really enjoyed it–a great way to end the year!

My husband, Ken, just finished reading High Country by Nevada Barr, a favorite author of ours. Barr writes a series of thrillers that take place in National Parks and feature park ranger Anna Pigeon. We both enjoy thrillers and love National Parks, so these novels are doubly enjoyable for us. This one takes place in Yosemite National Park, where my husband has visited multiple times (and me, once). Anna is called in as an undercover agent pretending to be a kitchen worker at the famed Ahwahnee Hotel after several young park employees disappear. Her investigation leads to some sinister goings-on, and Anna ends up on her own, backpacking up a snowy trail to the high country in search of answers. Sounds like a good one! He enjoyed it.

Now, Ken has started one of his many bookish Christmas gifts, Body Broker by Daniel M. Ford, book one in the Jack Dixon series.When I called my local indie bookstore to order books for my family for Christmas, the bookseller who answered the phone happened to be the one who runs their Mystery Lovers’ Book Club. She and I always enjoy trading book recommendations, and I had a typically fun conversation with her. She told me the book club had just read this one and based on what my husband likes, she thought he’d enjoy it. This is the great thing about indie bookstores! In this series, Jack Dixon is a high school dropout, ex-cop, and ex-cook who lives in a houseboat and works as a PI. In this first book, he investigates the disappearance of a teen from a local elite boarding school. Sounds like a good set-up!

Blog posts from last week:

Movie Monday: Happiest Season – Fun, warm, funny rom-com with an all-star cast

Memoir Review: H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald – thoughtful memoir about grief and hawks

Books Read in November – a good reading month for me and #NonfictionNovember

First Book of 2021 – Check out my first book of the new year and others’ choices for first book

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.

What are you and your family reading this week?