It's Monday 4/19! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

My mini solo beach getaway was great last week! I drove down to the Delaware beaches (about 90 minutes from where we live) Tuesday morning to stay in a friend’s empty condo for a couple of nights. Stress has been high lately, and I just needed to get away and spend some time alone. I love my husband dearly, and we enjoy spending time together, but we’ve been together 24/7 for the past 13 months! He was supportive of my trip and enjoyed extra golf time last week. I love the freedom of getting on the road (we miss our long road trips of the past), even though the weather wasn’t looking good as I left on Tuesday. I met a friend who lives there at the beach when I arrived, and we enjoyed a walk together and the chance to see each other in person and catch up. But, it was COLD and windy, with stormy-looking skies.

By later that day, though, the skies cleared, the sun came out, and I drove back to the beach (just a few miles away from the condo) to sit and read and enjoy the evening sunshine, the sound of the waves and the seagulls, and the peace and tranquility.

To my surprise, it was still sunny the next morning, so I headed back to the beach before the next rainstorm came in and managed a little work from my beach chair. Before I left for home on Thursday, I stopped at Fractured Prune, which makes hot, fresh, custom donuts that are basically the best food ever invented. The ones covered with loads of toppings are my own special invention: maple glaze with coconut, chocolate chips, and peanuts … and yes, they are as good as they look!

I even recorded part of my Friday Reads video from the beach, so check that out for some “on location” reporting (and to hear about the books I was reading while away).

I also posted a second video last week, of my March Reading Wrap-Up – this is different than the monthly summary here on my blog, with a brief recap of each of the books I read and what I liked about them. March was a great reading month!

And here’s what we’ve all been reading this past week–kind of a long summary from me because I have been reading lots of short books lately:

I finished Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, a gift from my Easter basket, and the three short stories that were also included in the book. I’ve never read Capote before, though I saw the famous movie adaptation with Audrey Hepburn. I watched the movie a long time ago and didn’t remember much of the plot, but it’s impossible to read the book without picturing Hepburn in the lead role (even though she’s blond in the book). In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s the story of a young woman named Holly Golightly, as told by an unnamed male narrator who lives in the apartment above hers in a brownstone in NYC. Holly is an unusual woman, to say the least. She has loads of charm and poise and hobnobs with wealthy men, though her own past is quite mysterious. I really enjoyed this novella, with its rich descriptions and dialogue that make you feel like you are right there, in post-war New York with them. The three short stories also included in the book were all excellent and each very different. My favorite was A Christmas Memory, a sweet, poignant story which is largely autobiographical.

Next up, I couldn’t get my book group selection from the library before my beach trip, so I chose a short middle-grade novel, Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick, from my shelves. This turned out to be an excellent choice! I absolutely loved this outstanding novel that made me laugh and cry. Thirteen-year-old Steven does pretty well in school, but his passion is playing the drums. He’s good enough that he’s one of only two eighth-graders who plays in the All-City High School Jazz Band. He’s had a massive crush on Renee since third grade, but she doesn’t know he exists. And, he has an adorable but annoying little brother named Jeffrey. Steven’s and his family’s lives are turned upside down that fall when they find out that Jeffrey has leukemia. His mom spends all her time by Jeffrey’s side in hospitals, his dad becomes mute and won’t even look Steven in the eye, and Steven feels all alone with this huge, horrible thing that’s happening. The novel is all about how Steven–and the rest of his family–get through this ordeal, with the help of friends, classmates, and drums. Yes, it’s about childhood cancer, and it did make me cry several times (then again while reading the Afterword where the author explains why he wrote it), but it also made me laugh–a lot! This is a must-read.

I finished another excellent middle-grade book last week, a graphic novel called Flamer by Mike Curato. It’s the story of thirteen-year-old Aiden’s summer at Boy Scout camp, a place that he normally loves. While he’s enjoying all the usual activities, the beautiful outdoors, and the camaraderie, this summer Aiden is also very worried about going to high school in the fall. He gets teased a lot and bullied, and he’s scared that the big public high school will be even worse than his Catholic elementary school has been. To make things worse, he’s self-conscious about his appearance, gets teased about his race, and worries that he might be gay, which is not acceptable in his Catholic upbringing. Even his beloved Boy Scouts are anti-gay (the book takes place in the 90′s), so what happens if Aiden is gay? But he’s not; he can’t be. The wonderfully drawn black and white pictures (with some splashes of red where there is fire) and story follow Aiden’s struggles that summer, which the author says are autobiographical. It’s a moving, powerful story about identity, friendship, and acceptance.

Finally, I returned home, picked up my library book, and started on my next book group pick, Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard by Doug Tallamy. Doug is a local author and has written several books about nature, biodiversity, and native plants. This one also covers those topics but with a focus on what you (and all of us ordinary people) can do to make a difference in this rapidly deteriorating ecological situation we find ourselves in, by planting native plants in our own yards. He details how and why such a small-seeming step can make such a big difference. This book is so far dovetailing well with The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, which I read (and loved) in February. It’s interesting so far, and for me, is mostly explaining some of the underlying reasons why native plants are so important. I am also enjoying the gorgeous, full-color photographs throughout the book, especially since many of them were taken here in my area in places familiar to me.

I just last night finished listening to Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss. I really loved Krauss’ earlier novel, The History of Love, which has two disparate stories/characters that eventually come together in a story about (you guessed it) love. I also read her next novel, Great House, a finalist for the National Book Award, which was also good, though it felt a bit too bleak for my tastes. Forest Dark follows a similar approach as those earlier novels, with two separate narratives, with just a location/place in common between them. Sixty-six-year-old Epstein was very successful and wealthy in New York. Recently, though, since retiring, he has been giving away his money, and he has now traveled to Israel, staying at the Tel Aviv Hilton, to try to find a way to honor his parents’ memory. In an alternate storyline, a successful female novelist has writer’s block, so she travels to Tel Aviv, where she also stays at the Hilton. She has stayed there every summer of her life, and she has a vague idea to set her next novel there and is hoping the surroundings will get her writing again. While there, she gets involved with a legend/rumor that Kafka did not die as reported but moved to Israel where he recovered and lived out his life. The whole thing was quite complex. Some chapters kept me interested and engaged, and others moved a bit slowly for me. The book is very much focused on Jewish culture and history, so I learned a lot.

My husband, Ken, has just started a new book, another Christmas gift from me, One By One by Ruth Ware. He and I both enjoy Ware’s wonderful, nail-biting thrillers. I reviewed In the Dark, Dark Wood (never stay in a glass house) and The Woman in Cabin 10 (watch out for small cruises). All he told me about this new one is that people are being killed, one by one (hence the title!). Sounds a bit like Agatha Christie’s classic, And Then There Were None, which I read recently, and I see some reviewers have made the same comparison. Amazon says it’s about a group of nine people at a ski resort in the Swiss Alps for a corporate retreat who get snowed in together, with one person still out on the slopes when the avalanche hits. Sounds like a suspenseful one!

Our 26-year-old son is immersed in one of his favorite series, Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. He’s now onto book 4, Rhythm of War, which is a mere 1232 pages … and hardcover! I’m sure he’ll be bringing this one home with him next weekend when he visits–just a bit of light reading for travel. He loves epic fantasy, the longer the better, and he thinks my annual Big Book Summer Challenge (coming up next month!) where I read 400+ page books each summer is pretty funny!

Just one blog post last week, in addition to the two #BookTube videos:

My Summary of Books Read in March – an excellent reading month with good progress in my challenges!

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?