It's Monday 2/13! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Life

Happy Superbowl, Valentine’s Day, and Mardi Gras! Wow, there’s a lot going on this week. We are big into small celebrations, so this is a fun-filled week for us! We had two friends over last night for Superbowl, and our son stayed home with us, too (his friends were all in Philly, and he had no interest in being there–win or lose, Eagles fans can get crazy). We enjoyed yummy snacks, and the game was exciting right up until the end. My favorite part of Superbowl is the ads! Some of my favorites from last night include Hamm and Brie (very clever), the EV one with scenes from all the TV shows, the babies at the wedding (though I don’t remember what product it was selling!), and Tubi’s rabbit hole ad was very clever and certainly got our attention. The one that stole my heart, though, was one of the last ads, with John Travolta in the T-Mobile ad; as a long-time Grease superfan since age 13, I loved that one! I just wish Olivia Newton John could have been there to accompany him.

We’ll probably just do takeout or an easy home meal tomorrow night for Valentine’s Day, but we used to go all out when our sons were little, with the house decorated, hearts hanging from their doorways, treat bags, and chocolate fondue for dessert. I have treat bags ready for my husband and son, and my husband bought a fabulous sea salt-chocolate chess pie for us.

All of this celebration is nice after one of “those” weeks. You know when you plan to do some small task, and one thing after another goes wrong? Yeah, it was like that. I sat down to edit a video Tuesday afternoon and ended up spending two hours on the phone with Apple help, having to update the system on my laptop, update all my software, and then buy, download, and install new Microsoft Office. I finally got that video edited on Friday! Not much else got done last week. So, I’m hoping for a more productive week with fewer issues!

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On the Blog

Movie Monday: A Man Called Otto – excellent adaptation of the book that we both enjoyed.

 Fiction Review: A Serpent’s Tooth by Matty Dalrymple – book 5 in my favorite series, about a woman who solves mysteries by talking to the dead.

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On Video

Here’s that video that took all week to edit and upload!

January Reading Wrap-Up – overview of the 6 books I read/listened to last month

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 I finished reading Dead of Winter by Stephen Mack Jones, book 3 in his August Snow series. I first met Stephen at Booktopia 2019, and I enjoyed his first two novels, August Snow and Lives Laid Down (which was featured at Booktopia). Snow is a half-Black, half-Mexican ex-cop who made a lot of money in a lawsuit that took down dirty cops in Detroit, where he lives. This makes him unpopular among most of the police force. In each book, Snow takes on some sort of mystery in his hometown, usually focused on cleaning up the city. These are action-packed thrillers with a great sense of humor, and my husband enjoys them, too. They tend to be a bit more violent for my taste, but the story, characters, and suspense are great.

Today, I will start my next book group selection, Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. Last year, Krueger’s This Tender Land was our All-County Reads book, and all of us loved it (it was my #2 book of the year!), so we’re excited to read this one. All I know about it is that it won the 2014 Edgar Award (so it must be a mystery), and it’s a stand-alone, not part of his Cork O’Connor series. He’s an excellent writer, so I’m excited to dive into this one today!

 On audio, I’m still listening to Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris, historical fiction that is also a mystery/thriller, and a good fit for Black History Month. It’s set in 1964, and begins in Jackson, Mississippi, during Freedom Summer. Two sisters each decide to flee town for different reasons: one killed a white man who raped her, and the other is single and pregnant. One ends up in a small town in Georgia, and the other heads north, but they don’t realize that a man is tracking both of them. It’s great so far!

My husband, Ken, is reading book 3 in the Ann Kinnear series, The Falcon and the Owl by Matty Dalrymple. He enjoys this series, too (my favorite). This one takes place near us, in southeastern PA, at a small airport where Ann is taking flying lessons. Murder, ghosts, and mystery ensue! I read this one last fall (my review at the link).

Our son, 28, is still reading The White Tower by Michael Wisehart, book 1 in The Aldoran Chronicles, in preparation for book 2, which he just bought with a Christmas gift card. He’s discovered new updates to an old favorite video game that is taking up some of his reading time!