It's Monday 8/17! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

I know it feels like summer is winding down, but Labor Day is late this year, so we still have 3 full weeks of Big Book Summer left! Join the fun and grab a 400+ book!

This week was pretty exhausting, trying to get caught up on everything after vacation, with piles of laundry everywhere. Plus, it was around 90 degrees here every day (much of this week, too), so I hardly got outside at all. I can’t wait for this heat to finally ease a bit so I can get back to walking and working in the garden a bit. Our landscaper finished up the front of our house (which previously was covered with 40-year-old overgrown evergreen bushes) while we were gone. All of the new plants are native to our region, most have brightly-colored blooms (that bloom in different seasons), and hopefully, they will all spread out well to create a colorful, easy-to-maintain garden in a few years. I did get outside a few times to look at the new plants and check on my Little Free Library.

Here are some photos from the garden, the first 5 from last week and the rest from earlier this summer. The blooms are already attracting pollinators!

Otherwise, I was stuck inside, recording and editing videos, catching up on planning, phone calls, and e-mails, and trying to get into the groove of real life. I was badly “crashed” (relapsed) from my chronic illness on Thursday and Friday, kept pushing myself Thursday to get things done, and finally gave in and rested all day Friday (I really had no choice by then!). 

One of the things I did last week, that I’ve been meaning to do for ages, was to start a Patreon membership (and also a YouTube membership, for those who prefer to use that platform).  It’s just a way to support both my blogs and my videos and to help grow the community around them. In both places, there are some member-only benefits and extra content, but everything I already do will continue to be free and available to all, as always. 

I felt much better this weekend, and we worked more on clearing out our basement. After the mold remediation, the ceiling was replaced and the carpet all torn out. New flooring will be installed on Friday, so we’re trying to sort through all the “stuff,”  so there’s less for the contractors to move. Our son came over yesterday and helped us for several hours (which was good, as a lot of what’s left is his!). He brought his puppy, and his fiancee stopped by for a while, too. It was our older son’s 32nd birthday, so we were really missing him, but he had a nice weekend, and we got to talk to him Sunday evening.

Chester’s getting big!

He was sleepy yesterday!

Still a cutie!

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New Hampshire & Vermont Trip - Camping in 3 state parks, kayaking, hiking, wildlife, small towns, and SO many lakes & sunsets! Enjoy this peaceful immersion in nature.

Reading Update - This post-vacation reading update includes my July Reading Wrap-Up, an update of what we’ve been reading so far in August, and my participation in Jane Austen July and Big Book Summer. 

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I’ve been listening to the second The Hunger Games prequel (see below), and I realized I didn’t remember much from the first prequel (my review – no wonder I didn’t remember much – I listened to it 6 years ago!). My husband was frustrated that I listened to both of these on audio, so there are no print books to share with him! So, on Saturday, we watched the movie adaptation of the first prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. It was excellent and answered some of my questions about the connection with the book I am currently reading. This movie (and book) provide the backstory of President Coriolanus Snow, his teen years, and the experiences that made him become the evil leader he is in The Hunger Games. Here, he’s a teen boy from a once-powerful family that is now almost gone and living secretly in poverty, trying to keep up appearances. For the 10th annual Hunger Games, for the first time ever, Academy students like him will be assigned to mentor a district tribute in the games. His mentee is Lucy Gray, from District 12, a vibrant teen girl with a beautiful singing voice. At first, he mentors her in his own self-interest because he needs the college scholarship the winner will receive, but he gradually comes to care about Lucy. We both loved the movie. As always with these movies, the cast was outstanding, the cinematography was fabulous, and of course, the source material is top notch! 

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I finished The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. This creepy character-driven mystery is set at a summer camp in the Adirondacks, where two children (siblings) went missing, in 1961 and in 1975. The narrative moves back and forth between the timelines and between various characters (a camp counselor, the best friend of the girl who goes missing in 1975, the mother of the two kids, a female investigator assigned to the 1975 case, and more). In this way, the story is gradually, intricately woven together. The characters and the storyline are very compelling, and the mystery is suspenseful. I kept suspecting various characters; it definitely kept me guessing! I enjoyed it very much, was sorry when it ended (though the ending was satisfying), and the wilderness setting was the perfect backdrop for reading while camping.  

Next, I started another Big Book Summer Read (and a buddy read with my BBS co-host, Melinda at A Web of Stories), The Fraud by Zadie Smith. In February, I read my first novel by Smith, White Teeth (scroll down for my review) , and I loved it, so I’ve been excited to try another. This novel is quite different, set in Victorian England and centered around a real-life event: the trial of the Tichborne Claimant. A man returned to England from Australia, claiming to be the long-lost heir to the Tichborne baronetcy. Apparently, there was a big trial that captured the attention of the entire nation. So far, the beginning of the novel focuses on Eliza Touchet, who works as a housekeeper for her cousin, William Ainsworth. They’re both around 70, though William just married the 26-year-old maid with whom he fathered a child. This unusual household has been at the center of the novel so far, as they follow the news about Tichborne and argue about the case. I’m enjoying it, but …

… I set it aside temporarily when my library request finally came in: The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which is the 3rd quarter read-along for the Book Cougars podcast, hosted by Chris and Emily, two friends of mine. I had hoped to join their discussion of the book last night, but time with our sons took priority! Now that I’ve started it, though, I am fully immersed in the story and want to finish it. This volume was originally published as two separate books, Persepolis (which I read and reviewed in 2015) and its sequel, Persepolis 2 (which I read and reviewed in 2016, though until this moment when I saw the review in my blog, I didn’t think I’d read it!). These are graphic memoirs of the authors’ childhood and adolescence in Iran, during the 1979 Revolution and then living under the Islamic Republic’s terrifying and suffocating rule. It is both a fascinating recounting of the recent history of Iran (something everyone in the world should read) from the perspective of a young Iranian citizen and Marjane’s own very difficult coming-of-age story in that setting. It’s outstanding, and I am so glad I’m rereading it. 

On audio, I’m listening to Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, the second prequel to The Hunger Games (my review at the link).  This novel focuses on Haymitch Abernathy’s origin story. As the story opens, Haymitch, in District 12, has just turned 16, on the Reaping Day for the 50th annual Hunger Games, known as the Quarter Quell. Coriolanus Snow, subject of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, is now President of Panem. The Quarter Quell will feature twice as many contestants: 4 tributes from each of the 12 districts. As a prequel, we already know Haymitch’s destiny, since he is a character in The Hunger Games. Yet, Collins’ writing is so compelling and engrossing that I teared up when he was chosen for the Quarter Quell, even though I knew ahead of time he’d be chosen! I’ve really come to care about young Haymitch and to root for him and his companions. It’s a propulsive, immersive novel, and I am thoroughly enjoying it on audio.

My husband, Ken, finished reading a book I gave him for Father’s Day, All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. I’d heard great things about this literary thriller last year during Big Book Summer, and Ken absolutely loved it and read it in record time. 

Funny story about Ken’s current read: I had just finished The Toll by Neal Schusterman and recommended it, saying it’s a great wrap-up to the Arc of a Scythe trilogy. I gave him a summary online of book 2 that helped me to refresh my memory before I read book 3. He started reading it, but was very confused and kept asking me basic questions. He didn’t even know who one of the main characters was! We realized that he never read book 2, Thunderhead (scroll down at this link for my review), last summer after I finished it! So, I dug that out for him, and he’s reading that now. He says it’s making a lot more sense than that quick update did!

I’m just now realizing that when we talked to our son, 32, last night, I forgot to ask what he was reading! But I know he’s been super busy with work, so I am guessing he is still reading Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, book 5 of his famed Stormlight Archive series. He said he loves the way that Sanderson weaves connections among all of his Cosmere books. This one is 1344 pages long, so he said he’ll read a “short” book next, under 600 pages! It’s always Big Book Summer for him! 

Our daughter-in-law-to-be mentioned yesterday that she just started reading Dust, by Hugh Howey, book three in his Silo series that began with Wool, after finishing Shift, book two (my reviews at the links). I’m happy she’s enjoying this series as much as we did, and she and our son have started watching the TV adaptation, Silo, and are loving it! My husband and I are currently watching season 3. 

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  What are you and your family reading this week?