It's Monday 10/15! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

So, we finally got away for a camping vacation last week…but it was cut short, due to weather, once again! That’s four times this year. However, before the nasty weather hit, we did enjoy two and a half days in the Pennsylvania mountains, with beautiful forests and lakes (you can see some photos here) and then we enjoyed two more days’ staycation at home. This weekend was catch-up time, with lots of household stuff to do.

Monday has started off with a bang – my car stalled on the way to my massage therapy appointment. A really nice guy who works part-time as a mechanic stopped to help and had a tow rope in his car, so he towed me to the top of the hill, where it worked again (long story). I got to my appointment 15 minutes late and then had to take the car directly to the VW dealer – where it just spent 8 weeks (I just got it back two weeks ago). Now I am back home and waiting for the appliance repairman because our dishwasher broke! Deep breath…it’s only Monday and not even noon yet.

Let’s think of happier things…books! Here’s what we’ve been reading the past two weeks, since my last update:

• I finished The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher, a YA novel about a teen girl named Emily whose dad, suffering from PTSD, emerges from the woods one night carrying the dead body of Ashlee, one of her classmates, and is unable to remember anything. Police think he murdered her, but Emily doesn’t believe he is capable of that. It was very good – suspenseful and dark. I loved Christopher’s first novel, Stolen.
• Next, I continued my RIP Challenge reading for the season with The Woman in Cabin 10, a thriller by Ruth Ware. It’s about a journalistic on a small cruise’s maiden voyage who thinks she heard a woman murdered in the cabin next to hers. Everyone tells her that cabin is empty, though, and the more she insists and investigates, the worse things get. I really enjoyed this fast-paced dark and twisty thriller with lots of surprises.
• Next, I had to set aside the dark and creepy stuff for a review book: The Adults by Caroline Hulse, a debut novel due out in late November. This one has a completely different tone from most of what I’ve been reading this month! It’s a funny farce about two parents (and ex-partners) who go on a Christmas vacation with their daughter – and both of their new partners. What could go wrong? So far it is filled with drama, unexpected twists, and plenty of humor.
• I am still listening to (and struggling with) Macbeth by Shakespeare. It’s a full audio production by L.A. Theater Works with multiple actors, but I was having a little trouble (toil and trouble – ha ha) understanding the language and following the story since it’s not one I ever heard/read/saw before, so I have also picked up a paper copy that my son used in high school, and I paused in my listening until I catch up with the written word. I’ve decided to finish reading it in print before I finish the last of the audio.
• So, this weekend, I started a new (less difficult!) audio book, The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal. It’s the first book in a new thriller series starring Nora Watts, a woman who was brought up in foster care and now lives a solitary life and looks for missing people. This case is different, though, because the missing teenager is the daughter Nora gave up for adoption 15 years ago. It’s great so far and was gripping from the first chapter! It’s a unique premise, setting (Vancouver), and characters, and I can’t wait to hear what happens next.
• My husband, Ken, finished The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, a book I read for Big Book Summer this year and loved. It’s the story of a group of people, including some Jesuit priests, who travel to another galaxy in search of extraterrestrial life. Something horrible and tragic happens during that mission, and only one man returns (not a spoiler). The novel begins with the present (2060), after the mission, and flashes back to the first ideas of the mission, ironically in 2019 (the book was published in 1996), and gradually fills in what happened in between. It is compelling and completely unique – a very powerful and thought-provoking novel. However, it is very dark (you know from page one that things don’t end well), and it was a bit too dark for Ken. He liked it OK but found it too depressing.
• Now, Ken is reading another book I recently finished, Still Life by Louise Penny, book 1 in her classic mystery series of Chief Inspector Gamache novels. I think he’s enjoying it so far, though he said the number of characters introduced in the early chapters were a bit confusing (it takes place in a small village).
• Jamie, 24, is still reading book 3 in the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer, a big brick of a book at 1250 pages (and he’s reading the hardcover!). He just came by for lunch and says he has 200 pages to go!

Blog posts from the past two weeks:

TV Tuesday: Forever – a quirky, funny yet thoughtful show starring Maya Rudolph

Teen/YA Review: Not If I Save You First by Ally Carter – survival thriller set in Alaska

Fiction Review: Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel – book 2 in the fabulous Themis Files

Saturday Snapshot: Camping in Elk Neck State Park, Maryland

Saturday Snapshot: Locust Lake and Tuscarora State Parks, Pennsylvania

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.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog’s page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?