It's Monday 9/2! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

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Life

Yay, it’s finally September! Fall is my favorite season, and I really struggle with the heat and humidity of summer these days. Right on time, a storm came through yesterday, leaving in its wake cooler temperatures and low humidity–ahhh!

So where have I been for the past two weeks? We were on a short vacation last week, after a hectic week in between trips filled with appointments, unpacking and repacking, unexpected house guests, and a lovely graduation party for our younger son’s girlfriend, who is now a board-certified Physician’s Assistant!

So, last Sunday, after a harried morning packing, we drove our camper to Promised Land State Park in the Poconos Mountains region of Pennsylvania, about three hours away. We both really needed a break after having to cancel our vacation in July/August, and this was perfect. We were there Sunday through Thursday, so it was nice and quiet, with only a few other campers in our loop (the way we like it!). It was our first visit to this park, and it was beautiful.

Thrilled that our campsite had a water view! Beautiful at sunset.

View of the lake from my bed in the morning.

Our peaceful campsite

My stamina is still quite low after my bout of COVID two months’ ago, so we mostly took it easy, but we enjoyed a short, flat walk around Conservation Island in the park’s Upper Lake. Since it’s an island, it was a beautiful hike with water views all around.

A bench along the path on the island

Enjoying a rest break!

Much of the trail runs along the edge of the lake

LOTS of lily pads, many with blooms

One of two beaver dams we saw in the park

After lots of rest, the next day we took our kayaks out onto Upper Lake for a relaxed paddle on the quiet lake.

Ready to kayak on Upper Lake

There’s a deer on that shore in front of the kayak

Beautiful reflections in the still water!

Great day on the lake!

On our last day, we did another short hike, to Little Falls. The whole trail followed the stream through dense woods, with smaller riffles and falls along the way, so it was absolutely beautiful.

Lovely walk along the creek

Lots of riffles and small falls along the way

Little Falls

Oops! We missed a bridge, made a wrong turn & had to cross on rocks!

We enjoyed our little hike to Little Falls!

And we enjoyed the views from the Wildlife Observation Area. We saw Great Blue Herons and white egrets, but neither of the bald eagles who nest near the campground (though we could hear them). We also heard two Great Horned Owls calling to each other late one night!

Great Blue Heron

Storm coming over Lower Lake

Evening reflections

The Labor Day weekend for us was mostly unpacking, lots of laundry, and catching up here at home after a hectic few weeks. We leave again on Friday!

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Tag de France Booktube Tag – This fun video asks book/reading questions based on prompts related to the Tour de France and the Olympics this summer. Fun!

Friday Reads 8-23-24 – my brief weekly update of what I am reading and listening to

 My Answers to Your Questions, Part 1: Travel, the Outdoors, Where I’ve Lived, and More – To celebrate hitting 1000 subscribers in the spring, I asked my viewers for questions … and they had some great ones! I had a blast answering their questions. This video covers the general questions asked.

My Answers to Your Questions, Part 2: Books! - in Part 2 of my Ask Me Anything series, I answered viewer’s questions about books and reading, including my favorite books of all time (no, I couldn’t pick just one), and the Big Book Summer question that stumped me!

(Part 3 on chronic illness is coming this week)

Fall TBR Reading Plans – R.I.P. Readers Imbibing Peril – Fall doesn’t just mean cooler weather; it also means my annual switch to darker, suspenseful books. Another thing I love about fall!

Little Falls, Promised Land State Park – this 1-min short captures the beauty of the falls we hiked to – instant peace!

#FridayReads  - this is a 1-min review of my current read, Trust, as I finish Big Book Summer!

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Not much writing time lately!

Friday56 – Trust by Hernan Diaz – I didn’t have enough time to write any reviews in the past two weeks (I’m way behind), but I managed to try out this fun weekly link-up!

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After finishing The Ferryman by Justin Cronin, which was fabulous, I started my last book for the #BigBookSummer Challenge: Trust by Hernan Diaz. I had the pleasure of meeting the author in 2022, the weekend this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was released, at Booktopia. None of us knew then what a huge hit (and award winner) it would turn out to be! I’m finally reading it, buddy reading with my YouTube friend, Nikki. It’s a very unique novel, and I’m glad I’m discussing it with someone. It’s divided into four parts, and each part is a separate written piece by a different character: a novel written about a wealthy financier and his wife, a partially-finished autobiography, a memoir by a journalist, and journal entries from another character. It shows how the exact same situations can be viewed and described differently from different perspectives. It’s also a bit of a mystery as to whose description is accurate and what certain characters are really like. I’m down to the last section (the journal) and will finish it tonight, to cap off my Big Book Summer reading!

I also finished listening to my last Big Book Summer audio, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, the sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune (release date September 10). It picks up right where the first book ended, carrying on with the stories of Arthur, the unique children of Marsyas island, and Linus. There is a bit of a prologue about how Arthur first returned to the island and started the home there, and then it jumps back to the present day, as Arthur prepares to give testimony before the Council of Utmost Importance about his abuse as a child supposedly under the protection of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth (DICOMY). And there is a new child coming to join the home on Marsyas. It was just as delightful, funny, warm, and thoughtful as the original.

On our short road trip, my husband and I listened to a short story by thriller author Linda Castillo (new to us), Dark Storm Rising. It features Chief of Police Kate Burkholder, who appears in a 27-book (so far) series by Castillo. Here, she and her new husband return to the area where Kate grew up, an Amish community near Lake Erie in Ohio. They’re on their honeymoon, looking forward to winter hikes and cozy nights in the cabin, but instead, they encounter a violent criminal who’s been setting fire to the cabins, owned by a kind, older Amish couple. When things take a dangerous turn, Kate and her husband jump in to help the couple and the community. We enjoyed it and would definitely read more from this author.

My current audio is also a Big Book, though I won’t finish it by tonight! It’s a cross-over book that also counts for the R.I.P. (Readers Imbibing Peril) event in fall: The Curse of Crow Hollow by Billy Coffey. Until just this moment, I thought this was a YA novel, but its listing doesn’t say that, so I guess it is adult suspense/thriller. It does focus on a group of older teens, coming of age in rural Virginia in the Blue Ridge Mountains. After a night spent partying up in the woods in an area their parents have warned them to stay away from, they encounter Alvaretta Graves, whom many in town call a witch. That’s about as far as I’ve gotten so far, but apparently the witch curses the kids, leading to all kinds of problems. It’s good so far with a great narrator.

My husband, Ken, picked a chunkster for his last Big Book of the summer! After studying his stack of Big Books he set aside in May, he instead picked a book off the bookcase full of Stephen King and Dean Koontz books we inherited from my dad: Dreamcatcher by King. It’s about four childhood friends who saved a mentally disabled kid from a bully as young boys. They now gather together as adults for an annual hunting trip in the snowy Maine woods. During one such get-together, they encounter a stranger … and something otherworldly. Ken says it’s classic Stephen King horror (and we both love the way King writes about kids–he captures childhood so perfectly).

Our older son, 30, is probably still reading book 2 of the Licanius Trilogy by James Islington, An Echo of Things to Come. He started a new job last month and hasn’t had any reading time and was out on my his grandparents’ sailboat this weekend. Despite how busy he’s been, I did (of course) get him books for his birthday! I chose two by favorite authors: The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie and Play of Shadows by Sebastien de Castell, book 1 of his new series, Court of Shadows. He loved them both, and his girlfriend also gave him The Heroes, so he’ll have some bookstore credits to spend, too.

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