It's Monday 6/9! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Hosted by The Book Date

 Life

Last week went by in a flash! As usual, when my husband goes on his annual golf trip with his high school friends, I think I will have such a relaxing week on my own and get so much done … and it ended up being pretty hectic! But I did have a lot of fun. Last summer when he was away, I ended up getting COVID, which knocked me out for months, so this year, I limited most of my time with friends to outdoor activities and avoided restaurants.

Monday, I met up with a good friend I hadn’t seen in over a year! She lives less than 10 miles away, so we couldn’t believe it had been so long. We walked in a local park, then sat on a bench, and talked nonstop for an hour! We had a lot to catch up on, and it was so good to see her again. We promised to get together again soon.

Wednesday, I met up with a new friend, Sara, at our local nature center. She’s a fellow YouTuber who also loves the outdoors and nature and makes beautiful hiking, kayaking, and travel videos on her channel, Hiking Outdoor Family. I had a great time showing her around one of my favorite local outdoor places and really enjoyed getting to know her better! Plus, I picked up some great tips from her since I am still learning how to use my new Go Pro. When I post my video of our hike together, I’ll share it here.

Thursday was the dentist, which might not seem like much fun, but I have a wonderful dentist and dental hygienist, and they helped remove all the staining from my Invisiline and answered all my questions. Plus, I picked up a Greek salad with chicken souvlaki for lunch (and the next day’s lunch, too). One of my goals during my week alone is to cook as little as possible! Trader Joe’s helped a lot, too. 

Friday evening, a good friend came over for (take-out) dinner, with plenty of social distancing to keep me safe. It was different to see her without our husbands (we are all old friends from our days in New Orleans in the 80′s!), but I enjoyed her company and conversation. On Saturday, I began painting my Little Free Library! I now have 2 coats of paint on 3 sides. I can’t wait to get it set up!

And yesterday, my younger son met me at our local natural history museum, one of his favorite places to go when he was a little kid. He got me a local “passport” for Mother’s Day, with free admission to all kinds of local attractions, so we were trying that out. The museum had undergone a complete renovation a few years ago, so we enjoyed seeing how everything had changed. They kept our sons’ favorite feature (the front desk clerk said in their survey 95% of people said they had to keep it!): a glass floor with a recreation of an ocean floor beneath it. Our kids–and apparently everyone else’s!–were fascinated with it and afraid to step on it. It was a fun outing, and spending time together is the best gift 💗

My son and I

They kept the glass floor!

__________

Hike at Chandler’s Mill Nature Preserve in Pennsylvania: This was my test using my new Go Pro, and though I made a few mistakes, luckily, I had plenty of footage to edit into this short, peaceful video; come along with me and enjoy the sights & sounds of nature! 

Friday Reads 6-6-25: Enjoying Big Book Summer & June on the Range: My brief weekly recap of what I’ve been reading and listening to. This week, 2 classic novels and 2 historical novels.

What Is ME/CFS? Q&A - My 3-minute video for ME/CFS Awareness Day last month got such a great response that I realized there was a need for a longer video to answer common questions about this poorly understood disease. Here, I cover the basics: causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatments, and whether recovery is possible. 

  

Sirens - I also look forward to watching some “girl” shows while my husband is out of town, and the trailer for this one caught my eye. I really enjoyed it. It’s only 5 episodes, but it tells the story of two sisters: Devon is caring for their aging father with dementia in Buffalo, while Simone is living a fantasy life in Nantucket as the personal assistant to a wealthy woman on a huge estate. The cast was outstanding, including Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon, the writing was great, and the ending is a big surprise! Perfect for my week alone. 

 Remember that Big Book Summer runs until September 1, so there is still plenty of time to join the fun! Details at the link.

I finished reading my first print book for Big Book Summer, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, a classic I’ve been meaning to read for years (that’s the best part about Big Book Summer). It begins with a man named Charles Bovary who is just an average, ordinary man in many ways: brought up on a farm, in the middle of his class at school, not especially charming or ambitious. He manages to become a doctor in a small town in Normandy, France, in the 1800′s. The title character, Emma, is a young woman Charles meets while tending to her father’s broken leg. The two are drawn to each other and marry, but Emma soon realizes her motivation was to simply escape her dull home life. Based on reading a lot of romance novels, Emma concludes she’s not in love with Charles and wants real love in her life, the kind of love she’s read about. She soon decides that her new life with Charles is just as routine and boring as her old life. She embarks on a series of affairs but is never happy for long. While I found Emma really frustrating and not at all sympathetic, the novel is well-written and engrossing. It provides a detailed look at life in a French rural town in the 1800′s, with plenty of interesting and amusing characters. I did enjoy it, even if I was not a fan of Emma’s.

Now, I am reading Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry for both Big Book Summer and June on the Range (a Booktube event for reading Westerns). This is the sequel (actually, the fourth book in a quartet) to Lonesome Dove, which I read last June and ended up being my favorite book of the year! To avoid spoilers of that book, I can’t tell you which characters reappear here, but there are a few characters from Lonesome Dove, plus some intriguing new characters. I’m so happy to be back in this world! McMurtry is an outstanding writer, with characters you come to care about, twisty plot lines, emotional depth, and a sense of humor. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

I finished my first audio Big Book of the summer: the YA historical novel, Artifice by Sharon Cameron. It’s set during World War II in Amsterdam, and while I often think I have read about every possible aspect of WWII, I have once again been surprised to learn of several different pieces of the war that I knew little about. A young woman named Isa was brought up surrounded by art and artists in her parents’ small art gallery, where they both painted and collected works of art. The Nazis occupy The Netherlands and are confiscating as much Dutch art as they can find. Desperate to pay the taxes so she and her father don’t lose their home in the closed gallery, Isa sells a fake Rembrandt, painted by her talented father, to the Nazis. The success of the exchange, plus finding out that her best friend is involved in the Dutch resistance, puts Isa on a dangerous path involving art forgery, the resistance, smuggling Jewish babies out of the city, and a young Nazi soldier who says he wants to defect. This is not only excellent historical fiction, but the novel is full of action and suspense, as Isa and her friends try to stay safe and help their beloved country. It’s very good on audio. Highly recommended for readers of all ages (teen and older).

 Now, I have started listening to The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which was first published in 1880. It’s about a despicable father and his three sons (by two different wives): Dmitri, Ivan, and Alexei. The book was a bit confusing at first (and would be in print, too) because each of the brothers is also known by multiple other names (I guess like nicknames). So Ivan is also Mitka, and Alexei is also Alyosha, etc. The novel also has a lot of what seem like random diversions–entire chapters devoted to characters or scenes that don’t seem to fit–though I expect it will all come together at some point. This is not an audio where I can tune out for a while! I listened to a long section while weeding this weekend that took place in a monastery (where Alexei was living at the time), with some really fascinating conversations between the elder monk and other people, about separation of church and state, how truly devoting oneself to service requires not doing it for selfish reasons like wanting praise, and more. It’s a very thoughtful, philosophical novel at times, but I know there are some exciting plot points coming up, too, and I’m already finding out what an awful guy their father is. It’s all very interesting so far!

My husband, Ken, has been reading his first Big Book of the summer (yes, he participates, too!), Hunter by Tana French. She’s one of our favorite authors, and he loves this new series of hers (book 1 was The Searcher and is now on my side of the to-be-read bookcase). I’m sure he didn’t read much while on his golf trip, but he comes home today.

 

 Our son, 30, is still rereading the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks, an old favorite of his, in preparation for the latest book (Beyond the Shadows). So, he’s rereading book 1, The Way of Shadows, and will then reread book 2, The Shadow’s Way. He hasn’t had much reading time lately, but he trained someone new at work, which should give him more weekends off and more time to read!

 __________

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:

Facebook on my blog’s page

Instagram

Threads 

Twitter