It's Monday 7/27! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Hosted by The Book Date

Life 

Busy week! 

We celebrated my 61st birthday last week. On the day, I got piles of gifts, including these beautiful flowers, from my mom, heard from SO many friends and family by phone, text, and message, and enjoyed dinner with old friends on a beautiful evening on their back deck.

On the weekend, our son and his puppy came to visit. We got takeout Saturday evening, and I opened gifts. Chester was full of energy Saturday and just wanted to nap on Sunday! He’s getting bigger but still has those adorable floppy ears (and the sweetest disposition).

I managed a short walk at a local park on my way to a doctor’s appointment one day and saw an amazing sight:

A groundhog … up in a tree, about 5 feet off the ground!

The river was high and muddy after recent storms

And we were supposed to be on the road today, starting a two-week vacation to New Hampshire, but we had some issues with the air-conditioning in our truck. 90 and humid on a long road trip without a/c is no fun, so we wanted to be sure it was working. My husband talked to a mechanic at the dealership and tried a reset for this model that he found online, and it seems to be OK now, so we’re hoping to leave in a couple of days to enjoy the rest of the trip!

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Worth Every Page: The Big Books Tag - the REALLY big books that have stuck with me over the years. This tag is the perfect companion to Big Book Summer! 

 Weekly Reading Update: Great novels for Big Book Summer being read in our family!

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After I finished reading Never by Ken Follett, I started The Toll by Neal Schusterman, book 3 in his Arc of a Scythe series (I read the first two books for previous Big Book Summers). My family and I have loved everything Schusterman writes, and this series is no exception. Hundreds of years from now, Earth is a Utopian society, managed by an AI called the Thunderhead, where pain, sorrow, despair, and even death have been eradicated. To maintain ideal population levels, certain people become Scythes, whose role is to kill people, randomly and roughly according to mortal-age death rates and actuarial data. But of course, things go wrong, and the society is not as perfect as it seems. In book 1, Scythe (links to my reviews),  two teenagers, Rowan and Citra, are chosen to train as Scythes. In book 2, Thunderhead, we see things begin to go awry, but the Thunderhead isn’t allowed to interfere in the affairs of Scythes. It’s a unique dystopian world, but its issues, like power-hungry leaders, often seem familiar to those of our current world. I’m loving this fast-paced, suspenseful novel as much as I loved the previous two.

On audio, I am almost finished with The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult. It’s an intriguing look at the choices we make in life and the paths we choose (or don’t choose). Dawn’s plane makes a crash landing, and many people die. Dawn is one of the survivors and after a medical check, the airline offers the survivors a plane ticket to anywhere they want to go. The logical thing would be for Dawn to fly back to Boston, to her husband and daughter. But when she thought she was about to die, she was surprised that she instead thought about Wyatt, the handsome archeologist she worked with in Egypt. Dawn gave up her beloved career in Egyptology and never finished her PhD when life intervened, but now she’s suddenly wondering about the path she gave up. The narrative unspools in two distinct threads: one where Dawn returns to her family in Boston and one where she flies to Egypt to resume her work, finish her PhD, and see Wyatt. It’s an intricate, thoughtful story about choices and death, with some fascinating information about ancient Egyptian culture and beliefs. I’ve enjoyed it very much though I’m not sure I’ll like its conclusion! We’ll see …

 

My husband, Ken, is still reading Dead Man’s Walk by Larry McMurtry (my review at the link – scroll down), the first prequel to Lonesome Dove (and first book in the 4-book series), about how Gus and Woodrow got their start in the Texas Rangers, as very young 19-year-olds. I loved it in June, and he’s enjoying it very much.

Our older son, 31, is still reading Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, book 5 of his famed Stormlight Archive series, and loving it! 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 is reading book 3, 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 was excited to hear there’s an excellent TV adaptation (we just started season 3). She had some time off work last week so wanted to jump right into the next book.

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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.

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  What are you and your family reading this week?