It's Monday 8/31! What Are You Reading?
Book By Book
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| Hosted by The Book Date |
Life
I’m not sure how I feel about the end of August. On one hand, the summer seemed to last forever (and not in a good way!) because of the constant heat & humidity, plus I didn’t feel well so we didn’t travel as much as we normally do. On the other hand, how is it fall already and the year is almost over?! My son’s wedding is in less than a month, and there’s still so much to do. Our fall calendar is very full, so I know it will fly by, and I still have so much left to do this year. Eek!
I do have some good news to report. I felt better last week, after stopping one of my recent new medications. I “crashed” Tuesday because I did too much last Sunday, but I felt pretty good the rest of the week and was able to be quite active (always a challenge with this disease). I finally got out for a little shopping to look for a dress for my son’s wedding. I have two good options (that I ordered when I got home, based on what I tried on) to choose between. One arrived yesterday, and one will be here this weekend. Then I need to find shoes!
That was a big day for me and I had some mild immune symptoms the next day but didn’t crash – yay! I had another big day Friday when I was finally able to run some errands in town (in the convertible) and visit my elderly book buddy who just moved to assisted living. It’s a beautiful, brand-new complex (though the food was disgusting), I brought her some books, and we had time to catch up.
This weekend was my younger son’s bachelor weekend, hosted at an Airbnb in the Poconos by our older son. I haven’t heard anything yet, but I’m sure they had a great time! We puppysat Chester for a few hours on Friday until our daughter-in-law-to-be got out of work. My husband picked him up from doggy daycare, so he was more tired than usual! But he did enjoy going outside to watch the kids in the neighborhood ride their bikes.
We spent a weekend at home, working on putting our basement and garage back together. It’s a long, very slow process. I found a box in the basement that is so old, the box itself was from Girl Scout cookies–the ones I sold! Among other things, it contained some old cassette tapes, a Snoopy stuffed animal (I was obsessed with Snoopy as a kid–I also still have a smaller one), my dance costume from when I was 16, and a signed baseball from the Rochester Red Wings (farm league team for KC Royals). Cal Ripken played with the team when I was a kid, so I was really hoping his name would be on it, but no luck.
It was a lot of hard work (and very hot in the garage) this weekend, but we did find some quiet moments to relax.
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| Our resident squirrel, Twitchy, paused to appreciate the water we set out |
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| Relaxing on the porch Sunday morning |
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Labor Day is late this year, so we have one more week of Big Book Summer left! I’m just about finished with both my print and audio books, so maybe I can squeeze in one more of each!
September 8, I will dive into RIP XXI (my 11th year!), Shorty September, and Series September. Here are some possibilities I pulled from my shelves:
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Would You Rather Book Tag - My fun answers to some questions with really bad choices!
Weekly Reading Update - We are enjoying some great books for Big Book Summer!
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We finished watching the first season of the adaptation of The Testaments last week. We both read the novel (scroll down to read my review) for Big Book Summer this year. My husband enjoyed the book, but I really loved it. It’s the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (my review of the book at the link), her response, 30+ years later, to people constantly asking her what happened next and how did Gilead eventually fall?
To me, the ideal time to watch an adaptation of a favorite book is several years (or more!) after you read the book, so we suffered a bit from “but that’s not what happened in the book!” But The Handmaid’s Tale TV series (my review at the link) is one of our all-time favorite shows; we both feel that it is outstanding in every way–cast, writing, cinematography, and more. All of that is continued here in The Testaments, where the story focuses on the girls in the Aunt Lydia School, where the aunts teach the commanders’ daughters how to be good wives. There are big celebrations when they each get their period, as they are then eligible to be married off to some old man commander (yeah – ick). As in the book, the TV series covers the stories of 3 females: Agnes, a student in the school; Daisy, who is undercover for Mayday (the rebel organization) at the school as a Pearl Girl (a young woman who chose to leave her outside life to join Gilead); and Aunt Lydia herself, as we finally get to see her origin story. The show is excellent in all the ways I mentioned, though the writers changed one big thing from the book that really bothered us! That’s more of an us problem. If you enjoyed The Handmaid’s Tale series, you will definitely like The Testaments. And if you haven’t watched The Handmaid’s Tale yet, what are you waiting for?
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I’m almost finished with 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 were two big year-long trials that captured the attention of the entire nation. The novel focuses on Eliza Touchet, who works as a housekeeper for her cousin, William Ainsworth, a successful novelist. They’re both around 70, though William just married the 26-year-old maid with whom he fathered a child, and William’s three grown daughters also live with them. This unusual household is at the center of the novel, as they follow the news about Tichborne and argue about the case. Much of the novel takes place in England, but some of it takes place in Jamaica, when it was a British colony and enslaved Blacks, taken from their African homes, worked in the British sugar plantations. As you read, you learn more and more about Eliza, William (who were both real historical figures), and their family (the situation is even stranger than it first appears!). I have less than 10 pages left (just could not stay awake any longer last night), and I think now that while it is about truth and fiction, it’s also kind of a coming-of age novel about Eliza, in her 70′s, as she grapples with her role in the world, what she wants from the rest of her life, and how she can make the world a better place. As always, Zadie Smith weaves in discussions of race and class and other serious issues but also has a great sense of humor. I’ve enjoyed it very much, and I learned a lot of history I wasn’t familiar with.
I’ve been listening to a Big Book on audio, My Friends by Fredrik Backman, and I am absolutely loving it. Backman’s novels are always great on audio, and this one is perhaps my favorite so far. It centers on a teen girl, Louisa, who is about to age out of foster care at age 18 and has just lost her best (and only) friend, Fish. Her most cherished possession is a postcard her mother sent her, many years ago, before she died. On the front is a beautiful painting. Most people think it’s a painting of the sea, but Louisa sees more. She sees the three teen friends on the pier and knows that it’s really a painting about them. She hears the painting will be auctioned at a local gallery and sneaks in so she can see it in person. But things never go smoothly for Louisa, and that act is the beginning of a wild adventure for her, where she ends up actually meeting one of the people depicted in the painting. In alternating chapters, the reader also gets to know the painter and his teen friends (Louisa was right about the painting). I love the character of Louisa: she is enthusiastic, kind, and talks a lot when she’s nervous (which is most of the time), but she has been through some terrible things in her short life. I wish I could tell you more about the other main character, but I don’t want to spoil anything because this novel is an absolute delight as it unfolds. Backman is at his best here: hilariously funny, heart-breaking, and heart-warming. It’s a novel about friendship and found family but also about life and loss, joys and sorrows, and how early friendships influence the rest of your life. I never want it to end! It’s outstanding on audio.
Funny story about my husband’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 almost finished with it. He says it’s making a lot more sense than that quick update did! He’s enjoying it. This is a fabulous YA science fiction thriller trilogy.
Our son, 32, 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. I know he hasn’t had a lot of reading time lately, but he also admitted that a new video game his brother gave him has been occupying his limited free time!
Our daughter-in-law-to-be is 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. I know she read a lot more this weekend, while our son was away.
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