It's Monday 5/6! What Are You Reading?

Book By Book

Whew, I got back from another amazing Booktopia last night, so I am exhausted and achy today (very long travel day to get home)…but highly satisfied with my weekend of authors and book lovers all celebrating books and reading in lovely Manchester, VT, at the incredible Northshire Bookstore. As usual, every single author there said something like, “Wow, I am blown away by this event – I’ve never seen anything like it!” It is truly unique and nirvana for book lovers (like me). I’ll share all the details in a post later this week (or next – we leave again Friday for my mom’s house in CT for Mother’s Day!), but if you are wondering what it is, you can check out my post on Booktopia 2018 in the meantime.

Mostly, last week was a flurry of getting ready for Booktopia, traveling to Vermont, and enjoying my bookish weekend with my mom and new and old friends – definitely not much writing time. But, of course, we all enjoyed some great books last week:

• I finished reading Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones, one of the Booktopia authors and books. It’s a thriller set in Detroit and book 2 in a series featuring ex-cop August Snow (though I had no problem starting with book 2). It was suspenseful, action-packed, and funny, too, with plenty of surprises, and I enjoyed meeting Stephen this weekend. I enjoyed this novel so much that I bought the first one, August Snow, while at Northshire Bookstore this weekend.
• Next, I moved onto another Booktopia book, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor. I know that’s a strange title – and it’s an unusual novel – but stay with me here. Paul, the main character, is a shape-shifter who can change from male to female and back again, also changing his physical traits, becoming taller or more muscular, etc. He’s a college student struggling with identity and where he fits in the world. The author uses the unique premise of shape-shifting to explore gender fluidity, queer culture, and sexual exploration, giving the reader the perspectives of many different people, all through one main character. I am almost finished with it and have been totally hooked this weekend. It’s warmer and sweeter than you might expect and completely immersive. I am rooting for Paul to figure things out!
• I finished reading the YA graphic novel On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden. I enjoyed her YA graphic memoir, Spinning. Here, she turns her talents to a fictional story about an all-female world out in space, featuring a team of young women who work on reconstructing crumbling places and go on a mission to find a missing person, with flashbacks to the main character’s time in boarding school. It gets a little confusing sometimes because of the imaginary world, but it was interesting and engaging.
• On audio, I am still listening to another Booktopia selection, The Guest Book by Sarah Blake. I really enjoyed her novel The Postmistress, and this new one is equally engaging. It’s the story of multiple generations of a family, the Miltons, who own a small island in Maine and run a successful financial institution, from the 1930′s, in the shadow of the rising Nazis, through the 1950′s and the first inklings of civil rights to present-day, where one of the grandchildren, Evie, a history professor and now an older woman herself, digs into her own family history. I’m enjoying it so far and like novels that weave together stories from different characters and different times. 
• My husband, Ken, is reading a book I just bought for myself, True Grit by Charles Portis, the classic western that the movies were based on. I got it for the Book Cougars podcast read-along, though I haven’t had time to read it yet with all the Booktopia reading! He was excited to read a western, something a bit different for both of us.
• Our son, Jamie, 24, has been reading the series A Pattern of Shadow and Light by Melissa McPhail, a favorite of his. He first re-read book 1, Cephrael’s Hand, book 2, The Dagger of Adendigaeth, and book 3, Paths of Air. He is now reading book 4 (for the first time), Kingdom Blades, and he’s really been enjoying it. He and I were talking during a long car ride last week, and he said he loves this series – he put it on a par with Game of Thrones and Wheel of Time – high praise and good company!

Blog posts from last week:

TV Tuesday: The Other Two – a warm, funny show about being fame-adjacent

Fiction Review: Lives Laid Away by Stephen Mack Jones – a fast, funny thriller set in Detroit

Fiction Review: Leading Men by Christopher Castellani – historical fiction about Tennessee Williams and his long-time partner, Frank Merlo, in Portofino in the summer of 1953

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?