It's Monday 8/9! What Are You Reading?

Whew, what a week.  I was unable to do any blogging (writing or reading).  I won't bore you with the whole long story, but here's a brief recap:  dishwasher broke, air conditioner broke (for the 5th time in 3 weeks), my husband needed emergency laser eye surgery for a retinal tear (second time), and my beloved old iBook burned up (literally).  I was waiting at the eye hospital for my husband when my son, Craig, called on my cell to tell me, "Uh, Mom...your laptop had this awful burning smell and then the screen went black."  Not a good sign, right?  A rush trip to the Apple store that evening confirmed what we suspected - the CPU burned out and the computer was now just a paperweight.

You may recall that I just got a gorgeous new MacBook laptop for my birthday 2 weeks ago, but I hadn't yet transferred data from the old one.  I was waiting for a special cable I needed that arrived...you guessed, the same day the iBook burned out.  I've managed to get the new laptop set up - that's what I'm working on now - but I still need to try to retrieve my old data.  My husband removed the old hard drive, and we're hopeful the files are still intact (the guy at the Apple Genius Bar thought they probably would be OK).

Thank goodness I had a good book to escape into during all that trauma last week and the long hours in the hospital waiting room!

• I read Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.  Wow, what an amazing book!  I can't believe I waited so long to read it.  It just took me away to another time and place (which I was grateful for last week).  I can't wait to discuss it at my library book group this week - so much to talk about!
•  I just started The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson, book 3 of the wildly popular series that begins with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I was thrilled that the third book picks up right where the second ended, and I'm already totally hooked.  It's a great series!
• Jamie, 15, read Cryptid Hunters by Roland Smith, a middle-grade novel he's been dying to read about a guy who has dedicated his life to finding cryptids, mysterious creatures whose existence has never been proven (think Loch Ness Monster, for example).  We had received the second book in the series, Tentacles, a while back for review, so we picked up book 1 in the bookstore a couple of weeks ago.  He loved it!
• Craig, 12, is working on his summer reading for school, reading The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.  He's enjoying it very much, though he said it's a bit scary to read at bedtime.
• My husband, Ken, finally got his hands on a copy of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, thanks to a friend at work.  He's enjoying it so far and should have plenty of reading time this week on his business trip.

What are  you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Mondays is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey.)