Monday, November 29, 2010

It's Monday 11/29! What Are You Reading?

 Happy Monday - hard to believe it's almost December already!

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family.  We had a very special holiday week.  My mom and her husband treated us and my sister's family to a vacation in Jamaica at the Beaches Negril resort!  It was our first trip to the Caribbean (aside from Puerto Rico) and our first time at a resort, and the entire week was magnificent.  We spent the week swimming, snorkeling, and eating a lot!  My chronic illness even cooperated so that I could enjoy the trip - I realized it helps a lot when I have absolutely no responsibilities, no stress, and can sleep for 11 hours a night!

I wasn't here for last Monday, so this is a 2-week catch-up on our reading:
  • I read lots of short books in the busy week before we left, starting with a sweet middle-grade novel, Touch Blue by Cynthia Lord, author of the award-winning Rules.  Check out my review.
  • I finally got to The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, a wonderfully moving and inspirational book written by an author disabled with the same illness my sons and I have, ME/CFS.  I'll post a review this week at Book By Book.
  • Before we left, I squeezed in one more middle-grade book, a humorous take-off on the Hardy Boys called Brixton Brothers: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett.  Lots of fun - review to come this week.
  • On our trip, I read a classic, The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, for one of my book groups that's meeting tomorrow evening.  I'm not a huge fan of period novels, so it dragged at times for me, but overall, I enjoyed it.
  • Jamie, 16, decided to leave our hardcover copy of the 1,000-page The Stand at home for vacation (he's somewhere around page 700).  Instead, he brought along and read two old favorite paperbacks.  He likes to read themed novels when we travel, so he read two novels set among pirates in the Caribbean:  Peter Raven Under Fire by Michael Molloy (this might have been his third read of this one!) and The Angel's Command by Brian Jacques.  He says both are excellent (appropriate for middle-grade or teens).
  • Craig, 12, read absolutely nothing!  That's his idea of vacation.  I really need to get him back in the reading habit this week (kicking and screaming).
  • My husband, Ken, spent two weeks in Europe on business, came home for one night, then left with us for Jamaica the next day!  He finished New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith, a mystery novel set among the wealthy high society of our favorite city.  He started a new paperback he picked up for his travels, The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd, a new author for him but one recommended by a favorite of his, Lee Child.
So, lots of reading and lots of fun.  Now it's time to catch up, read those 400 e-mails waiting for me, and get back to writing reviews. Hope you had a great holiday, too!

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

9 comments:

Jan von Harz said...

Wow how wonderful a Jamaica holiday with family. I would have been in seventh heaven. Glad you got a chance to relax and enjoy it. Pictures are awesome.

Not familiar with most of your titles this week so I will be around to read your reviews. Have a great week (although it is going to be hard to top last week).

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you had a wonderful vacation! Good luck as you ease back into real life. Or hit the ground running, as it usually seems to go ;)

Maree said...

Sounds like the perfect holiday - happy reading!

audreygeddes said...

That is a fantastic Thanksgiving you all had. These are some great reads you caught up on as well :}. Thanks for sharing your photos and story. My family and I had a snowy Thanksgiving, which was nice because we all stayed quiet and also got some reading done. My daughter started on a new one we just got called, Jazz Fly 2 by Matthew Gollub. What's great about this one is that the author performs Latin jazz on a cd and has also written a fun little story that includes easy to learn Spanish phrases. So our household was all about fun music and learning a new language that day.

Andrea said...

What a fun Thanksgiving! I'm jealous ;)

Happy reading to you all!

Sue Jackson said...

Audrey -

Sounds like you had a wonderful holiday weekend! We could use a quiet reading weekend ourselves (though of course we enjoyed our vacation). The combination of book, music, and language sounds like fun!

Sue

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

I'm jealous. Jamaica! We went to Oregon...and it rained. Ha!

Thanks for your comments about Top Literary characters you'd like for friends. I like your husband's idea of Tom Sawyer (or Huck Finn), though I'd be afraid they'd give me a snake for a present. Though Lizbeth Salander would be a loyal friend I don't think I could deal with her sullen, keep-to-herself attitude. BTW, my hubby and I went to the artsy theatre in town and saw the films of all three of the books in the Dragon Tattoo series (Done in Sweden so had to read the English subtitles.) Excellent. I was shocked at how few people who created similar lists had characters from Hunger Games-I decided against Katniss but think Peeta would be a good choice. I completely overlooked any of the Harry Potter characters (how'd I do that?) but they were very popular choices on others' lists.

Anne@HeadFullofBooks said...

BTW-I just got done reading Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel...LOVE it! Are you reading it now, or just finished, too?
-Anne

Sue Jackson said...

Anne -

I said the same thing to my husband - much as I like Katniss, Peeta would be a very loyal friend! And after I left my commant, he thought of Ron and Hermione, too! It was a fun list to consider.

I read Half Brother a few weeks and LOVED it also! Here's my review:
http://greatbooksforkidsandteens.blogspot.com/2010/10/teenya-review-half-brother.html

Sue