It's Monday 12/17! What Are You Reading?

I am waaaay behind today, but the whole week is going to be like this - not much time to squeeze in blogging this week.  My son and I made our trek to the Lyme doctor today (90 minutes away) - nice to have him feeling well enough to do the driving!  But that is just the beginning of a very busy week that will end with a large group of family members arriving for the weekend.

Good thing we have our books for a little downtime here and there:

• I finished Greetings from Planet Earth by Barbara Kerley, a very good middle-grade novel set in 1977 - you can read my review here.
• With Christmas quickly approaching and new books on my wish list, I decided I better finish the books I got as gifts LAST Christmas! So, I am now reading Time and Again by Jack Finney, a classic time travel novel my husband gave me that I just never found time for. I love time travel plots and am enjoying it very much.
• Last night, we read a new holiday picture book with our sons. Yes, they are 14 and 18 now, but they still enjoy our traditions of watching holiday movies and kids' specials and reading from our collection of holiday books together (see a list of our favorites). We read The Santa Trap by Jonathan Emmett and Poly Bernatene. It's clever and funny, though quite a bit darker than our usual holiday fare! I will post a review this week.
• My husband, Ken, finished The Big Burn by Timothy Egan, after I read it and raved about it. He enjoyed reading about the formation of the U.S. Forest Service and the suspenseful scenes of the Great Fire.
• Ken is now reading one of his birthday gifts from October, Defending Jacob by William Landay, a novel he and I have both been wanting to read.
• Jamie, 18, is home from college, with no responsibilities for a few glorious weeks! He is looking forward to enjoying some reading time and is currently re-reading City of Fallen Angels, book #4 in Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series.
• Craig, 14, is reading The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros for his freshman lit class. He says it is good so far but a little hard to follow because it doesn't follow a chronological order. I'm looking forward to reading this one when he is done!

I posted two new reviews last week: Middlemarch by George Eliot and Greetings from Planet Earth by Barbara Kerley, a middle-grade novel.

I also posted a Top Ten New To Me Authors I Read in 2012 list (for grown-up books) and a similar list of new to me kids/teen/YA authors. And, in this season of Best Of lists, I posted a link to the New York Times' 100 Notable Books of 2012 and a discussion of BookPage's Best Children's Books of 2012 (and 2011 and 2010!).

What are you and your family reading this week?

(What are you reading Monday is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey, with a kid/teen version hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.)