It's Monday 7/8! What Are You Reading?

Very hectic week last week, and another one starting today! I probably won't be online much this week. On the plus side, my oldest son finished his college summer class this weekend, and my youngest is off crutches and feeling great, so now our summer can really begin! We have a mini-vacation coming up - taking our camper along to my college reunion and camping along the way - our first road trip/vacation in over a year! I am sooo ready for that, even if it's just for a few days.

It has been horrifically hot and humid here lately which is extra-tough for me because of my chronic illness, so I have been hiding out indoors whenever I can (that's the other reason I can't wait to head north!). We managed lots of good reading this week:

• I finished Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain, and this novel about a team of young soldiers stationed in Iraq who are taken on a whirlwind Victory Tour of the US for acts heroism just blew me away. It was funny, emotionally powerful, and made me look at both the military and "normal" life in America in a whole new way.
• I decided to squeeze in one more short teen/YA book before jumping into the rest of my long books for my Big Book Summer Challenge. I am almost finished with Game Changer by Margaret Haddix Peterson, an alternate reality novel that's been very engaging.
• I finished Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter on audio and loved it - a great story of how seemingly minor events in the distant past affected a group of people decades later.
• My husband, Ken, is reading The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman on his Kindle, though he's not sure he's going to finish it. He's finding it interesting but can tell it's not going to end well - he's not a fan of sad books or movies! I think the characters are making him nervous as they make some questionable choices.
• Jamie, 18, continued to plow through The Sorcerer's Path series by Brock Deskins on his Kindle; he is thrilled that his friend bought the whole series, so he can borrow them! He read Book 2: The Sorcerer's Torment and Book 3: The Sorcerer's Legacy this week. Now that he is done with school and has a couple of months off, I'm sure his reading time will expand even further!
• Craig, 15, is reading The Lord of the Flies by William Golding - required reading for school - but is not making much progress so far! A few people commented here last week that they think required summer reading is a bad thing, but for my son, it is a very good thing! If he weren't required to read this summer, he would never pick up a book at all. He claims to hate reading, but often, if he starts a book for school, he ends up liking it. So, I am thrilled that he will at least read his two required novels this summer.

I did manage a few blog posts last week:

Review of The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, an excellent novel my entire book group enjoyed.

Review of The Silver Six by A.J. Lieberman and Darren Rawlings, an imaginative and action-packed middle-grade graphic novel.

And a summary of Books Read in June - it was a record-setting month for me!

Don't forget, it's only the first week of July, so there is still plenty of time to sign up for the Big Book Summer Challenge! It's super-easy and relaxed, as summer should be, and you only need to read one book of 400 pages or more to participate. So, join the fun!

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 Unleashing Readers.)