Sasha is an agender white teen living in Oakland, CA. They attend a small, private school that is very supportive of teens like them who don't fit it into the neat boxes society tends to place people in. Sasha's parents are also very supportive of their choices, having watched their development from a child to an older teen and seen how thoughtfully those choices were made, based on deep feelings. Sasha has plenty of friends who are self-described nerds, and their school fosters creativity, like the silly card game they've invented together. Sasha has a unique sense of style, often wearing a vest and bow tie with a ballerina skirt to school. She rides the 57 bus home.

Richard also rides the 57 bus home from his large public school in Oakland. Richard is Black with a single mother. He and his mom are close, and Richard is generally a good kid, with the kind of humor and goofiness present in many teen boys. Given where he lives and goes to school, though, he's been exposed to a lot more violence and drug use and other societal issues than Sasha, though he generally stays out of trouble. One day on the bus, spurred on by other acquaintances nearby, Richard flicks a lighter someone handed him to Sasha's skirt. To his surprise, it quickly goes up in flames, and Sasha is severely injured. Sasha spends months in the hospital recovering, while Richard heads to juvie and begins his journey through the judicial system. Because the police who interview him for hours without an adult present pressure him to say he's homophobic, he's charged with two hate crimes and faces life in prison.

In an instant, these two teens' lives were changed, and it is easy to simply identify one as the victim and the other as the bad guy. But author Slater helps the reader understand the intricate nuances of this tragic story, taking us deep inside both teens' lives and relationships with friends and family. This book also takes a close look at the failings of our judicial system. One thoughtless moment of goofing around became a life-changing moment for both teens, and this award-winning book that delves into issues of race, class, and gender makes us think deeply about the incident and its aftermath. It's a book that should be required reading for adults as well as teens, and it was excellent on audio.

320 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Recorded Books

I got this book from Sync several years ago, which offers two free audio books each week during the summer.

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

Nonfiction Reader Challenge - Crime and Punishment

Diversity Challenge

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Teen June, played by Storm Reid, lives alone with her mother ever since her father, James, died. Her mom, Grace, played by Nia Long, can be a bit over-protective, but it's clear the mother and daughter have a close relationship. Now, Grace is headed off to Columbia on vacation with her boyfriend, Kevin (played by Ken Leung), leaving June home alone. Grace's best friend, Heather, played by Amy Landecker, has promised to check in on June while Grace is away. Predictably, as soon as Grace and Kevin leave, June kicks off a wild week of parties with her friends, including her best friend Veena, played by Megan Suri. When the week is over, June heads to LAX to pick up her mom and Kevin ... but they don't show up. June begins to investigate from her phone and laptop in LA and gets more and more upset. It seems that no one has seen the couple since they walked out of their hotel room the day before, leaving all their stuff behind. June contacts the FBI, but they explain they don't have jurisdiction in Columbia. She's becoming more panicked and scared the more she discovers. Looking at social media posts, hacking Kevin's e-mail, and tapping into public video feeds from Columbia, a terrifying story begins to emerge, and the FBI and LA police do finally get involved. But no one cares as much as June, and she hires a local Columbian named Javier, played by Joaquim de Almedia, through Taskrabbit to follow-up on the ground for her. June races against time to find her mother.

The tension in this excellent movie builds quickly and never lets up. Much of the movie takes place online, as seen on June's laptop and phone, which might sound awkward but is very well done, creating a compelling story that feels like it is happening now, as you watch it unfold. The suspense is sustained throughout the film, with lots and lot of unexpected twists. I think we suspected every character except June at one point or another. The ending truly surprised us, which is quite a feat because my husband and son are both great at guessing endings and spoiling movies! The actors and writing here are also top-notch. While searching for a movie to watch that night, we thought that Searching sounded like a similar plot and approach as Missing, and it turns out that was intentional. In Searching, a father uses the digital world to search for a missing daughter, and the shared co-writers and producers of both films bill Missing as a "spiritual sequel" to Searching. I guess we'll have to watch that one next because all four of us enjoyed Missing very much.

Missing is currently showing on Netflix and is available to rent on other streaming services.

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

After a nonstop, chaotic May filled with travel, family, and friends, last week we did ... nothing! I had literally nothing on my calendar, and I think I only left my house twice: for a short hike with my husband and a quick trip to our local natural food store. I was pretty worn out all week. Not badly "crashed" as we say in the chronic illness world, but just really run-down. I'm still sleeping late and low in energy, so it's been rest and recover time. Here are the highlights from last week:

Extra reading time on our screened porch

Mmmm ... enjoying the brief season for local strawberries!

Dinner with our son on Friday evening

Our favorite Sunday morning treat

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On the Blog

Big Book Summer Challenge 2023 is in full swing! This annual reading challenge is super simple and easy-going for summer (or winter, if you're in the southern hemisphere). You set your own goals, whether that's reading one big book or two or however many you want. You have from now until September 4 (Labor Day in the U.S.), and a big book is any book with 400 or more pages. Everything counts: e-books, audios, YA, middle-grade, graphic novels, fiction, nonfiction. If you don't have a blog or YouTube channel, no problem--just sign up in the Goodreads group or even by leaving a comment on the challenge page. We have some great book discussions in the Goodreads group all summer long!

All of the details are on the Big Book Summer Challenge page, including a links list for bloggers and YouTubers. 

Hope you'll join the fun, too!

 I'm still behind on visiting all of the blogs that have signed up (and other blogs, too), as I try to balance limited energy with a huge backlog of things to do, but I'm working on it!

Here on my blog last week:

TV Tuesday: The Company You Keep - this heist show combines suspenseful crime with forbidden romance and is a lot of fun!

Fiction Review: The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate - I absolutely loved this fascinating historical fiction that takes place in 1875 and 1987 Louisiana

__________

On Video

Just one book-related video last week:

Friday Reads 6-2-23 - my weekly update on what I'm reading - Big Books this time!

__________

 What We're Reading 

I like to kick off Big Book Summer with a fast-paced read, and Billy Summer by Stephen King has been the perfect book to start my summer. I think I'm already about halfway through this unique novel about a hitman who's agreed to one last job (with a huge payday) and is then planning to retire. King's amazing talent for creating in-depth characters that feel real and compelling plots you can't look away from is on full display here! Like many of his best books, this is not horror. I've been calling it a thriller, but it's not even very action-packed (yet anyway). It's well-titled because Billy, the hitman, is at the heart of this novel; it's the story of his life, and by the first couple of chapters, you are already rooting for Billy and hoping things turn out well for him. I am loving it and staying up much too late every night reading it!

My first Big Book on audio this summer is The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara. This unique novel chronicles the lives of a group of gay and transgender teens in NYC in the late 70's and 80's. The novel begins with different chapters each focusing on a different child/teen who knows that he/she is different and is trying to find their place in the world. I'm just getting to where some of these initial characters are beginning to meet each other, so I think the novel is ultimately about finding community--and family--for these isolated young people who feel like they don't fit in. The audio production is wonderful, and the narrative is engrossing so far.

My husband, Ken, just finished reading one of my all-time favorite books, Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais, a past two-time Booktopia author. Robin, a nine-year-old white girl in Johannesburg, South Africa, is orphaned and goes to live with her single aunt, who works as a flight attendant. Since she's often not at home, the aunt hires Beauty, a 50-ish Black Xhosa woman who has come to the city to search for her missing teen daughter. The two isolated, damaged people slowly bond, as Robin begins to heal with Beauty's help. This beautifully written novel has it all: suspense, drama, and a wonderful sense of humor. I loved hearing my husband laughing out loud as he read it and reading the funny parts aloud to me. This book has heart. And it's a Big Book! (My husband participates in the challenge, too.)  

 Our son, 28, has gone back to the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour, which he loves! He's currently reading book eight, Court Wizard.

 __________

In 1863, six-year-old Hannie is frightened as her master's son, whose father asked him to see them all moved safely to Texas, instead sells off Hannie's family along the way. In stop after stop, she sees each of her siblings, her aunt, her little cousin, and finally her mother sold off and taken away. After the war is over, Hannie is the only one from her family who is returned to the Gossett plantation in Augustine, Louisiana, and transformed from slave into sharecropper, along with a handful of others still left there. In 1875, they are approaching their 10th sharecropping year, when they will finally own their own land. Hannie overhears a conversation between Lavinia, the Little Missy of the plantation, and her Creole half-sister, Juneau Jane. It seems that Mr. Gossett had a mistress in New Orleans and another daughter Lavinia's age. Now, when the two girls set off on a mutual journey to find their father's lawyer and protect their inheritance, Hannie secretly accompanies them, hoping to find the sharecropping contract to prove their right to the land. The three teen girls are on a dangerous mission that takes them into Texas, among outlaws and vigilantes. It also reignites Hannie's longing to find her family, when she discovers the Lost Friends column in a church newspaper distributed throughout the south.

In alternating chapters, first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, aka Benny, moves to Augustine in 1987. She's been assigned to teach English at the local high school, and her only previous experience was student teaching at a well-off suburban high school in the East. When she discovers there are no books for the English classes and a student almost faints from hunger on her first day, Benny realizes this is going to be far more difficult than she first thought. Benny begins to get to know the people in town, including the well-respected Granny T, who runs the Cluck and Oink BBQ joint, and Nathan Gossett, the reluctant heir to all that is left of the Gossett plantation, including its beautiful library filled with books. Benny gets the idea to engage her students in reading and writing by researching their own families' histories, though the town doesn't like new ideas ... or stirring up old wounds.

Often in a book with two separate narratives like this, you find yourself preferring one over the other, but I was equally engrossed in both the 1875 and 1987 stories and rooting for both Hannie and Benny to succeed in their quests. Each set of chapters begins with a copy of a Lost Friends column, and some of them are echoed in the narrative, with familiar names popping up. Hannie's story is filled with action, adventure, and loss, while Benny's story is one of isolation, a desire to help, and becoming part of a community. The two narratives come together beautifully at the end, just as I'd hoped they would. I both read the book in print and listened to it on audio, which worked out wonderfully; I got to see the Lost Friends' columns reprinted and also listen to the multiple excellent audio narrators. It's a compelling, engaging novel, filled with fascinating historical detail and memorable characters that I never wanted to leave.

375 pages, Ballantine Books

Random House Audio

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

Monthly Motif - In It to Win It (character takes on a personal challenge)

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes - Louisiana

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from Hannie's first part of the narrative, and/or download it from Audible.

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Welcome to the June 2023 newsletter for the Book By Book blog!

E-mail me at sljackson@suzanjackson.com to let me know what you think of this newsletter and what you would like to see here in the future.

Book Quote of the Month

"In Varenka she realized that one has but to forget oneself and love others, and one will be calm, happy, and noble."

"But it is hard for anyone who is dissatisfied not to blame someone else, and especially the person nearest of all to him, for the ground of his dissatisfaction"

--Two quotes from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, one of my Big Book Summer reads in 2021. You can read my full review on my blog.

Blog of the Month

Meet Jane of the Reading, Writing, Working, Playing blog. Jane has been writing her blog for many years and is a longtime participant in my annual Big Book Summer Challenge, which is how I got to know her. Her blog includes reviews of a wide range of books, and most recently, some wonderful travel posts about her mother-daughter trip to Europe, with some beautiful photos! Stop by Jane's blog and leave a comment for her.

Booktuber of the Month

One of my favorite Booktube channels is Red Dot Reads, hosted by Nikki, a British woman who lives in Singapore. Nikki and I have very similar reading tastes, and I love her enthusiasm for books. We will be doing a Buddy Read this summer, as part of Big Book Summer, of The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Check out Nikki's YouTube channel and enjoy her videos!

My Reading Life

The big news is that it's Big Book Summer Challenge time! Last weekend, I kicked off my annual summer reading challenge. All readers are welcome to participate. You set your own goals, whether that's just 1 or 2 or a bunch, of "big books" from now until September. A big book is any book with 400 or more pages in the print edition, and all books, in all genres and all types, count. Here are my own plans for Big Book Summer 2023 Sign up at the challenge page linked above. I hope you join the fun!

A Look Back

In honor of Big Book Summer, here is my post from 2011 when I came up with the idea of reading bigger books in the summer for myself, The Summer of the Big Book. And eleven years ago, in May 2012, I launched the first-ever Big Book Summer Challenge! And last year, in its 10th anniversary, we had 50 participants, including bloggers, YouTubers, and lots of readers!

You can connect with me on:

My blog: http://bookbybook.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SueBookByBook

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bookbybook

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SueJacksonDE

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzan-jackson-8436878/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20014156.Suzan_L_Jackson

Welcome to the June 2023 newsletter for the Book By Book blog!

E-mail me at sljackson@suzanjackson.com to let me know what you think of this newsletter and what you would like to see here in the future.

Book Quote of the Month

"In Varenka she realized that one has but to forget oneself and love others, and one will be calm, happy, and noble."

"But it is hard for anyone who is dissatisfied not to blame someone else, and especially the person nearest of all to him, for the ground of his dissatisfaction"

--Two quotes from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, one of my Big Book Summer reads in 2021. You can read my full review on my blog.

Blog of the Month

Meet Jane of the Reading, Writing, Working, Playing blog. Jane has been writing her blog for many years and is a longtime participant in my annual Big Book Summer Challenge, which is how I got to know her. Her blog includes reviews of a wide range of books, and most recently, some wonderful travel posts about her mother-daughter trip to Europe, with some beautiful photos! Stop by Jane's blog and leave a comment for her.

Booktuber of the Month

One of my favorite Booktube channels is Red Dot Reads, hosted by Nikki, a British woman who lives in Singapore. Nikki and I have very similar reading tastes, and I love her enthusiasm for books. We will be doing a Buddy Read this summer, as part of Big Book Summer, of The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. Check out Nikki's YouTube channel and enjoy her videos!

Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us) stars as Charlie Nicoletti, the son and heir apparent of a unique family business. His mother, father, sister, and he all work together as criminals and con-men, with their working-class Baltimore bar as cover. His father, played by William Fichtner, and his mother, played by Polly Draper (of thirtysomething fame), own the bar, and Charlie and his sister Birdie, played by Sarah Wayne Callies, work there, while the whole family plans their next job in their off-hours in the basement. Birdie also has a deaf daughter named Ollie, played by Shaylee Mansfield, who is not in on the family secrets. They're a close-knit family, and they are very, very good at what they do. After a huge, $10 million score, they consider retiring from the life of crime, but the big-time drug-dealing, arms-buying crime family they scammed isn't ready to let them; they want to use the Nicolettis' unique talents to earn back the money they stole from them. One night, a beautiful woman named Emma Hill, played by Catherine Haena Kim, comes into the bar, and she and Charlie hit it off. There is instant chemistry between them and plenty of witty banter, though it is clear to both of them that the other has secrets. It turns out that Emma is a CIA agent, so Charlie must keep his criminal life even more secret than usual, as the two get closer and their physical attraction turns into a deeper love. Emma is not only in law enforcement but comes from a well-known D.C. power family, and her brother is running for the Senate (to take his father's role). What kind of future is there for a federal agent and a career criminal who come from such different worlds?

The beginning of this show is a playful secrets-and-lies love affair between Charlie and Emma, but their respective secrets are revealed to each other fairly soon in the first season. Things get even more complicated when Emma is investigating the very crime family that is blackmailing Charlie's family. The acting in this show is top-notch, with great writing featuring lots of witty banter between Charlie and Emma. Its fast-paced, fun heist plots rival any crime show but with the added fun of Charlie and Emma's opposite positions. We really enjoyed this show with its perfect mix of suspense, action, family drama, and romance.

Unfortunately, I just read that ABC decided not to renew The Company You Keep for a second season, though the final episode of season one certainly sets up plenty of threads for a continuation. I decided to still review it because this first season is a lot of fun and worth watching on its own ... and we can always hope that one of the streaming channels picks it up to continue it (as Netflix did with Manifest which comes back for a final season starting June 2).

The Company You Keep is an ABC show, so it can be viewed on cable On Demand, on Hulu, or a variety of other streaming services. It is also available free on ABC's website.

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

Whew, what a whirlwind fun-filled week! I spent Wednesday and Thursday getting ready to launch the Big Book Summer Challenge (see below). Thursday evening, my cousin and her husband arrived for a visit. We had a wonderful time with them. She and I have known each other all our lives, but we've never had the chance to spend time together like this, just us, and it was great! We took them on a hike along White Clay Creek, to show them some of Delaware's natural beauty.

Great Blue Heron in the creek

My husband and I with my cousin & her husband

Beautiful day along White Clay Creek

In the evening, we celebrated her birthday with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, seated on the second-floor deck overlooking the river. They left Saturday morning, and our son and his girlfriend arrived at dinnertime! We enjoyed some relaxed quiet time with them, catching up and hearing all about our son's new job.

With our son and his girlfriend

Last night, we watched the daughter of our closest friends get married on Zoom! She and her girlfriend were visiting New Orleans, where they met, and decided on an impromptu wedding in that wonderful place. We were glad to be a part of their special day and share in their happiness.

Our son and his girlfriend just left (hopefully the traffic back to Long Island won't be too terrible). I managed this very active long weekend well but have been pretty wiped out for the past few days! It was worth it to enjoy such fabulous family time.

__________

On the Blog

Big Book Summer Challenge 2023 has begun!

With all of our visitors, I kicked the challenge off a bit early this year, on Thursday evening, and there are already about 25 people signed up! If you signed up this weekend, I was offline most of the time, so I will be visiting blogs and YouTube channels and replying to sign-ups in the Goodreads group today as I catch up.

This annual reading challenge is super simple and easy-going for summer (or winter, if you're in the southern hemisphere!). You set your own goals, whether that's reading one big book or two or however many you want. You have from now until September 4 (Labor Day in the U.S.), and a big book is any book with 400 or more pages. Everything counts: e-books, audios, YA, middle-grade, graphic novels, fiction, nonfiction. As long as the print edition is at least 400 pages, it's a big book! If you don't have a blog or YouTube channel, no problem--just sign up in the Goodreads group or even by leaving a comment on the challenge page. We have some great book discussions in the Goodreads group all summer long!

All of the details are on the Big Book Summer Challenge page, including a links list for bloggers and YouTubers. 

Hope you'll join the fun, too!

Here on the blog last week:

Fiction Review: Brother and Sister Enter the Forest by Richard Mirabella - a Booktopia selection about family, adult siblings, and trauma. 

Big Book Summer Challenge is Here! - all the details 

My Big Book Summer Plans 2023 - check out my pile of possibilities for the summer. What should I read first??

__________

On Video

Just one video last week - you guessed it:

Big Book Summer Challenge - details about the challenge, what I plan to read this summer, and plenty of Big Book recommendations, too

__________

 What We're Reading

I have not yet started a Big Book because I haven't had much reading time with all the visitors. Today, I will be finishing The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams, the second quarter readalong pick for the Book Cougars podcast (and episode 182 includes an interview with me about Big Book Summer). It's about a list of eight books that 17-year-old Aleisha finds stuck in a library book while working at her new job in the library. She's not much of a reader, but she begins reading the books on the list (classics and modern classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Kite Runner). Things are tough at home for Aleisha, as she helps her brother care for their mother. When an elderly widower named Mukesh comes to the library looking for a book, in an effort to connect with his late wife and his young granddaughter (both avid readers), Aleisha passes him To Kill a Mockingbird, which leads to them reading and discussing each book on the list and becoming friends. This is a story about the power of books to soothe and comfort and to connect people. I've loved it!

I will also be finishing my audio book today (and picking a Big Book audio), Into White by Randi Pink, a YA novel I downloaded during a previous SYNC summer (this year's program, with two free audiobooks each week, at the link). LaToya Williams is a Black girl in her mostly white Alabama high school, where she endures discrimination and bullying from both white and Black students. She wonders how her life would be different and prays one night to wake up "anything but Black." Her prayers are answered when she wakes up as a beautiful blue-eyed blonde. I wasn't sure about this one at first, with its magical transformation and seemingly silly premise, but it ended up having plenty of emotional depth and being a thoughtful and thought-provoking novel.

My husband had to set aside A Flaw in the Design by Nathan Oates (a Booktopia selection this year) for now, after our great-nephew's death last week--it's a great book but just too dark for his state of mind. Instead, he's been reading one of my all-time favorite books, Hum If You Don't Know the Words by Bianca Marais, a past two-time Booktopia author. Robin, a nine-year-old white girl in Johannesburg, South Africa, is orphaned and goes to live with her single aunt, who works as a flight attendant. Since she's often not at home, the aunt hires Beauty, a 50-ish Black Xhosa woman who has come to the city to search for her missing teen daughter.The two isolated, damaged people slowly bond, as Robin begins to heal with Beauty's help. This beautifully written novel has it all: suspense, drama, and a wonderful sense of humor. I love to hear my husband laughing out loud as he reads it. This book has heart. And it's a Big Book! (My husband participates in the challenge, too.)

 Our son, 28, has gone back to the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour, which he loves! He's currently reading book eight, Court Wizard.

 __________

The idea is simple: Use the ease of summer to tackle a Big Book (400+ pages) or two or ... however many you want! You set your own goals. You can hear more about how it started and some great Big Book suggestions in my video, Big Book Summer Challenge 2023.

And if it is the start of winter where you live, then it's your Big Book Winter Challenge! Everyone is welcome to participate.

The Details:
Hey, it's summer, so we'll keep this low-key and easy!

• Anything 400 pages or more qualifies as a big book.
• The challenge runs from Memorial Day weekend (starting May 25 this year) through Labor Day (September 4 this year).
  
• Choose one or two or however many big books you want as your goal. Wait, did you get that?  You only need to read 1 book with 400+ pages this summer to participate! (though you are welcome to read more, if you want).
• Sign up on the first links list below if you have a blog or YouTube channel, to leave your link so others can find you. 
• No blog? No problem! Just sign up in the comments below or in the Goodreads group in the Sign-Up discussion thread if you don't have a blog or YouTube channel.
  
• If you have a blog or YouTube channel, write a post or record a video to kick things off: you can list the exact big books you plan to read or just announce your intent to participate, but be sure to include the Big Book Summer Challenge pic above, with a link back to this blog page. It's fine to kick-off your Big Book Summer as part of another post or video.
  
• Write a post or record a video to wrap up at the end, listing the big books you read during the summer.
• You can write progress posts or record progress videos if you want to and/or reviews of the big books you've read ... but you don't have to! There is a separate links list (the second one) below for big book reviews, progress updates, and wrap-up posts/videos.

That's it!  Go check out your shelves and your TBR list for chunksters and sign up below!

What kind of books "count"? All kinds! Middle-grade, YA, graphic novels, classics, all genres, all types--as long as they are at least 400 pages. Yes, e-books and audio books count, too! Just check online for the number of pages in the print edition. See my list of Big Books on BookShop for some great ideas, based on what I have read in previous Big Book Summers and throughout the year. And this year's kick-off video also includes some suggestions.

And if you DO have a blog or YouTube channel, you are still welcome to join the group on Goodreads for the 2023 Big Book Summer Challenge, where we can talk about Big Books and our progress on the challenge. It's a fun book conversation all summer long!

Check out my own list of books to read for the challenge this summer and my Big Book Summer Kick-Off Video for more on what I plan to read this summer. 

And you can pick up some fun Big Book Summer products! Check out my Zazzle shop for Big Book Summer mugs, t-shirts, tote bags, notebooks, car magnets, stickers, and more!

At the end of the summer, there will be a Big Book Giveaway! After Labor Day, I'll select a name from among the participants--bloggers and booktubers who leave a link below as well as those without a blog/video who sign-up through the Goodreads group or in the Comments below--and will send the winner a BookShop gift certificate.

And help spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media with #BigBookSummer. You can follow me at:

Twitter: @suebookbybook 

Facebook: the Facebook page for this blog 

YouTube: SueJacksonDE

Challenge updates will be posted in all of those places.

Hope you'll join the Big Book Summer fun!

I have just announced the 11th year of my annual reading challenge, Big Book Summer Challenge, so I guess I should be the first to sign up!

I always enjoy tackling some big books in the summer, and I'm looking forward to finally reading some of these bricks that have been collecting dust on my shelf (for this challenge, a Big Book is any book with 400 pages or more).

NOTE: Don't let my stack below intimidate you! You only need to read ONE Big Book over the next three months to join in the fun and participate in the challenge. I like to make a "pile of possibilities," but you do you 😀

I definitely won't get through all of these, but I like to have some options to choose from. These are all currently on my shelves, waiting patiently to be read (along with many others!):

From the bottom of the stack:

• Billy Summers by Stephen King (528 pages)
• The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (592 pages)
• Never by Ken Follett (816 pages)
  
• Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (870 pages) - book 3 of the Outlander series, left from Big Book Summer 2022!
  
• Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (608 pages)
• Afterland by Lauren Beukes (432 pages)
• Scythe by Neal Schusterman (464 pages)
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (470 pages)
• Burn by Nevada Barr (450 pages)
  

I know that looks like a huge stack--and it is!--but as you can see, many of my choices are in the 400-600 page range and several are fast-paced reads. Voyager will be my biggest chunkster of the summer (and those are big pages packed with dense text!), but I know I will enjoy it.

All of these also qualify for my Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2023. My shelves are overflowing, so this is good! One  of them will also count for my Back to the Classics 2023 Challenge.

I also devote my summer to listening to Big Audio Books (audios and e-books count). I will choose those as I go, throughout the summer.

Check out my 2023 Big Book Summer Challenge Video for more on what I plan to read this summer, plus some great suggestions that I enjoyed in past summers. You can also find more great Big Book recommendations on my Big Books! list on Bookshop. I have read and enjoyed every single book on that list, and it includes a wide variety of book types and genres--something for everyone!

 How about you? Are you up for tackling a Big Book (or two or three) this summer? 
Join me and sign up for the 2023 Big Book Summer Challenge! The rules, details, and link-ups are on that page.

NOTE: You don't need a blog to participate--you can either leave a comment on the Challenge page or sign up in the 2023 Big Book Summer Goodreads group. Either way, first read the details on the Challenge page.

Willa lives a quiet life on her own, working as a nurse, casually seeing a man named Luke,  and occasionally checking in on her mother. She makes intricate dioramas, with miniature people (often her brother and her) arranged in scenes, in her spare time. Her brother, Justin, shows up at her door one day. They haven't seen each other in several years, and Justin looks bad, both homeless and unwell. Against her better judgement, Willa lets Justin stay with her. The narrative moves back and forth between the present day, as Justin and Willa try to readjust to each other, and the past, when they were both teenagers living with their mother. Back then, as a gay teen, Justin didn't have many friends but was seeing a slightly older man who'd recently graduated. Willa had one best friend back then, and her home was a refuge. Willa and Justin's mother was not a warm person, and her relationship with Justin was especially strained. Now, as adults both damaged by some sort of trauma in their past, Willa and Justin struggle to negotiate their relationship with each other and to make connections with others.

These two narrative threads--past and present--alternate, as they weave together the story of this brother and sister. The reader knows that something terrible happened to Justin as a teenager, something that left him both physically and emotionally damaged, but we don't know exactly what that trauma was until past the halfway mark. This creates suspense and a sense of foreboding in both the past and the present. Willa and Justin have a very complicated sibling relationship, tinged by this long-ago trauma that affected the whole family. They don't fully understand each other and feel somewhat like strangers, but with a shared past that leaves them feeling both compassionate and resentful. They each reach for healing and wholeness as adults, and they each make progress but without fully getting there. This is a complex, poignant story of tension and tenderness, family and friendship, and trauma and healing.

275 pages, Catapult

Dreamscape Media (audio)

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Diversity Challenge

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here and/or download it from Audible.

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

I'd like to focus on the books this week but first, just a quick mention of what happened last week. On Monday, we got the news that our great nephew (our nephew's 13-year-old son) died suddenly and horrifically on Sunday. We cancelled all our plans and flew to Texas for the funeral this weekend.

We've been to a lot of funerals in our families in the past ten years (and too many just in the past year), but this was a whole different experience. His big sister planned his memorial service and created a beautiful, moving, shattering slideshow. The service was perfect, but everything about this week was completely devastating for all.

It took us over 24 hours to get home, due to the assortment of delays, issues, and emergencies that seem to only happen in the airline industry. We spent 12 hours in the Houston airport yesterday, finally flew to Dallas at night, got a brief 6 hours of sleep in a nearby hotel, and went back to the airport this morning for a 6 am flight. We're both exhausted but still so grateful that we could be there with our family this weekend.   

Hug your kids and tell your family members you love them. Life is so fragile.

I hope you'll pardon this transition from grief to book talk, but I need a bit of normalcy and comfort right now.

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On the Blog

No posts last week after my Monday update, but ...

Remember that Big Book Summer, my annual summer reading challenge, kicks off THIS week, at the start of Memorial Day weekend. Check out last year's challenge page for details, pick out a Big Book (400 or more pages) or two (or more), and join the fun! A new challenge page, video, and Goodreads group for sign-ups will go up on Thursday, May 25 (we have visitors this weekend, so I'll kick things off a day early).

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On Video

Just a quick 1-minute short last week:

Friday Reads short 

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What We're Reading

I finished Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler. Delia is the wife of Dr. Grinstead, who took over her father's medical practice, and the mother of three almost-grown children. She still lives in the house she grew up in, and her life is quiet and predictable. So, it's a shock to everyone--including Delia herself--when Delia takes a walk down the beach on a family vacation ... and never returns. On a whim, she settles in a small, rural town and starts a new life; she rents a room in a boardinghouse and gets a job as a secretary--her first paid job ever (she's been working as her father's and then her husband's secretary her entire life). As Delia starts from scratch, with nothing, she begins to discover her own identity, separate from her family, for the first time. I had mixed feelings about this novel. While I could understand Delia's need to live on her own terms, as the mother of two grown sons myself, it was hard to relate to leaving one's children (of any age). I did enjoy Anne Tyler's renowned warmth and subtle humor (the newspaper article about Delia's disappearance in the first pages says it all). 

I traveled with only my iPad Mini, so before I left, I downloaded an e-book, The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams, the second quarter readalong pick for the Book Cougars podcast. This is a very comforting read for my state of mind this week (and for being stuck in airports and on planes for two days). It's about a list of eight books that 17-year-old Aleisha finds stuck in a library book while working at her new job in the library. She's not much of a reader, but she begins reading the books on the list (classics and modern classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Kite Runner). Things are tough at home for Aleisha, as she helps her brother care for their mother. When an elderly widower named Mukesh comes to the library looking for a book, in an effort to connect with his late wife and his young granddaughter (both avid readers), Aleisha passes him To Kill a Mockingbird, and they end up talking about it together. This is a story about the power of books to soothe and comfort and to connect people. I'm loving it so far, and it provided much-needed escape yesterday during our long hours in the airport.

I forgot to mention last week that my husband and I finished the audiobook we started on vacation last month, The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz. This is book #4 in his Hawthorne and Horowitz mystery series, where the author has put himself--his real life self--into a fictional world as a character. The author has reluctantly teamed up with Hawthorne, a Holmesian detective, to write a series of true crime books about his cases. In this book, Horowitz says that he's finished with the partnership but then he himself is accused of murder when someone associated with his new play is killed. He needs Hawthorne to help clear his name. It was my second book in this series (The Word Is Murder, book 1), and my husband's first, and we both enjoyed the twisty mystery.

Now, I am listening to Into White by Randi Pink, a YA novel I downloaded during a previous SYNC summer (this year's program, with two free audiobooks each week, just started--at the link). LaToya Williams is a Black girl in her mostly white Alabama high school, where she endures discrimination and bullying from both white and Black students. She wonders how her life would be different and prays one night to wake up "anything but Black." Her prayers are answered when she wakes up as a beautiful blue-eyed blonde. I had some trouble with the premise at first, but now it's getting into more emotional depth as LaToya experiences life as a white girl.

My husband, Ken, started reading A Flaw in the Design by Nathan Oates last week. This is excellent creepy psychological suspense that I read last month for Booktopia. Like me, he stuck to e-books this week for travel (a couple that he had started previously but wasn't really getting into). Besides, A Flaw in the Design was too dark for him right now. I'm not sure if he'll go back to it tonight or choose something else for now.

I haven't checked with our son, but I think he is still reading book 4, The Tunnels Beneath, of The Aldoran Chronicles by Michael Wiseheart. He said his new job is keeping him very busy!

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Hosted by The Book Date

Life

(Please note: For those that know me IRL, we got word today of a horrible tragedy in our family. Since I had already written this post, I decided to go ahead and post it because I may not be online much the next couple of weeks.) 

Last week was a whirlwind of recovery/catch-up in between Booktopia weekend and Mother's Day weekend, but I managed to go to my book group meeting (and made it to the end!). It was great to see everyone, and we had a wonderful discussion.

Then, it was back in the car to drive back to Connecticut, for both Mother's Day and my mom's birthday. I couldn't participate in a lot of the fun stuff, but it was wonderful to celebrate my mom, be with my niece and nephew, and to see the four cousins together, having fun.

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On the Blog

Fiction Review: Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett - my favorite Booktopia selection, this warm, thoughtful novel about addiction and death is also very funny.

 Fiction Review: A Flaw in the Design by Nathan Oates - creepy psychological suspense with plenty of emotional depth

Remember that Big Book Summer, my annual summer reading challenge kicks off in less than two weeks, at the start of Memorial Day weekend! Check out last year's challenge page for details, pick out a Big Book (400 or more pages) or two, and join the fun! A new challenge page and Goodreads group for sign-ups will go up either May 25 or 26.

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On Video

Booktopia 2023 Vlog - video clips and photos of Booktopia, held in Vermont every May, plus a quick overview of the books and authors featured there this year. 

 Friday Reads 5-12-23 - weekly update on what I am currently reading

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What We're Reading

I finished both reading and listening to The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate for book group. My book group previously read--and loved--Wingate's novel Before We Were Yours. This is another historical fiction book that spans both past and present. In Louisiana in 1875, a former slave named Hannie is now 18 years old and wants to find her family. Her mother, aunt, and eight siblings were each sold off separately in Louisiana and Texas during the war, when Hannie was just six years old. She's the only one that ended up back on their home plantation. In 1987, Bennie Silva is a first-year high school English teacher in that same town, struggling to engage the kids in her classes, who are distracted by extreme poverty, family members in prison, and other daily struggles. The "lost friends" of the title were real-life letters published in a southern church newspaper from enslaved people searching for their families, and Wingate has included these real (and very moving) letters throughout the narrative. I was completely engrossed in both narrative threads of this outstanding novel and loved the way they wove together in the end. The rest of my book group enjoyed it, too.

I mentioned to my family that I like Anne Tyler, so I received three of her novels for Christmas! I am reading one of those, Ladder of Years. Delia is the wife of Dr. Grimstead, who took over her father's medical practice, and the mother of three grown and almost-grown children. She still lives in the house she grew up in, and her life is quiet and predictable. So, it's a shock to everyone--including Delia herself--when Delia takes a walk down the beach on a family vacation ... and never returns. On a whim, she settles in a small, rural town and starts a new life; she rents a room in a boardinghouse and gets a job as a secretary--her first paid job ever (she's been working as her father's and then her husband's secretary her entire life). As Delia starts from scratch, with nothing, she begins to discover her own identity, separate from her family, for the first time. I'm enjoying this novel so far, with Anne Tyler's renowned warmth and subtle humor (the newspaper article about Delia's disappearance in the first pages says it all).

My husband, Ken, just finished reading Armada by Ernest Cline (author of the fabulous Ready Player One and its sequel, Ready Player Two). This is an earlier novel, where a teen obsessed with video games witnesses a real alien invasion--sounds like a lot of fun, with Cline's trademark humor woven in. He said it was enjoyable but not as good as Ready Player One and had the feel of a YA novel.

Our son, 28, is still reading book 4, The Tunnels Beneath, of The Aldoran Chronicles by Michael Wiseheart. He said his new job is keeping him very busy! 

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Gil, a college literature professor, and his wife, Molly, live a quiet life in Vermont with their two daughters, ages 11 and 15. As the novel opens, that life is disrupted by the arrival of seventeen-year-old Matthew, their nephew. Gil's sister and her husband were just recently killed in a horrible car crash in New York, and Gil and Molly were surprised to learn that they were named as Matthew's guardians. Gil and his sister had been estranged for the past six years, ever since a disastrous family beach vacation at his sister's luxury home in Montauk. Matthew, just eleven at the time, displayed erratic, violent behavior, culminating in a heinous act that put their youngest daughter in danger. Now, Gil and Molly are welcoming Matthew into the midst of their family, wondering if he's a psychopath or if maybe he grew out of that behavior. In addition, Matthew has grown up surrounded by great wealth and privilege, and this new life in rural Vermont in the midst of a dark, snowy winter is a far cry from his luxury Upper East Side apartment and private school. Sometimes, Matthew seems like a normal teenager who is charming and very smart. He's even kind to Molly and the kids, and their oldest daughter is especially enamored of her older cousin. At other times, he seems menacing, and Gil wonders if he is taunting them. Is Matthew really a dangerous psychopath in their midst or is Gil's growing anxiety and mental health history leading him toward paranoia?

That is the primary tension in this slow-burning, creepy story, and that tension begins from the opening chapter (listen to the audio sample below) and grows, page by page. In addition to its exquisite suspense, the novel also has incredible emotional depth, as you get to know each character and learn their history. It delves into issues of trust, family relationships, economic disparities, and mental health. I would never spoil a novel in a review, but I can tell you that the climactic ending here is somewhat ambiguous, leaving the reader thinking and making it an excellent choice for discussion. This thought-provoking, taut suspense story will keep you reading late into the night ... with all the lights on.

283 pages, Random House

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from the start of the novel, and/or download it from Audible. You can hear that tension already in these first pages.

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Twenty-two-year-old Emma Starling has returned to her small, rural hometown of Everton, New Hampshire. Her father, Clive, is dying of a mysterious brain disease, and it's finally time (Thanksgiving now) to admit to her parents that she did not start med school in the fall, like she told them (Emma was supposedly born with healing powers). Emma's come home to spend time with her father but also to figure out what's next in her life. Her brother, Auggie, is also at home living with their parents after his second stint in rehab. Clive's brain disease causes hallucinations, especially of animals, though he also hallucinates a real-life man. Ernest Harold Baynes lived in the town around the turn of the 20th century and was a renowned naturalist who was known for taming animals and bringing them into his home, including a pet fox, The Sprite, and a bear named Jimmy. Clive was asked to leave his job as an English professor at the local college when he scared a class by yelling about all the cats in the room. Emma finds a job as the long-term substitute teacher for the 5th grade class at the local school. The kids have been doubly traumatized as a classmate died recently and their usual beloved teacher is accompanying her husband, a prominent local businessman accused of dealing drugs, in court. Finally, Emma's best friend from high school, Crystal, is missing, but police aren't even looking for her, as she was known to take drugs and they assume she either ran away or is dead somewhere. Clive hasn't given up, though, and is driving everyone in town crazy by posting thousands of "missing" posters all over. Oh, and the entire novel is narrated by the (dead) residents of the town cemetery.

I know that last part sounds gimicky (and the whole thing sounds very quirky), but this is a wonderful novel filled with heart and humor. It deals with some very serious topics--opioid addiction, childhood trauma, terminal illness--with honesty and emotional depth, but it also had me laughing out loud from beginning to end. The narration by dead townspeople from many different time periods adds a unique (and amusing) omniscient point of view. Ernest Harold Baynes (Clive just calls him Harold and has many in-depth conversations with him) was a real historical figure in that part of New Hampshire, with real photos and edited excerpts of his writings sprinkled throughout the novel. The author explained at Booktopia that she wanted to include him in a book but wanted to write a modern story, not historical fiction, so she made him a ghost. The precocious 5th graders in Emma's class were one of my favorite parts of the story; they are intense and sincere and very funny. The novel also incorporates suspense, in the plotline about the missing Crystal. Is this another of Clive's flights of fancy or could she possibly still be alive somewhere? All of these disparate plotlines come together in a fabulous climax. This wonderful, unique novel was poignant, engrossing, hilariously funny, and filled with memorable characters. I definitely want to read Hartnett's earlier novel, Rabbit Cake.

346 pages, Ballantine Books

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR Challenge

Diversity Reading Challenge

Literary Escapes - NH

Visit my YouTube Channel for more bookish fun!

Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, from the start of the novel with the cemetery residents narrating, and/or download it from Audible.

Or get this audiobook from Libro.fm and support local bookstores.

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)--the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Hosted by The Book Date

Life

Happy Monday! I am catching up on real life (and resting) after another fabulous Booktopia weekend in beautiful Manchester, Vermont, at the Northshire Bookstore.

Booktopia is a very unique book event held every year on the first weekend in May. This year, it included 83 attendees (readers), 9 authors, and a bunch of Northshire booksellers. The weekend began Friday morning with recommendations from the booksellers that expanded everyone's TBR lists! Author sessions ran Friday afternoon and all day Saturday. Lots of the attendees try to read some of the books ahead of time, so these author talks are more like book group discussions with the author than your typical author reading. We heard all about what was behind each book, how the author created it, and we asked lots of questions! The authors are always amazed--and thrilled--by the depth of the questions Booktopians ask.

 

Me with author Annie Hartnett

Author Richard Mirabella

Friday evening included a big dinner for the whole crowd (authors and readers) with a Yankee Book Swap and some fun rounds of book trivia. My team (The Lit Ladies) started out hot, but the questions got a lot more difficult!

Our team's book trivia answers

My mom and I & two good friends with our swap books!

 

And Saturday evening, each author gives a quick 10-minute talk to the entire group--that session is open to the public.

Author Brianna Holt

Plus, there was delicious food and amazing conversations with so many great people! This was the sixth year that my mom and I attended Booktopia. Some people have been going every year since the first one, in 2011, and there are always new people there who soon become fans. It was so wonderful to reconnect with old friends and to meet new ones. Book people are the best!

Mom and I at our 6th Booktopia!

 

The 10-hour travel days there and back were a lot for me (traffic was horrible around NYC last night), but it's worth it. Every author who attends says, "This is such a unique and wonderful event!" I will be putting together my Booktopia Wrap-Up Vlog tomorrow, so look for that on my YouTube channel, with more photos, lots of video clips, and an overview of the books & authors featured.

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On the Blog

I managed to get two posts up before I left last week:

TV Tuesday: Somebody Somewhere - this fabulous show that its cast calls "quietly subversive" is hilariously funny and full of heart.

Teen/YA Review: This Is Our Place by Vitor Martins - I loved this unique YA novel on audio set in Brazil about 3 different teens in 3 decades, each living in the same house.  

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On Video

Just one video posted before my trip, but I also learned how to make video shorts (under 1 min) and posted a couple of pre-Booktopia shorts:

Video: April Reading Wrap-Up

Short: Preparing for Booktopia (traveling with chronic illness)

Short: Booktopia 2023: Vermont or Bust!

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What We're Reading

I finished my last Booktopia selection, The Love Scribe by Amy Meyerson. Alice and Gabby have been best friends since they were young and love to write letters to each other. When Gabby is struggling after a bad break-up, Alice sits down to write to her and has a sudden vision of a red hummingbird. A beautiful short story pours out of her that she gives to her friend. While Gabby is reading the story in a bar, she meets a wonderful man. Gabby passes the story onto her sister and some friends, and the same thing happens to them: they each fall in love. It seems that Alice may have a special gift, as she stumbles onto a new calling as a love scribe. I'm not usually into magical realism, but I ended up enjoying this. I liked it better as things began to go wrong, and the story became more complex. I both listened on audio and read it in print, so I could finish it in time for Booktopia!

With a book group meeting quickly approaching on Wednesday, I'm doing the same thing (audio and print) with another novel, The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate. My book group previously read--and loved--Wingate's novel Before We Were Yours. This is another historical fiction book that spans both past and present. In Louisiana in 1875, a former slave named Hannie is now 18 years old and wants to find her family. Her mother, aunt, and eight siblings were each sold off separately in Louisiana and Texas during the war, when Hannie was just six years old. She's the only one that ended up back on their home plantation. In 1987, Bennie Silva is a first-year high school English teacher in that same town, struggling to engage the kids in her classes, who are distracted by extreme poverty, family members in prison, and other daily struggles. These stories in two different time periods are gradually coming together. The "lost friends" of the title were real-life letters published in a southern church newspaper from enslaved people searching for their families, and Wingate has included these real (and very moving) letters throughout the narrative. I'm completely engrossed in this excellent book.