Welcome to my new monthly newsletter!

Each month, I will write a newsletter that will be delivered directly to your e-mail inbox, with all kinds of fun extras, in addition to the blog posts you now receive. E-mail me at [email protected] to let me know what you think of this first newsletter and what you would like to see here in the future!

Book Quote of the Month:

"My thoughts, normally bunched together, wrapped in gauze, insistent, urgent, impatient, one moment to the next, living in what I now realize is, in essence, a constant state of emergency (as if my evolutionary instincts of fight or flight have gone haywire, leading me to spend every morning, noon, and evening in a low-grade but absolutely never-ceasing form of panic), those rushed and ragged thoughts are now falling away, one by one, revealing themselves for what they are: the same thought over and over again. And once revealed for what they are, these hollow thoughts, imposters, non-thoughts masquerading as thoughts, memes, viruses, signals fired off, white noise generated by my brain, they are gone."

         - Excerpt from How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

My review

This was a fun, warm-hearted, thoughtful time travel novel, and this passage really struck me because it describes the way my own mind feels much of the time lately! I'm guessing I'm not alone, with the constant barrage of input we are all dealing with. What clears the main character's mind, toward the end of this passage, is walking through a deserted Buddhist temple, and that got me thinking about what brings me peace. For me, that is often the outdoors--taking a walk in nature or better yet, going camping and being "off the grid" for a few days.

What brings YOU peace and quiets your rushing mind?

Blog of the Month:

I only just discovered the book blog, Kerri McBookNerd (great blog name, right?), but I am already enjoying it! I like the clean look of Kerri's blog and am loving her fun, interesting posts. Check it out at the link and give her some comment love! (Let her know you heard about her blog from me.)

End of Summer Sale! This week only!

My book, Finding a New Normal: Living Your Best Life with Chronic Illness, is on sale now through September 5! Sales prices apply to ALL e-book formats/platforms and to the paperback purchased from Amazon (I can't control the print prices on other websites, but it is available everywhere that books are sold/lent, including bookstores and libraries). Links to all places the book is available are on my author website.

My Reading Life

This weekend (Labor Day weekend in the U.S.), I am wrapping up my own Big Book Summer Challenge, which ends on Monday, September 5. This was the 10th year I hosted the challenge, and we had lots of participants from blogs, BookTube, and just regular readers. I read some outstanding Big Books this summer and will recap those both on my blog and on my YouTube channel. And I thoroughly enjoyed the great conversations about books that we had in the Goodreads group! Thanks to all who participated, and to everyone else, I hope you'll join the fun next summer!

And, with September beginning, that means it's time for the fall R.I.P. Challenge! That's Readers Imbibing Peril, now in its 17th year! This one is super easy-going and no-stress. You just read (or watch or listen to) darker stuff in the fall and post about it on social media. You can see my plans (as usual, overly ambitious!) for fall in my recent Fall Reading video.

What are YOU planning to read this fall?

A Look Back

One year ago on my blog, I posted my Books Read in August wrap-up (wow, I was on top of things!). Take a look--it's always fun to look back and remember what great books I read that I might have forgotten about! Of those I finished in August 2021, The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin was my favorite.

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