Our climate and my health continue here on a luge tour! It was over 80F one day last week and I was in shorts and driving with the top down. However, today we are in our 40s, it is raining heavily (and the forecasts for ice and snow are just around the corner!), and I am back in a T-shirt. Similarly, I still struggle with lack of energy and stamina, but I had some good days early last week.
 80 degrees and sunshine last week!
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The big event was, of course, Easter yesterday. Isn't it wonderful that this year the holy days of the three major world religions fall on the same week?
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Easter breakfast with us - books in our baskets!
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We used to go to Rochester, New York to spend Easter with my family, but we really couldn't leave my stepfather alone for that long. He is in a nursing home nearby, but lately his dementia has been very severe, so we visit him every day to try to calm him down and keep him on the ground. So there were only four of us at Easter, but it was nice to have two "boys" at home and all together.
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It's good that we are all four together
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We enjoyed our traditional Ukrainian holiday: stuffed cabbage (stuffed cabbage), vareniki, greyn (turnip and horseradish flavor), plus lard, Polish sausages, green beans and, of course, colored eggs. As a bonus, Mom baked and mailed a box of Ukrainian plum pies. They are delicious and we haven't eaten them in years because she is the only one who knows how to make them. I cooked a lot of food for the four of us and both kids are leaving today (one for the work week and the other home to New York) so my husband and I will have plenty of food left over!
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Ukrainian Easter holidays!
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Mom sent homemade Ukrainian pastries (individually wrapped!)
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We were home after Easter dinner watching old movies when our kids were 2 and 5 years old, what a fuss! Then life was chaotic, but very fun. And they were both so adorable!
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One of our home video scenes - they really enjoyed playing with the costumes!
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With such limited effort last week (and lots of cooking!) I only managed to make one video, my usual Friday quick read update . Take a look to learn more about the two books I'm currently reading.
However, I've finally finished my March reviews (the latest ones are listed below), so here's my Reading Challenge 2022 update scheduled for late March (click on the link to see the details of my challenge):
Mountain TBR Challenge - I only have up to 9 books on my shelves...and my goal is 48! This happens in Booktopia because all of the books featured are reprints, so my reading in April is very similar.
Monthly Motivational Challenge : March caused a buzz in books , and editor Steven Rowley did it after hearing about it.
Back to the classics 2022. My goal is to read 6 classic books this year and I have already read 3! I am very proud of myself. I added in March Cathy John from Mary Calhoun in my Wild Card category.
Word search task : I have 11 letters ready so far (out of 26). It gets harder after using running letters!
Non-Fiction Reader's Challenge : In March, I added another non-fiction book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau by Ben Shattuck, 4 in total, with a goal of 12.
The Diversity Challenge - I've already read 18 different books this year! My target is 40, so I'm fine with that.
Around the World in Books - In March I added Egypt, the UK and Canada (Vancouver), for a total of 8 countries.
Literary Escape Challenge - I've completed 12 out of 51 states so far (including D.C.). It also gets more difficult when you get to the most common states like New York and California.
And here's what we all read last week:
I'm currently reading a book on
Booktopia (May details in link: click events and scroll down;
my review of Booktopia 2019 is here ),
Black Cloud Rising by David Wright
Falade . This is a Civil War historical fiction about a real-life troop of black soldiers who were mostly former emancipated slaves. As the Union army moved off the coast of Virginia and North Carolina, the newly freed slaves hurried to register and join the Africa Brigade. The story is told by Richard Etheridge, the son of a slave and his master, who is now Master Sgt. It's a gripping and thought-provoking story, and I'm learning a lot about this part of the Civil War that I didn't know. Looking forward to meeting the author in May!
In the audio, I hear another recently published historical novel by Kate Quinn , Diamond Eye . For years, I've heard other readers rave about Quinn's historical fiction, and this is her first novel. During World War II, a Russian woman becomes one of the deadliest snipers of the war, better than most of her male counterparts. Mila begins the book as a single mother working on her degree while also working at the library and raising her young son. His marksmanship skills draw the attention of the Russian army and he quickly finds himself at the center of the war. The novel opens with a scene a few years later in which she meets Eleanor Roosevelt in Washington, DC. Everything is based on a true story. While I'm enjoying it.
My husband Ken just finished Matty Dalrymple
's Feelings of Reckoning (my review from last fall is at the link). I love this TV show! It's about a woman named Ann Kinnear, who can sense ghosts and sometimes helps solve puzzles. In this novel, Ann travels to Mount Desert Island, Maine to help investigate a haunted hotel. This is one of our favorite places (the island is home to the Acadia National Park) and the author always adds a lot of details about the area and location. Like me, my husband loved all the familiar place names, learned some of the island's history that we didn't, and relished the mystery of the haunted hotel.
Ken is reading another book I read last fall,
I'll Leave in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for a Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara. None of us read a lot of non-fiction and rarely true crime fiction, but my son's friend gave me this book and I really liked it. This truly creepy and gripping story follows a rapist and serial killer in California who has been harassing the police for decades, mostly moving around. Author McNamara learned of some of the cases and began her own investigation, eventually helping the police tie several cases across the state together before her untimely death. Her husband, actor Patton Oswald, and his research assistant completed the book. This is a fun read and I think Ken will love it!
Got a full reading update from my 27 year old son since he was home all weekend! Last night I finished reading The Temple of the Winds , a large paperback book by Terry Goodkind, the fourth book in the Sword of Truth series. He really enjoyed this series, and the fourth book was a review read for him in preparation for reading the fifth book , The Spirit of Fire , starting tonight. I think this is the sixth volume in a row!
Blog entries from the last week:
What you read on Monday is posted by Katherine on Book Date, so check out her blog and join in on the Monday fun. You can also join the Kids/Teens/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.
You can follow me on Twitter @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog page.
What are you and your family reading this week?
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