Weekly Reading Update: Outstanding Novels & My First Big Book Summer Books!

Añadido: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]Hi, this is Sue Jackson and I'm here today with a Friday Reads or weekly reading wrap-up. Now, I haven't done one in 2 weeks because last Friday was the launch of Big Book Summer. Um, I've got some of my newer merch displayed here.

[00:00:18]Um, yeah, I asked my husband to look over my shop before, you know, Big Book Summer started. I said, "I added some new items. Let me know what you think."

[00:00:28]And I said, "I'm not a graphic designer." I said, "I I just want to know if the stuff the newer stuff looks okay."

[00:00:37]And the first thing he said was, "Ooh, a rocks glass. I want to get one of those." I said, "I already ordered you one."

[00:00:45]>> [laughter] >> So, I got him the rocks glass.

[00:00:48]Uh, I got the the pint glass for myself.

[00:00:52]Unfortunately, I can no longer drink beer, but it works well for the water that I sip on all the time. And I'm very excited about some new items I add, new logo, that um that my husband loved.

[00:01:06]So, this is one of them. I like big books and I cannot lie.

[00:01:12]I have to admit this is not my original idea.

[00:01:16]I saw a a logo like that on um Greg from Another Bibliophile Reads always wears that for his Big Book Summer video. So, um stole the idea, but came up with my own um graphic for it and yeah, I really like that. There's another new logo that I'm playing around with a little bit. I again, I'm not a graphic designer. I'm learning. And lots of new stuff like um well, I the phone case is great. I use mine every summer. Um, I added hats.

[00:01:51]Uh, I need to add some sweatshirts back in.

[00:01:54]I think they took those off because they they I don't think I sold any last summer.

[00:01:59]It's very hot here. You don't need a sweatshirt in summer, but I know that's not true everywhere.

[00:02:04]And my handy dandy notebook for Big Book Summer.

[00:02:08]Um there's also this year for the first time a hardcover journal, which is really nice.

[00:02:14]So, lots of fun stuff if you're participating in Big Book Summer. And if you're not, join the fun. Uh super simple. You set your own goals. A big book is any book of 400 or more pages.

[00:02:27]And it's a lot of fun all summer long.

[00:02:29]We've got some great communities on Goodreads and StoryGraph, too. So, let's jump into what I've been reading.

[00:02:37]Since my last uh reading wrap-up, I finished Heartwood by Amity Gaige. Wow, this book was so suspenseful.

[00:02:48]There's so much tension in it.

[00:02:50]>> [snorts] >> It's about a 42-year-old woman named Valerie who's hiking the Appalachian Trail, and she goes missing. In the last part of it, in the North Woods of Maine.

[00:03:04]Um an area that we've been to before. An area that we've backpacked in before.

[00:03:09]>> [laughter] >> Um but within um Baxter State Park.

[00:03:17]But it's a really wild area up there. Very dense with forest. It's So, throughout the book, you don't know if they're going to find Valerie in time or not.

[00:03:31]So, you get the story from multiple perspectives. So, while it's an outdoor thriller, I would also call it kind of a literary outdoor thriller because it's a really interesting approach to telling this suspenseful story. You get Valerie's own perspective because she's writing letters to her mother in a notebook she has with her while she's lost. So, you find out what is actually happening with her.

[00:04:00]You get the perspective of Beverly, um, a woman who's about the same age. I I think maybe late 40s, early 50s, who is a lieutenant in the Maine game warden, and she's in charge of the search for Valerie.

[00:04:16]They're interviewing other hikers, and in particular we hear quite a bit from Santo, who was basically Valerie's best buddy on the hiking trail. And they hiked together for a long time, and it seems like he knows her best.

[00:04:35]They also interview Valerie's husband and her parents just to get more information.

[00:04:41]And there's another point of view that isn't immediately clear why it's there, but becomes clear later. And that's an elderly woman named Lena, who is in like a senior living kind of place. She's in independent living in Connecticut.

[00:04:59]Lena's very, very smart, not super good with social skills.

[00:05:05]>> [laughter] >> So, she's really gotten into an online friendship with a guy who lives in Maine.

[00:05:14]So, when the story of Valerie hits the news in New England, they start talking about it, chatting about it online. So, that's the other perspective. It is really intriguing the way it's put together.

[00:05:29]It Lots of tension. You just You can't put this book down. You're just dying to find out what What's going to happen? Is Valerie going to survive? Are they going to find her in time? How will they find her?

[00:05:43]Um, just outstanding. I really loved it.

[00:05:46]My husband gave this to me for Valentine's Day.

[00:05:49]He picked it out at our local indie bookstore.

[00:05:53]He didn't even know that it was on my list and I've been dying to read it. So, really loved it. He'll probably read it next. Next, I am reading my first big book summer book.

[00:06:05]And I picked a good one. It had been on my list for a couple of years. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.

[00:06:14]Got it for either Christmas or my birthday, maybe 2 years ago. So, it's been on my big book summer list at least two summers. Oh, I didn't even notice this. It won the Booker Prize. So, this is the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale.

[00:06:29]And it's so good.

[00:06:33]Oh, wow.

[00:06:35]So, besides the book, I read The Handmaid's Tale. I never read it in school. I read it like um maybe 15 years ago for one of my book groups. I was just looking back at the review I wrote on my blog.

[00:06:51]So, it's been a while since I read the book, but my husband and I are huge [snorts] fans of the TV adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu.

[00:07:02]If you've missed this, you have to check it out.

[00:07:07]This is we both agree. This is one of the best TV shows we have ever seen.

[00:07:13]Everything about it is outstanding.

[00:07:17]The cast and the acting, the writing, the cinematography, wow.

[00:07:24]The visuals are just incredible.

[00:07:27]And they've taken The Handmaid's Tale and really expanded on it. So, there's nothing really changed from the original book, but they've added a lot. They've added more depth to the story and you get to know many of the characters better. Outstanding.

[00:07:47]So, I was inspired to make this my first book of Big Book Summer because there's a brand new TV show now of The Testaments, and I'm dying to watch it.

[00:07:59]And even more so now that I'm like 3/4 of the way through this already.

[00:08:04]>> [sighs] >> Okay, I know I often say that a book is like keeps me up at night, which isn't good for me. I need a lot of sleep.

[00:08:14]>> [gasps] >> But this one is in a class all its own.

[00:08:18]It is so compelling, so propulsive, and it's not like it's action-packed. I mean, there's a there's an interesting plot going on, but it's it's the way she writes. And if you're already familiar with this world, it's just kind of mind-blowing.

[00:08:41]So, this book in particular is focused on three sort of secondary characters from The Handmaid's Tale.

[00:08:51]So, you're kind of getting a deep dive into these characters that you didn't know a lot about in The Handmaid's Tale, even from the TV show, which is five or six seasons. I'm purposely not telling you who those three characters are because you don't know right away.

[00:09:08]Um but gradually their three stories come together.

[00:09:15]Um the timeline I found a little bit confusing here because there are two characters, and I know one is supposed to be like seven or eight years older than the other, and yet they seem to be It seems to be reversed that the older one is actually younger.

[00:09:35]Yeah, so the timeline, you know, Margaret Atwood specifically avoids using dates, which is smart because she wants it to feel like the present, like this could happen in the present. And it very much does feel that way, especially these days.

[00:09:53]But yeah, so I was a little confused about that. I kept thinking this just isn't right. But in the part I was reading last night there was finally an indication of a certain passage of time and I was like, "Okay, now that makes sense."

[00:10:10]Um that is my only complaint besides the fact that I'm not sleeping enough.

[00:10:15]>> [laughter] >> I mean, like last night all all the nights that I've been reading this, I look at the clock, I think I need to I need to go to bed and and I just keep reading.

[00:10:30]>> [laughter] >> So, I think it was 11:00 when I finally set it down last night. I'm really I really need to turn my light out by 10:30 if I want to feel good the next day, so I'm losing sleep over this, but in a good way. It is outstanding.

[00:10:47]On audio, I have been listening to A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.

[00:10:54]I've been really looking forward to this. There's a whole group read of this going on in May in um there's a whole group read of this going on in May on BookTube. A bunch of people are participating. I just thought I'd read along with them even though I'm not an official part of their group. And um yeah, I think they'll be doing maybe a live stream um discussion of it at the end of May. It is outstanding so far. I've always enjoyed John Irving's writing.

[00:11:26]Um I read The World According to Garp like back in the '80s or '90s.

[00:11:31]Um I really enjoyed Cider House Rules, again probably in the 90s or maybe early 2000s. So, it's been a while.

[00:11:40]Um this is a beautifully told story of friendship between two boys.

[00:11:48]So, Owen Meany is one of them. Owen's an unusual kid. The narrator is his best friend John.

[00:11:55]It's recounting all these memories from their childhood. And they experienced some tragedy together and also some joy and everything that makes up a life. John Irving is such a good writer. It's just very immersive.

[00:12:13]You feel like you are in this world in the 1950s in uh New Hampshire where they're growing up.

[00:12:22]Playing Little League, uh getting teased at school, you know, all these different things going on.

[00:12:30]Different issues with their families, but Owen is really small for his age, like really really small. And he's got this like high squeaky voice. Sounds a little strange on the audio, but I'm glad that I'm listening to the audio because it it's excellent. It definitely counts as a big book. I've been listening to it for over a week and yesterday because I picked up my next audiobook at the library.

[00:13:02]So, I picked up I've been listening this um on Audible. I don't buy many things from Audible. I try not to buy books from Amazon even though we buy like everything else in our house there. Um try to support local indies.

[00:13:19]It's kind of weird. This is not available anywhere else. It's an Audible exclusive, which I found really weird.

[00:13:28]Like, why would a big-time author like John Irving want to limit access to such a wonderful audiobook?

[00:13:39]But, anyway, so that's where I finally got it. Luckily, at least when I bought it, it was super cheap. And, um Yeah, so I checked the app on my phone, figuring I was almost done. It said 17 hours left.

[00:13:55]>> [laughter] >> I don't have no idea how much I've listened to so far, but it is a long one. But, that's fine with me. I'm really enjoying it. My husband is still reading The List by Steve Berry, but he's almost finished with it now. This is the one that he thought had a ridiculous premise. Uh I put this in his Easter basket. Um about an evil corporation that is killing off their oldest retirees to save money.

[00:14:28]My husband was like come on.

[00:14:31]But, he said it has turned out to be a good uh suspense novel. Um you know, I mean, he stuck with it. He's still reading it. He's almost finished. His first book for Big Book Summer that he's bringing on our camping trip next week is The Devil's Bed by William Kent Krueger. We're both huge Krueger fans, and I need to thank Melinda at A Well of Stories, my co-host for Big Book Summer, for telling me about this one, an older one of his, a standalone political thriller. Um so, yeah, my husband's really looking forward to that. Both of us love Krueger's writing. He's also still working on uh Moby Dick. That's a long-term project.

[00:15:17]I don't think he's read an awful lot of >> [laughter] >> it yet.

[00:15:19]We've got a lot of stuff going on around our house that we're trying to get done.

[00:15:23]Um, my younger son's fiance, our daughter-in-law-to-be, is still reading uh book two in the Hugh Howey series that starts with Wool. Let's see.

[00:15:38]Yeah, book three is Dust. So, she's reading Shift.

[00:15:41]Um, I gave her Wool for Christmas and she loved it and immediately asked if I had book two. So, I lent that to her.

[00:15:49]She's enjoying that, but she's working long hours. And my older son, I don't think he has much time to read this week. They are on When his fiance graduated with her master's last week, um, an event we attended, they left the very next morning on a two and a half-week-long road trip.

[00:16:14]So, they've been in San Antonio visiting our nephews and and enjoying the city.

[00:16:20]Yesterday, they drove all the way from San Antonio to Big Bend, which Texas is huge. It's way, way out there. Big Bend National Park. We've never been there before. So, I can't wait to hear their stories and see their pictures. Then they're going on to LA and then flying home. So, big trip there. I know he doesn't have reading time.

[00:16:45]So, that's what we've been reading. I would love to hear what you you've been reading. Please let me know in the comments down below.