01 To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
I'd like to mention up front that To Sleep in a Sea of Stars is 878 pages, so if you never hear from me again, just know that I'm still out there in the world, and I'm probably still reading this book.
I actually love a nice long science fiction tale to dive into, and this is the first adult title from Christopher Paolini, the author of the popular young adult book Eragon and its three sequels (dragons!). And Paolini reportedly worked on this epic story for nine years. Hopes=high.
Kira, a xenobiologist, is readying to leave the uncolonized planet where she and her longtime love have been stationed with a small team for four months. She just needs to run out really quickly to check on a downed drone on the morning of their departure before packing up to leave for good--and that's when she encounters something that changes everything.
02 Head Over Heels
Just listen to this premise from Hannah Orenstein's latest book: nineteen-year-old Avery Abrams was set to be the next big gymnastics Olympic champion. She had the training, the talent, and the drive. But during the Olympic Trials, she sustained a career-ending injury. For the next few years she dabbles in college, she parties, she drifts, she dates a professional football player, but she doesn't find peace and isn't able to truly come to terms with her new reality.
When she hits a version of rock bottom and moves home, Avery's former teammate and crush Ryan (who did become an Olympic champion) talks her into helping him coach a young phenom at the gym where Avery spent her youth.
There's more to Head over Heels, but I think this is going to be the engrossing, light fiction book I need right now. (I finished this one; click here for my full review.)
03 How Much of These Hills Is Gold
I'm listening to How Much of These Hills Is Gold as an audiobook. I love a Gold Rush story, and a young adult story, and a story about "otherness" and about brave young women meeting challenges.
But right now I'm struggling with this one. The detail is wonderful, but the circumstances are continually difficult. Covid-era, pre-election, pre-pandemic-modified holidays might not be the best timing for me to be reading an often-grim (though valiant) struggle for survival. It's not you, book, it's me.
I put my big-girl pants on and buckled down to finish this one; click here to read my full review.
What are you reading now?
My library holds and due dates have dictated another interesting mix of books for my current reading life with a fantasy title, a lighter fiction story, and a young adult historical tale with magical realism mixed in.
Are you reading any great escapism right now? I feel like mysteries, light fiction, memoirs, and fantasy are working well for me--plus historical fiction if it's not too heavy. What's working for your reading life during these odd times?