Today is National Book Lover’s Day is August 9

Monday, August 9 is National Book Lover’s Day! Next to letter writing and mail, I am all about books! I usually have 2-3 books going at a time including a fiction book (general fiction, mystery, or sci fi), a nonfiction book, sometimes a young adult or middle grade novel, and often an audio book.

Here are some of my favorites over recent years.

I absolutely LOVED Project Hail Mary by the author of The Martian, Andy Weir. I read it and listened to it and by far the better story is the audio version. Seriously, sign up for Audible or get the MP3 and listen to this story. I realize that audio books are not for everyone, but it can make such a difference to a good story and this is a GOOD story. The humor, the accents of the main characters, and the arc of the story as told through the main character and book’s narrator is just a joy.

Next is a dystopian novel called Station Eleven (soon to be a movie) written by Emily St John Mandel. I think I have read this book twice and listened to the audio twice, and I will do both again. Often what I see in dystopian novels is that the book picks up in the new world without explaining or going through the process of how the characters got there. But in Station Eleven, the author shows in flashbacks how certain characters survived and what brings them together. Plus, it’s a fabulous look at the changes that exist in a world without electricity or internet.

Less: A Novel by Andrew Sean Greer drew me in because the author is about to turn 50 and he’s trying to find himself on a whirlwind book tour that takes him around the world. He only signed up for the tour to have a good reason not to attend a wedding of a previous lover. I laughed out loud both when I read it and again when I listened to it. What a delight! I can’t wait to visit Arthur Less again.

Where were you in April 1986 when the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant occurred? I was in Grand Forks, North Dakota, working full-time at Waldenbooks – a dream job for an English major and book lover.  I do not recall a lot about watching this on the news, but I must have.  Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham read like a suspense thriller.

Some of the riveting scenes will stay with you, like the woman who got off the bus in her hometown that had been evacuated. I look forward to revisiting Pripyat again in Higginbotham’s book.

I have another handful of additional books that I’ll share in a future post.

Looking to buy? Checkout Bookshop.org that supports independent bookstores. Or get books and audios from your library.