It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? 5-27-24: We’re Not on Bermuda Anymore Edition

We’re just back from a Friday to Friday Boston to Bermuda cruise, and it has been so nice to have the three-day Memorial Day weekend to rest up and recover after our vacation! I do miss my reading spot on the ship’s balcony, though.

Please let me know what you’re reading in the comments and/or share your blog link! (If you can’t see where to comment, try clicking/tapping on the title of this post to open it in full.)

Currently Reading

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

In the long-awaited first novel from short story virtuoso and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelly Link, three teenagers become pawns in a supernatural power struggle.

I borrowed the ebook of The Book of Love from the library, not realizing it was 640 pages long! I didn’t have time to finish it before vacation, but I have the hardcover on loan from the library now, so I hope to get back to it soon.

Feel Free: Essays by Zadie Smith

Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism 
A New York Times Notable Book

I’ve been reading Zadie Smith lately in preparation for a reader’s advisory meeting with other librarians tomorrow.

How to Love a Jamaican: Stories by Alexia Arthurs

Filled with both tenderness and cruelty, ambition and regret, How to Love a Jamaican is a compelling examination of identity, culture, and the nuances of human disposition.

How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs was blurbed by Zadie Smith. I picked it up thinking it was a novel, but am enjoying the short stories.

Cruise Confidential by Brian David Bruns

In Cruise Confidential, Brian David Bruns spills the dirt — or in this case, the dirty water — on those romantic, fun-filled vacations at sea. His hilarious chronicle of the year he spent working for Carnival Cruise Lines takes readers down into the areas where the crew works and lives, leaving readers gasping with laughter as they’re assaulted nonstop with events that range from the absurd to the utterly bizarre.

The subtitle of Cruise Confidential says it all: “A Hit Below the Waterline: Where the Crew Lives, Eats, Wars, and Parties — One Crazy Year Working on Cruise Ships”.

I happen to be a sucker for stunt memoirs, and was looking for cruise-related reading. Author Brian David Bruns reminds me a bit of Anthony Bourdain, but he’s either not as much of a bad boy, or is slightly less indiscreet. Of course, I’m not that far into the book, so I guess we’ll see!

Recently Read

Terns of Endearment by Donna Andrews

Terns of Endearment is a new side-splitting Meg Langslow mystery from award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Donna Andrews. All aboard…for murder?

I requested Terns of Endearment as a Christmas gift, and put it aside to go with me on the cruise, as this cozy mystery takes place on a cruise to Bermuda. Luckily, the cruise ship we were on was managed better than the one in this story, and, although there was a passenger with a medical emergency who had to be airlifted off, we heard the person was OK afterwards, and as far as we know, no murders took place on board.

Killer Cruise by Laura Levine

Wordsmith Jaine Austen’s ship has finally come in. Her new teaching gig on a fancy cruise line nabs her a free vacation–and access to a 24-hour buffet! But sooner than you can say “bon voyage,” Jaine’s all-expenses-paid trip to the Mexican Riviera seems destined to be a wreck…

Killer Cruise is another cozy mystery set on a cruise ship that I bought ahead and put with my cruise items to pack. It was funnier than Terns of Endearment, but they were both good vacation reading, even though I hadn’t read any books in either series before.

Currently Listening To

Device Free Weekend by Sean Doolittle

Seven friends, one eccentric billionaire, and an all-expenses-paid reunion on a private island: with no technology allowed, it’ll be a weekend to remember—for those who make it out alive. 

Device Free Weekend was meant to be vacation listening, but I didn’t get to start it till we were already back. I may have overpacked on books and audiobooks for a one-week trip.

Recently Listened To

The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith

An indie musician reeling from tragedy and a public breakdown reconnects with her father on a weeklong cruise in “a pitch-perfect story about the ways we recover love in the strangest places” (Rebecca Serle, bestselling author of In Five Years)

More vacation listening that took place mostly after we got back from vacation. The Unsinkable Greta James is set on an Alaskan cruise, and is firmly in the genre of women’s fiction. No one is murdered or receives a mysterious invitation to an isolated island home. Excellent audiobook narration by a new-to-me narrator, Mae Whitman.

This post is linked up to “It’s Monday, What Are You Reading?”, hosted by The Book Date. It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is a place to meet up and share what you have been and are currently reading each week. Visit the link-up for more books to your groaning TBR pile.