Summer Closes Down

Summer is teetering on the edge of over (school starts back up a week from tomorrow), and although I didn't get much done I did enjoy each day. I guess I'm just the unambitious type, at least during the summer.

I also managed to START a book every day, even if I didn't keep up with finishing them all. I guess I can do that over the fall. And it turns out that once I let myself skip one blogging day, I let myself skip ALL of them. Oh well!

Anyway, here's what I've been reading for most of August:

• Unlocked, Courtney Milan. (NOOK) Romances by an author I just discovered.
• Unraveled, Courtney Milan. (NOOK). See above.
• Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School, Louis Sacher. Summer reading book.
• The Dragon of Lonely Island, Rebecca Rupp. Summer reading book.
• Proof By Seduction, Courtney Milan. (NOOK). See above. Laughing out loud in the first chapter was a good sign.
• Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick. (Cybils). Interesting if coincidental.
• Lawn Boy Returns, Gary Paulsen. Summer reading.
• The Clue of the Dancing Puppet, Carolyn Keene. Summer reading.
• Dinosaurs: Magic Treehouse Fact Tracker #1, Will Osbourne, Salvadore Murdocca. Summer reading.
• Okay For Now (audio), Gary B. Schmidt. Best of the Best list. This turned out to be highly popular with almost everyone, even visitors who only heard an hour or so.
• Home For a Spell, Madelyn Alt. Takes place in Indiana, woot!
• Kiss the Dead, Laurell K. Hamilton. Actually had plot, as well as heaps of goofiness. And sex.
• Unraveling Freedom, Anne Bausum. (Cybils). Nonfiction that I couldn't get the boys to read.
• Ellen Tibbits, Beverly Cleary. Summer reading.
• No Longer a Gentleman, Mary Jo Putney. (NOOK). I like this series.
• The Best Halloween Ever, Barbara Robinson. Summer reading.
• Black and Blue Magic, Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Summer reading.
• Return From Witch Mountain, Alexander Key. Summer reading.
• Friends Around the World, Edna Baker. Summer reading.
• Bitterblue, Kristen Cashore. I liked it.
• The Ultimates Vol 1: Super-Human, Mark Millar. Comic book.
• The Trouble With Magic, Ruth Chew. Summer reading.
• I Hunt Killers, Barry Lyga. Grisly YA.
• Graceling, Kristen Cashore. For book club.

What am I currently reading? About twenty kidlit summer reading books that didn't get finished on their allotted day, as well as a bagful of other books. Here is the full list, although some of them are more promises than books I've pushed bookmarks ahead in recently:

• Trial By Desire, Courtney Milan. NOOK. Library digital book.
• Dragon Ship, Lee & Miller. NOOK. Personal digital book.
• The Snow Pony, Alison Lester. RML book.
• A Child's Delight. Noel Perrin. From my TBR list.
• Fire, Kristen Cashore. Rereading after Bitterblue.
• The Ghost Belonged to Me, Robert Peck. Today's summer reading. I'll probably finish it tonight.
• Tales From Silver Lands, Charles Finger. Yesterday's summer reading. Short stories that I prefer to read a few at a time.
• Pinky Pye, Eleanor Estes. Unfinished summer reading. I like Estes, but I have a surfeit right now.
• Rufus M., Eleanor Estes. Unfinished summer reading. See above.
• The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode, Unfinished summer reading. See above. This is not my favorite.
• Ecstasia, Francesca Lia Black. Unfinished summer reading. I prefer Black's family stories.
• Bob, Son of Battle, Alfred Ollivant. Unfinished summer reading. Dogs and dialect -- I'm too old for this.
• The Tricksters, Margaret Mahy. Unfinished summer reading. I'm very sad that she recently died.
• Tessie, Jesse Jackson. Unfinished summer reading. The author is not that Jackson.
• Dr Doolittle's Puddleby Adventures, Hugh Lofting. Unfinished summer reading.
• Redskin and Cowboy, G. A. Henty. Unfinished summer reading.
• The Avion My Uncle Flew, Cyrus Fisher. Unfinished summer reading. I lost it and then found it again.
• The Eye of the Warlock, P.W. Catanese. Unfinished summer reading.
• Team Human, Sarah Rees Brennan & Justine Larbalestier. I bought this and I'm liking it, but it gets pushed back by the library books that are due. And the summer reading thing.
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor. I thought it was due back so I started reading it, but then I renewed it and I had to read the stuff that really was due. Soon it will rise to the top again.
• Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey. Online book club book. I'm late, but I renewed it. Twice.
• Buffy and the Heroine's Journey, Valerie Frankel. Present from librarything early readers.
• The Dark Knight Returns, Frank Miller. I found it! I should finish it.
• Phoenix In Flight, Sherwood Smith. NOOK. Space opera.
• The Borrowers Afield, Mary Norton. Reward book. I haven't earned many rewards lately.
• Close Range, Annie Proulx. Reward book. See above.
• Knight of a Trillion Stars, Dara Joy. Reward book. See above.
• The Catholic Church in the Modern World, E.E.Y. Hales. Reward book. See above.
• Honored Enemy, Raymond Feist. Reward book.
• Smart But Scattered, Peg Dawson. Reward book.

What will I read next? I'm still pulling from my reservoir of purchased-but-unread books. After I finish those, finish some of the books above, especially Kushiel's Dart which is due on Thursday.

Challenges:

1. Cybils: 64/73. I finished off Nonfiction, although I haven't reviewed them all. 
2. Global Reading Challenge: 13/21. Well, I'm currently reading books in both South America and Australia. So there is hope.
3. Where Am I Reading?:  32/50.  Got Indiana. Reading a Missouri. Need New Hampshire.
4. Science Book Challenge: 2.1415/3.14159. I should count the fossil book from July.
5. Reading My Library:  Pausing to get my library exposure under control.
6. Eclectic Challenge: 10/12. Does Nancy Drew count as a classic? I didn't think so...
7. Best of the Best: 30/25. No rush anymore, but I'm still dipping into the lists.
8. Summer Reading Goal: I'm four many books behind. But I don't mind reading dozens of books at once, so I'll keep starting a book a day throughout the summer, and then settle down to finishing everything in the fall.