Back in Spirit

Well, no one can notice, but I've actually started creating blog posts in drafts. So I'm almost back to my blog. I have a New Idea! I'll put short reactions to different kinds of books into the same essay, and that would give me a chance to be more reflective. So I could post on Picture Books, Kidlit, YA, Genre, Nonfiction, and Other stuff, and if I don't read any of those books in a week, I just skip. So far I've started some drafts, and if any of those escape to the wild I'll see how it works.

I seemed to have missed a week again, but here's my round up of what I've been reading for the past little while. Some of it is kids books, so I'll check in both with Book Journey's weekly round-up of what everyone has done and on Teach Mentor Texts. Nothing is reviewed yet, so again this is a very boring list, but I'm happy enough.

• The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party, Alexander McCall Smith 
• Angelmaker, Nick Harkaway
• Oracle's Moon, Thea Harrison
• Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express, Megan McDonald
• Betrayer, C.J. Cherryh
• Her Royal Spyness, Rhys Bowen
• Hollywood Vampire, Keith Topping
• Pinky Pye, Eleanor Estes
• Magic Below Stairs, Carolyn Stevermer

Picture Books (it's great having an emerging reader as an excuse to get these):

• This Is Not My Hat, Jon Klassen. (2nd week in a row) Lovely.
• Pyramid, Dana Meachen Rau (it got N reading!)
• The Return of the Library Dragon, Carmen Agra Deedy.
• Around the World Piggy Wiggy, Christyan Fox

What am I currently reading? Fewer than thirty books!

• The Murder of Tutankamen, Bob Brier. I lost this and now I've found it again.
• The Red Pyramid, Rick Riordan. For my family book club of October -- I'm late.
• Super Human, Michael Carroll. My son recommends this Best of the Best title.
• Frost, Marianna Baer. (NOOK). Cybils choice, but it just expired -- I have it on hold again.
• The Hum and the Shiver, Alex Bledsoe. I got this at Foolscap, and I just noticed it's set in TENNESSEE.
• The Voyage of the Frog, Gary Paulsen. From my shelves.
• The Revenge of the Forty-Seven Samurai, Erik Haugaard. Again from my shelves.
• The Curse of the Wendigo, Richard Yancy. (audio) We've decided that the grossness makes this a perfect book for dieters. Ew.
• Written in Bone, Sally Walker. (NOOK) Excavations of colonial graves in MARYLAND.
• Phoenix In Flight, Sherwood Smith & Dave Trowbridge. (NOOK).  I'm not reading this that quickly.
• Elfhome, Wen Spencer. (NOOK, reread) Knock 'em out, Oilcan!
• Close Range, Annie Proulx. Dipping book. Wyoming does not seem full of happy people.
• The Borrowers Afield, Mary Norton. Another dipping book. The plot is about to start.
• War With the News, Karel Capek. Dipper. Does this count as a classic?
• The Catholic Church in the Modern World, E.E.Y. Hales. Dipper. Now to read about the heresy of Modernism.
• Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid, Megan McDonald. Dipper. 
• Smart But Scattered, Peggy Dawson. Good stuff. I'll get around to the "initiating tasks" chapter one of these days.
• Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey. Paused.

I've knocked off one of the leftover summer books; I'll keep the remaining list here for my reference:

• The Tunnel of Hugsy Goode, Eleanor Estes. Was getting dull.
• Ecstasia, Francesca Lia Block. I find her mythic stories harder going than her Weezie Bat books.
• Bob, Son of Battle, Alfred Ollivant. I'm not liking the dialect, and I think the guy I hate is supposed to be the hero. Oops.
• Tricksters, Margaret Mahy. I have no excuse for not finishing this yet.
• Tessie, Jesse Jackson. The author makes me giggle.
• Puddleby Adventures, Hugh Lofting. I had too many Dolittle books back-to-back.
• The Avion My Uncle Flew, Cyrus Fisher. I lost this while reading it, but now I know where it is.
• The Eye of the Warlock, P.W. Catanese. Mixed-up fairy tale.
• Redskin and Cowboy, G. A. Henty. Waiting for the boy to run away from home.

Challenges:

1. Cybils: 68/73. No change, although I have most of the books in hand.
2. Global Reading Challenge: 17/21. No change. I need 2 South America, one North America, and one Oceania.
3. Where Am I Reading?:  37/50.  Two months, thirteen books. I'm currently reading books set in Maryland, Tennessee and Wyoming, and need to read Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico,  North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Luckily Book Club gave me some good recommendations.
4. Science Book Challenge: 3.1415/3.14159. Officially done, but I'd like to get a few more.
5. Reading My Library: Another shelf done.
6. Eclectic Challenge: 11/12. Need a classic.
7. Best of the Best: 31/25. No change, currently listening to one and reading one.
8. Summer Reading Goal: All over but the cleanup (see above)