Heading Into the Holidays

I continue to neglect this little blog, but I'm also getting stressed about the holidays approaching. I still need to finish all my challenges! And if I have time around that, I might do some Christmas shopping or decorating or maybe baking. Hmm. I can probably delegate that last to my kids; they make better cookies anyway.

This week I only read five books, and four were middle school books. None were from my Cybils challenge, none gave me new states, and one filled in my final North America slot. What they had in common was the library calling them home - all five had no renews left.

Next week I REALLY need to read at least two more state books, although I'm partly through at least one, as well as making progress on two Cybils books. I got a last South America book from the library from my latest READING MY LIBRARY gathering, although now I note that I need another South Pacific book.  And I want to spend time in Robin McKinley's Sunshine, although I can dally there since I've read it so many times already. But the library strain is lifting, and I should make it into January, where I'll institute some kind of Read-Your-Own-Silly-Shelves discipline.

I'll go sign in at Book Journey's round-up of what people have read, are reading, and will read. And since almost all of my reading this week was middle grade, I'll also check in with Teach Mentor Texts, which specializes in books for the non-voting crowd.

• Milagros, The Girl From Away, Meg Medina. A Reading My Library book that also takes place in non-USA North America.
• The Clone Codes #2, Patricia C. McKissack. Continuing the series that my school book club is reading.
• War Horse, Michael Morpurgo. RML book that makes me all trendy.
• The Magnificent 12: The Key, Michael Grant. Third in the series; lots of fun although the kids liked it more than I did.
• Master and Apprentice, Sonya Bateman. Sequel that grew on me the longer I read it.

What am I currently reading? Technically I have 28 books open, but really I'm only trying to read about six. I guess that doesn't make me sound much saner, does it?

• Sunshine, Robin McKinley. Rereading my favorite vampires & chocolate book. Yum. I don't mind how long this reread takes.
• Everybody Sees the Ants, A.S. King. Cybils book, and also a Best of the Best pick. Looks like it will be depressing.
• Fargo Rock City, Chuck Klosterman. History of heavy metal that is set in NORTH DAKOTA. It emphasizes how out of it I was in my youth.
• Moon Over Manifest, Clare Vanderpool. I bought this for the Newbery sticker, and it's set in KANSAS.
• The King Commands, Meg Burden. Sequel to an earlier Cybils book and top of my TBR list.
• Sheltered From the Swastika, Peter Kory. Present from LibraryThing. The war just ended, and bureaucracy has a plan for Peter.
• The Curse of the Wendigo, Richard Yancy. (audio) Paulos can't understand why Xan and I stick with this; the scene with the kid trying to rip out a corpse's heart started this conversation again.
• Frost, Marianna Baer. (NOOK). I got it back! I have to say, modern boarding schools are tough reading for me; the kids just seem less interesting on their own.
• The Enemy, Charles Hudson. NOOK. This was almost our December family book club pick, but no longer. I guess I'll finish it anyway.
• The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt. (NOOK) My brother recommended this to me, but it keeps getting buried beneath challenge books.
• Phoenix In Flight, Sherwood Smith & Dave Trowbridge. (NOOK).  Deaths and dismemberments in the final battle!
• Elfhome, Wen Spencer. (NOOK, reread) Well, I finished it but I'm still going back to the really fun parts. That doesn't mean the sex, which Spencer doesn't do particularly well.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Dipper. New book from my classics shelf.
• The Borrowers Afield, Mary Norton. Dipper. Stop with the Spiller hating!
• War With the Newts, Karel Capek. Dipper. We have met the newts/
• The Catholic Church in the Modern World, E.E.Y. Hales. Dipper. Europe has just separated church and state, often with disrespect to the True Church. 
• Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid, Megan McDonald. Dipper. They garborated the class newt!
• Smart But Scattered, Peggy Dawson. Good stuff. I like the kids agreeing to plans because they are sure they know what they are doing...
• Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey. Paused.

The list of the books I started but didn't finish over the summer has not budged:

• 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: 70/73. Three YA books left; one almost finished, one started, and one waiting. I'm calm.
2. Global Reading Challenge: 19/21.  I finished North America, I have a South America waiting, and I need an Oceanea. Slightly stressed.
3. Where Am I Reading?:  44/50.  Currently reading Kansas and North Dakota. Have New Hampshire waiting. I think I have North Carolina waiting as well. Need to check on Delaware, and I think I still need Idaho. Stressed.
4. Science Book Challenge: 3.1415/3.14159. Done, but I'd like more. I wonder if Righteous Minds will be science? And if I'll get to read it this year?
5. Reading My Library:  Finished two more, by Medina and Morpurgo. Got the next six, some of which fit into the other challenges.
6. Eclectic Challenge: 11/12. Still need a classic. Stressed.
7. Best of the Best: 32/25. Wendigo is sliming along, and I picked two more audios from the list for our holiday traveling. Some overlaps with Cybils will also notch this up. No stress at all.
8. Summer Reading Goal: I think I'll try to finish the cleanup during the January no-new-books period.

Journey Into the Past

A huge chunk of my historical knowledge comes from the historical fiction I read, so I hope that the authors try to get things right. Sometimes it's realistic, and sometimes magic is used to get modern day characters with their comprehensible perspectives into the right place. I enjoy getting the feel of life in a different place, especially when the author is able to give the sense of a different culture, one with different moral codes and expectations.

Lolah Burford gives a double dose of this, as her book wanders between the distant world of Stephen and the less different but still alien world of the children his visits in his visions. Stephen himself agrees to things that would astonish my kids, especially in terms of what he owes his parents and the justice in punishment for rules he broke with a very good reason. Erik Haugaard's version of historical Japan doesn't dally with any fantastical elements, but manages to give a strong sense of place without lapsing into a didactic tone too often. And the fairy tales of Hausman read like ones from long ago, when fairy tales were told to families and not reserved for children or sanitized for tender adult sentiments.

The Vision of Stephen, Lolah Burford. One of the titles that Noel Perrin recommended in A Child's Delight, his book of neglected children's literature.  I found it fascinating, and I would have loved it as a kid, but I'm not sure whom to recommend it to. There is torture and death, which may turn off the young kids, but there isn't sex, so YA may see it as young. I liked the strong historical sense of Stephen's life, even as he finds himself in an untenable position. (I tried to get Xan interested, but the hazy cover didn't grab him and the book had to go back to the library.)

The Revenge of the Forty-Seven Samurai, Erik Christian Haugaard. I enjoyed the glimpse into historical Japan, where Jiro's lowly position gives him a reader's eye perspective on the world of samurai in the changing society.  I did occasionally wonder where the viewpoint was coming from -- it seemed too mature to be Jiro's childhood thoughts, but not removed enough to be his memories as an adult.  I enjoyed learning about Japanese customs and mores in the 1700's too much to worry about it much. Haugaard does a good job of letting Jiro question the samurais' willingness to face execution without making him appear as a modern character somehow plunked in a historical novel. In general I like Haugaard matter-of-fact approach to historical fiction, and I've read several of his books from Vikings through Japanese history.

The Rat-Catcher's Daughter, Laurence Housman. Noel Perrin also recommended the stories by A.E. Housman's forgotten brother, who apparently was the famous one during their early careers. These are beautiful fairy tales that remind me of my childhood book Great Swedish Fairy Tales. They are ruthless in the way only fairy tales can be (lots of kids and babies die, and the small child who grows up trapped in Sleeping Beauty's cursed castle is heartbreaking). Well done, Housman's younger brother.

December Round-Up

Another week of reading but not reviewing. I do actually miss the chance to reflect on what I'm reading, but as long as I check in with this weekly update I feel I'm keeping a toe in the blogging world. Right now I'm very focused on the challenges left over; I'm feel strangely guilty when I'm not reading a Cybils book or one of my geography challenge slots. But there's so much else in the world!

Next week I need to read at least two more state books, at least one Cybils, and I need to look around for another South America book. I want to finish my last Early Review book from librarything. And I want to spend time in Robin McKinley's Sunshine, although I can dally there since I've read it so many times already. Oh, did I mention that my last two Reading My Library books are due on Thursday? So not really a lot of wriggle room there.

Last week I managed to finish seven books, as well as a few picture books. I'll go sign in at Book Journey's round-up of what people have read, are reading, and will read. And since once again most of my reading this week was YA or younger, I'll also check in with Teach Mentor Texts, which specializes in books for the non-voting crowd.

• Chucaro, Rancis Kalnay. This Newbery honor book is set in Argentina -- go Global!
• The Hum and the Shiver, Alex Bledsoe. I really enjoyed this Foolscap treasure, and as a bonus, it's set in Tennessee.
• The Geometry of Sisters, Luanne Rice. NOOK Rhode Island is for families that hurt each other.
• Words in the Dust, Trent Reedy. The story in this Cybils finalist is important, but the writing wasn't stellar.
• Super Human, Michael Carroll. Nifty Best of the Best choice, as well as a Nebraska tale (a pleasant surprise).
• Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun, Rhoda Blumberg. I'm surprised at how much I like kidlit nonfiction.
• Elfhome, Wen Spencer. NOOK. Pure delicious candy rereading.

I also read some picture books with my youngest nephew:

• Spike, the Mixed-Up Monster, Susan Hood.
• Bear Has a Story to Tell, Philip Stead.
• Bear Says Thanks, Karma Wilson.

What am I currently reading? Technically I have 24 books open, but really I'm only trying to read about six. I guess that doesn't make me sound much saner, does it?

• Milagros, Meg Medina. A Reading My Library pick which also happens to be set in the Caribbean, finishing my North America requirement. Score!
• Sunshine, Robin McKinley. Rereading my favorite vampires & chocolate book.
• Sheltered From the Swastika, Peter Kory. Present from LibraryThing. Memoir of hiding from the Nazis in World War II.
• Frost, Marianna Baer. (NOOK). Still waiting for the library to give me this Cybils pick again.
• The Curse of the Wendigo, Richard Yancy. (audio) Two disks left; it's about to get gross again.
• The Righteous Mind, Jonathan Haidt. (NOOK) My brother recommended this to me.
• Phoenix In Flight, Sherwood Smith & Dave Trowbridge. (NOOK).  Wow, the many characters are now on the same planet.
• Elfhome, Wen Spencer. (NOOK, reread) Well, I finished it but I'm still going back to the really fun parts. That doesn't mean the sex.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Dipper. New book from my classics shelf.
• The Borrowers Afield, Mary Norton. Dipper. Stop with the Spiller hating!
• War With the Newts, Karel Capek. Dipper. We have met the newts/
• The Catholic Church in the Modern World, E.E.Y. Hales. Dipper. Europe has just separated church and state, often with disrespect to the True Church. 
• Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid, Megan McDonald. They garborated the class newt!
• Smart But Scattered, Peggy Dawson. Good stuff. I like the kids agreeing to plans because they are sure they know what they are doing...
• Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey. Paused.

The list of the books I started but didn't finish over the summer remains depressingly static:

• 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: 70/73. Three YA books left; one in my bag and one half way done.
2. Global Reading Challenge: 18/21.  I've started the final North America, then I need another South America and ideally an Oceanea set somewhere other than Australia or New Zealand.
3. Where Am I Reading?:  41/50.  Finished books in Tennessee, Rhode Island, and Nebraska. Have library books waiting for North Carolina, New Hampshire and North Dakota. Noticed books on my shelves in Kansas and maybe Delaware. Still need Idaho. 
4. Science Book Challenge: 3.1415/3.14159. Done, but I'd like more. I wonder if Righteous Minds will be science?
5. Reading My Library:  Chugging along.
6. Eclectic Challenge: 11/12. Still need a classic.
7. Best of the Best: 32/25. Really liked Superhuman, and Wendigo is sliming along. I have the next one waiting.
8. Summer Reading Goal: All over but the cleanup. My bare shelf is filled up again, but two boxes have disappeared from my living room.