Gearing Up For 48 Hours of Fun

I I'm not sure I like this plan of reading one book at a time. It seems so lonely, so constrained. I mean, if a TV show ends on a cliffhanger, I don't refuse to watch anything else until I know how the story ends, do I? On the other hand, I really need to finish a lot of books really soon.

So I'll do my best to control my grasshopper ways, and tunnel through my reading in a very ant-like way.

I'll go sign in at Book Journey's round-up of what people have read, are reading, and will read. I'm also heading for  Teach Mentor Texts since I read many youthful books.

This week I read:

• Lottery, Patricia Wood. This has been on my TBR list since 2010, and I really enjoyed it. The characters were definitely black or white, but the book was cheerful about it so I didn't mind.
• Half Brother, Kenneth Oppel. YA. A more realistic story from the author of Airborn.
• Dr Dolittle's Puddleby Adventure, Hugh Lofting. Kidlit. I've been partway through this since last summer, so I was glad to finish. It's short stories without much cohesion, so it wasn't a problem to wait so long.
• The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner. A journalist gets paid to wander the globe looking for a happy place -- nice work! Although individual bits were interesting, I didn't find that the whole gelled very well.
• Tessie, Jesse Jackson. Kidlit. Another book left over from last summer, so my "currently reading" list gets a bit more believable.
• Impulse, Steven Gould. YA. I read this last month, but I reread it for our family book club. Very popular with all three, and now P is reading the first in the series and we're all waiting for the next book, due late year or so.
• Clementine and the Spring Trip, Sara Pennypacker. Kidlit. I still like Clementine, but this one was fairly standard without ringing many new notes.
• Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, Joseph Lambert. YA. A Cybils pick for the graphic novel category. Interesting presentation of the Helen Keller stories.

What am I currently reading? Technically I have 14 books open, but really I'm only trying to read four, plus a book of short stories I'm dipping in.  And the audio book.  The bookmarks left in the others will be tackled in their own turns, plus the books I'm just ambling my way through rather than seriously trying to read.

• How To Save a Life. Sara Zarr. Another pick from the Best of the Best lists.
• The Duchess War, Courtney Milan. NOOK. I have good expectations for this author.
• Shadow's Claim, Kresley Cole. A Vaginal Fantasy pick.
• The Avion My Uncle Flew, Cyrus Fisher. Kidlit. Leftover from last summer.
• Some of the Best From Tor.Com 2011. (NOOK) This is from my favorite review site.
• The Wake of the Lorelei Lee, L.A. Meyer (audio). Disc three, and they prepare to sail
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. Dipper. She's a vampire, he seems to be a werewolf.
• The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener, Martin Gardner. Dipper. I like his thoughts on prayer.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Dipper. Wow, lawyers make life depressing.
• Senrid, Sherwood Smith. Dipper. A rescue! But by the wrong guy?
• Abraham Lincoln: Prairie Years, Carl Sandburg. Congressman Abe heads for D.C.
• A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays,  Laurie Lecomer. The gross motor section brought back a lot of memories.

What will I read next week? From the library I'm looking at Cybils pick And All the Stars and the Reading My Library choice Ordinary Magic, and from my shelves I'm hoping to finish The Eye of the Warlock. On my NOOK I have Georges as a change of pace after The Duchess. And during the weekend of the 48 Hour Reading Challenge I'll read anything that looks tasty, especially from my groaning library shelves. Probably Scalzi's Redshirts and Robb's (something or other) In Death and anything else I picked up because I couldn't resist it. Those make for good reading in crunch times.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 27/74.  I've started the younger graphic novels but sometimes have to pry them from my sons' hands to get at them.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 25. Halfway, unless you count D.C, which I'm trying not to. It was fortunate for me that Helen Keller lived in Alabama.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 5/9. I'm still hoping for luck here.
4. Science Book Challenge: Nothing so far, although Geography of Bliss tried to be scientific at times. Maybe I'll review that.
5. Reading My Library: Not this week.
6. Best of the Best 2012: 40/25. I'm not doing this years, since I'm still working on last year's list.
7. Summer Reading Goal: I need to finish up the last few so I can start again in June.
8. 48 Hour Reading Challenge! Coming up next weekend!