Finish Something Already

 
Apparently I've very motivated by threats, even weak ones (BRING BACK THE BOOKS or we'll charge you 10 cents a day!). So I finished a pile of library books that have been lurking in my library case for months. Still no book reviewing, but at least I can imagine it happening someday.

I'll sign in at Book Journey or Teach Mentor Texts since I finished both adult and kidlit books this week.

This week I managed to finish:

• The Queen's Pawn, Christy English. From my TBR list, but from so long ago I can't remember who recommended it. An interesting description of Queen Eleanor, King Henry, and Alais, mistress to the king. I really like stories about Queen Eleanor, especially ones like this that praise her power.
• Sidekicked, John David Anderson. Kidlit. I won this in last summer's 48-Hour Readathon, but kept putting it aside for more library books. I didn't like how the character seemed a typical Nice Guy (the boy who is friends with a girl only in the hopes that she'll like him, so that all his interactions are lies, and then wonders why he never gets the girl). But my sons concentrated on the superhero aspects and liked it a lot more.
• Spellbinder, Helen Stringer. Kidlit. A Reading-My-Library pick that I enjoyed a lot, about a girl who can see ghosts, which means she can notice when the bad guy sucks them out of the world as part of his Evil Plan. With the help of a trouble making friend, a lingering ghost, and a ham sandwich, she fights for truth, justice, and the return of her ghostly parents.
• Congo, Michael Crichton. SF. My book club read this, and it was interesting to revisit an author that most of us really enjoyed back in the day. I mostly noticed that, except for the dead porters, none of the characters changed at all really during the course of the book -- the status quo was basically preserved from the first pages to the last, despite the pages in between.
• Hokey Pokey, Jerry Spinelli. Kidlit (?). A Reading-My-Library pick. This read more as a meditation on a particular kind of childhood, in an interesting way. I didn't actually have that childhood, and neither did my sons. A huge difference is the idea that boys and girls can never play together, which I think makes for a diminished childhood.
• Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, Carl Sandburg. This is one of the books I've been inching through all year. I now know much more about Lincoln's life prior to the White House, and I recommend it to anyone contemplating reading about his vampire hunting years.
• Still Life With Shapeshifter, Sharon Shinn. I like these books that avoid bad guy/good guy conflict -- Shinn's books tend to be about decent adults figuring out how to deal with their peculiar situations.
• Elephant Run, Roland Smith. A Reading-My-Library choice. I thought this was going to be a book about two kids in the wilderness, but instead it was about two kids caught up in the war with the Japanese in WWII. Since I love WWII books, this was a happy discovery.

What am I currently reading?  I concentrate on the library book due REAL SOON NOW, and after I finish that, I butterfly about between another library book, a book from my shelves, a library NOOK choice, my personal NOOK book, and maybe a book club book. And my audio book and all my inch-worm selections. Also, it was interesting that my currently-reading list is so short -- I think at one point is was down to only seven books, which for me is astonishing.

• Ichiro, Ryan Inzano. YA This is what I'm reading first, since it must go back soon. It's the last Cybils Graphic Novel. And no, it's not about baseball.
• Chime, Franny Billingsley. Audio YA. Everyone time the narrator complains about her romantic rival, I switch to radio. I think I'm developing an aversion to girls-hate-girls plots.
• Dead of Night, Charlaine Harris & Amanda Stevens. NOOK. I've actually already read the Harris story, but since I remembered it as being shorter I thought this one was knew. I think the Stevens story is long enough to make up the rest of the book.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. I managed to read a bit of this last week as I plowed through almost everything else. I like it, but without a due-date it's not urgent.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. The men-folk are not-so-secretly deploying themselves around the women.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. This is going to be the chemical and physical basis of love -- cool!
• Senrid, Sherwood Smith. YA. The Norsunders are banished!
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Lots of dull lawyer stuff. Again.
• A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays, Laurie Lecomer. What parents can do to support themselves and their children.

What will I read next? My next library book is another Cybils book about the Bomb, and I've got a book LibraryThing sent me set in NEBRASKA, and the library just mentioned that Erdrich's Round House (set in NORTH DAKOTA) is available for my NOOK. Basically I'm working on keeping ahead of my library due dates while frantically whittling down my challenges.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 55/74.  Read another picture book.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 36/51. I'm now nine books behind quota. I've got a Nebraska book in the bag. Also, I've read 3 books on each continent (not Antarctica). I found an Alaska book on my shelves, and an Indiana book at the library.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 6/9. Need patterns, green, and brown. Does Bronze count as brown? I have that one out from the library. Also checked out a green pick.
4. Reading My Library: Finished three. checked out the next six - T, U V. 
5. Best of the Best 2012: 57/25. I have one out from the library now. Also slogging through CHIME.