Challenge Time

  It's crunch time for my challenges. I've got all the Cybils finalists lined up, and I really want to finish my January 1st, so I can start next years list. Which will be even harder, since I feel like I've hardly read any of this years books as I plow through last years...

Also, my Where Are You Reading list is still thin -- I need eleven more states, including D.C. No wonder I don't have a Christmas tree up yet.

In exercise news, completed our city's K9 CandyCane Run, which is a cute 5K that people bring their dogs to. The weather was sunny but cold -- 20F, which is probably the coldest I've ever tried to exercise in. I made my usual turtle-like pace, and hit my goals, and was only 50% slower than my son. Only one son, since HS Boy was left home sick -- I'm intimidated by sub-freezing weather and banned him when he woke with a cold. And I won the raffle at the end!

I'll sign in at Book Journey or Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month.

This week I finished:

• The Theory of Everything, JJ Johnson. A Cybils YA finalist -- good story, but man those parents were breathtakingly cruel -- "If you let your grades slip while you grieve your dead best friend, we'll kill your dog!"
• Fourmile, Watt Key. A Cybils Middle Grade finalist. Another book about grief, this time for a dead father.

• The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes, Randi Davenport. A memoir from my TBR list. From the cover I thought it was going to be about a kid who gets better, but it was pretty clear from the beginning that the happy ending was more a not-the-worst-possible-thing kind of ending.
• Almost Home, Joan Bauer. A Cybils Middle Grade finalist. This kid only has to deal with homelessness -- no one dies.

• Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, Mike Jung. Cybils Middle Grade SF finalist. About the top fans of a superhero. The cover has lured High School Boy into picking it up.
• Battle Magic, Tamora Pierce. YA. What happened to Briar that aged him before The Will of the Empress. I enjoyed this.

• Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95, Philip Hoose. Cybils YA Nonfiction finalist. Fascinating story of endangered migrating birds.
• Big Girl Small, Rachel DeWoskin. YA. Traumatised teen reflects over the worst week of her life. This is an Alex Award, which means it's technically for adults, but as an adult I didn't find the voice convincing, which wouldn't have bothered me as a YA.

• Etiquette & Espionage, Gail Carriger. YA. NOOK. Fun steam-punk twist on the boarding school genre.
• Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue From War, Marsha Skrypuch. Cybils YA Nonfiction finalist. Biography of the transition of a war orphan from a Vietnamese orphanage to a Toronto family.

What am I currently reading?  My book bag has a library book from the 2012 Best of the Best list, the most recent Tamora Pierce, a literary novel from my shelves, and my NOOK. Tomorrow I'll add a Cybils book to that and hope the stitches don't break.

• Paradise, Toni Morrison. I like the women in the opening chapters.
• A Palm For Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman. Library.  I'm still enjoying this series -- I'll order up the next as I finish this one.
• Calculated In Death, J.D. Robb. Library. This series is not as fresh, but I'll pick them up when they fall in front of me at the library.
• Endangered, Eliot Schrefer. YA. Library. The next Cybils finalist for me, this looks like a better book about the Congo than Congo was.
• Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?, Louise Rennison. Audio. YA. I'm enjoying this, although I haven't read any of the other books in this series. HS boy enjoys her vocabulosity.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. Still not making progress. The library picks always push in front of this poor purchased book.
• Developing Standards-Based Report Cards, Thomas R. Guskey & Jane M. Bailey. Time to get to chapter five.
• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. The new teacher does not respect the radio.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Service sometimes demands sacrifice. And guests.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. I like the progress of the rich gardener.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. Some false notes about autism.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Pickwick is defiant, and goes to Bath. I snore.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. This is my reward book -- I read a page or so whenever I finish something. I don't plan to do anything with it.

What's up next? A whole bunch of Cybils finalists, and then state work. I need to read at least one a day, and I'm really hoping that I get lucky and knock of some missing states for the geography challenges. Sadly, I don't feel lucky. I have The Storyteller up, but it looks too grim to read in one day, so I'll swap out some others if I have to.  If I have time afterward, I'll read the library books, replacing the soon-due Gilman with the similarly recalled At Large and at Small by Anne Fadiman and Calculated In Death with my next Reading My Library pick.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 65/74.  Six down, nine more to go.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 40/51. No change. May swap out my Oklahoma book for a shorter one. I'm hoping my Cybils books will give me a few freebies, but it's not looking good.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 7/9. Still need brown and patterns.
4. Reading My Library:  Not this week, either. Maybe next week.
5. Best of the Best 2012: 46/25.  Finished Big Girl Small. Will start In Zanesville when I stop panicking about my challenges.