DisneyLand!

This blog has been quiet for a week while I vacation in Disneyland with my family. This is my fourth time there this decade, and I've been transformed from a skeptic to an enthusiast. Not only did I have fun with the rides and displays, but I also got to see my kids being awesome and amazing. They were patient. They didn't complain about all the walking. They (mostly) humored their little cousin. Even when they got sick, they (well, he, I'm talking about X now) handled it with patience and good humor, resting when he had to and enjoying what he could. I'm very proud of my kids and niblings!

Since many of the lines are long, I did manage to finish a few things there, plus all the reading I do on the plane rides there and back again. And while driving off to visit my grandmother and aunt, both of whom looked wonderful.

I'll sign in at Book Journey and Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month. Despite spending the weekend talking and listening instead of reading, I managed to finish a few things:

• Mirror, Mirror, (anthology). I got it for the J.D. Robb story, but they were all OK.
• The Fierce Reads Anthology. YA
• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin. SF
• Black Duck, Janet Taylor Lisle. YA
• Attitude, Robin Stevenson. YA

What am I currently reading? Six books in my bag, plus an audio.

• Shadows, Robin McKinley. I am savoring this.
• The Prize in the Game, Jo Walton. Another book I am slowly enjoying, because I know it will be beautiful but also tragic.
• Love, Ruby Lavender, Deborah Wiles. Kidlit. A Reading-My-Library Quest book about a lonely nine year old. And chickens.
• A Girl's Guide to Vampires, Katie MacAlister. NOOK The current Vaginal Fantasy pick, which is making me laugh out loud at frequent intervals.
• Almost a Bride, Patricia McLinn. NOOK. A romance book that I hope will soon make me forget what a ninny the protagonist is (her secret reason for marrying the hero? She needed a speedy address change, and apparently in Wyoming marrying someone is a faster route than I don't know, renting someplace & moving).
• Replay, Ken Grimwood. NOOK I think Jo Walton recommended this interesting SF story about a man who keeps repeating his life.
• Mrs. Pollifax on Safari, Dorothy Gilman. I wanted a thin paperback book to carry around Disney, and this was perfect.
• Lord of Mountains, S.M. Stirling. Another paperback I brought for the trip, which coincidently is due this week so I'd better get on it.
• The Return of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs. Since I reread Tarzan of the Apes last week, I wanted to finish off the first romance arc. This one is even cheesier.
• Rotters, Daniel Kraus. Audio. Nope, we both dislike it. Now that dad has gone stupid-crazy because it is important for the boy to despise him. No, it makes no sense with his previous characterization. That is not something this book worries about when there are gross things to be described!

Reading intermittently, and deliberately slowly:

• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. Uh oh, the mean teacher has expressed interest in the show.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. It's a race to retire!
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. The werewolf lover must meet the clan.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. Experiments on happiness.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Not making me chuckle.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card.  How history and science can improve your plot and characters.

What's up next? First I need to whittle down that long list above -- now that I'm not traveling anymore I can finish stuff up. Then I'll put Georges by Dumas on my NOOK, and maybe New Kids for the next on my Best Books list. I also need a book that starts with F for a challenge, so I'll grab one off my shelves.

2014 Challenges:

1. TBR Triple Dog Dare: 10. Made it to 10 -- next goal is fifteen.
2. Cybils: 15/77. Still finishing the last nonfiction picture book, which is actually a chapter book. Just picked up a stack of Early Readers.
3. Where Am I Reading? 10/51. Another Rhode Island! Life is mocking me this year.
4. What's In a Name?: 4/6. Does Tarzan count as a personal name?
5. Book Bingo: 11 Squares. TBR is a problem, but New Releases is a bigger one.
6. Alphabetically Inclined: 7/26. A is for Attitude.
7. Gentle Spectrums: 2/10, 1/10. Black Duck is a color!
8. Reading My Library:  Reading Love, Ruby Lavender, which kindly takes place in Mississippi.
9. Best of the Best 2012: 49/25.  On to next disc of Rotters. Wow, 13 discs is an awful lot. The narrator does a good job with character voices and tone, though. Too bad I'm not liking the story -- horror is not my genre and hearing it out loud makes it worse for me.