Final Day Before Book Buying Spree!

Last day of theNo-New-Books Triple Dog Dare. So close! And yet it still seems pretty far.

Luckily, my entire family can't pick a basketball winner to save our lives, so our March Madness Pool is over and I can run to the bookstore with my meager winnings tomorrow! (Well, we'll probably make a ceremonial trip next weekend, but the pleasure is still there.) The adults chip into a pool, we indulge our math geekery by squabbling over how to count points, and then we award Barnes & Noble Gift Cards to everyone.

Now I'll sign in at Book Journey and Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month while I show off my recent reading path.

• The Lost Boy, Greg Ruth. Cybils Graphic Novel -- very dark and spooky.
• Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon & Little Hits, Matt Fraction. Comic books, because I am hip and with it. Clint seems to be making some poor life choices, though.
• The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater. NOOK. Very good, although I expected more stuff to be solved in this book rather than the sequel, which is waiting at the library for my son.
• Squish #5: Game On!, Jennifer L. Holm. Cybils Graphic Novel. As unlike Lost Boy as I can possibly imagine.
• The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place III: The Unseen Guest, Maryrose Wood. For my Reading My Library Quest -- a bit too cute for me.
• Hawkes Harbor, S.E. Hinton. A good read, although a bit incoherent. 
• Bluffton: My Summers with Buster Keaton, Matt Phelan. A soothing, gentle Cybils Graphic Novel that amused my son.

Also some picture books:

• The Pet Project: Cute and Cuddly Vicious Verses, Lisa Wheeler. Cybils poetry book. Sad.
• Limelight Larry, Leigh Hodgkinson. Snarky and vibrant, for sophisticated kids and their parents.
• Jazzy in the Jungle, Lucy Cousins. Bright colors, turnable pages, not much for adults.

What am I currently reading? I finished a few books, and I ALMOST finished a handful more. I've now got 3 audio books going in my car to accommodate various configurations of passengers -- this is exhausting! I'm hoping to finish two more of my books by the end of today, and then I can relax for a while.

• Poems to Learn By Heart, Caroline Kennedy (ed.). This is a Cybils poetry book. I've marked several poems as ones I might want to add to my mental collection.
• One Week Girlfriend, Monica Murphy. I'll probably finish this today -- the youth of today are exhausting.
• The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman. AUDIO. As soon as we are all in the car this goes on.
• The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau. AUDIO. This is the March Sword and Laser Kids book. Xan and I listen to it so we don't get ahead of Paulos with Mrs Pollifax.
• War For the Oaks, Emma Bull. I'll probably finish this today -- I'm enjoying the romantic subplots and the adult way the protagonists handles her career, her fairy commitments, and her men.
• Long May She Reign, Ellen Emerson White. I hope my kids meet people like Meg when they go to college. I hope they are better behaved than Jack, though.
• Carter's Big Break, Brent Crawford. AUDIO for me to listen to when I'm alone. It's from the 2013 Best of the Best for teens list.
• The Golden Leopard, Lynn Kerstan. A book that's been waiting on my NOOK. I'm hoping for a fun romance.
• The Water Castle, Megan Frazer Blackmore. A Cybils pick with an interesting sibling dynamic.
• Final Sail, Elaine Viets. I got this last year as another North America book (it takes place in the Caribbean), but I'm not connecting much to the characters.

Reading intermittently, and deliberately slowly. These never change much:

• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. Transmission shenanigans with a powerful hair dryer.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. The good mayor is back in the lead.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. How therapy and drugs can work together.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Pickwick in prison -- still dull.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. A good discussion of how to give background info, with Octavia Butler as a great example.

What's up next? We Are Not Eaten By Yaks is STILL up on top of my nightstand, with the library book The Night Circus now lurking hopefully in my bag. I need to start concentrating on my Reading My Library Quest books as they are due back soon. I've got some book club picks on my NOOK waiting for me.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. TBR Triple Dog Dare: 22 +3. I will probably get to 24 before tomorrow.
2. Cybils: 38/77. Finished the Elementary Graphic Novels, working on poetry, and Elementary Speculative Fiction.
3. Where Am I Reading? 20/51. Checked off California, Delaware, and Virginia. My current reads are duplicates, though.
4. Alphabetically Inclined: 14/26. No change.
5. What's In a Name?: 4/7. Still need weather, school subject, and shape. I saw some library books that would plug these holes, but the Triple Dog Dare kept my hands off of them.
6. Book Bingo: 20 Squares. Still need a mystery, a lot of  New Releases, and a few more TBR.
7. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: 5/10, 7/10. The Harbor scored me a point.
8. Small Fry Safari: 4/8. No change. Still need furniture, time, pairs, and something precious.
9. PoC Speculative Fiction 1/5: No change.
10. Best of the Best 2012: 51/25.  I've started listening to the next audio, and the next book is in my reading bag.
11. Reading My Library:  Finished Maryrose Wood's book.

Final Stretch! Book On the Horizon!

There are less than 60 hours left in the Triple Dog Dare -- a Dare that I avoid acquiring books just because they look tasty. And I'm still standing.

I've even talked to people who have read the books that I wanted but couldn't get because of this dare. Of course, by "talk" I mean sat by them with my fingers in my ears chanting "LALALA." But I came home, fired up my NOOK, and then put it back down. At the library, I saw two book my my TBR list, and another book that I NEED for a challenge.  Exercising great will power (which, perhaps coincidentally, is the ONLY exercise I've done this week), I left them on the library shelves. The hold shelf kindly soothed my soul's irritation by handing me several Cybils books, but even there I'm restricting myself to post-bedtime Cybils time with them.

(The links for Cybils books go to the Cybils-Amazon page, rather than the library page, so you can support them if you want. And if I got the link right.)

The Lost Boy, Greg Ruth. The last of the Cybils young Graphic Novels.

Rose, Holly Webb. I actually got this in both ebook & text form. Next Cybils young Speculative Fiction.

 The Rithmatist, Brandon Sanderson. Cybils Speculative Fiction.

The True Blue Scouts of Sugar Man Swamp, Kathi Appelt. More Speculative Fiction.

The Water Castle,  Megan Frazer Blakemore. I got the NOOK form of this SF.

The Pet Project: Cute and Cuddly Vicious Verses, Lisa Wheeler. The next poetry book. I'm alternating chapters of the anthology with these picture books.

And a book club book:

A Kiss at Midnight, Eloisa James. NOOK. This is actually the alt-alt-pick for the Vaginal Fantasy April books. The other two books both include a rape scene (Deerskin and   Daughter of the Forest) so they gave another choice. I've already read both of those (I highly recommend Deerskin and I liked Daughter of the Forest), so I'll try the new one.

This means I now have 44 things out on my library cards, including ebooks. I'll go share my Library Loot at the event co-hosted by Claire from the Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief where all the library addicts compare their treasures.

Book credits banked: Eleven (Usually I reward myself by buying a book if my library total is less than my age, but since I can't actually buy anything right now I'm counting up these credits.)

Triple Dog Dare CrunchTime!

Another week and I'm still on the No-New-Books Triple Dog Dare. The end of March is in sight. So close!

I've been busily reading Cybils books and encouraging my kids to read them as well. We also had our family book club meeting and discussed Margaret Lovett's The Great and Terrible Quest, which was a big hit. I also managed to start and finish Leonard Richardson's Constellation Games. He was the guest of honor at this year's Foolscap and I've been meaning to read his book since January, and after meeting him I was even more interested. Good stuff.

Now I'll sign in at Book Journey and Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month while I show off my recent reading path.

• Constellation Games, Leonard Richardson. A book about first contact, responsibility, and trust.
• Monster On the Hill, Rob Harrell. Cybils young graphic novel, popular with my boys.
• March Book 1, John Lewis. Cybils young graphic novel, approved by high schooler.
• Goddess of Spring, P.C. Cast. NOOK. Alt pick for Vaginal Fantasy. Fun.
• Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite, Barry Deutsch.  Cybils young graphic novel.
• The Darkest Kiss, Gena Showalter. Main pick for Vaginal Fantasy. I didn't like it.
• The Great and Terrible Quest, Margaret Lovett. Family book club book. As good as I remembered.
• The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems, Lauren Myracle. Cybils Early Chapter book. I didn't trust the realism.

Also some picture books:

• Pug and Other Animal Poems, Valerie Worth. Cybils poetry book.
• Extraordinary Jane, Hannah E. Harrison. Fun book about a dog with no special talent.
• 123 versus ABC, Mike Boldt. Numbers face off with letters.
• What Will Fat Cat Sit On, Jan Thomas. I loved this simple tale of a scary big cat while the other animals frantically dodge the bullet.
• What If Everybody Did That, Ellen Javernick. I would have liked this one more if it had involved different people learning the lesson -- by the end of the book I wanted to turn the viewpoint boy over my knee.

What am I currently reading? I have finished nothing on this list this week! Instead I plowed through some Cybils light reading and the Vaginal Fantasy books about to expire from my NOOK. Then I got to work on the Foolscap GoH book I've had out since January but hadn't gotten around to reading yet, and which the library wants back pronto.

• Hawke's Harbor, S.E. Hinton. I think I got this for the setting (Delaware) but then it turned out to be a duplicate, and now the library wants it back. Very different from Outsiders.
• Poems to Learn By Heart, Caroline Kennedy (ed.). This is a Cybils poetry book, and I'm only reading a chapter or so at a time so I can decide if I want to learn any new poems by heart.
• One Week Girlfriend, Monica Murphy. I got distracted by other books so haven't actually made any progress on this.
• The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater (book & NOOK). There's a lot of foreshadowing of doom, which does not make me rush to finish the book.
• The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman. AUDIO. We are all enjoying this, especially the part where her prison companions are tortured.
• The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau. AUDIO. This is the March Sword and Laser Kids book. Xan and I listen to it so we don't get ahead of Paulos with Mrs Pollifax.
• War For the Oaks, Emma Bull. I'm liking this, but boy can I tell that I waited decades to read it -- it's practically historical!
• The Unseen Guest (Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place), Maryrose Wood. I think this is a bit too twee for me, but I'm enjoying the ostrich. 
• Long May She Reign, Ellen Emerson White. E.E. White is a great writer -- she really nails her characters.

Reading intermittently, and deliberately slowly. These never change much:

• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. They may have to start doing their own homework.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. The good mayor is back in the lead.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. The importance of early training in emotional equilibrium.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Pickwick in prison -- dull.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. Reader expectations in SF and regular literature, aka the dangers of early metaphors.

What's up next? We Are Not Eaten By Yaks is STILL up on top of my nightstand, with the library book The Night Circus waits patiently next to it. I want to concentrate on my books, not library ones for this last week of the TBR challenge.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. TBR Triple Dog Dare: 21 +3. The plus three are books I own but haven't read in years.
2. Cybils: 35/77. Finished the Early Chapter Books, working on poetry, and starting on young graphic novels.
3. Where Am I Reading? 17/51. Finished books from Italy (maybe) and Greece, and checked off Georgia as a state. Still reading the California and Virginia books.
4. Alphabetically Inclined: 14/26. Into the back half.
5. What's In a Name?: 4/7. Still need weather, school subject, and shape. Next month I can start scanning the Quick Pick display at the library for these.
6. Book Bingo: 20 Squares. I need a mystery. And a handful of New Releases.
7. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: 5/10, 6/10. Got a season and a family name.
8. Small Fry Safari: 4/8. Still need furniture, time, pairs, and something else.
9. PoC Speculative Fiction 1/5: Nothing. I read books by PoCs, and I read SF, but nothing combining the two.
10. Best of the Best 2012: 51/25.  No change.
11. Reading My Library:  Still working on Maryrose Wood's book.

Stay On Target...

There are only 10 days left in the Triple Dog Dare -- a Dare that I avoid acquiring books just because they look tasty.

I have never come so close to making the dare. This is getting intense. I saw many books at the library that I want -- the Quick Pick shelves seemed to be stocked with me in mind. But I heroically drooled and then left. Of course, I left by the hold shelf, since I had several Cybils picks to gather up. Thank goodness for Challenge Exemptions.

(The links for Cybils books go to the Cybils-Amazon page, rather than the library page, so you can support them if you want. And if I got the link right.)

Cybils books -- 4 Middle Grade Graphic Novels:


Squish: Game On, Jennifer Holm
Bluffton, Matt Phelan
March, Book One, John Lewis
Monster On the Hill, Rob Harrell

One Poetry, and one Middle Grade Speculative Fiction:

Pug and Other Animal Poems, Valerie Worth
Lockwood & Co: The Screaming Staircase, Jonathan Stroud

This means I now have 43 things out on my library cards, including ebooks. I'll go share my Library Loot at the event co-hosted by Claire from the Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief where all the library addicts compare their treasures.

Book credits banked: Ten (Usually I reward myself by buying a book if my library total is less than my age, but since I can't actually buy anything right now I'm counting up these credits.)

Spring Sunshine

Spring poked its head into the Northwest this week, and I sure hope it likes what it sees and settles in. This got so good that I actually went for a run. Well, more of a toddle really, but perhaps it can lead to better stuff. I also make some progress on my Cybils challenge, reading most of the small chapter books.

This may be the longest I've ever made it through a TBR dare, so I'm chuffed about that. I'm still not sure I'll make it all the way to the end (March is a very long month), but I'm proud of making it to St Patricks Day. Now I'll sign in at Book Journey and Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month while I show off my recent reading path.

• The War With Grandpa, Robert Kimmel Smith. For my school book club. Fun read.
• Kelsey Green, Reading Queen, Claudia Mills. Cybils Early Chapter Book finalist.
• The Case of the Toxic Mutants (Dragonbreath #9), Ursula Vernon. Cybils Early Chapter Book finalist.
• Nory Ryan's Song, Patricia Reilly Giff. A book about Ireland, appropriate for the holiday.
• Georges, Alexandre Dumas. NOOK. This adventure story was also the oldest book on my Goodreads TBR list.
• Keep Me Forever, Marlene Darcy. A paranormal I've been slowly reading.
• The Dragon and the George, Gordon R. Dickson. A book from my shelves.
• Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat, Anna Branford. Cybils Early Chapter Book finalist. Started rereading it with my early reader.
• Home Sweet Horror, James Preller. Cybils Early Chapter Book finalist.
• Undead and Unwed, MaryJanice Davidson. NOOK. For Vaginal Fantasies.
• Lulu and the Dog From the Sea, Hilary McKay. Cybils Early Chapter Book finalist.
• Love Bites (My Sister the Vampire), Sienna Mercer. Another book from my shelves.

Also a picture book:

• The Nowhere Box, Sam Zuppardi. Someday I want to read a picture book about an older sibling who sometimes wants to play by himself and that's OK. But not this book -- the kid comes to the Important Realization that it is More Fun To Play With Your Siblings.

What am I currently reading?

• One Week Girlfriend, Monica Murphy. I got distracted by other books, but so far this is cute, if young for me.
• The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater (book & NOOK). How the really rich are different from the rest of us.
• The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman. AUDIO. I love sharing things I like with my kids.
• War For the Oaks, Emma Bull. I've been meaning to read this for decades.
• The Unseen Guest (Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place), Maryrose Wood. Library -- next on my Reading My Library Quest.
• Long May She Reign, Ellen Emerson White. I didn't actually finish this in time for book club, but I'm enjoying enough to finish it late.

Reading intermittently, and deliberately slowly. These never change much:

• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. Crises approaching as all roads intersect.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. BBQ meets air-show.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. Training your brain with neural networks.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Pickwick in prison -- dull.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. Info-dumping with style.

What's up next? My family book club is reading The Great and Terrible Quest, so I need to reread that.  We Are Not Eaten By Yaks is up on top of my nightstand, with the library book The Night Circus next to it. That's a book I've meant to have read, although I'm not sure I'll like reading it. Constellation Games and Hawkes Harbor are due soon, so I'd better start them as well.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. TBR Triple Dog Dare: 21. Two more weeks before I can buy more books!
2. Cybils: 28/77. Almost finished the Early Chapter Books and started on poetry. Oh, and I just noticed that McKinley's Shadows is on the list. Woot!
3. Where Am I Reading? 16/51. Unchanged, which is OK. I'm currently reading books set in California and Virginia, which is good. Oh, and Georges was set in the South Pacific Africa! Oops. I mean, it's an island, but culturally I guess it belongs to Africa.
4. Alphabetically Inclined: 13/26. Half-way already! Still only using books on my shelves.
5. What's In a Name?: 4/7. Got a time reference. Still need weather, school subject, and shape.
6. Book Bingo: 19 Squares. New Releases will be easier once I'm off the Triple Dog Dare.
7. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: 5/10, 4/10. No changes, since I'm not counting the youngest books.
8. Small Fry Safari: 4/8 -- A picture book and Rump fall into Name in Title and Unsightly in Title.
9. PoC Speculative Fiction 1/5: I'm counting on the Cybils to help me out here.
10. Best of the Best 2012: 51/25.  I have The Night Circus on deck, and another audio waiting for after I finish Mrs. Pollifax.
11. Reading My Library:  Should finish Maryrose Wood's book soon.

Another Library Run

I keep getting books, sometimes I read them, occasionally I think about what I read, and even more rarely I write about it. So as a progress of my emotional journey, this blog is kinda a failure. But as a progress of the books coming into my house -- WIN!

Also, I taught someone else how to use the robot slave (thank you Leonard Richardson) Automated Book Return. Well, I showed her the difference between Bar Code Up and Bar Code Down, which should make the change from Always Fails to Mostly Succeeds.

Because I am still successfully on the Triple Dog Dare I limited myself to things from the hold shelf, although I did browse through a picture book. Oh, and I got an Iliad for my son, the budding classicist.

Four Cybils books:

Poems to Learn By Heart, Caroline Kennedy (poetry)

Forest Has a Song, Amy Ludwig Vanderwater (poetry)

Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite, Barry Deutsch (graphic)

Donner Dinner Party, Nathan Hale (graphic)

And a Best of the Best Pick, along with books for my son:

Carter's Big Break, Brent Crawford (10 Ten Audio)
Demon's Eyes, Scott Tracey, sequel to a book we read last year
The Wandering Odysseus, Rosemary Sutcliff. Classic stuff
Iliad, Homer. Moving on from the Odyssey.

This means I now have 46 things out on my library cards, including ebooks. Lucky I had the birthday! I'll go share my Library Loot at the event co-hosted by Claire from the Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief where all the library addicts compare their treasures.

Book credits banked: Nine (Usually I reward myself by buying a book if my library total is less than my age, but since I can't actually buy anything right now I'm counting up these credits.)

PoC Speculative Fiction -- More Reading What I Like

I found another Reading Challenge which is more a chance to organize my reading into lists -- DuskyLiterati's 2014 PoC Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge. She defines Speculative Fiction as science fiction, fantasy and horror, which is pretty much what I use my SF tag for. And she defines PoC as Asians, African-American, Africans, Native Americans, and Latinos. I can think of a few other categories I'd include (Zadie Smith, for example, doesn't count as PoC by that definition, although I don't think her works count as SF either), but I'm not about quibbling.

Reviews can be posted here.

It started back in January, so here's what I've read so far that qualifies:

• The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, N.K. Jemisin

Wow, that's not much. I guess I'd better pick a low level to enroll in then:

1-5 books — Shapeshifter

And since then, I've added:

• Broken Homes, Ben Aaronovitch
• The Water Castle, Megan Frazer Blakemore
• Midnight Riot, Ben Aaronovitch.
• Skin Tight, Ava Gray

6-10 books — Sorcerer

• Heart of Steel, Meljean Brooks
• Angel's Blood, Nalini Singh
• Black Butler, Yana Tokoso
• The Gilda Stories, Jewelle Gomez
• Archangel's Storm, Nalini Singh

11-15 books — Superhero

• Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant, Tony Cliff
• World After, Susan Ee
• Bad Machinery 1 & 2, John Allison
• Black Butler 2, Yana Toboso
• The Lions of al-Rassan, Guy Gavriel Kay (I'm not sure this counts)

16+ books — Post-apocalyptic Survivor

• The Missing, Shiloh Walker
• Affliction, Laurell K Hamilton
• Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang
• Boxers & Saints, Gene Luen Yang
• Unmade, Sarah Rees Brennan
• Black Butler 3, Yana Toboso
• The Son Of Neptune, Rick Riordan
• Uzumaki, Junji Ito
• Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, Ambelin Kwaymullina
• The Summer Prince, Alaya Dawn Johnson

Farewell To Youthful Thoughts

Adios Twindom! For a few weeks every year my little sister and I share an age, but tomorrow I surge forth again into older-sister glory. Instead of dallying in the youthful pleasures with my younger sibling, I must stride forth into the graver delights of wisdom and experience. Luckily I can do this while eating cake.

I finished most of the stuff in my book bag this week, and looked over a few picture books in the library since I still am trying to avoid anything new, so I'll sign in at Book Journey and Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month while I show off my accomplishments.

• Rotters, Daniel Kraus. Audio. This was a fairly good story buried under a tide of really gross descriptions that kept me out of the story, so far out that I couldn't really believe in any of the characters. 
• Thousand Pieces of Gold, Ruthanne Lum McCunn. Historical fiction about a Chinese woman brought to Idaho against her will. She still manages to forge a community and family.
• The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens, Brooke Hauser. Interesting book where you follow along in a year with kids.
• Welcome to the Ark, Stephanie S. Tolan. YA. I finally finished this -- I started it last summer back in New Zealand.
• Rump: the True Story of Rumpelstiltskin, Liesl Shurtliff. Last month's Sword and Laser Kids pick, and also our family book club pick (not coincidentally).
• The Return of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs. I had forgotten how much fun these are. Although since Tarzan spends more of his time among people in this 2nd book, there is more room for racism and sexism to show up.
• Mrs. Pollifax on Safari, Dorothy Gilman. Old friends and new companions -- I'm still loving this series.

Also a few picture books:

• Flying Henry, Rachel Hulin. Neat photoshopping launches a baby into thin air in realistic pictures. The story is a bit lame.
• Willow Finds a Way, Lana Button. Willow manages to tame a bully and everyone is friends in the end. A bit too sweet.
• My Grandpa, Marta Altes. Emphatic story of a boy and his mentally failing grandfather. Made me sad because my dad is so much worse off than the pictured grandpa.
• Bill the Boy Wonder: The Secret Co-Creator of Batman, Marc Tyler Nobleman. Interesting nonfiction account of the policies and prejudices that kept this secret for so many years. 

What am I currently reading? Only one book repeats from last week! That's amazing.

• Georges, Alexandre Dumas. NOOK. He's ditching the girl to lead a revolution? Georges, this will not end well. Please notice that this is the only book left from last week -- I finished most of what I started!
• Undead and Unwed, MaryJanice Davidson. NOOK.
• One Week Girlfriend, Monica Murphy. Earlyreader present -- I'm almost caught up with these!
• The Raven Boys, Maggie Stiefvater (book & NOOK). Next on my TBR list, and then I noticed that I had purchased for my NOOK at some point.
• The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman. AUDIO. I finally finished Rotters, and the sheer grossness was so bad that as a cleanser the kids and I are laughing along to this.

Reading intermittently, and deliberately slowly. These never change much:

• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. Lost radios. Lost parrot!
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Time for local politics to erupt.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. Mystery solved, love declared.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. Training your brain with neural networks.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. More court stuff -- blech.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. Different kinds of story, and the different arcs for each type -- how to know where to begin and end.

What's up next? I've pulled The Dragon and the George of my dusty bookshelves. I still need to read Long May She Reign by Friday. My next library book will be my Reading-My-Library Quest pick The Unseen Guest, a Incorrigible Children of Ashton place book by Maryrose Wood.  I think I'll push Walton back for a more lightweight We Are Not Eaten By Yaks after One Week Boyfriend is done.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. TBR Triple Dog Dare: 17. Only a few weeks left, which is good because several of my favorite authors are publishing books this month...
2. Cybils: 21/77. Received but haven't started the Early Chapter Books. 
3. Where Am I Reading? 16/51. I'm into my April Quota! I've also got three African books in, although I'm blank in Asia, South America, and Oceania.
4. Alphabetically Inclined: 10/26. Stuck at ten. 
5. What's In a Name?: 3/7. Still nothing. But something I'm currently reading qualifies!
6. Book Bingo: 18 Squares. Two rows and one column complete. I wish I had noticed that Rump was a new release...
7. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: 5/10, 4/10. Gold is another color. And an Ark is a structure, right?
8. Small Fry Safari: 2/8 -- A picture book and Rump fall into Name in Title and Unsightly in Title.
9. Reading My Library:  Got another one on the top of the pile.
10. Best of the Best 2012: 51/25.  Finished Rotters! Whew, that was not to my taste. Also read and enjoyed The New Kids, about immigrant high schoolers.

Cybils 2013 Easy Reader Finalists

I gathered the collection of Cybils Easy Readers and read them all. Then I tried to read them with the not-quite-independent reader. This is exciting because he's right about the level that these books are aimed at, so I feel it's a fair test.

Then I got my high schooler to read them. There are many reasons I love my son, and the fact that as a high schooler he's still willing to read and enjoy books like these is only one of them. But it's a wonderful reason, isn't it?

Finally I watched the junior high boy read them, so I completed my family of testers.

A Big Guy Took My Ball! (An Elephant and Piggie Book), Mo Willems.  I loved share reading this with the elementary student. He's very familiar with Elephant and Piggy books (I think one was his first official READ BOOK), so he claimed Gerald and had me read Piggy, and listening to his expression and dynamic changes was refreshing. We both read the parts of the Big Guy, using Dory's whale accent from Finding Nemo. As always, Willems delivers a fun story with great characters using minimal text.

So this one was a hit with everyone, adult, high school, junior high, and elementary student.

Joe and Sparky Go to School, Jamie Michalak. When I share-read with a new reader, we often alternate pages. This works really well for Michalak's fun story about a field trip to a school by a giraffe and a turtle, and my emergent reader is also currently very game for pauses to speculate what will happen next or what the effect of what just happened. Particularly relevant was the scene where poor Joe gets lectured for interrupting when he tries to hush Sparky in order to hear the teacher, and then the teachers rubs salt in his wounds by awarding Sparky a star for good listening.

We've all been through the agony of injustice, haven't we? Then the chapter about the "restroom" literally had the boy rolling around laughing. The words "magic pond" will never be the same. This was his and my top pick of the set, and enjoyed by everyone.

Love Is in the Air (HC) (Penguin Young Readers, L2), Jonathan Fenske
This was a sweet small story, almost as easy to read as the Willems book but with enough plot and emotion to justify itself. I also liked the action in the pages, both the constant up and down and the vividly depicted twists and spins.

The high schooler actually found it creepy -- he read the final scene as a Romeo & Juliet style suicide pact. Interesting connection there. The junior high boy also appreciated that ending; he's been a bit depressed lately so any book that ends with "and then they all died" is pronounced a Happy Ending.

Penny and Her Marble (I Can Read Book 1), Kevin Henkes. I enjoy almost everything Henkes has written, from picture books through early readers into middle grade books. I do admit that my older boys find them dull now -- they are not charmed by the cosy family life or Penny's very realistic moral crisis.

So, I liked it, but all three boys regarded this as a snoozer.

The Meanest Birthday Girl, Josh Schneider. I actually read this one months ago, pulling it off the library "New Books" wall for its cover. But in fairness I reread it with the others and then offered it around.

The high schooler awarded it the prize, and loudly guffawed as he read it. He proclaimed it one of the the best books he's read all year (OK, it's February) and called it a "Monkey's Paw for little kids." High praise indeed. The junior high boy and the elementary kid both praised it as well.

Urgency Emergency! Big Bad Wolf, Dosh Archer. I liked how the lost child in the first pages tied back to the devoured grandmother inside the wolf.  The pictures were good and the story solid, although I have more sympathy for the wolf than the text supports.

This got high marks from the youngest reader, but the older two were just mildly amused. The Cybils judges gave it the prize, but after all, they could keep the real audience in mind while my test readers really stretch that border. Well done Cybils authors -- it's not every author of an Easy Reader who can also keep the attention of teenagers!

Marching Into the Library!

I've been slacking on the library posts lately, but I still go every week. Which is still a bad idea, but I guess there are worse vices.

On this trip to the library I got to teach someone to use to automatic return machine. She was complaining that it always rejected her books, and I pointed out that she was carefully lifting them OVER the laser-beam-thingy that read the bar codes, so she adjusted her technique and learned to welcome our new robot overlords  protectors. So I felt all good-Samaritan-y.

Because I am still successfully on the Triple Dog Dare I only checked out things from the hold shelf, although I did browse through a few picture books.

First I got the entire list of Cybils Early Chapter Book Finalists:



Home Sweet Horror (Scary Tales) James Preller

Kelsey Green, Reading Queen (Franklin School Friends) Claudia Mills

Lulu and the Dog from the Sea Hilary McKay

The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems Lauren Myracle

Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat Anna Branford

Dragonbreath #9: The Case of the Toxic Mutants, Ursula Vernon

And then a few other things that had shown up as well:

The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau. This month's Sword & Laser Kids pick.
The City of Ember: The Graphic Novel, Dallas Middaugh,
Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station, Dorothy Gilman. Next in the series.
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman (audio). I got this because my current audio book has traumatized me so badly I need something soothing and gentle. This tale of the international superspy Mrs. Pollifax should do nicely.

Last week I got a handful of Odysseys for my teenaged son, since he had expressed an interested so I figured why not let him choose from a variety of translations. I also got:

The Night Circus, Erin Morganstern. This is my next Best of the Best read; it was an Alex Award.
Theodosia and the Eyes of Horos, R.L. La Fevers. The next book from my TBR list, after I finish Georges.

Finally, the library gave me some stuff for my e-reader NOOK:


Georges, Alexandre Dumas. This is the oldest book on my TBR list.
Undead and Unwed, MaryJanice Davidson. This is the alt pick for last months Vaginal Fantasies.
The Darkest Kiss, Gena Showalter. This month's Vaginal Fantasies' pick.
Goddess of Spring, P.C. Cast. The other pick for March Vaginal Fantasy.

This means I now have 48 things out on my library cards, including ebooks. Which includes about eight copies of The Odyssey in various formats, so I think I'll give myself a pass even though I'm technically only supposed to go up to 45 things. I'll go share my Library Loot at the event co-hosted by Claire from the Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief where all the library addicts compare their treasures.

Book credits banked: Eight (Usually I reward myself by buying a book if my library total is less than my age, but since I can't actually buy anything right now I'm counting up these credits.)