Back to Reality Hum Hum Hum

We flew back from California on Sunday, and suddenly school and work all wanted our attendance. I much prefer Disneyland, I must say. One kid got better, one kid got a little sick, and the weather retreated to wet and chilly. Of course, since I'm on the west coast, it was still far better than what most of the country is experiencing, but it is still a bit of a system shock.

I managed to finish a lot of books that I've been dragging around for months, so that made me feel good. And I got in some fun co-reading with the fifth grader while his sister was off doing athletic stuff. I will now start another stack of books so I can feel competent again in a few weeks.

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

• Love, Ruby Lavender, Deborah Wiles. Kidlit for my Reading My Library Quest.
• Replay, Ken Grimwood. SF recommended by Jo Walton.
• Anubis Speaks, Vicky Alvear Shecter. Cybils nonfiction.
• Shadows, Robin McKinley. Finally! I think it's technically YA.
• Lord of Mountains, S.M. Stirling. SF
• Almost a Bride, Patricia McLinn (NOOK). Romance.
• A Girl's Guide to Vampires, Katie MacAlister. Romance for Vaginal Fantasy book club. I liked it more than they did, but I think my expectations were closer to reality so it wasn't a shock.
• Who Stole Grandma's Million-Dollar Pumpkin Pie?, Martha Freeman. Kidlit. I should try that recipe next fall.
• The Robe of Skulls, Vivian French. Kidlit. Clearing off my shelves.
• The Prize in the Game, Jo Walton. Rereading my copy, which is signed. Really well done.

Also some picture books, mostly from the Cybils:

• Locomotive, Brian Floca
• A Big Guy Took My Ball, Mo Willems
• Joe and Sparky Go to School, Jamie Michalak
• Love Is In the Air, Jonathan Fenske
• Penny and Her Marble, Kevin Henkes
• The Meanest Birthday Girl, Josh Schneider
• Urgency Emergency! Big Bad Wolf, Dosh Archer

What am I currently reading? Wow, from a long list only three titles here are the same. That's pretty good, for me. I started almost all the new ones this weekend because I have the attention span of a grasshopper.

• Welcome to the Ark, Stephanie Tolan. I actually started this during my New Zealand vacation last summer, but then I got distracted by a mountain of library books. Time to finish it.
• Georges, Alexandre Dumas. NOOK. This is the oldest book on my TBR list. It's an old book.
• Thousand Pieces of Gold, Ruthanne Lum McCunn. From my creaking bookcase.
• Rump, Liesl Shurtliffe. NOOK. My family book club is trying out the February Sword and Laser Kids pick.
• New Kids, Brooke Hauser. I'm enjoying this look at an international high school that the 2012 Best of the Best list recommended to me.
• Mrs. Pollifax on Safari, Dorothy Gilman. Mrs. Pollifax is getting romanced!
• The Return of Tarzan, Edgar Rice Burroughs. It's fun to discuss these with my high schooler. He finds the racism,  sexism, and honor code very bizarre, and is enjoying the rich vocabulary.
• Rotters, Daniel Kraus. Audio. I was trying to summarize this to my middle schooler and finally just had to tell him to stop asking "Why" because any sentence about this book that involved character motivations just wasn't going anywhere good. I suspect it would make more sense if I were reading instead of listening -- I do not handle horror books in audio form well at all.

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

• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. Overbearing adult authorities collide!
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. We've just spent many pages on a bad haircut.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. That boy Sam has the worst luck ever.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. Brain bits that flare for happiness.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. This book is very long.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. Finding your main character, and being willing to let go of your first ideas.

What's up next? Well, I'm not going to finish much at this week so possibly nothing. But I have The Raven Boys from the library if I get through New Kids, and Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton if I complete Welcome to the Ark. I haven't picked what will follow Thousand Pieces of Gold but it will probably be something middle grade in honor of Middle Grade March. Also, after Rump I'll start on my regular book club pick, Long May She Reign by Ellen Emerson White.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. TBR Triple Dog Dare: 15. Can I get to twenty-five by the end of March? Can I resist the new Patricia Briggs book? The next weeks will tell.
2. Cybils: 21/77. Finished the nonfiction for young readers. Read all the Early Readers. Ordered up the Early Chapter books.
3. Where Am I Reading? 14/51. I need one more in March to stay on target.
4. What's In a Name?: 3/6. I either had multiple choices for a category or NOTHING.
5. Book Bingo: 16 Squares. First Bingo! Hoping for an X soon.
6. Alphabetically Inclined: 10/26. Remember, I'm not counting library books.
7. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: 4/10, 3/10. Lavender and pumpkin are colors. Hit two more categories.
8. Small Fry Safari: I started this on Saturday, so I'm not going to use any of this week's books.
9. Reading My Library:  Finished Love, Ruby Lavender.
10. Best of the Best 2012: 49/25.  On the penultimate disc. I really dislike listening to gross stuff. Horror and audio are not a good combinations for me. I almost long for zombies.