Reading What I Want

Argh, I forgot to post this status report, so it's too late to sign in at Book Journey and Teach Mentor Texts. I'll still go look to see what everyone else was reading this week.

Anyway, on these days of beautiful spring sunshine, Easter baskets full of chocolate, and colorful eggs begging to be smashed together, I read:

• Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies, Chris Kluew
• Poems To Learn By Heart, ed. Caroline Kennedy
• When Molly Was a Harvey Girl, Frances M. Wood
• 100 Cupboard, N.D. Wilson
• Rose, Holly Webb

What am I currently reading? Quite a few things, I think. It's probably time to consolidate. I think I'm going to spend the rest of spring working on my TBR list. (Not my TBR bookcase, that's a different mental pile altogether.)

• The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman. AUDIO. She's on the run! And she will be again on Wednesday. I have to listen to everything twice, once with each kid.
• The City of Ember, Jeanne DuPrau. AUDIO. Xan and I listen to it so we don't get ahead of Paulos with Mrs Pollifax. Except now I don't drive him as much so we're kinda in trouble.
• 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. I think I need to hook Xan on this to encourage me.
• The Golden Leopard, Lynn Kerstan. Misunderstandings and lack of communication. However, not because the characters are idiots, but because one is threatened by spying assassins.
• Heart of Steel, Meljean Brooks. She's broke now, so I'm guessing less money to spend on drugs and more enjoyment for me!
• Perdition, Ann Aguirre. Gritty main character, with a heart of gold. Just what I like :-).
• We Are Not Eaten By Yaks, C. Alexander London. My sympathies are completely with the kids. I'm even hoping they get some good reality TV to watch.
• The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern. If I don't start caring about somebody in this book soon this will be a long long slog.
• The Lost Stars: Perilous Shield, Jack Campbell. Although the writing is clunky, I like this author's characters and the story he tells, so I'll keep getting his books.

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. 
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. 
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. How and where to try to sell the stuff you've written.

What's up next? Stuff from my Goodreads TBR list, I hope.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils: 38/77. Finished the Elementary Graphic Novels, working on poetry, and Elementary Speculative Fiction.
2. Where Am I Reading? 20/51. Checked off California, Delaware, and Virginia. My current reads are duplicates, though.
3. Alphabetically Inclined: 14/26. No change.
4. 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.
5. Book Bingo: 20 Squares. Still need a mystery, a lot of  New Releases, and a few more TBR.
6. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: 5/10, 7/10. The Harbor scored me a point.
7. Small Fry Safari: 4/8. No change. Still need furniture, time, pairs, and something precious.
8. PoC Speculative Fiction 1/5: No change.
9. Best of the Best 2012: 51/25.  I've started listening to the next audio, and the next book is in my reading bag.
10. Reading My Library:  Finished Maryrose Wood's book.