Fireworks and Statuses

I've just come back from a lovely vacation, where I got to visit my mom and my best friend and her lovely family, and I brought along my lovely son. It was lovely. Have I mentioned that?

It was also a time of delicious food and interesting days, along with learning much about my iphone that I had never known before. Also there were sparklers involved.

Most summers I try to read a book a day, but this year I haven't really committed to that. Yet not having an impossible and arbitary goal is nagging at me. I think I'll commence STARTING a book each day (and try to keep that to only one book) and see how that works for me.

What have I read this week and last week? I shall tell bookjourney's crew about it, and, since so much of my reading is kidlit, also link to Teach Mentor Texts:

• Skin Heat, Ava Gray. I'm enjoying these almost science fictional paranormals, although the sex is a bit graphic for my tastes.
• Angel's Blood, Nalini Singh (reread). My book club had fun with this. It was as close as I could find to a "sex slave" book.
• Grim, Ellen Hopkins (ed). My son and I enjoyed these YA short stories. Sarah Rees Brennan's "Beauty and the Chad" was our favorite because it made us laugh.
• Black Butler, Yana Toboso. A manga recommended by my elementary book club. Good enough for me to order up the sequel.
• Other Goose, J.otto Seibold. A Reading My Library pick, reminiscent of The Stinky Cheese Man.
• The Gilda Stories, Jewelle Gomez. Best lesbian vampire book I've ever read.
• The Martian, Andy Weir. Simple, clever fun.
• Blue Remembered Hills, Rosemary Sutcliff. Nifty biography. I like how she faced her lameness.
• Garment of Shadows, Laurie R. King. A good addition to the girl-marries-Sherlock-Holmes series. I think the amnesia endeared Mary Russell to me; she sometimes seems too smug.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. This was an interesting if a bit repetitive discussion of the science and biology of the emotion love.
• The Sharing Knife 4: Horizon, Lois McMaster Bujold (reread). At first I was grumpy because I really liked the idea of an insoluble problem, but the more I get over the book it isn't the more I appreciate the book it is.
• My Real Children, Jo Walton. Very cool. Highly recommended.
• Poppleton and Friends, Cynthia Rylant (picture book) Why do the animals wear shirts but not pants? Inquiring minds want to know.
• A Bug, a Bear, and a Boy, David McPhail (picture book). Even the fifth sixth grader noticed the alliteration -- let's hear it for the letter B. An exceptional easy reader -- simple but not boring.

What am I currently reading?

• The Midnight Tunnel, Angie Frasier. The library is calling this middle grade mystery home so I am trying to finish it quickly. I like the setting -- a holiday hotel in Canada in the early 1900s.
• The Girls of Atomic City, Denise Kiernan. A paperback pick from the library that looks interesting. I hope it's a quick read as it's due on Thursday.
• English Fairy Tales and More English Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs. The last book for my Reading My Library Quest, Juvenile Section.
• Shards of Time, Lynn Flewelling.  The series is long enough to get a bit top-heavy -- I hope she reminds me of backstory because it's all muddled, but I can usually trust Flewelling to tell an interesting tale.
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison. I am slowly savoring this. I suspect when I finish it I will go back to the first page and start all over again.
• Cathedral of the Wild, Boyd Varty. Tough family life. 
• Tinker, Wen Spencer. I'm rereading to see how it works with Wood Sprites. And because I like rereading it.
• The Golden Leopard, Lynn Kerstan. Finally made some progress!
• Inkheart, Cornelia Funke. Recommended by Talbot Hill Elementary book club. Library due dates keep pushing it back -- see Black Butler up ahead, another recommendation.
• The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan. Following up on this series. Since I own it, there is no urgency.

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

• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Some reunions, which probably mean more to people who read the earlier books.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Quite dull.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. How to live the life of a real writer.

What's up next? After I finish the library fire drills, I've got a paranormal on my NOOK and I'm hankering for another Mrs Pollifax fix.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils: 48/77. Time to get cracking on these again.
2. Where Am I Reading? 29/51. Gosh darn it, I already had Alabama! I need Alaska, Arizona and Arkansas. Also Colorado and Connecticut -- any recommendations?
3. Alphabetically Inclined: 18/26. It would help to catch up on these library books so I can read more from my shelves!
4. What's In a Name?: 6/7. Weather is surprisingly hard. Would "Heat" count?
5. Book Bingo: Finished a square!  Seven boxes into the next one since I last calculated.
6. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: 10/10 colors, but I still need a cheesy title. The Other Goose would count, but I want a longer entry.-
7. Small Fry Safari: 7/8. No change. Still need something precious.
8. PoC Speculative Fiction 9/5: Three books this week would qualify. Maybe four, but I forget how dark the protagonist of Skin Heat was.
9. Best of the Best 2012: 52/25.  I am stalled.
10. Reading My Library: One book to finish off the first section. Then I go on break while they rebuild the library.