High Tide

I've had a fun month and a half of starting books every morning, adding them to by book bag, and then reading whatever I like all day. Next morning I start something new.

Now it's time to start shrinking that book bag, starting on Thursday. That will (I hope) be the start of shrinking my currently-reading pile.

The library helped focus me a bit this week, and I worked at finishing the stuff I couldn't renew. Also, I'm in a few book clubs and they also have some connection to a calendar. So I did manage to finish a few things this week, in addition to starting seven more books.

I'm off to sign up to see what everyone else is reading lately at bookjourney's and Teach Mentor Texts lists:

• The Missing, Shiloh Walker. This was a good contrast to the Vaginal Fantasy pick, because the HEA couple meets as kids, fall apart, but aren't complete idiots about it. The paranormal stuff was done well.
• Black Butler, Vol 2. Yana Toboso. I'm continuing this series recommended by my elementary book club, but I still need better manga muscles. Reading right to left is a strain.
• Quatrain, Sharon Shinn. I'm a huge Shinn fan and really liked this collection of four stories in four of her different settings.
• Love, Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli. Stargirl is such a smart kid; I have no idea why she invested so much of her emotions in that boy from Arizona.
• Clean Sweep, Ilona Andrews. Fun book with an interesting innkeeper protagonist.
• The Invasion, Katherine A. Applegate. I'm glad I got to read an Animorph book for the Sword and Laser Kids group.
• Mrs Pollifax Pursued, Dorothy Gilman. I really like how Mrs. Pollifax's marriage hasn't slowed her down at all.
• The Education of Madeline, Beth Williamson. This was a bit disappointing because the characters thought they were clever but acted like morons. The sex was adventurous, though.
• The Lions of al-Rassan, Guy Gavriel Kay. Very powerful and gripping after I got about fifty pages in.
• Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight, Kelly Sue Deconnick. A Cybils YA pick that I liked enough to get the next volume for.

What am I currently reading? In good news, I think I finished more books than I started last week. I'm still reading about a month's worth of books, though. Most of my currently reading list is now on  GOODREADS.

• Magic City: Recent Spells, Paula Guran, ed. I already added an author to my "to read" list from this anthology. p.55
• He, She, and It. Marge Piercy. I hope to get more androids soon. p.101
• Always, Abigail, Nancy J. Cavanaugh. Silly girl's diary of lists. p. 51
• About That Night, Norah McClintock.  No change. p. 53.
• Affliction, Laurell K. Hamilton. No change. p.53.
• Rogue, Michael Z. Williamson.  No change. p. 154.
• Protector, C.J. Cherryh.  No change. p. 67
• Wildflower, Alecia Whitaker.No change. p. 51 16%
• Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt. No change.
• The 14 Fibs of Gregory K, Greg Pincus. No change. p.55
• Reading in the Wild, Donalyn Miller. No change. p.1
• Breakfast on Mars, ed. Rebecca Stern. No change.  p.1
• The Fault in Our Stars, John Green. No change. p.64
• Serafina's Promise, Ann E. Berg. Our family survived the flood.  p. 103
• Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo, Obert Skye. One more person has joined the group, and he might know how to get to Foo. p. 230
• Divergent, Veronica Roth. No change.  p.61
• Gregor the Overlander, Suzanne Collins. No change. p.69
• Yonder Comes the Other End of Time, Suzette Elgin. No change. p.113
• Shards of Time, Lynn Flewelling. No change. p.35
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison. My kid read this and liked it. He has a new NOOK.
• Cathedral of the Wild, Boyd Varty. No change. p.107
• Tinker, Wen Spencer. Just got it back. Child has finished reading the sequel. No change. p.310
• The Golden Leopard, Lynn Kerstan. Wow, they got married! I did not see that coming. p. 234.
• Inkheart, Cornelia Funke. No change. p. 260
• The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan. No change. p.256

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

• The Jury, Stephen Adler.  Gripping account of a jury's progress on a capital case.  p. 36.
• Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vacca. More meta about learning to read. p.24.
• Nerds, Michael Buckley. Life is hard for villains. Also, there is a secret department in the school. p.54.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Tiny sections means this one goes very slowly. A baseball game and a property sale. p.251.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. We hear an amusing story from somebody or another. p. 755.

What's up next?  I think I'll move the planning to Mondays rather than library days, since it's not like I usually have space to read what I've just picked up anyway. Also, I need to start weaning myself of my book-a-day start rate:

Monday: Boxers & Saints (Cybils)
Tuesday: Growing Up Brave  ( for parenting reasons)
Wednesday: Anna of Byzantium (my book)
Thursday: Into the Forest (for book club, which has just been postponed)
Saturday: Ultra (Cybils)

NOOK books: He, She, and It is moving very slowly, but if I finish it I'll move on to The Fourteenth Goldfish. That will bump one of the above books off the list; probably Into the Forest.

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils: 53/77. No change. I need to finish some more books! I need more than one a week.
2. Where Am I Reading? 31/51. Got Colorado. Almost got a Connecticut. Currently reading an Indiana, and I think an Alaska. 
3. Alphabetically Inclined: 19/26. Read a Q book. Still need an E, I, J,  V, X, Y, and Z.
4. What's In a Name?: 7/7. Still have to review everything. Ha!
5. Book Bingo: Fifteen boxes into square 2.
6. Gentle Spectrum Challenge: Got all the colors. Need a punny book.
7. Small Fry Safari: 7/8. No change. Still need something precious.
8. PoC Speculative Fiction 16/5:  I made it to Post-Apocalyptic survivor! I want to get deep into here though, because I'm not confident on some of my entries.
9. Big Books: 1. Never finishing things makes this hard.
10. Best of the Best 2012: 52/25.  I am stalled.
11. Reading My Library: Library temporarily closed, so on hiatus.