Reading Many Books

This was a good week, with pleasant weather and good times with friend and family. We had a fun dinner with friends and planned out our next few Family Book Clubs (two families, kids ranging from 7-16, read a book and have dinner together).  Then I went to Seattle's BrickCon, a Lego convention that my brother's Lego groups helps put on, and admired all the displays and cheered him on as he demonstrated his Great Ball Contraptions, which is always a huge crowd pull.

Then I cooked up a storm for Saturday dinner, pulling out a cookbook my best friend gave me when I was pregnant with my first child, and served out Baked French Toast, homemade plum capote, cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, and bacon. And I made crepe batter but saved that for Monday's breakfast, to the delight of my kids.

Sunday we hosted the local D&D group and my kids killed all the bad guys, suffering only one fatality within the party.

I'm off to sign up to see what everyone else is reading lately at bookjourney's and Teach Mentor Texts lists. I didn't finish that much, but I did manage to read a bit in many of the books I have bookmarks in, so I felt good.

• A Web of Air, Philip Reeve. YA. Not enough initiative or cleverness from the main character.
• A Free Man of Color, Barbara Hambly. Interesting story set in pre-Civil War New Orleans.
• The Search For WondLa, Tony DiTerlizzi. For this months Sword & Laser Kids. I'm the new Laser, so I hope people come talk about it!

What am I currently reading? Less than I was last week, but still too much. I've got 22 books in my currently-reading sack.  Most (not quite all) of my currently reading list is now on  GOODREADS.

• Mrs Pollifax and the Lion Killer, Dorothy Gilman. I'm still enjoying these; I'll probably finish this one today. I like Mrs Pollifax as a parental figure.
• The Governess Affair, Courtney Milan. NOOK Short novella by a romance writer I enjoy.
• Unmade, Sarah Rees Brennan. After doing the library reading I must do because of due dates this is my top priority. It's so good that when I was late to pick up my 10th grader, he was miffed until he heard my excuse: "I was reading Unmande."
• Templar, Jordan Mechner. Cybils graphic novel. Very interesting history period.
• Thorn Fall, Lindsay Buroker. NOOK I jumped this Buroker in front of her other books because it is set in Arizona.
• Imprisoned, Martin W. Sandler. Cybils book about Japanese interment during World War II. I'm discovering things I didn't know -- like that Canada also interned their citizens.
• Codex Born, Jim C. Hines. Second book in a series where magicians get their power from books, so it's hard to see how it can possibly go wrong. I liked the first one, so I bought this one.
• Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen Prejean. From my shelves.
• Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood, Nathan Hale. This will probably be a downer.
• A Matter for Men, David Gerrold. No change.
• Anna of Byzantium, Tracy Barett. No change.
• Magic City: Recent Spells, Paula Guran, ed. Soon this will come back to me. p.201
• Always, Abigail, Nancy J. Cavanaugh. Poor Abigail -- I saw that alternate thing coming. 
• About That Night, Norah McClintock.  No change. 
• Rogue, Michael Z. Williamson. I don't really pay attention to their techniques, but I like the action.
• Protector, C.J. Cherryh. Kid with a hangover, Bren with a dinner plan.
• Wildflower, Alecia Whitaker. She chooses a record company -- fame is starting.
• Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt. No change.
• Divergent, Veronica Roth. This is getting interesting -- I like the questions about divergence, and I'm finding the different houses surprisingly complex.  
• Yonder Comes the Other End of Time, Suzette Elgin. No change. 
• Shards of Time, Lynn Flewelling. No change.
• Cathedral of the Wild, Boyd Varty. They almost turned into teenagers at boarding school, but his parents pulled them out just in time.
• Tinker, Wen Spencer. I do enjoy this book. Windwolf saves her from a bad date. 
• Inkheart, Cornelia Funke. No change.
• The Son of Neptune, Rick Riordan. They are getting closer to Alaska -- come on Percy!

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

• The Jury, Stephen Adler. Now an example of a bad jury. 
• Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vacca. Skills-based approaches. 
• Nerds, Michael Buckley. Our hero discovers that the kids he bullied don't like him.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Not much happens in a small town
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Bringing idiots along to a delicate negotiation is not a good idea.

What's up next?  Still starting a book every other day, until I get this library backlog under control. I'm only days ahead of due dates, since I can't renew if other people want the book. Pesky other people!

Monday:
Tuesday: Waiting For Normal,
Wednesday:
Thursday: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You
Friday:
Saturday: Black Butler III
Sunday:

NOOK books:  I'll probably start The New Jim Crow. And if that is too hard going, I'll add in a kid's book.

2014 Challenge Progress (NONE!):

1. Cybils: 59/77. Moving through through YA Graphic Novels.
2. Where Am I Reading? 32/51. On the bright side, I've started an Arizona book.  My Connecticut book is pushed back another week.
3. Alphabetically Inclined: 19/26. Only books from my shelves count, and all my library books are due!
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 complete!.
7. Small Fry Safari: 8/8. All done! Except for the reviewing...
8. PoC Speculative Fiction 19/5: One more!
9. Best of the Best 2012: 52/25.  I am stalled.
10. Reading My Library: Library temporarily closed, so on hiatus.