Friends, Romans, Archeologists

This week ended with an abundance of candy. The boys dressed up as a Roman senator and Indiana Jones, and went off gathering goodies with their cousin the Dark Angel. The high schooler carefully shaved before heading out because he didn't want to look too old.

Hey, my rule is, if you wear a costume, you can trick-or-treat. I decorated up my house with the jack-o-lanterns and all the clearance Halloween stuff I've accumulated (dangling skeleton, glowing skull stakes, eyeball and spiderweb lights. I think I hit it about right when I heard a four year old explaining that it wasn't too scary because he was very brave. So I have him an extra piece of candy. We get lots of kids, from the toddlers who toss aside their pumpkin basket to get their hands on the candy I'm offering, to the slacker teens who won't dress up. Although I always ask, because I'm open to the idea that I'm just missing the joke. After all, how was I to know that those kids were dressed like Nerds? I thought that was the style these days.

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

• I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Gallagher Girl 1), Ally Carter. This was a lot of fun -- I may get some of the rest. Thanks to my elementary book club for the recommendation.
• Wrinkle In Time, Madeline L'Engle. My family book club picked this. It has held up well.
• Magic City: Recent Spells. Many good short stories.
• The Heiress Effect, Courtney Milan. Fun romance, and I want to see some of those dresses.
• Uzumaki 1-3, Junji Ito. This Cybils pick was much too creepy for me, and I also have problems with the depiction of women in it.

What am I currently reading? 21 books! Argh, I am back on two pages. I will try to finish a few of them quickly.  My currently reading list is now on up-to-date on GOODREADS.

• Alif the Unseen, G. Willow Wilson. Last month's Sword and Laser pick. I'm always behind.
• Boy on the Wooden Box, Leon Leyson. Cybils book about the Holocaust.
• Kiss of Steel, Bec McMaster. NOOK. Vaginal Fantasy alt from last month. I'm not really liking it much.
• Pleasure Unbound, Larissa Ione. Very old Vaginal Fantasy pick. I think. I hope I am laughing in the right spots.
• Thorn Fall, Lindsay Buroker. NOOK. I have to say that Buroker does urban fantasy just as well as she does her steam-punk stuff set in a different world.
• 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.
• A Matter for Men, David Gerrold. No change.
• Anna of Byzantium, Tracy Barett. No change.
• About That Night, Norah McClintock.  No change. 
• Rogue, Michael Z. Williamson. 
• Wildflower, Alecia Whitaker. 
• Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt. No change.
• Yonder Comes the Other End of Time, Suzette Elgin. No change. 
• Shards of Time, Lynn Flewelling.  They get to the island and take a bath.
• Tinker, Wen Spencer. I do enjoy this book. Windwolf saves her from a bad date. 
• Inkheart, Cornelia Funke. No change.

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

• Lost Enchantment, Barbara Cartland. I've never read anything by this romance icon.
• The Jury, Stephen Adler. Why intelligent people are tossed off juries. 
• Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vacca. How scattershot strategies aren't that effective.
• Nerds, Michael Buckley. The protagonist is still a jerk. The kids he bullied eager take the chance to beat him up. I need somebody to root for here!
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. The rich guy brought home a wife.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Sam's dad is widowed.

What's up next?  Still starting a book every other day, until I get this library backlog under control. I think my the New Year I will have this under control, just in time for three month drought where I try to get no new books.  I picked a book for it's location, a book recommended by my elementary school book club, a Cybils finalist, and the Sword & Laser October pick.

Monday: 
Tuesday: Aunt Dimity and the Lost Prince
Wednesday: 
Thursday: Shifting Shadows
Friday: 
Saturday: The Bronte Sisters
Sunday:

For my NOOK, I have Dark Triumph ready to start.

NOOK books:

2014 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils: 62/77. Still need to finish nonfiction YA.
2. Where Am I Reading? 36/51. We are in crisis mode here.
3. Alphabetically Inclined: 19/26. Only books from my shelves count, and all my library books are due! Still need EIJ V XYZ.
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: 23/5: Umazi counts.
9. Best of the Best 2012: 52/25.  I am stalled.
10. Reading My Library: Library temporarily closed, so on hiatus.