Mid December Check In

I started wrapping Christmas presents last month. Well, I wrapped two things. Ever since I've had this comfortable feeling that I'm well ahead of the game this year. Until I looked around today, realized that December was half over, the Christmas tree was only half decorated, the lights are half outside, half on the couch, the stockings are still in a box in the garage, and I haven't wrapped anything since. I'm also very confused as to what I've bought and who is still on my list. I am perhaps not as ahead of the game as I thought. Oh well, at least I got all the Christmas CDs out.

I'm either going to finish this 50 States Challenge or have a very good start on next years, as I'm halfway through about eight state books. I have brought inefficient reading to a new level. On the other hand, I don't have any book group books needed until next year, which is very far away, right?

The Book Date is collecting the roundups of what everyone is reading and talking about this week. I'll also look in with Teach Mentor Texts which does the same thing for kidlit, since I read two kid books.

This week I finished  books:


Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase.  (audio) Well. We made it through. My son and I laughed a lot, and avoided each other's eyes a lot. Many years ago, when I first gave him the "birds and bees" talk, he was very unsure as to why anyone would do IT. It seemed so unpleasant. I think this book made IT seem more attractive. Reading My Library pick.

Rendezvous, Nelson DeMille. (audio). I'm racing through the audio section on my Reading My Library Quest, so this is exciting. This one was one disc long.

Lemonade Mouth Puckers Up, Mark Peter Hughes. My BiL found this YA for me when I complained about the shortage of Rhode Island books. Actually, he found the previous book in the series, but I messed up checking out the e-books on my phone. It's a fun story about a band that puts integrity above paychecks.

Jack and Joe, Diane Capri. North Carolina! This is the middle of a series about some federal agents searching for Jack Reacher, who is apparently the main character in a different series by someone else, which I also haven't read. It was readable, but I could tell I was missing a lot of things that the author assumed I cared about.

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt. We picked this for our family book club, which almost everyone managed to read. It's a fun philosophy book, although a bit short on plot for most of the boys. It would be a good read aloud for lazy days, when the kids are too tired to move.

Silver Lining, Maggie Osborne. Last month's Vaginal Fantasy pick. Not as bad as I feared, although I wish there had been some redeeming aspects to the Bad Woman. Her unremitting awfulness made the men look stupid.

14, Peter Clines. For my Tuesday night book club. A crazy apartment story set in California. A great excuse to watch terrible movies.

And I started a handful of new books:



Brothel, Alexa Albert. This is set in Nevada! It's a nonfiction book about a woman who studied the workers in legal brothels.

Wormwood, Susan Wittig Albert. Kentucky! The middle of a mystery series that I've never heard of before.

Angel Among Us, Katy Munger. Delaware. I'm not very far along -- the narrator is a dead cop, and I think he solves mysteries, although he wasn't very good at it when he was alive.

Republic, Lindsay Buroker. The last of this series, and a book that's not for any challenge but I'd really like to read it.

The Way Into Chaos, Harry Connolly. So, I paid for this on Kickstarted because I think this guy writes great novels, adventure stories with wit and heart. Then I lost my ebooks, found this in the library, let my son borrow it, lost it in a pile of other library books, just realized that it's due on Thursday, and today I gave up and bought the whole series again from B&N. Well, I want the author to keep writing, and now I can bring it along with me.

Heist, Janet Evanovich &  Lee Goldberg. Next Reading My Library Quest audio. I should pick up the one from the next shelf as I plan to do a lot of driving in the next few weeks.

Bookmarks Moved in books:




Stakeout, Parnell Hall. New Jersey. New Jersey.

The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan. Oklahoma.

I Lived on Butterfly Hill, Marjorie Agosin. Maine. I hope.

Kepler's Dream, Juliet Bell. New Mexico.

Cobweb, Neil Stevenson & J. Frederick George. Did I mention this takes place in Iowa?

The Last Chance Christmas Ball, (lots). This jumps to the top of my pile because I need to turn it in this week.

2015 Challenge Progress:

1. Reading My Library: Finished two audio books -- now on E. Pushed ahead a little on a large print book.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 43/51. Got Rhode Island and North Carolina . Still need: Oklahoma,  New Mexico, New Jersey, Nevada, Maine, Kentucky, Iowa, and Delaware. I have started them all.
3. Award Winning Book Challenge: Well, I didn't really review anything, but so far I've got 16 awards.
4. Book Riot Read Harder: 23/24. I still need an African author. Still! Best would be an African author who wrote a book set in Maine.
5. Alphabetically Inclined:  V X  Z still missing. 23/26.
6. Best of the Best 2012: 52/25.  I am stalled. Maybe time to go back?
7. Cybils 2014: Complete! I bought the last one as the libraries didn't seem to have it. WOOT!