Reading Ahead of Schedule

I managed to break my book a day routine in two ways -- I stopped finishing a book each day, and I snuck off in the library and read some picture books. So I'm ahead on my goal and I don't feel the need to pull a book mark each day. Hooray for managing my obsessive tendencies!

I added the Full House Challenge to my dance card, which is a bingo-style category challenge that I did last year and enjoyed a lot. I wonder if these one-sentence reactions on my It's Monday posts count as proper reviews... And I'm still qualified for the Triple Dog Dare, which I'm very proud of.

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.

This week I finished a measly four books:


The Heist, Janet Evanovich &  Lee Goldberg. An audio book for the Reading My Library Quest.

The Gospel of Loki, Joanne Harris. This was a fun little book, telling mythic stories from Loki's point of view, but not as solid as the book with Maggie in it. I hope I find Runelight around here somewhere; I like a few more humans in my tales.

Dreaming Spies, Laurie R. King. Another Reading My Library book.

* Rain Is Not My Indian Name, Cynthia Leitich Smith. The story of a teenage girl emerging from grief after her best friend dies unexpectedly. Her family waits patiently for her to return to the world, where she discovers life has continued on for her brother, her peers, and her community as she dips her toe in the Indian summer camp, connects with her future sister in law, and faces up to small town rumors.

* Books I started this week. Most books tend last for weeks on my lists, because I have this habit of reading dozens of things at once. But occasionally I keep focus for several days on end.

Since I had no books on hold, and my adherence to the Dare kept me from browsing for more stuff, I looked over some picture books:



The Obstinate Pen, Frank Dormer. A pen refuses to cooperate with its holder, until it finds a compatible partner -- an artist! The jokes were a bit too broad for me.

We're In the Wrong Book! Richard Byrrne. Two kids gets pushed into a series of wrong books and search for their rightful home. Also, they lost their dog. I can see kids giggling over this.

Here Comes the Flower Girl (Very Fairy Princess #3), Julie Andrew Edwards. Bossy young girl gets to be in her aunt's wedding. Her family is more patient than I would have been, but then it's not my family.

Waking Dragons, Jane Yolen. Colorful pictures and simple rhyming words chronicle an early morning routine, but with DRAGONS. 

And I started six new books:


Hild, Nicola Griffith. My next audio book in the Library Quest; I choose it because I have a paper copy on my TBR stack. I move the bookmark along to track my progress.

No Vulgar Hotel, Judith Martin. Miss Manners reveals herself as a Venetiaphile.

Infandous, Elana K. Arnold. This is looking uncomfortably like a girls-get-abused book. A Cybils finalist.

Midnight Crossroad, Charlaine Harris. My copy of her new series. I already read the library's copy.

The Miracle at Speedy Motors, Alexander McCall Smith. Next book in my Library Quest. Apparently he's shelved by his middle name. Hmm.

An Apprentice to Elves, Sarah Monette, Elizabeth Bear. I've been eagerly awaiting this story in the wolf-brother series.

Bookmarks moved in several books:



Republic, Lindsay Buroker. This is a pure pleasure read, but I rarely get to it.

Under a Graveyard Sky, John Ringo. This week: political upheaval and the dregs of the US military.

Crux, Ramaz Naam. I should probably read more than a few pages a week to get a good sense of the action.

Tarzan Alive, Philip Jose Farmer. It's fun to watch the academic tone maintained even through the wilder and wilder stories as the Tarzan series moves into the teens. More lost cities!

Prisoner, Lia Silver. Evil government agency glimpsed in Laura's Wolf holds onto to DJ much more effectively than they did Ray.

The Veil, Chloe Neill. In a future where magic crashed through and wrecked New Orleans years ago, the survivors still eat and find hot guys.

The next few books I'm not really reading, just dipping into between the books I'm trying to finish so that I can pretend that I'm going to read the books on my bookcases.



Rob Roy, Walter Scott. The plot may have started. At least there was a battle.
Waiting For the Party, Ann Thwaite. A disastrous second marriage for Burnett.
A Traitor To Memory, Elizabeth George. Connections to the murder.
Awakening to the Sacred, Lama Surya Das. Everyone wants to feel connected.
Midnight Crossroad, Charlaine Harris. We meet the main characters.
Reading and Learning To Read, Jo Vacca. How to let kids know it's OK to read imperfectly.

2016 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2015: Five out of 82. Working on Infandous. Two more on my NOOK.
2. Reading My Library: Finished the audio The Heist and the Large Print Dreaming Spies. I've started the audio of Hild and the book The Miracle at Speedy Motors.
3. Where Am I Reading?: 6/50.  Picked up Kansas. Also a vague Nordish address.
4. TBR Triple Dog Dare. My totals are 10 library books, 2 personal library, 1 e-book.
5. Full House Challenge: 10/25. I'm leaping out of the gate!