March Madness!

This is the month of the American college basketball tournament, which my family does together for high stakes -- Barnes & Noble Gift Cards! Tragically it appears I do not have the magic touch when it comes to picking sports winners. I have precious few teams left on my grid. Oops.

On the other hand, my boys are both highly careless people and there is a good chance that I will score their winnings when I check pockets while doing the laundry. Yay!

This wasn't a good week for me to read things; I finished almost nothing and didn't get through many pages. Also, I've lost a library book -- I think the cats stole it. I was reading it one night and the next morning it was gone! Maybe a sleep walking incident? I need to probe my psyche to see where my sleeping self would have hidden a book...

I also spent some time at Norwescon, a biggish SF convention held in Seattle over Easter weekend. This year I got to bring my gregarious older son, and we had a good time listening to people, looking at people, chatting with people. There were some book acquisitions -- our convention bag had gifts in it, and one of the finalists for the Philip K Dick award (best paperback SF book) GAVE ME a copy of his book.


Windswept, Adam Rakunas. Rakunas gave this to me when I asked to see it at a panel he was on. Cool! I've leant it to my brother for a week since I can't read it until April, and it seems like it's something we would overlap on.

Discount Armageddon, Seanan McGuire. I've been meaning to try her InCryptids series so this was a nice gift. I had to trade around for it since we had gotten two copies of the other book.

Touched By an Alien, Gini Koch. I've actually read this, although I've fallen far behind on this series. I expect my son would enjoy it, although he'll find the romance bits tedious (if I found them dull, he hasn't got a chance). But I remember liking the alien bits.

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, which I didn't read any of this week.

This week I finished only two books:



Grave Peril, Jim Butcher. I finished this and then missed the book club anyway since my nephew had a bank concent. Dresden did well enough that there is a fourth book (well, about twelve more).

Republic, Lindsay Buroker. Fun fantasy with fast talking, interesting characters and a plot that twirls around itself. I'm definitely sticking with this author.

* 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.

I started and am still reading three more books:



Archangel's Enigma, Nalini Singh. Well, I didn't get far because I've lost it. Cats, I'm looking at you.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo. I don't think I'm a magical kind of person.

Twin Spica 6, Kou Yaginuma. The next in a manga series -- I'm enjoying this.


Bookmarks moved in several books:



Hild, Nicola Griffith. Hormones mess with logic sometimes.

Under a Graveyard Sky, John Ringo. The Navy helps out!

Crux, Ramez Naam. Enhanced people hunt each other.

Child of the Ghosts, Jonathan Moeller. The evil guy is about to unleash his evil weapon, and the child is an official Ghost now.

Airtight, David Rosenfelt. My next Library Quest book.

Blake, or the Huts of America, Martin Delaney. This is the first book on Nisi Shawl's Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction, which I have commenced working my way through.

Courage & Defiance, Deborah Hopkinson. The Jews are in danger, and the country responds.

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.




A Traitor To Memory, Elizabeth George.
Awakening to the Sacred, Lama Surya Das.
Midnight Crossroad, Charlaine Harris.
Emerald Atlas, John Stephens. Who has magic in this story? Besides the bad guys.
Kenilworth, Walter Scott. We meet the mysterious lady, who seems to be in love.
Reading and Learning To Read, Jo Vacca. The value of SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) is high.

2016 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2015: 16 out of 82. No change.
2. Reading My Library:  Continued Airtight. Still listening to Hild.
3. Where Am I Reading?: 19/50.  Illinois!
4. TBR Triple Dog Dare. My totals are 32 library books, 7 personal library, 5 e-book. I think there are 4 eligible library books left.
5. Full House Challenge: 24/25. I'm not done! I mistyped "2016" as "2015"; mainly because of the Triple Dog Dare I have not read a book from this year yet. Curses.
6. Library Challenge: I'm at 56. 
7. Diversity Challenge 2016: Kidlit: 10/12. Adult lit: 5/12. (no change). Tracking gender this month: 
8. Shelf Love Challenge 2016:  10! Finished first level.
9. Grown-Up Reading Challenge 2016: 15/20. 
10. Eclectic Reader Challenge 2016: 5/12. 
11. Surprise Me Challenge: I can't read any of them yet because of the dare. Humph.
12. Flash Bingo: No Bingos, but I'm close! I need a main character whose name starts with a B.