Monday, April 24, 2017

Happy Birthday To My Son

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?
This week I am facing off with a cold (so far it's two out of three; we'll know tomorrow who ends up victorious), marched for SCIENCE, and celebrated my youngest's birthday. We made him a cake and took him out to dinner, since he apparently could not think of anything I cook that he likes. I will assume it was because the choices were so plentiful he was overwhelmed. I will assume that very hard.

The Book Date does a weekly roundup of what people are reading, want to read, or have read each week called It's Monday! What Are You Reading and I'm going to sign up. There's also a version that is kidlit focussed, and as my audio book qualifies, I'll check in with either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers for their version.

My completed books for this week:

Out of Abaton, Book 1: The Wooden PrinceThe Stolen Mackenzie Bride (MacKenzies & McBrides, #8)Never Go Back (Jack Reacher, #18)By Jove

The Wooden Prince (Out of Abaton #1), John Claude Bemis. This is a Cybils audio finalist, so I'm actually making miniscule progress on this year's choices. It's a fun audio book, especially if you have a Pinocchio background (I've read the book and seen the Disney film, although not recently). The narrator was flexible and fun, and the special effects kept things lively. Recommended.

The Stolen MacKenzie Bride
, Jennifer Ashley. I have finally conquered this shelf for my Reading My Library Quest. This is the third or fourth attempt. I didn't actually like it much (it's not a good romance when you spend the book rooting for them to get away from each other) but I was determined to finish it. The writing itself was fine and the history stuff was interesting; I suspect I'd like her books from earlier in this series, which are set about a hundred years later.

* Never Go Back, Lee Child. I rolled another die to select my next Jack Reacher book, and got the one that the movie I saw was mostly based on. It was fun enough, especially with the distraction of noticing the changes (New Orleans vs Los Angeles, how much time the kid spends with them, how much sex he has with the woman, the interaction with the cop who catches up to them, the conclusion) and how they worked with book vs movie. I won't mind reading another Reacher book, although I'm not in a hurry to do so.

By Jove, Marissa Doyle. Not a bad read, but it felt oddly old-fashioned, as if it were written about twenties years ago. Maybe people who read classics are always behind the times in terms of what they worry about? I got a bit impatient with the protagonist, both her whininess and her vacillation, as well as her willingness to accept blame for being raped, but not so much I didn't enjoy her final victory.

(* Books I started this week.)

I started but didn't finish:

NOTHING! I am attempting to finish up books instead of starting them because I signed up for another team-reading thing that starts May the Fourth (be with you). I'm team Revenge of the Sith.

Bookmarks moved in several books:

The Sea Without a Shore (Lt. Leary, #10)Boy, Snow, BirdWritten in Red (The Others, #1)City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1)Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen (Sammy Keyes, #9)Reading and Learning to Read

The Sea Without a Shore, David Drake. I think we're near the end. The boy client is safe and Daniel has figured out how to find all the treasures. Then traffic let up and we got to school.

Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi. My reading-my-library audio. It looks like Arturo is here to stay, since we're meeting all his family. I like the book store crowd.

Written in Red, Anne Bishop. The alt Vaginal Fantasy book. I'm liking this better than the Falconer, because we get more viewpoints and the main character doesn't rejoice in the blood of others. Well. The supporting characters do, but they aren't supposed to be human and we are supposed to find that a bit off-putting.

City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett. I'm clearing off my currently-reading shelves! I got halfway through this before I got distracted, but now I'm concentrating. I forget who the good guys are; I think this is one of those murky books. I hope I'm old enough to handle that.

Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen, Wendelin Van Draanen. Sammy is out to lunch with her annoying mother, who makes eyes at the mother of her nemesis, who shares her birthday.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. Where does vocabulary come from? How is it used?

I abandoned:

The Falconer (The Falconer, #1)

The Falconer, Elizabeth May. Sorry, I found the narrator annoying, and the discussion over at Vaginal Fantasy indicated that all the annoying stuff was there to stay. She had me convinced she was a murderous psychopath and that the fairies she blindly hunted were mostly good guys, which I don't think was the author's intention. So her gloating, drug-addict like pleasure every time she slaughtered someone didn't make for a fun reading experience.

2017 Challenge Progress:
  1. Cybils 2015: 81 out of 82. Need to finish these up. I own the last one, so it keeps getting pushed behind due library books. Focus! (No change from last week)
  2. Cybils 2016! 3 / a lot. Finished my first audio. I have something checked out but haven't started it.
  3. Reading My Library: Now on disc 2 of Boy Snow Bird. Finished the Ashley romance, and can now return to the B shelf.
  4. Where Am I Reading?: 15/51. Lots of duplicates. I'm regretting a little that I only record one book per state.

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