Long Hot Sleepy Weekends

So far I've mostly kept up with my ridiculously easy walking pledge, except for the day Thick as Thieves came out. It wasn't quite nice enough to walk around a track while reading, so I abandoned all forms of motion and lay around reading it all day. And then rereading the best bits.

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 I finished some kidlit books and a few picture books, I'll check in with either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers for their version.

My completed books for this week:


* Wanted: A Gentleman, K J Charles. Another fun M/M romance set in historical England. Charles moves away from the lords and ladies, this time giving us a struggling middle-class writer and a black merchant who has mixed loyalties to the family that owned him as a child. And interesting look at history I didn't know much about mixed with an unconventional relationship and then (of course) sex.

The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas. This is a strong YA book told in first person by a teenaged African American who feels split between her swank high school (mostly white) and her "ghetto" home life. When her childhood friend is shot by a racist cop who mistook a hair brush for a gun, she finds these conflicts almost overwhelming. It did seem to make an effort to tick off as many current affair boxes as possible -- her uncle is a cop, her father is an ex-con, her best friend is absorbed in her white privilege, her boyfriend is a well meaning white guy who wonders why black kids have funny names, etc. But the voice is strong and true throughout.

The Door at the Crossroads, Zetta Elliott. A Cybils finalist. I liked the way that in the time it took Genna to figure out how to get back to the past with Judah, he had moved on. These kids are 16 and 17 -- a bit young for long distance relationships. I didn't like how all the boys blamed their problems on anyone (preferably a female anyone). For example, Philip gets dragged back into the past because he insists on beating Genna up (for her own good). Uh, Genna, don't apologize for that. I did feel some of the changes were incompletely documented -- I bought Judah growing away from Genna, but not that he then blamed her for everything. That seemed unsupported and contrived. Maybe it would have made more sense if I had read the first book.

Boy, Snow, Bird,  Helen Oyeyemi. My reading-my-library audio. At this point the bizarre things that happen to this family have overwhelmed the character development. I could almost buy two grown women have a make-up slug fest in the kitchen (almost). But the final twist with Bird's dad being transgender and her friend coping with her childlessness by investigating this was completely unbelievable. The mix of magic realism (ghost blankets) and realism (rape and transgendering) just didn't work.

* Ghost of a Potion, Heather Blake. My next Reading-My-Library book. I jumped into the middle of a cozy mystery set in a small Alabama town, with easy-going race relations and lots of southern belle antics. The mystery involved an improbable will, convoluted family trees, and bad health care. And pushy ghosts as seen by our paranormal protagonist. Fluffy but fun enough.

Dead Silent, (Mike & Riel #5),  Norah McClintock. This was not one of my favorites from McClintock, which is a shame because in looking up details of this book I discovered that she died earlier this year. She was only 64. But Mike in this book is dumb in a way that annoys me (useless, unearned guilt) and the final bad guy didn't have much to do in the story before he shows up to be unveiled.

* The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, Catherynne Valente. My Tuesday book club chose this one because adult Valente books were deemed too weird for our taste. We assumed her children's books would be more accessible, but we were wrong; her children's books just have less sex in them. I found the baroque details and conceits too rich, possibly because I had just finished Valente's Palimpsest, so it was a case of over-indulging in over-rich text.

* National Geographic Traveler: Dominican Republic, 3rd Edition, Christopher Baker. I got this book by asking a librarian to recommend a book as per the Ten To Try program. She was planning a trip this summer so came up with this title. It was fun in an armchair-traveler kind of way, although I was left with no inclination to visit the DR (too many bugs; too much poverty), but I think I'll use it in the new genre category so I need to go back and get another library recommendation. If I did want to go to Hispaniola, this book would help me arrange that trip.

* Books I started and completed this week

Picture Books (most read in the library while waiting for my kids to rendezvous):



Shawn Loves Sharks, Curtis Manley. Fun. I liked Shawn's use of the library and books to fuel his obsessions, and the respect the kids have for school, but the plot twist to teach people to be kind was a bit too much moral. Also Shawn spells his name wrong -- it should be Sean.

Miss Lina's Ballerinas, Grace Maccarone.No conflict but cute. Echoes of Madeline but without individual personalities. The dust jacket made me think the story was about a class learning to accept change as a new students joins, but it was really about the chance to draw delicately vibrant pictures of little girls dancing. Which was fine and well done, but I was distracted by looking for the emotional conflict which wasn't really there; the girls take two pages to adjust from dancing four by two to dancing three by three and then seamlessly return to dancing all over town. It was more about math than about conflict.

I Want to Eat Your Books, Karin Lafranc. Fun but doesn't do much with the conceit. The words rhyme, the colors are bright and cheerful, but there were no big surprises or insights.

I started but didn't finish:



The Golden Mean, Annabel Lyon. A friend picked this from my to-read pile, and so far I'm enjoying this story of Aristotle at King Philip's court. I'm going to trust that Lyon knows her stuff, because I didn't know that Aristotle and Philip were boys together.

The Best Man, Richard Peck. Cybils audio finalist. Looks like a growing-up story of a boy in elementary school. I'm a bit put off by his casual misogyny, which is a staple of children's literature but not my experience with kids in elementary school, but also attracted by the setting in Illinois, which is a state I need this year.

Bookmarks moved in several books:



Maplecroft, Cherie Priest. Events are coming together -- the investigator, the doctor, the sisters, the lover, and the insane professor are all coming to the sisters' door.

Alliance of Equals, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Part 2-3. I am very annoyed at the teacher's dismissal of Padi's combat stance, and how no one even discusses things with her. Her giant burly teacher is apparently appalled that she does not intend to get in tight situations with attackers -- her plan to escape if possible, but react decisively and even lethally if necessary is treated with contempt even though it saved her and her younger siblings a few books ago. An acknowledgement of her potential to overreact and the reasons she might be prone to that would seem a basic common sense first step, but all the super wise elders are too busy condescending to her.

The Innocent, David Baldacci. The two story lines have already intersected, and we aren't even at 20 chapters yet (very short chapters). And they ran off the bus, so maybe they'll settle down somewhere. I didn't notice where they exited; I hope they are in Delaware.

These I'm barely reading; I use them as palate cleansers between books I'm actually reading.



The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox.

Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott.

Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen, Wendelin Van Draanen.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca.



2017 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2015: 81 out of 82. (No change from last week)
2. Cybils 2016! 6 / a lot. Finish Door at the Crossroads. Started new audio The Best Man.
3. Reading My Library: Finished Boy Snow Bird. Waiting to finish Cybils audios before I continue. Finished Ghost of a Potion by Blake and will get the next one on Thursday.
4. Where Am I Reading?: 20/51. Picked up Alabama and Nebraska. 

Passing It On

My boys and I went to give blood last weekend. I was rejected for my low iron (apparently buying vitamins is not enough; you are supposed to actually consume them), but my muscle-bound older son as well as the just-turned-sixteen younger one passed easily. So I guess I did my duty.

Now I'll finally find out if that crazy nurse was justified in stabbing with a needle after my second childbirth. I kept asking her what the blood type was but she just laughed at me and chased me down with her sharp pointy weapon. It's hard to run fast a few hours after giving birth to a 9 pound + baby.

So far I've mostly kept up with my ridiculously easy walking pledge, except for the day Thick as Thieves came out. It wasn't quite nice enough to walk around a track while reading, so I abandoned all forms of motion and lay around reading it all day. And then rereading the best bits.

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 I finished some kidlit books and a few picture books, I'll check in with either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers for their version.

My completed books for this week:




Palimpsest, Catherynne Valente.  The ending wasn't all that satisfying, because I didn't really like any of the main characters so I had no concerns about whether they achieved their goals or happiness or anything. But the scenery throughout was varied enough to be interesting.

City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett. I've finally finished this book. It was good, but somehow I wasn't driven to finish it and as I owned both paper and e-copies the library due dates didn't come into play. I'm glad I finally carved out time for it, and I'll try to work in the sequels.

* Civil War II (Ms Marvel 6), G. Willow Wilson.  I enjoyed it, and it had a good balance of life vs. super-heroing, although I thought the kids were dumb. No one seemed to understand that planning to blow up the school was a problem, or trying to blow up the building where the school bomber was being "extra-legally" held was also a choice with consequences. Kamela has a very believable teenage understanding that everything is her fault, and view that is also believably echoed by Bruno, who blames her for his injuries even though he built the bomb himself.

Thick As Thieves, Megan Whalen Turner. The latest in the Attolia series did not disappoint, although it was not what I expected (this is a good thing). It examines the effects of slavery as well as friendship and betrayal, and shows us beloved characters from new angles.

In Fire Forged (Worlds of Honor 5), David Weber.  I liked the Lindskold story, thought the Zahn one was over-long but OK, which was the same for the Weber story. The final bit on the specifications and history of development of a bunch of imaginary spaceships left me drooling with boredom.

* An Unseen Attraction, K J Charles. The idea of a taxidermist and a lodging house keeper with an apparent spectrum disorder finding love in Victorian England is fascinating, and when you add in mysterious family connections and murder things get even better.

* Wounded, Laurell K. Hamilton. Outtake from the previous Anita Blake book, with a chance to discuss what Anita, Micah, Nathaniel and Jean-Claude wear. Some of it is pretty out there -- Jean Claude wears a black suit to the wedding! I'm sure no more than 50% of the other guys there did that. Also they take a chance to tell the kid who got shot in the book to stop whining and start doing his PT; after all, everyone they know had it much worse and came back stronger. It did exactly what it said on the tin.

* Books I started and completed this week

I started but didn't finish:



The Innocent, David Baldacci. This in on top of my virtual pile of ebooks I own but haven't read, so I'm adding it to my reading rotation. I'm cranky because the protagonist hasn't settled down somewhere yet.

Dead Silent, (Mike & Riel #5),  Norah McClintock. I'm a bit irritated by the protagonist, which is unfair because his self-absorbed guilt for things that are manifestly not his responsibility is just the latest of a pile of YA books with this problem. But maybe I should find another way into this series, because I don't have enough background with this guy to cut him any slack. OMG, I just looked for her website so I could find a picture of the book and found out that she died this February. She was only 64; I'm going to miss the rest of her books. She was a great author of YA mystery; the Dooleys are among my favorite books in that genre.

The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas. This is a strong YA book told in first person by a teenaged African American who feels split between her swank high school (mostly white) and her "ghetto" home life. When her childhood friend is shot by a racist cop who mistook a hair brush for a gun, she finds these conflicts almost overwhelming. It did seem to make an effort to tick off as many current affair boxes as possible -- her uncle is a cop, her father is an ex-con, her best friend is absorbed in her white privilege, her boyfriend is a well meaning white guy who wonders why black kids have funny names, etc. But the voice is strong and true throughout.

Bookmarks moved in several books:



Boy, Snow, Bird,  Helen Oyeyemi. My reading-my-library audio. At this point the bizarre things that happen to this family have overwhelmed the character development. I get the theme of choosing an identity as society tries to force you into one, although I'm not sure why that would cause you to kick your seven year old out of your house (or why her dad would be OK with that), but finding out in the same book that the white man you married was black and that the abusive man who raised you was your mother?  Disc  7-8/8.

Maplecroft, Cherie Priest. The whiny lover has sold herself to the beast, but at least it gives a chance for the doctor to join with them in opposing the eldritch aquatic evils.

The Door at the Crossroads, Zetta Elliott. Another Cybils finalist, I'm having trouble making progress because these teenagers are in definite peril. I'm proud of Judah for fighting for his freedom, but it's still hard to read about his tortures.

Alliance of Equals, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Part 2. Hey, the feed was late! Shocking. So I didn't actually get to listen to this, but I did track down the audio so I can.

These I'm barely reading; I use them as palate cleansers between books I'm actually reading.



The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox.

Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott. Men drink a lot and lose things.

Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen, Wendelin Van Draanen.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca.


Picture Books (most read in the library while waiting for my kids to rendezvous):




The Journey, Francesca Sanna. Gentle pictures complement the child's-eye view of war and displacement and illegal border crossings.

Waiting for Ice, Sandra Markle. True story, my favorite kind of nature story. Good pictures, not graphic but fairly lifelike.

An Armadillo in New York, Julie Kraulis. Cute and educational. I'm not sure why an armadillo, but I think this is a series.

Before I Leave, Jessixa Bagley. I am now completely distracted by this spelling of Jessixa. Is it pronounced Jessiksa?Anyway, the book has good pictures and a strong story of two friends coming to terms with the smaller one's impending move. A bit didactic.

My Name Is Blessing, Eric Walters. True story of a boy sent to an orphanage in Kenya when his grandmother cannot feed him. They change his name from "Suffering" to "Blessing" (to his and her approval). I'm a bit concerned because institutional care is almost always worse for the kid, but Blessing seems to be doing OK. I liked the real-life update and photos in the back, as well as the way his physical handicaps are acknowledged but not the whole story.

The Legend of Rock, Scissors, Paper, Drew Daywalt. This is a fun crowd-pleaser, with vibrant personalities for each of these titans of the suburban fight scene and a solid mix of colorful images and dramatic wording. It's fairly long, so good for an experienced pre-schooler or early elementary crowd.

Dragons Love Tacos, Adam Rubin. A good mix of pictures and humor make for a fun book. I know a boy with the same name as our dragon-loving protagonist, so it's a possibility for a gift.


2017 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2015: 81 out of 82. (No change from last week)
2. Cybils 2016! 5 / a lot. No change. Ordered the next audio from the library.
3. Reading My Library: Now on disc 8 of Boy Snow Bird. Picked up a book from the next shelf.
4. Where Am I Reading?: 18/51. The author thinks his book was set somewhere around Kentucky or West Virginia, and I need Kentucky -- can I just tell him the setting is now definitely Kentucky?

Mother's Day and Son-Day

Mother's Day, the great holiday to celebrate guilting our children! Mine was quite nice, involving a breakfast in bed -- cooked, tasty, but without napkins or flowers. My teens are still works in progress, but they were cheerful and willing about it, so I think that's a win. Then I drove them back to their dad's house, instead of making them take the bus; after all, it was also SONday (get it? get it? I almost didn't).

Then things go rough with some extended family, but I still had a nice dinner with my siblings. It's hard to be a teenager, and it's so easy for them to be completely self-centered, which is really hard on the family around them.

The weather is getting nice, and I've started a walking pledge with some friends. We've started with an absurdly low goal, but if the sun stays out maybe we'll slowly extend it. The first result is that I refuse to move a millimeter without my phone on my person, because that's a step I could be missing!

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 I finished some kidlit books and a few picture books, I'll check in with either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers for their version.

My completed books for this week:


Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo. This was for Friday's book club. It turned out I was the only one who finished it, as the library stalled on delivery for everyone else. The few who received it couldn't make any traction. I think they would have liked starting with the original series better; this one assumes you understand the world. I liked it, but found the pain quotient extremely high for my tolerance. I am weak for characters my kids age. Next year I will have to avoid college books -- eep!

* Strangeways, Bob Brunner. No cover art because this is a manuscript the author gave me to read, which is very exciting. It's a thriller set in a men's prison, so not my usual genre, but it was smoothly written so I always wanted to keep going and there were some good twists (and gruesome bits). I sent it back with my reactions, so it will be interesting to see where it goes.

Raymie Nightingale, Kate DiCamillo. (Cybils audio)  The ending worked well for me; there were few unfired guns left on the mantlepiece but the connections were smooth and not forced. Beverley and her mom were left a bit underdeveloped (the dog? really?), but Raymie found a firm footing within herself and among her friends, one that didn't depend on her almost invisible mom or her absconding father.

Blood, Bullets, Bones, Bridget Heos. A Cybils NF finalist. This was for my Tuesday night movie/book club, where we share a book and watch a movie related to it. We went with a YA nonfiction book, which was a bit of a disappointment; it had interesting facts but the parts didn't add up to a better whole. Oh well, it gives lots of scope for our movie choices.

* A Long Way Home, Saroo Brierley. After seeing Lion I was interested in the story behind the movie, so I put myself on the waitlist for the memoir and it did not disappoint. Brierley is not a professional writer, but his sincerity and emotions are clear on the page. I also liked seeing how the movie adjusted things for the big screen; I don't think they distorted much and I approve of how they did it, but I also liked seeing what really happened in his family and his travels. I also liked the idea of his recreating his train odyssey as an adult.

* Black Butler 6, Yano Toboso. This wasn't my favorite entry in this manga; I found many of the new circus characters confusing and I had forgotten the backstory with the Grim Reaper. But I liked it enough to add the next on to my request list.

I started but didn't finish:



In Fire Forged (Worlds of Honor 5), David Weber. Mostly. This is a book of short stories in Weber's Honorverse, one by him and others by Jane Lindskold and Timothy Zahn. And then there seems to be a technical spec on ship design (???). I liked Lindskold story about a refugee who doesn't submit, and I'm hoping to like Zahn's story, although it's harder to sell me on stories in the Soviet-Russia-ish People's Republic.

Alliance of Equals, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. This is the new Baen Free Radio audio serial, so I won't finish it for ages and ages. In fact, I think I won't even let my senior listen along, because he'll be off to college before it's done. But I may give him a few of the other Liaden stories. I'll also dig up the one before this, because I've fallen behind.

Bookmarks moved in several books:



Boy, Snow, Bird,  Helen Oyeyemi. My reading-my-library audio. I'm still don't forgive Boy for sending Snow away. I'm impatient to get an explanation, but the filter through Bird means that is slow to come. At least now she's corresponding with Snow, so we get more of a panorama. Disc 5-6/8.

City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett. Sigurd to the rescue! Lots of flashy battles and mysticism for the ending.

Palimpsest, Catherynne Valente. Again it's a lush verbal landscape, spinning a lot of wheels (although there is a plot if you are patient enough). I don't think my Tuesday club would have liked it, so it's just as well we jumped to her kidlit.

Maplecroft, Cherie Priest. Despite helping pick this I didn't manage to read it with my book club a few months back, so I'm diving back in. This time I'm invested; the danger is real and not just gross, and the characters have my sympathy.

The Door at the Crossroads, Zetta Elliott. Another Cybils finalist, I'm having trouble making progress because these teenagers are in definite peril. YA has gotten so hard for me!

These I'm barely reading; I use them as palate cleansers between books I'm actually reading.



The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox.

Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott. Men drink a lot and lose things.

Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen, Wendelin Van Draanen.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca.


Picture Books (read in the library while waiting for my kids to rendezvous):



What to Do With a Box, Jane Yolen. Fun, good but unobtrusive rhymes. I think adults are more pleased with these "boxes are cool" books, because it's not news to kids, but this addition to the genre is fairly fresh and has details that should keep children's attention.

Candy Pink, Adela Turin. The message about girls deserving as much freedom as boys was very heavy handed but that might make it more accessible to kids? They'd probably appreciate this more. I think this book was written a generation ago, because I was expecting things to go in a more trans-gender way, but it stuck to the traditional feminist message that pink enclosed pedestals are not as fun as men like to pretend.

Kenta and the Big Wave, Ruth Ohi. I gave this five-stars because it resonated so much. Kenta endured a tidal wave that destroyed his house and stole his soccer ball. He mourns without self-pity and helps his family rebuild. He didn't endanger himself and others by foolishly chasing his dropped ball. So when another child finds the ball on the beach and mails it back to the carefully inscribed address, it seems like a fitting return from a just world, a symbol that you can sow as you reap.

Victor and Violet Write the Best-Ever Bookworm Book, Alice Kuipers. I thought Violet was bossy to the point of unpleasantness, and Victor was unrealistically patient with her. It's not easy to make me dislike a picture book about books, but Violet managed it with her casual disrespect for her brother and willingness to ignore everyone else's preferences in pursuit of her own fun.

Flora and the Penguin, Molly Idle. This was a lot of fun! I noticed the fish early on and thought that was just the kind of detail that makes for a fun shared read. (Especially in a wordless book the child can read to the adult .) And then a fish became a character, and there was conflict, and someone had to die. My sons would have liked this book as preschoolers, especially with the creative use of lift-the-flap pictures.

The Riddlemaster, Kevin Crossley-Holland. This was not a winner for me. I found the illustrations unappealing, the children tiresome and the riddles a bit lame. I mean, puppies ARE dogs.


2017 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2015: 81 out of 82. (No change from last week)
2. Cybils 2016! 5 / a lot. Finished the audio and the nonfiction. Struggling with the YA.
3. Reading My Library: Now on disc 7 of Boy Snow Bird. Picked up a book from the next shelf.
4. Where Am I Reading?: 18/51. The author thinks his book was set somewhere around Kentucky or West Virginia, and I need Kentucky -- can I just tell him the setting is now definitely Kentucky?