Last week I had two book clubs -- my Talbot Elementary 4/5 group, which gave me the fun excuse to reread The Five Children and It, and a bring-a-partner one for the Triple club, where I invited my brother and her read the book and came. I actually had another friend who read the book, but he doesn't zoom. Usual this special event is a pot-luck dinner, but this year there was a Pandemic. It's actually much easier for me to find someone to virtually attend things with me than for real life, and I'm usually out of town anyway, so this was my first time to make the special event. Also, I read the book last summer so I could sorta fake it.
I did one run. I really meant to go out again, but I kept staying up late and then not feeling up to it in the morning, and the weather of cold dreary rain was not encouraging. Saturday was my best hope, but sadly I woke up and thought it was Friday. Thank goodness my friend had texted me to cancel our walk or I would have stood her up! Yikes! I made a few attempts to see The Great Conjunction, but only saw clouds.
What I tried to do a lot was read for the Cybils. This is the home stretch!
My currently reading is again a frightening 27.
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" so I'll sign up there. Ditto for the children's lit version at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers.
Started
STEM in the Final Four, Meg Marquardt. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Death and Dementia. Cybils finalist.
Five Children and It, Edith Nesbit. Talbot Hill 4/5 book club pick.
Plasticus Maritimus, Ana Pego. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Games of Deception, Andrew Maraness. 2020 Cybils nominee.
STEM in the Stanley Cup, Kristy Stark. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Education, Race, and Law, Duchess Harris and Cynthia Kennedy Henzel. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Star Spangled, Ted Grove. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Walk Toward the Rising Sun, Ger Duany. 2020 Cybils nominee.
STEM and the Super Bowl, Mike Downs. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Surviving the Angel of Death, Eva Mozes Kor. 2020 Cybils nominee.
The Zodiac Killer, Carla Mooney. 2020 Cybils nominee.
STEM and the World Cup, Meg Marquardt. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Dates From Hell, Kim Harrison & others. Short stories from my shelves.
A Bride's Story Vol 9, Kaoru Mari. Out of sheer defiance.
The Puffin Plan, Derrick Z. Jackson. 2020 Cybils nominee.
The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh, Candace Fleming. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Marriage, Race and the Law, Duchess Harris and Rebecca Morris. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Employment, Race and the Law, Duchess Harris. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Normal, Nathaniel Newman & Magdalena Newman. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Housing, Race, and the Law, Duchess Harris. 2020 Cybils nominee.
The Many Lives of Eddie Rickenbacker, Andrew Speno. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Completed
The Professor's Daughter, Joann Sfarr. 2008 Cybils YA Graphic Novel finalist. Um, I don't get it? She's a nameless daughter/beloved who has no interests other than taking this maybe dead guy out for lunch. He seems to be projecting his long-dead wife onto her, which bugs her until she forgets about it. Her dad is accidentally killed during their escape from prison, but this does not seem to bother her. And finally, I'm frustrated because it's possible that the last pages show all the characters a few years along, but I'm not sure because they have all changed clothes so I can't recognize them (I'm terrible at graphic novels! I'm practically face blind for comics!). I honestly can't tell if I don't like the story or if I'm missing half the story because my reading level for graphics is so poor.
STEM in the Final Four, Meg Marquardt. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Throw Like a Girl, Cheer Like a Boy, Robyn Ryle. 2020 Cybils nominee.
You Too?, Janet Gurtler (ed). 2020 Cybils nominee.
Plasticus Maritimus, Ana Pego. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Five Children and It, Edith Nesbit. Talbot Hill 4/5 book club pick. Another tiny turnout, but they did enjoy the book, which was fun because this is one of my favorites. We talked about differences and similarities between kids now and then, what would be good wishes, what was badly old fashioned like the expectations for girls and boys and the pictures of "Red Indians", and what were other books like this.
A Hopeful Heart, Deborah Noyes. 2020 Cybils nominee.
STEM in the Stanley Cup, Kristy Stark. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Education, Race, and Law, Duchess Harris and Cynthia Kennedy Henzel. 2020 Cybils nominee.
STEM and the Super Bowl, Mike Downs. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Surviving the Angel of Death, Eva Mozes Kor. 2020 Cybils nominee.
The Zodiac Killer, Carla Mooney. 2020 Cybils nominee.
STEM and the World Cup, Meg Marquardt. 2020 Cybils nominee.
The Bone Witch, Rin Chupeco. Despite the length of time it took me to finish this, I actually quite liked it. The world building was interesting, the main character was flawed in ways I sympathized with and the sibling relationship was my favorite. I think there's more romance in the next few, which is a pity, but we'll also get to see her do more Dark magic, which is fun.
Star Spangled, Ted Grove. 2020 Cybils nominee.
The Puffin Plan, Derrick Z. Jackson. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Marriage, Race and the Law, Duchess Harris and Rebecca Morris. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Employment, Race and the Law, Duchess Harris. 2020 Cybils nominee.
The Many Lives of Eddie Rickenbacker, Andrew Speno. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Housing, Race, and the Law, Duchess Harris. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:
Uncompromising Honor 43/??, David Weber. Baen Free Radio Hour's serial. This battle has left me a bit confused, but I'm not worried about it.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James. Sword and Laser pick.
A Long Time Until Now, Michael Z Williamson.
Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky.
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein, Farah Mendelson. Hugo finalist.
The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton. I have optimistically rechecked this out.
Someplace To Be Flying, Charles de Lint.
The Bourne Supremacy, Robert Ludlum.
Return of the Thief, Megan Whalen Turner. OK, I am finally ready to start finishing this.
A Lady's Code of Misconduct, Meredith Duran. I went back to pushing through the slow middle.
The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brien. My Tuesday book club book.
An Extraordinary Union, Alyssa Cole.
Sucker Punch, Laurell K. Hamilton. A book that is as far from a 2020 nonfiction nominee as it is possible to get. I read a chapter in between most of the books as a sort of junk food amuse bouche.
Games of Deception, Andrew Maraness. Cybils 2020 nominee.
Frederica, Georgette Heyer. We're due to read it in December and discuss in January.
Picture Books / Short Stories:
Astronaut Handbook, Meghan Mccarthy. 2008 Cybils nonfiction picture book finalist. Fun (yay space books) but it made me feel very old with its excited depictions of training for the space shuttle. And no concept of SpaceX or other private companies. But the gist is still correct on how astronauts are trained and what they are training for, and I liked the illustrations of the team working towards the goal.
The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County, Janice N. Harrington. 2007 Cybils cybils picture book finalist. Delightful! I liked the illustrations, which involved a lot of cut patterned paper with different patterns ranging from lined note paper to origami like designs, a great character full of mischief and compassion, and a strong independent chicken to test her mettle. The text rolls off the tongue for a great read aloud feel.
The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity, Amy Alznauer. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Planet SOS, Marie G. Rohde. 2020 Cybils nominee.
Love Your Body, Jessica Sanders. 2020 Cybils nominee.
The Moon Keeper, Zosienka. Sweet story of a bear who cares for the moon but is distressed when nothing stops it from shrinking. Unfortunately I was in a contrary mood and wondered how in the world this moon lover had never looked up in the sky before. I mean, there are frantic calls around to other moon lovers, and no one has a clue.
I Can Be Anything, Shinsuke Yoshitaki. This is not a career aspirational book, but an amusing story of a confident preschooler challenging her exhausted and hard-working mom to guess what the kid is pretending to be. We see the chubby kid's poses, some of which are baffling, and the mom failing to figure it out while she folds laundry, and then a simple picture of the object that the kid is representing. It's fun, especially as the mom struggles to hold onto her patience and the kid gets tired and frustrated by how clueless all adults are. The end is cosy and sweet as the child falls asleep while being a snail.
Palate Cleansers
These books I'm barely reading; I use them as palate cleansers between books I'm actually reading.
The Educated Child, William Bennett.
Wool, Hugh Howey.
Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho.
Under the Eye of the Storm, John Hersey.
Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. Evaluations.
Reading Challenges
- Cybils 2017. None. I just need 3 YA books to be done. But YA is hard.
- Cybils 2018. None. Checked one of of library.
- Cybils 2019. None.
- Early Cybils: Finished The Professor's Daughter. Read some picture books.
- Reading My Library. Nothing.
- Ten to Try. Done!
- Where Am I Reading: 33/51 states. Added Maine and Illinois. 29 Countries. Added Portugal.
- Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. I'm done.
I'm putting this at the end because I suspect it's complete fiction, but I feel I should attempt some structure.
I am reading:
- Book I own: Return of the Thief. Next: A Deadly Education
- Library Book: The Bride Vol 9. Next: Lady's Code of Misconduct.
- Ebook I own: An Extraordinary Union. Up Next: Probably a T. Kingfisher.
- Library Ebook: Games of Deception. Next: Luminaries
- Book Club Book: Frederica. Next: The Chai Factor.
- Tuesday Book Club Book: Wine Dark Sea. Next/also: Somewhere To Be Flying until we pick something.
- Review Book: None. Up Next: Not sure.
- Hugo Book: The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein. Next: Joanna Russ.
