We had a power outage that lasted a whole day -- just after midnight until almost dawn the day after. So long enough to be interesting but not long enough to be annoying. We kept the fridge and freezer closed all day, so we didn't lose any food, but we had no internet! Well, we had phones, but no way to charge them. So my boys didn't walk around with headphones, which I liked, but it also meant that when I asked my sneaky little questions like "Anyone else want a cookie?" they would hear me.
The funniest bit was during our weekly family zoom meeting when we were describing running around finding candles and flashlights and my younger brother burst out with "Didn't you look in the emergency supply kit?"??!! Because a few months ago he sent me home with a large bin that he and his wife had carefully stocked with everything the well supplied household needs. And I was like, uh, it never felt like an emergency... And then after the call I went out to the garage and poked around and saw the batteries and flashlights and cell phone chargers and .... I have the best brother.S adly, that black-out day was also the day for one of my elementary book clubs! I missed it completely so I hope the librarian did all right. I mean, I'm sure she does but she's not supposed to have to work at them; she's just there because the school district requires a staff member on zoom calls. I can be alone with the kids in person but not remotely.
I found a new book club at our library -- debut authors, so I had gotten the book but I thought the club was on Wednesday. Actually it was on Saturday, as my calendar reminded me, and I had meant to READ the book on Wednesday. But I went anyway because they had the author on the call and I'm really glad I did because not only was she really interesting but I also found out that my Romance Book Series had gone online and I had already missed one but should be able to make the next. So I'm excited. And I'm going to read Meng Jin's Little Gods real soon now.
We had dinner out on blackout day. Well, dinner take-out, and we ate early before it got too dark. The meal plan called for a crockpot dish, and I hadn't picked up the food from the store yet. I delayed my pickup until almost dinner time in hopes the power would come back, and then grabbed a bag of ice in addition to the groceries so that we could replace to coolth lost when we opened the fridge to put the groceries in. So Friday we had our crockpot falafels, and I made pita bread using my new Christmas pizza stone and it worked out well. Everyone had pockets to stuff.
I made one walk with a friend but didn't manage to do any running. I need to pull my socks up! In related news, I binged some television with my son, which is always fun. I wanted to watch Bridgerton but on my own I usually manage about 20-30 minutes a day. So I enlisted Alexander to watch with me and we did it in two nights. Also, if I go to bed that late I'm not going to exercise the next day. But it was fun and we enjoyed disagreeing about which character was in the right -- he had more sympathy for the Viscount and I thought the mom made excellent points. He was appalled when Daphne took advantage of the Duke because he's all about consent and I agreed but that what the Duke had done counted as lying.
We also watched the first two episodes of WandaVision which is promising, and I managed to see an episode of Nailed It (Mexico) and also saw episode 2.18 of Deep Space Nine, and started 2.19 of Voyager.
I've managed to ignore what is going on with my country, but I will say it's very hard to read books about civil rights and voting reform, and also I can't seem to stick to anything and I blame the Republicans. We also changed plans for taking Alexander back to his college next to the Oregon state capitol, which I hope is an excess of caution but that's where we are. So I don't feel bad that my currently reading is still 29, but I still have hope that after next week is over I can start to bring it down.
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
The Future of Science is Female, Zara Stone. 2020 Cybils nonfiction nominee.
One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission that Flew Us to the Moon, Charles Fishman. For my Tuesday night book club.
Sunset of the Sabertooth, Mary Pope Osborne. For my 2nd/3rd grade book club.
Give Us the Vote! Over Two Hundred Years of Fighting For the Ballet, Susan Goldman Rubin. 2020 Cybils nonfiction nominee.
Seven Sisters, Lucinda Riley. Because my mom and aunt recommended it.
Katie Goes to Tea, Katie Speck. Cybils Early Reader finalist.
Stolen Justice, Laurence Goldstone. 2020 Cybils nonfiction nominee.
Spies, Lies and Disguise, Jennifer Swanson. 2020 Cybils nonfiction nominee.
Completed
The Future of Science is Female, Zara Stone. 2020 Cybils nonfiction nominee. Although the title oversells it a bit (there will also be male scientists in the future, as well as non binary ones), this book of short biographies of women doing significant work with the chance of making an impact is fun to read and a good cheerleading idea for kids thinking about futures in STEM. Most of the people profiled are running businesses based on their breakthroughs, from the ones who developed a home nail-decorating robot box that will incidentally encourage girls to develop coding chops to enhance their designs to the women who developed fish-substitute foods that could help fix our oceans and shores by substituting for mangrove-destroying shrimp farms. Each woman gets a review of her educational path (I like the one who hasn't technically graduated from Berkeley, although she's about a whisker short of a triple major graduation) and then how she's building her company to exploit her ideas. The tone is almost conversational; the bibliography is very short but most of the information is what is quickly available on google, so that makes some sense.
Shadows in Death, J.D. Robb. This is number 50+ of this series, and it's comfortable like an old pair of jeans. Even the author recognizes that a lot of the territory is well covered; there's the obligatory sex scene to show that these two still are going at it like rabbits, but it's a few paragraphs long rather than a few pages. The bad guy is a blast from Roark's Irish past, so there's a lot of excuse for people to admire Irish accents and mention how attractive they are; we don't spend a lot of time on people getting tortured or inside the mind of the bad guy planning on torturing people. We check in on a bunch of people rather seamlessly by having them all drop by the grand opening of Roark's house for homeless youth, and we also get a scene of Peabody and an awe-struck shopping clerk helping Eve look less like a cop for a few minutes. It's good fun, and I'm on hold for the next one.
Sunset of the Sabertooth, Mary Pope Osborne. For my 2nd/3rd grade book club. My power went out and I completely missed the meeting! I hope the kids liked it. It's in the middle of an arc for the Magic Treehouse, which might bother some people. My kids skipped this series on their journey through elementary school so I haven't read much of these. I liked the idea of the kids accidentally journeying to the Ice Age in the wet swimming clothes, as it reminds me of driving my kids home from swim class through a snowstorm that was much worse than I expected. I'm not convinced of all the science; I prefer my cave people to be speculatively less gender role conforming than these guys. I'm not worried about the communicative mouse or the helpful mammoth; that's totally in the lines for the book.
Give Us the Vote! Over Two Hundred Years of Fighting For the Ballet, Susan Goldman Rubin. 2020 Cybils nonfiction nominee. OK, this is a very odd time in history to be reading this book about the history of suffrage in America and how hard African Americans, women, Native Americans and immigrants have fought for suffrage. Right now our country is torn among people who are furious that other people were allowed to count, that votes that disagreed with theirs apparently matter, and who pretend to believe to insane conspiracies to excuse their attempts to seize power in opposition to that vote. It really made this a much more discouraging book, as instead of seeing it as a move towards a more complete nation that included all the people within I kept seeing the angry voices of people who didn't want to share their power, that wanted to use the color of people's skin as an excuse to keep their voices silent. Ugh. But a good read -- it's not Rubin's fault that America is and was full of people who find democracy distasteful.
Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:
Uncompromising Honor 43-45/??, David Weber. Baen Free Radio Hour's serial. OK, I'm back. The battle is going on. The Sollies are attacking Beowulf, and maybe there is another battle somewhere else? But I have completely lost track of who is in which navy. It doesn't help that these last sections tend to be only a few minutes long...
Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James. Sword and Laser pick. Didn't touch it.
A Long Time Until Now, Michael Z Williamson. I put it in my bag so will probably make some progress sometime.
Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Didn't touch it.
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein, Farah Mendelson. Hugo finalist. Didn't touch it.
The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton. Made a littel progress.
Someplace To Be Flying, Charles de Lint. Didn't touch it.
The Bourne Supremacy, Robert Ludlum. Didn't touch it.
Return of the Thief, Megan Whalen Turner. Stuff is stressful so I only read a little at a time. This is the last book so if it doesn't end well all is lost.
The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brien. My previous Tuesday book club book. Didn't touch it.
An Extraordinary Union, Alyssa Cole. Didn't touch it.
Sucker Punch, Laurell K. Hamilton. She just apologized and was like "women, what can you do" with the sheriff so he is sympathetic.
Storm Cursed, Patricia Briggs. Haven't gotten back to it yet.
La Perdida, Jessica Abel. Cybils finalist. I'm not liking it much -- the young people are all annoying.
Laika, Nick Abadzis. Cybils finalist. I read this one after pushing at La Perdida. But I'm pretty sure the ending will make me sad. The first dog in space is not a story with a happy ending for the dog...
Picture Books / Short Stories:
Houndsley and Catina and the Quiet Time, James Howe. 2008 Cybils Early Reader finalist. A gentle read celebrating the peacefulness of a slow winter snowfall, and the possibilities for a cosy day inside and some adventures out in the snow. I think my younger son would have enjoyed this.
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. The aftermath of the Party Incident. She is so young she assumes he has no worries, which is a bit sad for me because I get his viewpoint and know he has many, and he is trying to look out for her.
Under the Eye of the Storm, John Hersey. The world seen through the eyes of this guy is a very alien one, but it also feels accurate. The past is a different country.
Dates From Hell, Kim Harrison & others.
Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. What evaluations should explains.
Reading Challenges
- Cybils 2017. None. I just need 3 YA books to be done. But YA is hard.
- Cybils 2018.
- Cybils 2019. Obtained the next one.
- Cybils 2020. Well, I've already finished all the nonfiction books... I need to get my challenge post up.
- Early Cybils: Read an early reader, and worked at some graphic novels.
- Reading My Library. Nothing.
- Ten to Try. Restarted! Also I discovered that the Tacoma Library has an extreme version.
- Where Am I Reading: 33/51 states. I need to finish categorizing my December books and deciding if I want to track this again in 2021.
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 Seven Sisters. Next: Sucker Punch.
- Ebook I own: Baker's Guide to Defensive Magic. Up Next: Extraordinary Union.
- Library Ebook: Luminaries. Next: Bourne Factor
- Book Club Book: The Chai Factor. Next: Marrow Thieves
- Tuesday Book Club Book: One Giant Leap. Next/also: Somewhere To Be Flying. Still haven't finished Wine Dark Sea.
- Review Book: None. Up Next: Not sure.
- Hugo Book: The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein. Next: Joanna Russ.
- Rereading: Storm Cursed. Up Next. I'm thinking more K.J. Charles but who knows...
2 comments:
As always, am impressed how much you read, and write about those as well!
I still have not been able to find The Future of Science is Female at my library and hope soon.. but I am working on reading Give us the Vote soon (Read a little earlier but need to do a deeper dive into it) and am finally reading Radium Girls
You know, an emergency supply kit is one of the most beautiful gift ideas I've heard of. I wonder if my two brother's families have one in their homes already. If not, I'd love to get my kiddos to help me work on putting some together. Thank your brother for the idea! And you've really started me thinking about my civil rights reading, of late. Because I've felt kinda down about it. And I think it has to do with the fact that it's hard to read it and keep thinking about the friends, neighbors, or relatives that I wish would read it and take it to heart. Sometimes progress feels oh so slow (and I realize I'm saying that from a position of privilege). Have a great reading week, Beth!
Post a Comment