Happy Boom Boom Days!

Well, I had good intentions on making my summer healthier. I relogged into Pokemon Go and started doing a daily walk as soon as I woke up, figuring I'd add that in to my run program. Everything went well for a few days, and then I got sick. It used to be that I would just ignore any cold of flu, but apparently now I'm the worse than a sitcom dad. I had a sore throat, slight fever, and body aches, and objectively it wasn't even as bad as the vaccine last week, but I was a huge baby and just wanted to lie in bed and have people bring me soothing beverages. But it wasn't COVID and I got better after a few days.

Before I succumbed Alexander and I went out to the new Indiana Jones, which was fun and silly. There's a scene where they talk a bit of Greek and both of snapped upright and tried to listen. (I'm doing DuoLingo Greek and he's a classics major). I got some of it!

Fourth of July came and we pretty much ignored it. Our town had canceled the usual fireworks because the park is under construction, my cats aren't bothered by bangs, and my sister is out of town. Some people ignored the restriction (private fireworks are banned here) so I heard some bangs but couldn't see anything.

The biggest excitement was the day after, when I was on a walk and a driver pulled over to ask for directions. One of our fire stations was having an amnesty where you could turn in fireworks, no questions asked, and he had been given this address that would match three places in my little community (they reused a lot of street names for some odd reason). So I told him to give me the bag of contraband and I'd figure out where it should go. But when I looked up the station, he had the street name slight wrong and it wasn't in my neighborhood but a short drive away.

So on Thursday I was going to take my son out to get new climbing shoes but he was running late so I said I'd go drop off my booty. And then I got lost coming back, so it was fifteen minutes there but an hour back, oops, so he didn't have time for climbing after the shoe run. And we spent the ride joking about how I keep accumulating contraband -- first all the drugs back when my mom was sick and now incendiaries.

And then I got sick! So nothing on the weekend -- I missed book clubs and Foolscap meetings and who knows what else.

By the weekend I was mostly back to normal, although I skipped the run portion of my usual talk and walk followed by a run. 

I'm still safely on only two pages of currently-reading on Goodreads. I'm at 31 physical books checked out which includes some picture books plus five ebooks. I think I've only lost one picture book.. 

I'm off to check out the other books at The Bookdate's It's Monday, What Are You Reading headquarters. And since I'm reading picture books as well as Cybils and other kidlit, I'll also sign up at the Children's Book central version, held at both Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers. And then I will dive around to see what everyone else has been reading.

Started

Victory, Stand!, Tommie Smith. Cybils finalist.

Humble Pi, Matt Parker. My Maine friends gave me this. Or maybe they want it back?

The Great Stewardess Rebellion, Nell McShane Wulfhart. My mom was a stewardess back in the mid-1960s, and my aunt for even longer than that. So I grabbed this from the library temptation display. 

Ascension of a Bookworm Manga, Part 2 Vol 6, Miya Kazuki. Tragically this is currently the last translated volume of the manga.

Black Butler 27, Yana Toboso. Working through this series.

Room to Dream, Kelly Yang. Continuing a series.

Feed, M.T. Anderson. Been on my to-read list for years and years.

Only Bad Options, Jennifer Estep. For a book club next week.

Fairy Tale, Stephen King. For Tuesday game & book club.

Completed

Ascendance of a Bookworm Manga, Part 2 Vol 5, Miya Kazuki. I'm still enjoying rereading this series as a manga rather than a light novel. I like the emotion shots, which I guess are standard in manga but I don't see very often. 

The Greatest Thing, Sarah Winifred Searle. 2022 Cybils Graphic Novel finalist. I liked the complexities of this memoir. There's a lot going on and it crosses over a lot. The protagonist worries about making friends, worries about having crushes, wants to be an artist, and has other problems that she often misidentifies. Her friends also have a lot going on and sometimes they can support each other and sometimes there's a gap. It's written with honesty but also compassion, showing how one kid navigates a time that is complicated for everyone.  

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis. I like reading about religion from a guy who is obviously passionate about it but who isn't mean with it. It's also interesting reading the style -- he's utterly convinced that he can talk to people and be heard by his words, with no conception that this is actually a really rare occurrence. It's like he's never even heard of dog whistles, but he's also convinced that this is something available to everyone even as his examples using women, non-straight people, and other races is evidence that is is not. I enjoyed reading it.

The Shuddering City, Sharon Shinn. The ending had a bit of magic solution but I enjoyed it. I didn't see the big twist until it was revealed, but then I liked how it worked with the mythology created. I don't think you can press too hard on the science worldbuilding, but I'm here for the characters. I liked how there were older protagonists (some of whom get love stories!) and they don't have to be amazing super heroes.

Make Me, Tessa Bailey. I think I have to concede that I'm not on the Tessa Bailey page. I like her plots, but she spends a lot of time on the sex and for me the two don't integrate well at all, leaving me skimming through pages hoping to get back to the plot. I also wasn't impressed with either character's arc in this; it seems unlikely that they will be able to maintain their happiness. Well, maybe they won't notice since there will be so much sex going on.

Flood Circle, Harry Connolly. Wow, these last two books by Connolly have been awesome. Talk about raising the stakes in a coherent way. I definitely want more by him. 

Black Butler 27, Yana Toboso. OK, it's kind of ironic to me that when I have such problems distinguishing people in graphic novels (even wildly divergent people) this book introduces IDENTICAL TWINS. I hope I was not expected to know which was which. There were also lots of action scenes, which I am terrible at deciphering. But I think I get what happened. This book was a flashback, so now I'll get number 28 to see what is happening in the main timeline.

Humble Pi, Matt Parker. I had fun wandering with a math nerd through some of the problems caused by poor maths (he's English, so it's plural). Mostly computer stuff but also some basic math stuff -- I still trip myself up with fence post errors sometimes. The page numbers are a good example of his humor -- they number down from 314, with a surprise at the index.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I liked the start and the characters, but I felt the ending didn't really land. It left open so many questions about the relationships between all the children of Dr Moreau and how the daughter will continue her life. But I love Moreno-Garcia's writing and it's interesting to see how this books is in conversation with and also not in conversation with various tropes of literature and of genre books. And hey, it got a Hugo nomination!

Victory, Stand!, Tommie Smith. 2022 Cybils Graphic Novel finalist. I really liked this. It took something I knew a little about (the athletes giving the Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics) and gave me the rest of the story. It put it in context with the Civil Rights struggles (reading books about the Black Panthers last year also helped with that) and gave me the personality behind the runner, from his childhood to his encounters with racism to his dedication to education and civil rights and his awareness of the cost of his choice and why he felt it important to make anyway. I'm glad we have people like him in our society.

Picture Books

Deep Sea Dive, Samantha Brooke. Reading My Library Quest book from the Easy Nonfiction section, Renton Highlands library. There was an extra flavor in this book about the Magic School Bus turning into a deep water submarine, since we just had the big news storm over the lost Titanic explorer. But Ms Frizzle does better maintenance so these kids were OK.

Zee Grows a Tree, Elizabeth Rusch. Reading My Library Quest book from the Easy Nonfiction section, Renton Highlands library. Definitely reads as a story book that has some facts scattered on the page, which is what I'd want for a bedtime story. I like the conceit of the family planting a tree for their baby, and then we watch them grow together, while the life of the Christmas Tree farm goes on around them to give chances for wider facts about trees and farming.

Saving Stella, Bassel Abou Fakher. Reading My Library Quest book from the Easy Nonfiction section, Renton Highlands library. This is a insight into the refugee situation when a man gets asylum in Belgium and then manages to also get his dog out, and it's really a good story that kids will appreciate. Stella is awesome.

Easter Hunt, Clever Publishing. Reading My Library Quest book from the Easy Nonfiction section, Renton Highlands library. This book needed a kid to make it at all interesting -- it had bright but not interesting illustrations and ideas for searching on the page. A cheerful two year old would make it a fun game -- its pages of similar items with suggestions to find the ones that match or that meet criteris. One interesting thing is that goodreads has the cover down for the next edition, not the current one.

 

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Vol 5 Part 4, Miya Kazuki. Still inching my way through. Myne gets a chance to mentor her little brother, which always makes her puff out her chest.

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Miya Kazuki. Pausing my reread of Part 3 while I read the new book.

Cobra, Timothy Zahn. Part 50. Didn't get to this.

Warcross, Marie Lu. Still my car book, so I'm making slow progress.

Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon. It's still on my bedside table.

The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brian. I bet I would like all of these. 

New Suns 2, ed. Nisi Shawl. Great story from John Chu, with the title hinting at all the resonances. "Equal Forces Opposed in Esquisite Tension"

Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat, Gary Paulsen. The next audio from the next shelf in Renton Highlands Library for my Reading My Library Quest. I'm on Disc 2 (the final disc).

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros. The June Sword and Laser book club pick. I'm struggling to get into this, partially because I only had the audio (my hardback copy just arrived) and partly because it seems to be written in present tense, which I associate with books for kids, so the character sounds very young (immature) to me.

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea, Rebecca Thorne. For next week's Cloudy book club. I have some questions about the world building...

Ship Without Sails, Sherwood Smith. Almost done!

Palate Cleansers

I'm slowly marching through these books.

 

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). Donne is much better reading.

Stinger, Nancy Kress. 

Dragon's Breath, E.D. Baker. 

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler.  (no picture) 

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. 

The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. So far I'm liking the July picks.

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils 2022: Finished YA Graphic Novels. Acquiring poetry.  
2. Early Cybils:  Ready to read Nick and Norah
3. Reading My Library. Picked up Faceoff, ed by Baldacci. Short stories from many authors.
4. Libraries: Working on the 10 to Try for 2023. Need an artist and a summer book.

Future Plans

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: China Mountain Zhang
• Library Book: The Great Stewardess Rebellion
• Ebook I own: The Blue Hawk
• Library Ebook: Only Bad Options
• Book Club Book: Daughter of the Empire
• Tuesday Book Club Book: Fairy Tale
• Review Book: Back Home 
• Rereading: The Blue Hawk
• Audio: Fourth Wing
  

Hooray For Modern Medicine, I Guess

Well, I procrastinated on my runs for two days, and then I had a routine doctor appointment that ended up in a giant pity party. First the doctor noticed that I could start my shingles vaccine. OK. And then she noticed that I was due for a cholesterol test. OK. So we finish and I get dressed and a nice nurse comes in and stabs me with the vaccine and I have to pretend to be brave (I am not). No lollipop or nothing. 

And then I toddle over to the lab section and get another needle stuck in me so they can pull out some blood, and again I do my best impression of an Actual Adult. Still no lollipop. And then I head back to my car plotting to award myself extra dessert (I'm ignoring what the doctor said about healthy diet and exercise habits, because they just stabbed me with NEEDLES) and just as I'm about to drive off I glance at my arm and I've soaked through the measly bandage in my elbow and am dripping blood all over my pants. So I head back into the building looking for some better bandaids to the consternation of the front desk people and the lab gives me the wrap treatment along with some pointed questions about blood thinners or something. And there is blood all over my pants. Humph I think.

So I go home and make the family take me out to dinner because that was a rotten afternoon and also my arm hurts from the shot and my elbow looks all bruised. So that was really nice. And then I went home and fell asleep, expecting my personal pity party to end, but it had only begun. I kept waking up because my arm hurt, and the next day I was FATIGUED. I would have taken a COVID test except they were downstairs and that was way too far to travel. I tried to read and moving my eyeballs was exhausting and required a two hour nap after each chapter. I never ate all day, because 1) the food was all the way downstairs and 2) eating seemed a lot of effort. I could have texted my son for help (he apparently assumed I had gone somewhere when he didn't see me around the house) except I forgot about the existence of voice-to-text and couldn't summon the energy to twiddle my fingers. The doctor had warned me about the second shingles shot, which I'm due for in a few months, but didn't expect this one to be a big deal. Well, wow. I am not looking forward to the next one.

By the weekend I was mostly back to normal, although I skipped the run portion of my usual talk and walk followed by a run. 

I'm still safely on only two pages of currently-reading on Goodreads. I'm at 31 books checked out which includes some picture books. Most of which I haven't lost. 

I'm off to check out the other books at The Bookdate's It's Monday, What Are You Reading headquarters. And since I read the Harry Potter play, I'll also sign up at the Children's Book central version, held at both Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers. And then I will dive around to see what everyone else has been reading.

Started

Binti, Nnedi Okorafor. The Foolscap Bookclub was doing AfroFuturism, or AfricanFuturism, so I reread this. There was a wait for the ebook so I got the audio.

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea, Rebecca Thorne. For next week's Cloudy book club.

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros. The June Sword and Laser book club pick.

Six Kids and a Stuffed Cat, Gary Paulsen. The next audio from the next shelf in Renton Highlands Library for my Reading My Library Quest.

Completed

Binti, Nnedi Okorafor. The narrator made this book even better -- I liked it the first time but thought the prose was a bit off. But with the accent changed from my Texan/Seattle to what I assume is more authentic for a Himba woman, suddenly her sentences took flight. I enjoyed the discussion and how the author moved between SF depictions of alien interactions and communication and more mundane issues of defying parental expectations and cultural limits.

Blood Vow, J.R. Ward. Because I tend to giggle at the premise, I don't read these very often, but they are a fun occasional snack. The males especially like to experience every emotion at 10X volume -- they aren't just worried parents, they are questioning the limits of a universe that would allow their precious child, the only reason for existence, the creation of every happiness, to experience any worry? (Of course, the kid doesn't just need a shot, she needs a drastic operation on every bone in her body or something). And then when their adoption hits a glitch, the wallowing is deep and depressing, which makes the resolution even more hilarious (the guy with a distant connection shows up, sees that the kid has a stable family going on, and signs off on it, and then gets adopted in himself. No worries! Everyone is happy! Cars for everyone!). The love story goes similarly. But poor Axe never gets an H in his nickname.

Purple Hearts, Tess Wakefield. Huh. I was actually rooting for her other relationship, despite the foolishness of picking up a new boyfriend days after entering a fake marriage. But we did see their friendship growing even if we have to ignore a lot of stuff.

Convergence, C.J. Cherryh. I'm enjoying these a lot and wanting to catch up. I think there's one more trilogy just waiting for me, so here I come. I liked the balance between Bren going back home and being weird among humans for going all atevi on them, and Cajeri going to his traditional uncle and being the liberal human-loving kid among atevi.

Picture Books

Gorillas, Gail Gibbons. Reading My Library Quest book from the Easy Nonfiction section, Renton Highlands library. I like nonfiction books that work as picture books like this. Good color and composition, good thruline for the information -- not quite a story but not a random walk either. 

 

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Vol 5 Part 4, Miya Kazuki. Still inching my way through. Ferdinand's absence is keenly felt by all. 

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Miya Kazuki. Pausing my reread of Part 3 while I read the new book.

Cobra, Timothy Zahn. Part 50. Didn't get to this.

Warcross, Marie Lu. Still my car book, so I'm making slow progress.

Flood Circle, Harry Connolly. I am very worried about Ray. And also now the planet.

Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon. It's still on my bedside table.

The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brian. No chance to read.

The Shuddering City, Sharon Shinn. I'm enjoying this. I like her characterization, how her characters like being competent but aren't omni-powerful.

Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis. From my shelves. Well, technically I have now misplaced my copy so I've checked it out of the library.

Ascendance of a Bookworm Manga, Part 2 Vol 5, Miya Kazuki. I am limiting myself to a few pages a day in this one as well.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I keep moving on to books with less stress. I'm a very stress-adverse person these days.

New Suns 2, ed. Nisi Shawl. Still going strong. Some are personal, some universal in scope.

The Greatest Thing, Sarah Winifred Searle. Cybils finalist. High school drama story. 

Make Me, Tessa Bailey. My Romance Reading Group did a deep dive on Tessa Bailey last week but I didn't finish this in time.

Ship Without Sails, Sherwood Smith. Almost done!

Palate Cleansers

I'm slowly marching through these books.

 

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). OK, I found Ben Johnson a bit of a slog, but now I'm into Donne. 

Stinger, Nancy Kress. 

Dragon's Breath, E.D. Baker. 

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler.  (no picture) 

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. 

The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Hmm. I like how I don't know how long each piece will be. Some days I toss a few pieces of junk while some days I deal with real stuff.

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils 2022: Working on YA Graphic Novels. 
2. Early Cybils:  Not done. Have on waiting on the pile
3. Reading My Library. Picked up Faceoff, ed by Baldacci. Short stories from many authors.
4. Libraries: Working on the 10 to Try for 2023. Need an artist and a summer book.

Future Plans

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: China Mountain Zhang
• Library Book:The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
• Ebook I own: Can't Spell Treason Without Tea
• Library Ebook: Only Bad Options
• Book Club Book: The Fourth Wing
• Tuesday Book Club Book: Fairy Tale
• Review Book: Back Home 
• Rereading: 
• Audio: Fourth Wing