I'm not sure what I was doing last weekend when I meant to update this blog. Probably sleeping. I seem to be doing a lot of that, just not in the night time. Hmm.
Anyway, we celebrated my sister's birthday with lasagna and cake! And prezzies! Now we are twins for several weeks, until I age up again. Also I went to several book clubs and had a very nice time -- the local library group discussed In Five Years (almost everyone disliked it, but I was in the corner that thought it was fine), and two groups organized through SF conventions discussed Hild and The Lathe of Heaven, respectively. Lots of interesting thoughts on those!
Um, I think I planned stuff and it got cooked? Oh yeah, that delicious lasagna! Also some steak and goat cheese quesadillas, and probably other stuff. Very few trips to the gym, although my excuses muscles are getting quite a workout!
Next week I'm off on vacation, so I'll probably skip again. Maybe I'll take a picture of something!
I'm still at 3 pages of currently-reading on goodreads. I'm down to 36 physical books checked out which includes some picture books and then there are (mumble) some ebooks.
I will be posting at The Bookdate's It's Monday, What Are You Reading headquarters as well as the kidlit version at Unleashing Readers.
Completed
Ascendance of a Bookworm, Part 5, Vol 7, Miya Kazuki. OK, the path to a romantic endgame is clear, except for the mortal peril of the dude, and Rosemyne is getting to be ruthless as she organizes the rescue. Let's see what happens! And if it involves any new books...
Winter's Orbit, Everina Maxwell. Reading this while comparing it to the original was interesting. Turns out a lot of the differences were really just having to read it slowly, as the chapters dropped. I see how the SF worldbuilding went through some discussions.
Farther Than the Moon, Lindsay Lackey. 2023 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction finalist. I was distracted from the character growth by the incredibly awesome space camp, and later by the mom not getting lost in Houston after having been away for over a decade. Maybe the south bit hasn't changed as much? Anyway, great family stuff, fun kids-at-camp stuff, and I enjoyed seeing how families cope with differences, even rather severe disabilities. Or don't cope, in some cases.
Greenwild: The World Behind the Door, Pari Thomson. Nominated for Cybils. I really enjoyed the protagonist, her introduction to the portal world, and the friendships she makes and the mysteries they wrinkle out together. The other adults were just clueless enough that they were supportive but left the main work to be done by the kids.
Resurgence, C.J. Cherryh. This was fun and I enjoyed watching the young lord adjust to new maturity and Bren try to catch up with what the heck is going on, but it also felt like a lot of set-up that I expect to pay off very pleasingly in the next one, which I hope to read soon.
In Five Years, Rebecca Serle. Renton River book club pick. It was interesting how little most of the members liked this one, because it defied their expectations. To be fair, it fooled the library -- it's clearly marked ROM but it's definitely not a romance; in fact the main romance arc is how to figure out when a relationship isn't working. But as a book about friendship and about understanding what we can control it works better.
Bold Spirit, Linda Laurence Hunt. This is both an interesting story of a woman's experience and an overview of the expectations and constraints on women in the late 1800s in America. It is also an examination of what kind of freedom wealth can provide and what are the costs of poverty.
Simon Sort of Says, Erin Bow. 2023 Cybils finalists (and winner!). Really good! Simon and his family move to a town without internet in the hope of dodging the notoriety that came with being the survivor of a traumatic incident, which is not helping with the recovery from the trauma. There are lots of quirky bits -- the mom is a funeral director, the dad a deacon at an oversized local Catholic church, and the friends he makes have their own stuff going on. And Simon even before the incident tended to just go with the flow, never really saying yes or no, and his development is integral to his character as well as shaped by trauma.
One in Vermillion, Jennifer Crusie & Bob Meyer. What a great way to stick the landing. I was super pleased with how all the character arcs resolved and with the journey to get there. The action plot was a bit weaker, but still worked and the ways it tied in the character arcs strengthened both.
Windswept, Adam Rakunas. I see why my brother liked it -- lots of competence from both the goodies and the baddies. I felt the plot circled around a few too many times, and Padma had a bit too much "everything is my responsibility" but I'm glad I came back and finished this.
What Happened to Rachel Riley?, Claire Swinarski. 2023 Cybils finalist. A much more interior book, looking at how teen social dynamics are shaped by the adults around them, even when the adults have no idea what is going on. Also a good example of how even with adults parrating all the right things about feminism and freedom, kids are very aware of the real constraints and expectations society is showing them. And yet it's also about missing an old neighborhood and a grandmother and learning to stay friends with an older sister and how to make friends without giving away the pieces of yourself you value.
Started
Definitely a normal amount.
Ascendance of a Bookworm, Part 5 Volume 8, Miya Kazuki. Ah, there it was, waiting for me. Obviously I've preordered volume 9. Now to make this last...
Simon Sort of Says, Erin Bow. 2023 Cybils finalist. Cybils winner!
One in Vermillion, Jennifer Crusie & Bob Meyer. I hope this lives up to the first two!
What Happened to Rachel Riley?, Claire Swinarski. 2023 Cybils finalist.
Picture Books & Short Stories
Kevin Goes to the Hospital, Liesbet Slegers. A very education-oriented story to demonstrate how hospitals are fun places to go, and also that playing in the backyard is likely to cause concussion. Parents should squint at their children to decide which lesson they will pick up on before launching into the story.
The Skull, Jon Klassen. A lovely retelling of a folk tale that improves greatly on the original. Lots of humor and heroism from the girl and the skull.
Stormy, Guojing. I ordered up all the Guojing I could find and they are all wordless and lovely. Highly recommended for reading with kids who like to talk.
The Snowman, Raymond Briggs. Another wordless picture book; I recognize this one as a book John Scalzi blogged about as breaking his suspension of disbelief when the snowman flew into the sky. Fair enough. I got it from the podcast Even the Trunchbull so it was a fun case of different worlds colliding.
The Only Child, Guojing. I do not recommend this one to Scalzi; the stag flies. This was lovely and luminous and would be terrifying to read as a parent.
Doggo and Pupper Search For Cosy, Katherine Applegate. I got this because "doggo" and "pupper" are great to say, but it turns out it was a Cybils Finalist this year! Woot! Whenever I finish making my tracking post I'll be able to mark another one done. Also, I really appreciated the page on the cat's preferred sleeping place: people's feet: too hard. People's middle: too soft. People's heads: just right!
Why?, Nikolai Popov. Well kids, people are terrible and that's why we can't have nice things. We don't need words to express that!
Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:
Ascendance of a Bookworm, Miya Kazuki. Abandoning my reread of Part 3 now since the new one just dropped. I'll get back to it, don't worry!
Cobra, Timothy Zahn. I keep thinking it's done, but then there's another spurt. Into another action scene!
Hild, Nicola Griffith. Foolscap pick. Time to stop savoring and start sprinting through this.
Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes DuMez. I'm not sure Christ really believed in "hitting them first and really hard" as a philosophy.
Outskirter's Secret, Rosemary Kirstein. So many details!
Devil's Cub, Georgette Heyer. For Torches and Pitchforks club, free topic: Red Flags in Relationships. Well, he's leaving a rather large body count in his wake, what with the bandits and the dueling.
The Olympian Affair, Jim Butcher. For my Tuesday gaming book club. Smoother than his son's writing, but more predictable.
The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula Le Guin. Audio. For Scintillation book club. I remember none of the characters or the events, but the mood is very familiar.
Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir. So far I like it!
The Wine Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brien. Don't let my brother see that I haven't finished this yet.
Palate Cleansers
I'm slowly marching through these books.
50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture).
Dragon's Breath, E.D. Baker. Instant best-buddies with a dragon! Chance to see some dragon olympics!
The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture).
The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. One thing I notice reading Lathe of Heaven is how old-fashioned the gender roles are, but they are the same here. I should check the date.
The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. On to Hermione! I was actually very interested in her account of using Virginia Hamilton's magical realism stories as the myths of her Angelina at Hogworts, and how she got tripped up by what was acceptable borrowing in fanfiction, which I agree with her is a more complicated question than people assume.
Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. I'm caught up!
Reading Challenges
- Cybils 2023: Working on middle grade fiction.
- Early Cybils: Nothing.
- Reading My Library. Music CDs have been displaced by Lathe of Heaven CD.
- Looking at Tacoma's Monster challenge for this year.
Future Plans
I'm putting this at the end because it's complete fiction, but I feel I should attempt some structure. Actually, I've started listing all the bookclubs I'm in, so I hope some actually happens.I am reading:
- Book I own: Into the Broken Lands
- Library Book: Final Acts
- Ebook I own: The Wine Dark Sea
- Library Ebook: After Atlas
- Book Club Book: After Atlas
- Cloudy Book: River of Golden Bones, Last Tale of the Flower Bride
- Foolscap Book Club Book: Mr Penumbra's Bookstore
- Renton Book Club Book: Mad Honey
- Scintillation Book Club Book: Knight Moves
- Sword and Laser Club Book: Shadows of the Gods
- Torch and Pitchfork Book: Devil's Cub, Trust the Plan
- Tuesday Book Club Book: Olympian Affair, The Affair, Being Mortal
- Review Book: Back Home
- Rereading: Outskirter's Secret
- Audio: Olympian Affair
5 comments:
I was a bit surprised when I saw that Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer had new books out! Glad to hear One in a Vermillion was good.
Such a nice variety of books. I admire anyone who can manage reading so many books at the same time. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
I have not read any of these! Thank you for sharing them :)
Happy reading this week, and thank you for linking up!
Some weeks are just like that! Glad you had a nice birthday celebration for your sister. Sounds like lots of great Cybils' finalists!
Hope you're enjoying your books this week and more reading time!
Sue
Book By Book
I have not been around much in the blogging world lately, so it makes me happy to see that you've been posting the last couple months, Beth! I love hearing about your book club, and I can assure you that I've been exercising my excuses muscles more than my actual muscles too. (Do I even have actual muscles at this point, or am I just spaghetti? Food for thought.)
Anyway, it looks like you've been reading some wonderful books lately! I really love your thoughtful reviews of the Cybils finalists you looked at—the way What Happened to Rachel Riley looks at adults' platitudes and dynamics sounds really intriguing. And Simon Sort of Says sounds like a really powerful look at how the Internet just won't leave some people alone when they need it.
Thanks so much for the wonderful post, as always, Beth! Take care of yourself, and have a wonderful, peaceful week!
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