Library Chicken: Christmas With the Family

Hi again! At this rate I’ll be in the year 2025 before the end of January!

This was the week my brother, my sons and I drove to California, taking it easy and resting in a hotel overnight, and then spent the night with my uncle (who had just finished building a table) and my aunt (who was about to finish cooking a delicious dinner - I love tetrazzini). Then we woke up and headed over to the big house we had rented so we would have a head start wrangling with the other siblings and cousins for the best beds.

Just kidding! I had made a spreadsheet assigning all that stuff. Everyone else arrived via their preferred combination of cars and planes and we spread out. Kevin and I went out for an emergency run of supplies before the cooks told us what was needed and were viciously mocked for our choices for the rest of the holiday. There was a party at the cousins, Christmas Eve at the big house, a game from Aunt Ellen that I finagled even the second cousins into playing, Christmas Day, a few prezzies, a few axes thrown, a lovely wine bar visited, and then the exciting people went dancing and got to see new cousin Matt on the drums. I got the best aunt and her guy to drive me home early.

It was a good Christmas with family, lots of love and laughter.

Books Completed

Kwame Crashes the Underworld, Craig Kofi Farmer. Cybils nominee. This is definitely a Rick Riordan genre book, although I don’t think he’s involved at all. But it’s a good example of that; Kwame has his own problems before getting caught up in an adventure with his cultural myths made real. His companions are well chosen; his best friend is prickly and strong and brings her own skills, and the twist of having the grandmother he is grieving be their third is a great addition. The details of the Ghanaian afterlife are fresh to me, and Kwame’s mixed appreciation rings true. Also the humor really worked for me.

Soma and the Golden Beasts, Rajanni LaRocca. Cybils nominee. This one shone for its language and themes, yet still provided approachable characters and relationships. The two kids had a lot of conflict to work out, each having secrets amd agendas they were unwilling to share. I liked how the gems made the adventure more fun but also worked (for me, an adult) as symbols of the price of colonialism. And the complexity of the characters meant that things weren’t black and white and the kids had to navigate physical, emotional and moral hazards on their quest to save their grandmother. It’s a great example of layers of story that let the reader engage wherever they chose.