I spent a lot of the week leaning into being worried about the biopsy of the growth near my eyelid until finally I got tired of it and just went on with my life. Since I’m so far behind, I can say that the procedure was fine and everything was benign, and what I should have worried about was the severe eye pain probably caused by a dry spot, and then the fall on my face, both of which were much more traumatic. Past me, what a waste of moping! You will soon have real things to mope about!

Goodreads thinks I am currently reading 70 books, but I’ve finished a bunch of those so I think I’m not really trending upward. The library thinks I have 42 physical books checked out but I’ve lost one so that shouldn’t count. My household rule is that you can check out up to you age number of books, so I’m legal again!

Books Completed Sept 12 - Sept 18

Catfishing on Catnet, Naomi Kratzer. A fun reread, and we all enjoyed it. I had more sympathy for the adults this time around.

The Last Wizard’s Ball, Charlaine Harris. I really like her characters, even when that means they do things that emotionally realistic and narratively sad. I also like how different and yet consistent the characters seem from different points of view. This book was all in Lizbeth’s, but others have been in her sisters and it’s very well done.

Every Heart a Doorway, Seanan McGuire. Foolscap book for Back To School month. Funnily, this is the least academic school story ever; I don’t think there are any classes, just therapy. Admittedly it moves fast and there are several murders, so therapy is probably more useful than geometry.

Aussie Next Door, Stephanie London. HEA-guaranteed romance with fun characters and setting. She gives both halves work to do on themselves to make them earn their ending. I kinds skimmed through the middle since I had read a previous one and saw what was happening since I knew where it ended, but focused in again for the character conclusions.

Daisy and the Deadly Flu (Girls Survive), Julie Gilbert. I’m not sure about these sex segregated survival books. I hadn’t realized the I Survived ones started out as all boys. Anyway, this one was extra depressing because I also recently lived through a deadly flu.

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer. This time I alternated reading and listening, and I still really enjoyed this and found the principles of reciprocity powerful. Some book club members found it repetitive, which I can see, but we all appreciated the homey touches like her life as a single mom and her struggles with the pond.

Blonde Identity, Ally Carter. For amnesia month with the Romance book club. This was fun and zippy and then I completely forgot to dial into the book club!

Claudia and the Sad Goodbye, Ann M. Martin. Babysitters Club 26. I though this did a really good job with grief and its stop and go continuity.

Pokémon Sun and Moon 4, Hidenori Kusaka. Some kids wandered around and had some Pokémon battles, and something bad is happening to the islands, maybe. This are hard for me to follow.

Books Started

Aussie Next Door, Stephanie London. I liked her other book.

Claudia and the Sad Goodbye, Ann M. Martin. Babysitters Club 26.

Pokémon Sun and Moon 4, Hidenori Kusaka. Talbot recommended.

Blonde Identity, Ally Carter. For amnesia month with the Romance book club.

Ayiti, Roxane Gay. Next book in my Renton library Quest.

Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices, Walter Dean Myers. Next poetry book.

Black Wolf of Boston, Wen Spencer. Reread before reading the new one.

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson. Time to read it.

Masterminds, Gordon Korman. Talbot Hill recommended.

The Farwalker’s Quest, John Sensel. Classic Cybils finalist.

Beowulf, J. R. R. Tolkien. Scintillation book club.

Grendel’s Guide to Love and War, A.E. Kaplan. Matching Scintillation pick.

Catfishing on Catnet, Naomi Kratzer. Friday book club pick.

Bookmarks Moved

Track Changes, Abigail Nussbaum

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

Endling: The First, Katherine Applegate

This Tender Land, William Kent Kruger

Read Dangerously, Azar Nifisi

Hearts Still Beating, Brooke Archer

Heavenly Tyrants, Xiran Jay Zhao

An Exchange of Hostages, Susan R. Matthews

Bookmarks Languished

I have not given up on these! Ignore all evidence!

Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann

True Colors, Abby Cooper.

South Riding, Winifred Holtby

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

Calypso, Oliver K Langmead

The Hunger and the Dusk, G. Willow Wilson

Speculative Whiteness, Jordan S. Carroll

Bourne Supremacy, Robert Ludlum

Death in the Spires, K.J. Charles

So Let Them Burn, Kamilah Cole

Coyote Dreams, C.E. Murphy

A, B, C: Three Short Novels, Samuel Delany

I’m Nobody, Who Are You?, Emily Dickinson

Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford

One Jump Ahead, Mark L Von Name

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

Picture Books, Poems, and Short Stories

The Concrete Garden, Bob Graham. A very cosy story, recommended by the podcast Even The Trunchbull. We watch a neighborhood of kids draw in chalk on their complex’s basketball court, with lots of small details in the illustrations to add to the simple text. The adults are inspired but the kids just go on to the next thing. It’s set during the pandemic, or at least during a time of masking, but the kids are too small to worry about it when there’s a major crisis like a dog messing up some chalk flowers by weeping in them.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Currently learning laundry details.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. Mail bribe. More dull Arnold stuff.

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. Mail bribe.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe.

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe.

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. I like that I remember these books.