Super Bad Timing

  

So, last year, on Friday before Thanksgiving, I had my meeting with a dietician to discuss my pre-diabetic blood sugar readings. Wow, what bad timing. Apparently it’s not just a matter of the right fractions on a plate but a need to maintain a low total of carbs per meal. Even if that meal is Thanksgiving dinner.

Two bookclubs in the weekend cheered me up a bit, and I managed to make the sides assigned to me (pinwheels, pumpkin pie, and a last minute liverwurst thing that appears to have no carbs). And on Thanksgiving itself my family supported me by never passing the rolls and stealing all the pie.

Goodreads thinks I am currently reading 61 books. That’s creeping back down. The library thinks I have 65 books checked out, which is way too many and many of them are approaching their due dates. But, a few more are picture books so I’ll finish them on time. 

Books Completed November 21 - 27

Semiotics, Sue Burke. This was full of cool ideas, with a band of idealists trying to colonize a new planet and their struggles to survive over generations as technology fails and their understanding of the environment evolves. The human relationships are complex and often difficult, although we don’t spend much time with anyone as the book moves over five or so generations. The relationships across species introduce questions about what it means to be a person, to be exploited, to be intelligent. The conversation with book club went over literary, intellectual and scientific questions and was really engaging.

Diary of an 8 Bit Warrior: Shadow Over Aetheria, Cube Kid. Yeah, this is aimed squarely at the early reader market and missed me by a mile. Starting with book 8 didn’t help. Some jokes went under my feet and others over my head because of my limited Minecraft nous.

I’m Nobody, Who Are You?, Emily Dickinson. I like how some poems are moments in nature, some are facets of humanity, and some are ice cold understandings of death.

Please Pay Attention, Jamie Sumner. Eh, I hadn’t realized this was a free verse book. It mostly read like a lot of hitting return on the typewriter. But I like seeing the world from a wheelchair view.

Framed in Death, J.D. Robb. Bad guy was bad, Eve is good, torture scenes not super graphic. So a fun one.

Sarah Journeys West, Nikki Shannon Smith. I liked this one. It’s an African American’s family view of the Oregon trail, which is an angle I haven’t seen. The kid is still ahistorical and I found it annoying how often she was right and her family was wrong and how well they ok that, but there were lots of factual details which are the strengths of this series so the ungrounded characters didn’t ruin things for me.

What Feasts At Night, T. Kingfisher. On this reread I noticed how much I like the relationship with the batman and how much horror I had managed to forget. The dream horse stuff will hopefully disappear from my nightmares again.

The Farwalker’s Quest, John Sensel. A really cool Cybils fantasy from 2008. I like these kids books that don’t stop to explain the child’s emotional state and problems, instead focusing on action that lets me see that stuff for myself. There was real risk and trauma, which was a problem for squeamish adult me but should be fine for kids.

Books Started

How I Got My Shrunken Head, R.L. Stine. Goosebumps book.

Sarah Journeys West, Nikki Shannon Smith. A Girls Survive book.

Diary of an 8 Bit Warrior: Shadow Over Aetheria, Cube Kid. A MineCraft book.

Alex Wise Vs the Cosmic Shift, Terry J Benton-Walker. Sequel.

Please Pay Attention, Jamie Sumner. Grabbed on sight while library sampling.

The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer. Wanted more from this author.

What Feasts At Night, T. Kingfisher. Reread for Cloudy book club.

Moon Of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice. For Torches and Pitchforks.

Claudia and Mean Janine Graphic Novel, Ann Martin & Raina Telgemeier. Comparing to the text one.

Bookmarks Moved

The Pursuit of… , Courtney Milan

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Fanbook 7, Miya Kazuki

Gold Dust, Catherine Asaro

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

Ice Cold, Tess Gerritsen.

All the Beauty in the World, Patrick Brinkley

This Tender Land, William Kent Kruger

Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer

Arabella of Venus, David Levine

Floating Hotel, Grace Curtis

Bookmarks Languished

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

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                 True Colors, Abby Cooper

                                                                                                           South Riding, Winifred Holtby                     

                                                   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                        

                                 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell 

                        Read Dangerously, Azar Nifisi

               The Last Witchfinder, James K. Morrow. Scintillation book club.  

         An Exchange of Hostages, Susan R. Matthews   

         So Let Them Burn, Kamilah Cole

      Hello Stranger, Lisa Kleypas

      Coyote Dreams, C.E. Murphy

   One Jump Ahead, Mark L Von Name

   Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford

   Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

   The Library of Borrowed Hearts, Lucy Gilmore

   Bluebird, Ciel Pierrot

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years, John Scalzi

Picture Books, Poems, and Short Stories

None.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Organizing one’s laundry is the current topic.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. Mail bribe. Emily Dickinson is cool.

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

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James. The ending moves back to the personal.

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. My gaming is not on this level.

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. I’m getting some good ideas for kid management. 

Books Acquired

I only notice when I’m caught up.

Future Plans

This is for the actual future, so weeks beyond the books in this post. It is also probably wrong.

I am reading: 

• Book I own: Fair Trade
• Library Book: Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea
• Friend Book Club: Ladagna Means I Love You
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  The Witch’s Guide to Innkeeping
• Sword and Laser Club Book: I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
• Scintillation Book Club: Aunt Munda
• Cloudy Book Club:  Wooing the Witch Queen
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  How to Fall in Love With Questions
• Romance Book Club: Art of Love
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The God of the Woods

Days Getting Dark

 

Hmm. Back in November my sister, my son, and I volunteered again at the CERT graduation exercise, playing very annoying victims. We always show up early to get some wounds painted on. It’s a good review of my CERT skills as well. I’m also getting back into running, with an emphasis on not falling down. And I snuck into the local school’s book fair and got some books and some book adjacent toys, mainly notebooks.

Goodreads thinks I am currently reading 67 books (I’m actually writing this on New Years Day). That’s creeping up again but I’m falling behind on marking things done so not as badly as it appears. The library thinks I have 65 books checked out, which is way too many and many of them are approaching their due dates.

Books Completed November 14 - 20

Heavenly Tyrant, Xiran Jay Zhao. This Lodestar (not a Hugo) nominee took me a few tries to get through. I couldn’t  get immersed in the protagonist’s voice, partly because I’m old and she’s definitely a very passionate teen, and partly because she kept angrily circling the same emotional paths. But I like the worldbuilding and the questions it raises. I like how revolution is messy and demands compromises as well as determination, and how decisions can be reevaluated after seeing how things are working.

North Woods, Daniel Mason. I enjoyed this biography of an apple orchard, but I felt the pieces were stronger than the sum of its parts. I didn’t like the occasional dips into ghosts and mysticism, which grew stronger at the end, leaving me with a feeling of emptiness. But it was an interesting read and the library book group had some good things to say.

Some Sunny Day, Adam Baron. Great luck with this pick from the next shelf at the Renton Highlands library. Cam was a fun kid with an interesting family and an exotic life (he’s English). I liked his intense way of dealing with the world and his loyalty to the people who make him food.

Dad Rock Dragon Quest, Joan Reardon. I liked the character development in these books, which felt necessary but not very didactic. Seeing the protagonist learn to understand her dad’s flaws as well as his good points was fun, especially when there are dragons. I kinda hope she learns to do that with her mom and the mom’s boyfriend, because they kinda seemed to be using dad’s more flamboyant flaws to get away with taking their own shortcuts. 

The Babysitters’ Summer Vacation, Ann M. Martin. Kid summer camps are always a fun fantasy for me, and now I’m enjoying seeing how different the TV show take on this is.

Rafe: A Buff Male Nanny, Rebekah Witherspoon. This felt a little odd to me, because it was half a sensitive story of two adults working out good boundaries for a loving relationship and half those same adults having very raunchy sex along the way. Witherspoon was good at both, but for me those are different reading experiences so not knowing what the page would bring me kept me on my toes.

The Gentleman’s Book of Vices, Jess Everlee. I’m glad I finished this; it was sweet.

Thirst, Mary Oliver. Very good bedtime reading. Some poems that knock the top of your head off.

Books Started

The Pursuit of… , Courtney Milan. A trusty and trusted writer of  historical romance. 

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Fanbook 7, Miya Kazuki. I’m still addicted.

Framed in Death, J. D. Robb. I’m here for another one.

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years, John Scalzi. I’m getting a kindle for Xmas (shh, don’t tell me what I got me) and it comes with Kindle Unlimited so this fell into my electronic hands).

Dad Rock Dragon Quest, Joan Reardon. Fun fantasy I saw while visiting libraries.

Rafe: A Buff Male Nanny, Rebekah Witherspoon. For Doctor month at our romance club.

The Gentleman’s Book of Vices, Jess Everlee. Huh, this was a dnf (did not finish) that I meant to get back to.

Ice Cold, Tess Gerritsen. I’m jumping into the Rizzoli & Isles series at #8, but I’ve seen at least ten minutes of the tv show so I grabbed this from the G shelf for my Renton Reading My Library Quest.

Bookmarks Moved

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson

Gold Dust, Catherine Asaro

Semiotics, Sue Burke

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

All the Beauty in the World, Patrick Brinkley

This Tender Land, William Kent Kruger

Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer

Arabella of Venus, David Levine

The Farwalker’s Quest, John Sensel

Floating Hotel, Grace Curtis

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

Bookmarks Languished

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

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                              True Colors, Abby Cooper.

                                                                                                        South Riding, Winifred Holtby                     

                                                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                        

                              The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell 

                     Read Dangerously, Azar Nifisi

            The Last Witchfinder, James K. Morrow. Scintillation book club.  

      An Exchange of Hostages, Susan R. Matthews   

      So Let Them Burn, Kamilah Cole

   Hello Stranger, Lisa Kleypas

   Coyote Dreams, C.E. Murphy

One Jump Ahead, Mark L Von Name

Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

The Library of Borrowed Hearts, Lucy Gilmore

Bluebird, Ciel Pierrot

Picture Books, Poems, and Short Stories

Iggy Peck, Architect, Andrea Beaty. This series is great it all its formats. I liked the concept, the illustrations and the rhymes.

Do You Want to Be My Friend?, Eric Carle. This book is very proud of how it is teaching all these pre reading skills, but I think it is so fun that even the parents won’t notice.

The Princess and the Pony, Kate Beaton. Ugly pony, polite Princess, and a good example of thinking outside the box. I read this a few years ago and enjoyed it again.

Still a Family: a Story About Homelessness, Breanna Reeves Sturgis. Does what it says on the tin.

SumoKitty, David Beidrzycki. Excellent life lessons from an excellent kitty.

Robobaby, David Weisner. Excellent book about the importance of older siblings when getting a new robobaby.

The World Needs More Purple People, Kristen Bell. Kinda preachy but I liked it. I think one of my kids would have resented the didacticism and the other would have only heard a suggestion to dye himself purple.

Yes You Can, Cow!, Rashmi Sirdeshpandi. Recommended by the Even the Trunchbull podcast, this was as good as I expected. I think stage families would appreciate it.

Dim Sum Palace, X. Fang. Another winner from the Even the Trunchbull podcast. It’s a bedtime story, a love story to dumplings, a cosy story, and now I’m hungry.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Organizing one’s laundry days is the current topic.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. Mail bribe. Emily Dickinson is cool.

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

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James. The ending moves back to the personal.

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. My gaming is not on this level.

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. I’m getting some good ideas for kid management. 

Books Acquired

I only notice when I’m caught up.

Future Plans

This is for the actual future, so weeks beyond the books in this post. It is also probably wrong.

I am reading: 

• Book I own: Fair Trade
• Library Book: The Memory Thieves
• Friend Book Club: Movie month!
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  The Martian
• Sword and Laser Club Book: I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom
• Scintillation Book Club: Morgaine Chronicles
• Cloudy Book Club:  Wooing the Witch Queen
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  How to Fall in Love With Questions
• Romance Book Club: Snowed in together: Stitch in Snow
• River Runs Under It Book Club: Orbital 

Funny Faces

In early November I slowly started getting back into running, with not falling my highest priority. I hiked and walked as well. The numbness on my face has receded to mostly a small part of my lip which somehow I mostly notice while driving. Not while talking or eating really, just while driving.

So I guess I make a lot of funny faces and contorting my mouth as part of my driving process? No wonder I’m such an excellent driver! 

Goodreads thinks I am currently reading 61 books (I’m actually writing this on New Years Day). That’s accurate as I worked at cleaning up the list yesterday.

Books Completed November 7 - 13

What Stalks the Deep, T. Kingfisher. A reread that I was looking forward to; I like the sworn-soldier idea and its implementation. I had managed to forget how far into horror this got; the whole sequence with the horses shedding and stuff was very vivid.

Boy-Crazy Stacey, Ann M. Martin. I liked how the kids would talk to the babysitters and how they dealt with some fears that way. The TV adaption changed that to a crush on the babysitters. Humph.

I Survived the Great Chicago Fire, 1871, Lauren Tarshis. Although the illustrations of the fire were great, I still prefer the written version because of the greater character development and period details.

Faye and the Dangerous Journey, Kim Sigafus. This one is good at period details, although once again the kid seems modern.  Good history but duller stories.

Pokémon Sun and Moon 7, Hidenori Kusaka. I am definitely losing track of the sub plots, but I’m all in on the million dollar quest and also better pharmaceuticals.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. I loved falling into this book and hanging out with the characters.

Hearts Still Beating, Brooke Archer. I’m too old for teen romance. Even with zombies. But I see why it was a Cybils finalist.

Books Started

What Stalks the Deep, T. Kingfisher. Cloudy pick.

Floating Hotel, Grace Curtis. Sword and Laser pick.

Faye and the Dangerous Journey, Kim Sigafus. A Girl Survives book.

Thirst, Mary Oliver. Next poetry book and I’m here for it.

Gold Dust, Catherine Asaro. More about Bhaaj and her Dust Knights.

Pokémon Sun and Moon 7, Hidenori Kusaka. Gotta get the whole series!

Semiotics, Sue Burke. Scintillation book club pick.

The Babysitters’ Summer Vacation, Ann M. Martin. It’s a super special! (That means all the girls get to narrate.)

Bookmarks Moved

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson

One Jump Ahead, Mark L Von Name

Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

Arabella of Venus, David Levine

The Farwalker’s Quest, John Sensel

Some Sunny Day, Adam Baron

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

This Tender Land, William Kent Kruger

Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer

All the Beauty in the World, Patrick Brinkley.

The Library of Borrowed Hearts, Lucy Gilmore

North Woods, Daniel Mason

Bluebird, Ciel Pierrot

Heavenly Tyrants, Xiran Jay Zhao

Bookmarks Languished

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

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                           True Colors, Abby Cooper.

                                                                                                     South Riding, Winifred Holtby                     

                                             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                        

                           The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell 

                  Read Dangerously, Azar Nifisi

         The Last Witchfinder, James K. Morrow. Scintillation book club.  

   An Exchange of Hostages, Susan R. Matthews   

   So Let Them Burn, Kamilah Cole

Hello Stranger, Lisa Kleypas

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

Coyote Dreams, C.E. Murphy

Picture Books, Poems, and Short Stories

I’m Sorry You Got Mad, Kyle Lukoff. A shade too didactic, but I still enjoyed it. It’s a kid forced to rewrite an apology until it has the actual shape of an apology, with illustrations showing the context of the kid’s emotions and his relationship with the one he harmed as well as other classmates. I like it when picture books use illustrations and text separately to build a bigger story.

The Book That Kibo Wrote, Mariana Ruiz Johnson. Kind of funky illustrations but a neat idea of how a book affects different people. It’s the teacher saying of doors and windows, but shown in how each animals relates to Kibo’s book - as an exotic other world or as nostalgia or whatever.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Shopping for towels.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. Mail bribe.

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

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James. The ending moves back to the personal.

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. My gaming is not on this level.

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. I’m getting some good ideas for kid management. 

Books Acquired

I only notice when I’m caught up.

Future Plans

This is for the actual future, so weeks beyond the books in this post. It is also probably wrong.

I am reading: 

• Book I own: Fair Trade
• Library Book: Ghosted
• Friend Book Club: Movie month!
• Hugo Finalist: Reread Short Stories
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Hugo Short Stories, 
• Sword and Laser Club Book:   The Book That Wouldn’t Burn
• Scintillation Book Club: Morgaine Chronicles
• Cloudy Book Club:  The Gilded Crown
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  Canticle For Leiberwitz
• Romance Book Club: Snowed in together: Stitch in Snow
• River Runs Under It Book Club: Orbital