Atmospheric River

Wow, the “atmospheric river”, a meteorological term for “it’s been raining a lot” has caused a lot of flooding in my state. They had to close our library, famously built over the river, because the shaking as giant trees slammed into the supports was uncomfortable. It’s a lot of excitement for our town!

Also my sister got a promotion, so we celebrated, and book clubs had their end of year festivities, and we through out a few Christmas decorations.

Goodreads thinks I am currently reading 55 books. Downward progress! The library thinks I have 58 books checked. 6 are overdue, four of them completed and one, um, is missing. Next week another batch comes due. The reckoning is at hand! In related news, I haven’t finished any book club books.

Books Completed December 10 - 16

Rosie and the Race Towards Freedom: An Underground Railroad Graphic Novel, Dolores Andral. Does what it says on the tin — I appreciated the overview of the Underground Railroad but the history was the focus, not characterization.

Mary and the Trail of Tears: A Cherokee Removal Survival Story, Andrea L. Rogers. This was strong on history but light on character. So I learned stuff but wasn’t attached in a literary sense. 

Sherlock Society, James Ponti. Bookclub approved of this one. It had interesting kids with a good balance of pacing, quirkiness, and believability. We’ll probably look out for the sequel.

The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer. I really enjoyed these essays on a community approach to environmentalism and property. Also I was happy to find the library book before I had to pay for it.

Tacoma Narrows, Perry Mitchell. These were strong poems but not really to my taste.

Careful What You Wish For, R. L. Stine. I liked the creepiness of the McGuffin but found the stupidity of the main character tiresome. Like, at least vary the mistake you are going to make three times? The final twist at the end was maybe a happy ending for her.

Open a Channel, Nana Visitor. This dug a lot deeper than I expected. It was about the world and the women in it, and Visitor did a great job chronicling how the women changed and were changed by the world creating the StarvTrek franchise.

Claudia In the Storm: A Hurricane Katrina Survival Story, Denise Walter McConduit. A strong entry in the Girls Survive series, although characterization still takes a back seat to history. But we did get a sense of events from a kids perspective.

Arabella of Venus, David Levine. I enjoyed the audio, although the period stuff started to wear a little thin. Now I need to get to the third one while I still remember the plot of the second. The vibes stick in my memory but I’m too old to retain details.

Books Started

Education For Empire, Clif Stratton. I think this was my son’s textbook.

Rosie and the Race Towards Freedom: An Underground Railroad Graphic Novel, Dolores Andral. A Girls Survive book.

Mary and the Trail of Tears: A Cherokee Removal Survival Story, Andrea L. Rogers. A Girls Survive book.

Claudia In the Storm: A Hurricane Katrina Survival Story, Denise Walter McConduit. A Girls Survive book. 

Open a Channel, Nana Visitor. A look at the women of Star Trek, their experiences and the changing world they acted in.

The Sailor Cipher, Trudi Trueit. I like this series.

Ghosted, Amanda Quain. I think this is a retelling of Northanger Abbey.

Anne Fights for Freedom: an Underground Railroad Survival Story, Nikki Shannon Smith. A Girls Survive book.

Bookmarks Moved

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Fanbook 7, Miya Kazuki

Gold Dust, Catherine Asaro

One Jump Ahead, Mark L Von Name

Coyote Dreams, C.E. Murphy

Bluebird, Ciel Pierrot

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

The Maid and the Crocodile, Jordan Ifueko

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell 

Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer

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

Blood at the Root, LaDarrion Williams

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                       

                                 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   

            Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

            The Library of Borrowed Hearts, Lucy Gilmore

         3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years, John Scalzi

Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford

This Is Our Rainbow, Katherine Locke

Picture Books, Poems, and Short Stories

None.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Ironing as meditative practice.

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. Good chapters about things to do after and while reading the books.

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: She Rides Shotgun
• Friend Book Club: Lasagna Means I Love You
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  The Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
• Sword and Laser Club Book: Someplace  to be Flying
• Talbot Hill School:  Graphic Novels and poetry
• Scintillation Book Club: The Enchanted April
• Cloudy Book Club:  Love in Color
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  Self Love Poetry
• Romance Book Club: Art of Love
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The God of the Woods

Run For Your Life

    

I ran a 5k! I entered the Renton Candy Cane 5k and this time I jogged the whole way! This is a huge milestone for me and I was very excited about it.

My son had volunteered to run with me but picked up an emergency shirt at work at the last minute and my niece kindly stepped into his place. She had just done a half marathon so I guess it was a doodle for her. She accidentally set me a very fast pace (fast for me) but luckily I noticed and slowed down to make it the whole way. I will treasure the commemorative sweatshirt. I mean, I have the sweatshirts from many previous years, but usually I walk a lot if it.

Goodreads thinks I am currently reading 56 books. That is still under my age so I take it as a win. The library thinks I have 61 books checked. Sadly 7 of the unread ones are due in the next three days.

Books Completed December 4 - 10

Kristy and the Snobs, Ann Martin. I do prefer the originals to the graphics, because Martin is doing a lot with emotional growth and kids perception of adults while still keeping to a comfortable pattern for a long series. I’ve also started watching the Netflix show, and it was interesting to see the differences; in the TV show her mom is also intimidated.

How I Got My Shrunken Head, R.L. Stine. A goofball kid who takes a long time to grasp where and from whom shrunken heads come from learns some things the hard way. I feel very lucky that my kids were nicer to each other and that my internal monologue was not so contemptuous of my siblings even when we were bickering.

Eagle Drums, Nasugraq Rainey Hobson. I liked this retelling of an American Indian myth, although I’m writing this so late I can’t remember which tribe or even how much Hobson invented. But the tone and the hero were compelling.

Isla to Island, Alexis Castellanos. This is a graphic novel telling the story of one of the kids evacuated from Cuba to America when things went bad. The kids were allowed in before their parents and were fostered with volunteers. It’s almost wordless, told with images and color, especially after the girl arrives in America and can’t speak English. The reader is also left without language for many pages.

The Latchkey Twins: Case No. 46: The Twins Solve a Murder, Kelly Nugent. A friend lent me this, and it was amazing. Nugent has recreated the feel of old kid adventure series books (think Enid Blyton) with deftly handled dips into real humanity or lampshading a common trope, like leaving bikes behind when chasing clues (they go through a lot of bikes), or how parents who are absent enough to enable the adventures might also be emotionally unavailable for their kids.

Charlotte Spies For Justice, Nikki Shannon Smith. This was one of my favorites of the Girls Survive series. It puts a kid near an interesting historical place but doesn’t make her too modern or too much smarter than all the adults who defer to her. Instead we see spymasters at work and Charlotte doing some things that kids could realistically be doing. 

Barracoon, Zara Neale Hurston. This was fascinating on several levels. First there was the story of one of the last people brought to an America as a slave, told to Hurston and transcribed by her. He remembered his childhood and youth in Africa, the march to the coast to be sold by a rival nation, d his years in America afterward. They were a smuggled cargo brought in not long before the Civil War; most of his time in America was as a free Black in the south. But also there was the story of Hurston and her relationship with the text and the program that sponsored it, which was also a rich vein of discussion. And then we had cookies because it was the holiday meeting (the meeting was the next week, but I’m writing this well into 2026 so no sense quibbling).

Tom Lake, Ann Patchett. Another lovely read. It was very slow, being the story of a mom and her adult daughters hanging out at the family orchard during the pandemic and the mom telling the story of the guy she dated before their dad who later became a famous actor. I never regret reading Patchett.

Karen’s Brothers, Ann M. Martin. This a a Babysitters Little Sister book, and although I appreciate how kind the blended family is to each other I find Karen’s second grade boyfriends/husbands very bizarre, and her mercurial swings between abusing all males and honoring them a bit disturbing.

The Pursuit of… , Courtney Milan. A novella that I think is technically part of a series I like but also one of a series from different authors set in American history. I really liked the two guys, and I was amazed that Milan managed to pull off a believable HEA for them. 

Annie and the Unsinkable Ship, Amy Rubinate. The characters did not seem of their time, and the ease with which a third class kid becomes dog watcher of the rich seemed unlikely, but here’s a Girls Survibe Titanic graphic novel!

Puck and Prejudice, Lia Riley. This was a fun call back to its namesake, with a determined willingness to let her have it all. Jane Austin makes a brief appearance at the start, which is fun, then returns as a slightly bigger character which is kind of annoying, but except for that I had fun in this hockey/regency crossover.

I Survived the Wellington Avalanche, 1910, Lauren Tarshis. Hey, this isn’t that far from me and I never heard about it! I like how Tarshis has her characters living a life that the catastrophe they have to survive interrupts, instead of just dropping kids into the event so they can show us around history. This kid was a real Oliver Twist type.

Jessi Ramsey, Pet-Sitter, A Graphic Novel, Ann M Martin & Ellen T. Crenshaw. Jessi is awesome, cute animals are fun to draw, so this was a winner.

Audrey and the Big Top, Jessica Gunderson. Does what it says on the tin. I didn’t like the prophecy though. 

Books Started

Charlotte Spies For Justice, Nikki Shannon Smith. A Girls Survive story set in the Civil War.

Eagle Drums, Nasugraq Rainey Hobson. I can’t remember why this was on my For Later shelf,

Isla to Island, Alexis Castellanos. Another book from my For Later library list.

The Latchkey Twins: Case No. 46: The Twins Solve a Murder, Kelly Nugent. This is a fun take on old fashioned serial stories for kids.

Barracoon, Zara Neale Hurston. River Runs Under It pick.

Puck and Prejudice, Lia Riley.

I Survived the Wellington Avalanche, 1910, Lauren Tarshis. I’ve never heard of this disaster.

Karen’s Brothers, Ann M. Martin. Babysitter Little Sister book.

Annie and the Unsinkable Ship, Amy Rubinate. Girls Survive graphic novel.

Jessi Ramsey, Pet-Sitter, A Graphic Novel, Ann M Martin & Ellen T. Crenshaw. This came out after I started reading through the list, so it feels special.

Sherlock Society, James Ponti. Friday book club pick.

Audrey and the Big Top, Jessica Gunderson. A Girls Survive book.

Careful What You Wish For, R. L. Stine. I’ve been challenged to read all the Goosebumps books.

Bookmarks Moved

Tacoma Narrows, Perry Mitchell. 

The Maid and the Crocodile, Jordan Ifueko

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Fanbook 7, Miya Kazuki

Gold Dust, Catherine Asaro

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

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell 

Arabella of Venus, David Levine

Coyote Dreams, C.E. Murphy

Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford

This Is Our Rainbow, Katherine Locke

Bluebird, Ciel Pierrot

One Jump Ahead, Mark L Von Name

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                       

                              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   

         Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

         The Library of Borrowed Hearts, Lucy Gilmore

      3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years, John Scalzi

   The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer. I seem to have misplaced this.

Blood at the Root, LaDarrion Williams.

Picture Books, Poems, and Short Stories

Little Red and the Big Bad Editor, Rebecca Kraft Rector. The wolf is defeated (or is it?) by its grammarian nature and some cunningly preferred sweets, I do love a picture book about writing and want that pokes at grammar nerds is especially tasty.

The Most Boring Book Ever, Brandon Sanderson. The illustrations are by Kazu Kabuishi, who did the Amulet series, and the whole book is a text vs illustrations masterpiece. A kid sits in a chair, until he gets up from the chair, but the text doesn’t mention the dragons, the falling, or any other bit that the illustrations are excitedly showing. Lots of fun.

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. Good chapters about things to do after and while reading the books.

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: A Pho Love Story
• Friend Book Club: Lasagna Means I Love You
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  The Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
• Sword and Laser Club Book: Someplace  to be Flying
• Talbot Hill School:  Picture books and adventure stories
• Scintillation Book Club: The Enchanted April
• Cloudy Book Club:  Love in Color
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  Self Love Poetry
• Romance Book Club: Art of Love
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The God of the Woods

You Can Now Say Merry Christmas

   

Most of the week after Thanksgiving was spent wallowing in self-pity about having to limit my carbs. I made my traditional tetrazzini after a few days of leftovers, but could only eat a reasonable amount at a time. The Thanksgiving holiday is not about, reasonable amounts! I also had to watch the family chow down on appropriately gluttonous amounts of leftovers while I used a tiny plate to have my morsels. Thank goodness for my liverwurst pate, which was low carb if not what I would describe as “healthy.”

I did keep up my running and my book clubs, in between all the moping.

Goodreads thinks I am currently reading 53 books. Such progress! The library thinks I have 69 books checked out. I feel like I’m being so restrained and yet that number keeps creeping up. Maybe I better check the definition of restraint again.

Books Completed November 28 - December 4

Moon Of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice. For Torches and Pitchforks. This was an interesting apocalypse book, set on a reservation in Canada where the power goes out and supplies stop coming.at first it seems like a local problem, but as supplies also stop coming the community gradually realizes something has happened. People react differently, and the question of how to handle refugees becomes important. We all liked it although finding out there was a sequel led me to realize I had misunderstood some parts.

Claudia and Mean Janine Graphic Novel, Ann Martin & Raina Telgemeier. I agree it’s a better start for Claudia’s book in the series. The hospital scenes give the artist some good scenery to work with.

The Frozen Menace, Ursula Vernon. I missed this one! I liked how Danny’s friends rallied to help him. And how the author manages to make his parents completely useless without becoming baddies.

Silver Lady, Mary Jo Putney. Another magical regency romance, with a loving found family and earnest lovers and cool horses and smuggling on the beach.

Bailey and the Blaze, Delores Andrul. A Girls Survive graphic novel about the burning of Atlanta in the American Civil War that somehow forgets to mention slavery.

Stitch in Snow, Anne McCaffrey. I loved revisiting this for the snowed in topic at Romance Book Club. It’s definitely got some dated elements (modern authors wouldn’t use “rape” to describe consensual sex used to avoid thinking) but the knitting stuff, the swimming pool, and the kids book author stuff a

Was all as much fun as I remembered. As was the travel systems, where airlines work to keep passengers happy.

Moonstruck Vol 1, Grace Ellis. This is a love letter to queer baristas everywhere, but it was a meh read for me. I found the centaur confusing visually and didn’t get why the werewolf main character was so worried about being “normal” when as far as I could tell humans were a fairly small minority, at least on these pages. I wasn’t sure why she considered them the standard.

Wildfire, Breena Bard. This came off as a little preachy to me, but it still worked as a story. The protagonist is not happy about her house burning down and her family having to relocate to a city, and when the boy who carelessly started the fire turns up in her neighborhood she has understandably negative feelings. Her journey is interestingly complex even as we learn a lot about systemic problems affecting disasters as well as individual mistakes, trauma and activism, and goat pen requirements.

Poor Mallory, Ann Martin. I admit my favorite part was the passel of kids working on ways to raise money while their dad is between jobs after being layed off. Mallory babysitting bratty rich kids was fine and gave her a chance to struggle with envy, but her younger sister’s beauty consultant gig was even more entertaining.

Floating Hotel, Grace Curtis. I liked this Sword and Laser pick; seeing the passengers and crew on basically an interstellar cruise ship was fun. And I enjoyed seeing how the different viewpoints were adding up to an overall plot involving spying and counterspying and resistance to the monarchy. But I felt the end didn’t really pull all the pieces together in a satisfying way. The sum was less than the parts, but I liked the parts.

Ice Cold, Tess Gerritsen. Next book in my Renton Library quest. I’m only vaguely aware of the series dynamics, but this one separates the main duo for most of the book so I didn’t need to know much about their partnership. It was fine but I’m not seeking out more Rizzoli and Ives stuff. On to the next shelf!

This Tender Land, William Kent Kruger. I’m a month or so late for this River Runs Under It pick, but I was out of town for the meeting so no hurry. I didn’t like the magical elements, which I felt lessened the tension of the historical stuff.

All the Beauty in the World, Patrick Brinkley. I think I forgot to mention finishing this last week. It was a librarian recommended book that took a while to arrive. It’s a memoir of a few years in the life of a guy who takes a job as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of art after his brother dies, and he charts his grief as he stands around looking at art. Slowly his life moves on and after his second kid he changes jobs, but I liked how he talked about those years of learning about himself and life through a job that literally surrounded him with beauty. And a union card.

Books Started

Blood at the Root, LaDarrion Williams. Cybils finalist.

Silver Lady, Mary Jo Putney. I like her magical Regency romances.

Tom Lake, Ann Parchett. I like this author.

The Frozen Menace, Ursula Vernon. Apparently I missed the last one.

Bailey and the Blaze, Delores Andrul. A Girls Survive graphic novel.

Stitch in Snow, Anne McCaffrey. Romance club is doing snowed-in stories.

This Is Our Rainbow, Katherine Locke. Short stories about queer kids.

Kristy and the Snobs, Ann Martin. More babysitter’s club. 

Moonstruck Vol 1, Grace Ellis. A graphic novel.

Tacoma Narrows, Perry Mitchell. Poetry book.

Wildfire, Breena Bard. Exciting looking middle grade graphic novel.

Poor Mallory, Ann Martin. Hey, the library has even more Babysitter’s Club as ebooks.

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

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

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell 

Arabella of Venus, David Levine

Coyote Dreams, C.E. Murphy

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

The Maid and the Crocodile, Jordan Ifueko. I started this back when I was reading all the Hugo finalists.

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                       

                           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

      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

The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer. I seem to have misplaced this.

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. Good chapters about things to do after and while reading the books.

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: Set On You
• Friend Book Club: Lasagna Means I Love You
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  The Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping
• Sword and Laser Club Book: Someplace  to be Flying
• Scintillation Book Club: Kiss Myself Goodbye
• Cloudy Book Club:  Love in Color
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  Self Love Poetry
• Romance Book Club: Art of Love
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The God of the Woods