Sunday, May 10, 2026

Book Clubs Are Fun

Big news in Seattle — Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl! Also someone hit my car very gently while turning into my subdivision, which was a bit scary. Otherwise I cooked some and ran some.

thinks I am currently reading 57 books, which is higher than the truth but I’m trying to mark things as done. The library thinks I have 52 books checked out but nothing overdue.

Books Completed January 23 - 29

The Martian, Andy Weir. This was a fun reread, and it’s the sort of book that pairs well with the movie, which I also watched. It was interesting to see what worked for both kinds of art, the suspenseful pages that would have been boring on screen, of the vivid impact of movie events and explosions. Both are good entertainment. foolscap bookclub was pleased.

Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea, Ashley Herring Blake. I liked the exploration of the girls feelings as things change and she encounters kindred spirits.

The Book That Wouldn't Burn, Mark Lawrence. This was fun but it had many pages. So many pages.

Invasion of the Body Squeezers, Part 1, R.L. Stine. This was not fun but I read it.

Books Started

Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea, Ashley Herring Blake. Maybe this was a Cybils nominee?

Invasion of the Body Squeezers, Part 1, R.L. Stine. Still working through this series.

A Little Too Familiar, Lish McBride. I think this was for the romance book group.

Self Love Poetry, Melody Godfred. For Torches and Pitchforks kicking off our Making Things Better year.

Bookmarks Moved

Promise the Night, Michaela MacColl

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Fanbook 7, Miya Kazuki

Gold Dust, Catherine Asaro

The Mysterious Island, Jules Verne

Flor Fights Back, Joy Michael Ellison

Fair Trade, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years, John Scalzi

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

Bookmarks Languished

I have given up on a few of these, actually.

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

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel

The Library of Borrowed Hearts, Lucy Gilmore

Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford

The Gilded Crown, Marianne Gordon

The Morgaine Chronicles, C.J. Cherry

Champion of Fate, Kendare Blake

Thea and the Mischief Makers, Tracy Badua. Cybils nominee I started last year.

Blood at the Root, LaDarrion Williams

Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer

One Jump Ahead, Mark L Von Name

Ariel, Sylvia Plath. Poetry book from my shelves

Picture Books, Poems, and Short Stories

None.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. On to ventilation and heating! Apparently 61 degrees Fahrenheit is a good temperature for healthy adults.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. Mail bribe. Hopkins is hard core.

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: Shirter and Shadow
Library Book: The Gilded Crown
Friend Book Club: Devil in Winter
Foolscap Book Club Book: Penric’s Demon
Sword and Laser Club Book: Slow Gods
Hugo Reading: The Raven Scholar
Talbot Hill School: The War I Finally Won
Scintillation Book Club: Half-Built Garden
Cloudy Book Club: The Ones We’re Meant to Find
Torches and Pitchfork Book: Elinor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Romance Book Club: Award Winner
River Runs Under It Book Club: The Demon of Unrest

Monday, May 4, 2026

Any Resolutions?

This was a lovely week for bookclubs. We spent the weekend at Seaside, where one member has moved, and watched our traditional movie: Bullet Train in honor of the host’s trip to Japan. She agreed that it was a near identical depiction of their holiday. Her husband made us delicious omelets, my sister and I enjoyed listening to Venetia and Silver Borne on the drive, and it was all a great time.

Then I came home and got my new crown put in, which wasn’t as much fun. But I also enjoyed several more book clubs, including the library club’s reading of Orbital, which was an adventurous leap for many of them.

thinks I am currently reading 64 books, which is higher than the truth but I’m trying to mark things as done. The library thinks I have 50 books checked out. One is overdue, but I’m almost done. Also, I found the lost book in my car, so that was a relief!

Books Completed January 16 - 23

Ghosted, Amanda Quain. I spent too much time trying to see how this matched with Northhanger Abbey, which the jacket promised me it was a rewriting of. If it had just been a cute high school story of a dysfunctional family and a first love it would have been fine, but the distraction of trying to see the parallels pulled it down.

Venetia, Georgette Heyer. The audience version was nice, but we noticed the deletions in this abridged version; sometimes they made the scenes rather nonsensical. I now see there is a complete version in the library so maybe I’ll grab that next road trip.

Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, R.L. Stine. Goosebumps book. Grump. The kids were annoying and dumb, the dad was a complete idiot, the dangerous snow was so goofy I could even be mildly alarmed. Not my favorite.

Education For Empire, Clif Stratton. Well, this was depressing. Colonialism involves a lot of racism and murder, but doing it to kids is grim reading.

Danger on Peaks: Poems, Gary Snyder. I liked these sparse poems, especially the ones about the mountains.

The Lotteries Plus One, Emma Donahue. Cosy story about a queer blended family in a big house and how they make room from a cranky grandfather.

Silver Borne, Patricia Briggs. A delicious reread. I liked watching Mercy spin deception by telling the truth very carefully.

I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, Jason Parkin. This was a bit long for what it did, and it was a bit too proud of what it thought it was doing with all the internet craziness stuff. The ending was a bit of a letdown.

Books Started

Silver Borne, Patricia Briggs. Because she’s always worth rereading.

The Lotteries Plus One, Emma Donahue. Kidlit that looks cosy.

Flor Fights Back, Joy Michael Ellison. A Girls Survive book.

Promise the Night, Michaela MacColl. Kidlit about Beryl Markham, the aviator.

I’m Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom, Jason Parkin. Sword & Laser pick.

Ariel, Sylvia Plath. Poetry book from my shelves.

Bookmarks Moved

Thea and the Mischief Makers, Tracy Badua. Cybils nominee I started last year.

The Martian, Andy Weir

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson

Gold Dust, Catherine Asaro

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Fanbook 7, Miya Kazuki

Blood at the Root, LaDarrion Williams

The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer

The Mysterious Island, Jules Verne

One Jump Ahead, Mark L Von Name

Bookmarks Languished

I have given up on a few of these, actually.

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

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

The Book That Wouldnt Burn, Mark Lawrence

The Gilded Crown, Marianne Gordon

The Morgaine Chronicles, C.J. Cherry

Fair Trade, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Champion of Fate, Kendare Blake

Picture Books, Poems, and Short Stories

Help Me Find My Hamster, Brook Hartman. Hilarious.

Wanda Hears the Stars, Amy S. Hansen. It’s cool how this scientist works with her strengths to make new discoveries, and how she handled her blindness.

Dream For the Land, Laeka Zea Kemp. A girl on a small farm doesn’t like big farms. It’s pretty but I’m not seeing how plowing up desert to make a small farm is a huge win environmentally over big farms.

I Am the Subway, Kim Hyo-eun. I read this imagining my train-loving son of twenty five years ago sitting next to me. He would have loved it.

Return to the Most Beautiful Village in the World, Yutaka Kobayashi. I was not prepared for this. Neither was the kid.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. On to ventilation and heating! Apparently 61 degrees Fahrenheit is a good temperature for healthy adults.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. Mail bribe. Hopkins is hard core.

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.