Another lovely week of summer passes by. As I rested up from the readathon (I've barely read at all this week) my niece brought back my car, frantically cleaned and smelling of lysol disinfectant (apparently she was worried that the damp of swimming clothes needed to be battled). It feels like a fake new-car smell which amuses me.
Linda and I went to see the new Fast & Furious: Hobbes and Shaw movie which was a lot of fun. Neither of us had seen any of the previous films but they didn't seem to be necessary as we leaned back and watched pretty men drive fast cars and blow bad guys up. Also the smart sister was allowed to be just as competent, which is always a relief. I may regret the extra popcorn I bought, since that night I woke up a zillion times and spent the next day wallowing about feeling awful and awash with self pity. I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday in bed, skipping the Shakespeare I had written on the calendar.
Friday I was willing to venture out and I went up to the local version of Sword and Laser where we talked about both the official pick Vessel and the substitute the locals had put in for the July read, How to Survive in a Science Fictional Universe. We decided the latter was not as clever as it thought it was, but that it would have been appreciated by our younger selves.
Saturday morning my niece drove off to college with her parents in tow, and I wandered across the street to provide moral support to my nephew. That night we decided to beef up Movie Night by going out to see the new Lion King (it's fine) and then to dinner at the pizza place where my boys work. That was fun -- Xan was our waiter and we enjoyed pestering him with our requests, and then Paulos took his break from cooking and came out with a slice of pizza to share with us. Very companionable. Then we went home and put on Karate Kid, the new one with the Smith kid and Jackie Chan .
Sunday I met up with my brother and sister-in-law to see Taming of the Shrew with it's all-female cast. They tried to shade the ending into a team-up with Kate pocketing the money from the bets, but it didn't really fly for me. But the stand-alone jokes were funny and it was fun to see.
My currently reading is back up to 23 (well, really 18 active books). A book club book, a reread, two library books (one ebook, one physical), a book for my Foolscap convention, an indulgence of an audio book, two books from my unread shelves, an audiobook for the car, the serial audiobook I get a few minutes of each week, a book from my KINDLE Mount Tsundoku, a book on my NOOK, one ancient book that I'm trying to actually finish, my five books that I'm only sorta reading and five books I'm just kidding myself that I'm reading.
The Book Date does a weekly roundup of what people are reading, want to read, or have read each week called It's Monday! What Are You Reading so I'll sign up there. There's also a version that is kidlit focussed at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers and despite my lack of reading my picture books qualify me.
Started:
Real Murders, Charlaine Harris. I pulled the TV movie A Bone to Pick from the library but then realized it was from the second book. I couldn't find the first on my shelves so I've grabbed the audio from the library.
I Am Princess X, Cherie Priest. Continuing down the list of books by the next Foolscap GoH.
The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester. My Tuesday club almost read this but veered away, but I already had it from the library so I guess I'll read it.
Nightchaser, Amanda Bouchet. The library Romance Club pick. Sadly I will be out of town the night of the actual meeting so I am sulking while I read this.
Banker, Dick Francis. I'm in the mood to reread some Francis. I picked up the wrong one, but I bet I like it anyway.
Completed:
Green and Pleasant Land, Judith Cutler. A Reading My Library Quest book. This, I think #5 or 6 in a book about two British police officers who are now married and retired and consulting. They are called into a small village to look into a woman and child who have been missing for two decades, and no one wants them to solve it, especially not the weather which bring down floods and disasters, egged on by many of the locals. Interesting and details, but I'm not going to rush out to get the rest of the series.
And nothing else! I guess after the readathon I found it hard to settle on anything.
Bookmarks Moved In:
Son of the Black Sword, Larry Correia. 55/? Baen's podcast serial. Our guy is given a few opportunities to expand himself morally. He avoids them.
Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt. Still inching along.
Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan. 2/10 discs. I enjoyed taking a break while driving my niece's car around, and now that I've got some Aurora Teagarden to listen to I barely crack open this grim story.
Book Lust, Nancy Pearl. My rule is that I pause after this book entices me to add something to my TBR list. It's organized alphabetically by topic. I'm still in the A's.
Past Tense, Lee Child. I'm enjoying Reacher being righteous and breaking bones, but the secondary plot hasn't intersected him yet and I keep drifting away during it. He'd better crash in on those guys soon.
The Emperor's Blades, Brian Staveley. It's rather unpleasantly biased against women. It's hard to tell if the author is deliberately doing this or just doesn't notice. And the experts appear to be morons. I'm very grumpy about this book.
Founding Martyr, Christian di Spigna. We've gotten through Warren's childhood, the financial struggles of his extended family, and Harvard education. He's almost ready to meet Johnny Tremaine!
One Good Dragon Deserves Another, Rachel Aaron. We've established the happy start, and now poked it with a stick!
Picture Books:
My Two Blankets, Irena Kobald. This was my favorite picture book of the week. The blankets are a metaphor for language, as the refugee child struggles to be comfortable in the new and scratchy language of her displaced home, often wanting to retreat back to the security of the known. Through friendship she learns that the new blanket can also be welcoming.
Three Balls of Wool, Henriqueta Christina. I enjoyed this story of a family that moves to a new country as refugees and manages to give something back. The explanation at the end explains the allegory in a rather grim way as soon after the story ends things go very badly for the family again.
Mommy's Khimar, Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow. Simple tale of a girl who plays dress up with her mom's head scarf.
How to Care For Your T-Rex, Ken Baker. Light romp with many illustrations of a T-rex in various pet positions that would do for a read with a dino-happy kid.
Perhaps, Guido Van Genechten. This was a fun little picture book where simple shapes are combined to make different illustrations and the text seems very impressed with itself about this.
Palate Cleansers
These books I'm barely reading; I use them as palate cleansers between books I'm actually reading.
A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George.
Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Alan Burgess. The movie is all the about the love story, which gets a few mentions here. Also the kids at the orphanage, which I think will again match up with the movie.
The Educated Child, William Bennett.
Cookie, Jacqueline Wilson. Beauty's dad is mean.
Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. I love talking about building a reading community. I need all the reading communities in my life I can get.
Reading Challenges
- Cybils 2017. Nothing.
- Cybils 2018. The picture books are waiting to go. So are poetry books.
- Reading My Library. Finished a Judith Cutler book.
- KCLS Ten to Try. I only need poetry.
