I Will Miss the Cool Nights When They Are Gone

I had a good, normal week. Went to the dentist, did some walks, got stuff done around the house, visited some new libraries, had some good book clubs. I’m enjoying my Murderbot rereads, and the chance to talk to people about books in general.          

I think I am now reading 60 books, according to goodreads. It’s staying stead at only 3 screens of currently reading!

Books Completed April 25 - May 1st

All Systems Red, Martha Wells. Tuesday Gaming group, prepping for the TV show. We all enjoyed this reread, although some people remarked that the first read through was better. We then checked out the trailers for the show and tried to guess on choices made, which somehow moved onto why I am not invited into any top-secret SIGNAL chats, and then to a map of 50 US states set so population is equal among them.

Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff. I liked the page by page insights and world descriptions better than the overall arc which felt a bit lopsided. The end especially was anticlimactic. I really like Huff’s series best, because she’s really good at long spearpoint stuff, and if this were the start of a trilogy or something I’d like it better. Maybe I’ll get lucky. It’s not the her stand-alone are bad, it’s that her worlds and characters are rich enough that I want more.

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. Not really my cup of tea. A lot of the humor comes from the idea that men and women are fundamentally different, and men are often jerks to women because that’s how men are, ha ha ha, and isn’t it bitchy of women to complain about it, boo. And how men aren’t really parents, and jerky women mode is often incompetent showboating, and many other tropes that are fine for a sketch but not really for a novel. It meant that I found most of the characters unlikable and didn’t care what happened to them, which is not a good thing in a book.

The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women, Jong-hee Oh (editor). I chose this from the library shelf as part of my quest to read a book from each shelf of the Renton Library. I thought it would be an interesting change of pace, and it was that. It felt very science fictional, because there were some magic realism bits and even the realistic bits had people very alien to me, house wives who saw their role as very different to anything I’ve experienced. I think I gained some appreciation of the boundaries of Korean women’s lives but few of the stories worked for me as stories. On to the next shelf!

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish. Cybils finalist from 2007. I loved the rich and demanding prose, full of great vocabulary both real and invented for the world, and appreciated the complicated situations and relationships our protagonist Rosamund faced. But I was handicapped by coming in at book two and also found him frustratingly passive, where things tended to happen to him and he’d react but he rarely had much scope to initiate things. 

A Fate Inked in Blood, Danielle L. Jensen. I didn’t like the voice of the first person narrator. I think a third person perspective would have worked better for me. Part of it is that so many books nowadays feature characters who feel garrulously guilty for things they have no control over, which conveniently leaves them no time to take responsibility for the things they actually do. So this book was a backbreaking straw for me. I did like the magic idea and the society.

I Survived the Children’s Blizzard, 1888, Lauren Tarshis. Talbot Hill book club. Very fun! A bit of history I was vague on, but stuff that Laura Ingalls dealt with so it was sorta familiar. And I liked the back matter with the research information, context for the events, and further reading.

Just Saying, Rae Armantrout. Torches and Pitchforks is doing “Apocalypse Poetry” and when I searched the library catalog it suggested this book. What I got is delightful - small twists of words that glitter in the sun, casting beams of color in all directions. Armantrout has a deft way of sliding words from one meaning to a different one, and giving the first image a richer understanding through the transition. 

Books Started

Eat a Peach, David Chang. Saw it at the library and grabbed it. Turns out it was in my TBR list!

Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Hugo finalist.

Mallory and the Trouble With Twins, Ann Martin. Gotta get them all! Just kidding. I haven’t seen any numbers higher than 30 at the libraries.

Eva Evergreen and the Cursed Witch, Julie Abe. Next shelf in Renton Highlands library for my quest.

Tales From Watership Down, Richard Adam’s. Warm up to reread Watership Down with Foolscap book club.

I Survived the Children’s Blizzard, 1888, Lauren Tarshis. Talbot Hill book club.

Artificial Condition, Martha Wells. Reread in anticipation of the TV show.

Bookmarks Moved

Alibi, Sharon Shinn

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement, Steven K. Kapp (editor)

Rissa Kerguelen, F.M Busby. Foolscap book club.

Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison. 

Tam Lin, Pamela Dean

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, David Okrent

Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.   

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

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

Threads That Bind, Kika Hatzopoulou. Cybils 

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio

Bookmarks Languished

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

 

                                                            Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler.  

                                                    Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.                                   

                                              Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

                                          Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

                                         Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

                                    Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

                             True Colors, Abby Cooper.

                     South Riding, Winifred Holtby. 

                 Saving Verakko, Victoria Avelina.

Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford

Books Acquired

From the library:

I forget,

For my shelves:

Enid Blyton compilation. Now I should see if I can send out the paperback versions.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

I Love My Bike, Simon Mole. Fun an energetic book about a little girl's first bike and how she learns to ride it with her dad. It’s as delightful as the podcast Even the Trunchbull promised.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. More kitchen stuff. I need to clean my fridge.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip having an adventure. In a bureaucratic kind of way.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture). Mail bribe.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe. Uh oh. I think I forgot all these characters from the start of the book.

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. Making reading analysis fun.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Made it to November.

Future Plans

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

I am reading: 

• Book I own: Rissa Kerguelen 
• Library Book: Saving Verakko
• Ebook I own: Alibi
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Watership Downs
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  Micky7
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  A Dark and Drowning Tide
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  Death From the Sky’s!
• River Runs Under It Book Club: Demon Copperhead
• Talbot Hill Book: Wimpy Kid and I Survived 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: A spy romance! Beauty Like the Night

Like Running A Marathon

I finished up my Austin vacation with a lovely brunch with my childhood friend, and then a nice drive back to the brunch place with her husband an hour later, since I left my iPad there. Leave ‘em wanting more, that’s my guesting motto! 

I flew home to have Easter with my brother and sister, and then several book clubs, and then celebrate the second time I gave birth. That kid doesn’t like attention so I appropriated the day so we’d have cake and all, but everyone can praise me because after all I was the one doing all the work all those years ago. His aunt cooked his favorite food, I made a cake, his brother made the frosting, and I set up some binary candle lighting to commemorate all those years.

I think I am now reading 60 books, according to goodreads. It’s trending down! Only 3 screens of currently reading!

Books Completed April 18 - April 24

Bad Guys 15: Open Wide and Say Arrrgh!

Bad Guys 18: The Bad Guys in Look Who’s Talking, Aaron Blakey. Ok, the kids in The book club were right; it would have been better not to skip ahead. There was an awful lot to deconstruct and things had gotten a lot more convoluted than I expected. Luckily #18 had a lot of call backs so I had a chance. These aren’t my favorite; the art work isn’t really to my taste, I miss color, and the sight gags are a bit too broad. Also I still have trouble telling the characters apart which is ridiculous because they are literally completely different shapes, like a wolf vs a piranha.

Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman. Sword and Laser bookclub pick. It was fun, with more depth than I expected, and a very cute cat. It just sorta ends, because it started as a web serial so isn’t really novel shaped. Not quite enough to make me go on, but if I want more like this when the mood hits me I will know where to find it.

Scary Stories For Young Foxes, Christian McKay Heidegger. Talbot Hill 5th grade pick. I liked the scary stuff and the frame story and the friendship between Uly and Mia and how they handled disability, but I didn’t like the smear on Beatrice Potter. Apparently some people are mad about casting the cosy picture book author as a taxidermist, but that wasn’t my beef. Heidegger portrayed her as an incompetent animal handler, and I don’t think there is any evidence for that at all. He was just being rude about her, probably because abuse he was giggling so much about revealing her reality as a person who was a scientist and did science stuff to study animals, which yes, includes killing them sometimes. Also, as a metaphor for writing stories, sucking out characters’ souls and leaving them for dead didn’t work for me.

Leak, Kate Reed Petty. Moving through Renton Highlands Library, I enjoyed this graphic novel about a kid whose newsletter gets more important to her when she accidentally discovers a real story about local pollution. She gets some mentorship that helps her learn from some ethical and reporteral missteps, and faces down pressure from adults and peers who don’t like what she discovers.

Logan Likes Mary Anne (Baby-sitter Club 10), Ann M. Martin. Wow, I actually liked the one with middle school romance. Boy babysitters are cool, even if they would change the tenor of the club. Good compromise kids!

The Honey Pot Plot, Jennifer Cruise & Bob Meyer. Because Cruise is so good. The plot wasn’t the big strength of this book, but so many scenes were both emotionally true and/or hilarious that I didn’t really care.

Books Started

Bad Guys 15: Open Wide and Say Arrrgh!

Bad Guys 18: The Bad Guys in Look Who’s Talking, Aaron Blakey. Years 3-4 are doing the Bad Guys series for elementary book club.

A Fate Inked in Blood, Danielle L. Jensen.Cloudy book club pick, and I can also use it for my Romance book group.

Rissa Kerguelen, F.M Busby. Foolscap book club.

All Systems Red, Martha Wells. Tuesday Gaming group, prepping for the TV show.

Bookmarks Moved

The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women, Jong-hee Oh (editor)

Tam Lin, Pamela Dean

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

Alibi, Sharon Shinn

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement, Steven K. Kapp (editor)

Just Saying, Rae Armantrout

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, David Okrent

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison. 

Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford

Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.   

Bookmarks Languished

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

 

                                                         Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler.  

                                                 Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.                                   

                                          Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

                                       Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

                                      Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

                                 Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

                          True Colors, Abby Cooper.

                  South Riding, Winifred Holtby. 

             Saving Verakko, Victoria Avelina.

    Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish

Threads That Bind, Kika Hatzopoulou. Cybils finalist.

Books Acquired

From the library:

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver. River Run Under It pick.

Moon Hits Your Eye, John Scalzi. I let my son have this one. 

For my shelves:

Nothing. 

Picture Books and Short Stories  

None.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. More kitchen stuff. I need to clean my fridge.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip having an adventure. In a bureaucratic kind of way.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. Mail bribe. Home stretch.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. Making reading analysis fun.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Made it to November.

Future Plans

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

I am reading: 

• Book I own: Rissa Kerguelen 
• Library Book: The Serpent Rider
• Ebook I own: Alibi
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Watership Downs
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  Micky7
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  Fate Inked in Blood
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  Just Saying
• River Runs Under It Book Club: Demon Copperhead
• Talbot Hill Book: Wimpy Kid and I Survived 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: A spy romance!

Beautiful Bat City

After my lovely vacation in Galveston I went off to spend a week with my childhood best friend and her family in Austin, because two vacations are twice as good as one. I lazed around her lovely house (managing to binge all episodes of Ascendance of a Bookworm on Crunchyroll), made her permit-holding son drive me to a handful of bookstores when we discovered there was a bookstore crawl going on during our expedition to get him some birthday presents, spent a morning walking around the Lastbird Johnson nature place where my friend’s wedding took place, surprised said son with a birthday party, ate delicious food both from her kitchen and from good restaurants, and in general had a great time. 

Oh, I saw the Minecraft Movie. La-la-Lava Chicken!

I think I am now reading 61 books, according to goodreads. It’s trending down!

Books Completed April 11 - April 17

Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop, Emmeline Duncan. I enjoyed the small business and small town vibes, especially her tension with her uncle and relationship with her grandfather. The book festival was delightful if improbable, and her tendency to rush out to confront people she suspects of murder stood in contrast to the coffee lady’s common sense. I’m enjoying this cost author.

Airs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart. Even though I didn’t get to see the dancing horses in France I can still enjoy this book about a vet who sees some in Austrian, her eager your traveling companion and her slightly dark husband. The train sequence was really good, but of course the best scene is the dancing in the meadow.

The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias & Lisa Lerner. Oh this was so sad. So many women working so hard to ruin other women’s lives and then wanting to be thanked for it. So many self-centered people who made their own choices, and then want to justify them by forcing all others, no matter how different their circumstances, to make the same choices. People willing to lie and cheat so that women can’t control their health. People happy to use those cruel but dedicated people in a climb for power and riches. So many really hateful people in America. The writing was clear and the book well organized, although it was a bit too proud of his excellent hind sight.

A Sorceress Comes to Call, T.K. Kingfisher. Hugo finalist. Kingfisher is excellent with character and here we get three wonderful ones plus a villain. The sister and the young girl are very sympathetic and the horse is really scary. I’m not sure it’s doing anything really new, but it’s a lot of fun.

Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn. I enjoyed the glimpse of Soviet Russia in World War II when they were fighting the Russians, when patriotism and localism existed uneasily together, where propaganda and reality never quite met. Our heroine faces a lot of extra burdens from sexist soldiers, husbands, and journalists, and then different versions of this again on her tour of America. The view of the Roosevelts was also good, and the final action sequence was a lot of fun and a reminder that this is fiction so I shouldn’t rely too much on its authenticity.

Ascendance of a Bookworm Fanbook 5, Miya Kazuki. I am here for the long interview and details of the world, and the pictures were good as I was busily binging the entire anime collection on Crunchyroll and so it was fun to see where a lot of the images came from.

Books Started

The Honey Pot Plot, Jennifer Cruise & Bob Meyer. Because Cruise is so good.

Threads That Bind, Kika Hatzopoulou. Cybils finalist.

Ascendance of a Bookworm Fanbook 5, Miya Kazuki. This is catnip to me.

I’m Nobody, Who Are You?, Emily Dickinson. Small poetry book for traveling.

Dungeon Crawler Carl, Matt Dinniman. Sword and Laser bookclub pick.

Scary Stories For Young Foxes, Christian McKay Heidegger. Talbot Hill 5th grade pick.

Tam Lin, Pamela Dean. Scintillation book pick.

Bookmarks Moved

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement, Steven K. Kapp (editor)

The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women, Jong-hee Oh (editor)

Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison. N

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, David Okrent

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish

Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

Bookmarks Languished

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

 

                                                      Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

                                                      Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.          

                                              Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.                                   

                                       Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

                                    Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

                                   Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

                              Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

                       True Colors, Abby Cooper.

               South Riding, Winifred Holtby. Scintillation book club. I did not finish in time.

          Saving Verakko, Victoria Avelina. I won’t finish this in time for the Romance bookclub. 

   Logan Likes Mary Anne (Baby-sitter Club 10), Ann M. Martin.

Just Saying, Rae Armantrout

Leak, Kate Reed Petty

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

Books Acquired

From the library:

Nothing! I was on vacation.

For my shelves:

Well. Maybe I found a few things while supporting local bookstores…

Picture Books and Short Stories  

None.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. More kitchen stuff. I need to clean my fridge.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip having an adventure.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. Mail bribe. Home stretch.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. Making reading analysis fun.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Made it to November.

Future Plans

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

I am reading: 

• Book I own: Into the Broken Lands
• Library Book: The Future of Silence
• Ebook I own: Alibi
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Watership Downs
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  Micky7
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  Fate Inked in Blood
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  Just Saying
• River Runs Under It Book Club: Demon Copperhead
• Talbot Hill Book: Wimpy Kid and I Survived 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: A spy romance!

My Brothers and My Sisters and Me

What a lovely vacation! I spent a week in a big house with my brothers and sisters (some were in-laws) in Galveston Texas, where we explored museums and rode on ships and boats, saw dolphins and pelicans and other birds, including some baby pigeons and their parents who were nesting on my balcony. We ate good food, drank good booze, and generally had a lovely time. And at the end, as they all went home, I went to Austin to have another week of vacation with a dear friend and her family.

I think I am now reading 62 books, according to goodreads. I got some reading done!

Books Completed April 4 - April 10

The City Beyond the Sea (Greenwild 2), Pari Thomson. Some good twists and a good feeling as everything comes together in the end.

Lore of the Wilds, Analeigh Sbrana. Cloudy book pick. I got very frustrated with the main character for little and big things. She was very self-centered and seemed unable to understand that other people had their own inferiority. Also she got upset when someone asked her not to use his family nickname (after he introduced himself using his preferred nickname). And then she kept getting distracted by lust at really odd times. So I’m sure it works for other people but not for stodgy old me.

Very Nice Funerals, Jennifer Cruise & Bob Meyer. Sorta for Friday book club. Lots of laughter out loud moments even though I find the basic premise increasingly far-fetched.

The Caphelon, Fletcher DeLancey. Fun space-opera book although most of the time was spent on a planet after the spaceship crashed. Lots of warrior code bonding, true love, political maneuvering tat offends said warriors, a bit of death, a good mixture. I might continue on with this series. 

Books Started

The Future of Silence: Fiction by Korean Women, Jong-hee Oh (editor). Next shelf for my Renton library quest.

Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop, Emmeline Duncan. Another series by the coffee shop murder lady.

Bookmarks Moved

Airs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement, Steven K. Kapp (editor)

Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn 

The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias & Lisa Lerner

Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

Just Saying, Rae Armantrout

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, David Okrent

A Sorceress Comes to Call, T.K. Kingfisher

Leak, Kate Reed Petty

Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison. I love this author.

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

Bookmarks Languished

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

 

                                                   Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

                                                   Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.          

                                           Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.                                   

                                    Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

                                 Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

                                Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

                           Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

                    True Colors, Abby Cooper.

            South Riding, Winifred Holtby. Scintillation book club. I did not finish in time.

       Saving Verakko, Victoria Avelina. I won’t finish this in time for the Romance bookclub. 

Logan Likes Mary Anne (Baby-sitter Club 10), Ann M. Martin.

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

Books Acquired

From the library:

Nothing! I was on vacation.

For my shelves:

Well. There was a bookstore, so I bought The Mountain In the Sea.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

None.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. More kitchen stuff. How often do you wash your can opener?

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip having an adventure.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. Mail bribe. Home stretch.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. Making reading analysis fun.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Made it to November.

Future Plans

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

I am reading: 

• Book I own: Into the Broken Lands
• Library Book: The Future of Silence
• Ebook I own: Alibi
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Rissa
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  done!
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  Fate Inked in Blood
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  Just Saying
• River Runs Under It Book Club: Demon Copperhead
• Talbot Hill Book: Wimpy Kid and I Survived 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: Mythology based romance

Vroom! Vroom! Driving in My (Brother’s) Car

So, when I was a kid my family moved from New York to Texas. And we’d drive to visit family in Georgia, a one day drive. Or to visit the family in New York (another day). And when my parents divorced, my dad moved back to Georgia but drove back for visits. What I’m saying is that we consider 500 miles/day to be a leisurely holiday pace.

So when my niece needed to move from San Francisco to the East Coast I volunteered to haul her stuff to Utah, where she and her dad could later drive the rest of the way. And my local brother let me use his car, which is bigger than mine. Vroom! So, after my Sunday book club I headed down I5, got to San Francisco, rode around in a WayMo, had dinner with my cousin-once-removed Bill, then met up with my niece and all her stuff and drive to Utah where I rested for a day before driving home. 

I think I am now reading 65 books, according to goodreads. Maybe I’ll get some reading done in April, which has a lot of vacations baked in.

Books Completed March 28-April 4

What Makes This Book So Great?, Jo Walton. These were great essays for looking at how a book does the great things it does, why and how people read, and how that reading changes based on who you are and what else you’ve read and done.

The Rook, Daniel O’Malley. (Audio) This Sword and Laser pick from ages ago that started slow so I didn’t finish it the first time I started and then didn’t look out for extra time to listen when I acquired the audio. But then it suddenly become very gripping as I was driving though California and Nevada and my niece who had missed the first bit was also at the edge of her seat. I do intend to pick up the next.

Books Started

A Sorceress Comes to Call, T.K. Kingfisher. Library loot.

Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison. I love this author.

Leak, Kate Reed Petty. Next Renton Highlands Library’s Quest book.

Just Saying, Rae Armontrout.  My next poetry book, chosen because I need an apocalypse poetry book.

Bookmarks Moved

The Caphelon, Fletcher DeLancey. 

Airs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart. 

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement, Steven K. Kapp. .

Lore of the Wilds, Analeigh Sbrana. Cloudy book pick.

Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn. River Runs Under It bookclub pick.

Logan Likes Mary Anne (Baby-sitter Club 10), Ann M. Martin.

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, David Okrent.

Very Nice Funerals, Jennifer Cruise & Bob Meyer. Sorta for Friday book club.

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias & Lisa Lerner. Torches & Pitchforks book club pick

The City Beyond the Sea (Greenwild 2), Pari Thomson. Kidlit fantasy.

.

Bookmarks Languished

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

 

                                                Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

                                                Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.          

                                        Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.

                                        Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

                                 Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

                              Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

                             Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

                        Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

                 True Colors, Abby Cooper.

                 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell. 

         South Riding, Winifred Holtby. Scintillation book club. I did not finish in time.

    Saving Verakko, Victoria Avelina. I won’t finish this in time for the Romance bookclub. 

Books Acquired

From the library:

No idea.

For my shelves:

It was so long ago.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

None.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. More kitchen stuff. How often do you wash your can opener?

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip meeting his heroes is hilarious.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). Mail bribe. Poe.

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. Mail bribe. Home stretch.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. Making reading analysis fun.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Made it to November.

Future Plans

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

I am reading: 

• Book I own: Into the Broken Lands
• Library Book: The Future of Silence
• Ebook I own: 
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Rissa
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  Dungeon Crawler Carl
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  Fate Inked in Blood
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  Just Saying
• River Runs Under It Book Club: Demon Copperhead
• Talbot Hill Book: Scary Stories For Young Foxes and Bad Guys 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: Mythology based romance

Happy Spring

Happy Spring! I managed to find everything I needed for my taxes, and apparently I owe money, so I have to figure out the pay side of the IRS web page. I also baked a nice loaf of bread and pampered my sick son from a distance because next week is busy and I don’t want what he’s got.

(Next week already happened and I was too busy to post this so I’m very late again).

I think I am now reading 62 books, according to goodreads. Maybe I’ll get some reading done in April, which has a lot of vacations baked in.

Books Completed March 21-27

An Immense World, Ed Yong. This was really great. I enjoyed learning more about how my own senses worked but also all the different ways of perceiving things that other creatures have. I liked the balance of science at a popular level and curiosity about the experiences of every kind of creature. Now I want to read other books by Yong. And read some octopus science fiction.

The City and the City, China Mieville. Sword and Laser Book Club. Not what I expected, but well worth the read. I didn’t really buy the friendship with the foreign cop but I liked the detective aspects with our guy and figuring out what they meant by the two cities and unseeing and the nature of the enforcement.

Baby-Sitter’s On Board (Baby-Sitter’s Club Super Special), Ann M. Martin. Ok, super-special means many points of view, and I guess they use it for big events. So the big family with eight kids decides to take a cruise/Disney Land adventure and bring two babysitters, and then Kristy’s rich stepfather decides to take his big family on the same cruise and bring friends for Kristy, and we get to see from all the baby-sitter’s POV as well as a bunch of the kids. I’ve recently cruised and also went to Disneyland as a kid, so it was fun to see the differences between my youth, their time, and now.

The Night Librarian, Christopher Lincoln. Next shelf in Renton Highlands Library. Two New York twins spend time at the awesome library while angsting that their parents are hardworking types who ignore their kids. Even the nanny tends to ditch them and go play. But then they fall into a magical dilemma that entertains and pushes them emotionally. Time travel is used in an approved manner. (I get to approve these things.)

The Legends of the Coral Cave (Squid Squad 1), Megan Miller. Next shelf in Renton Highlands Library. I see the appeal but my Minecraft knowledge is set poorly. Just enough to try to follow along but not enough to manage it. I’m distracted by having no idea how old the kids are and so what my expectations are. It was an interesting experience but not really my cup of tea.

Nova, Samuel R. Delaney. This was cool. I liked the class stuff and the work ethic stuff and the novel stuff. It needed more women. Reading the written stuff from the book club I missed makes more sense now.

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros. I bogged down while reading this with Sword and Laser and finally went back and slogged to the end. I found the narrator tiresome; she never seemed to adjust her opinions and expectations to new information, she doesn’t seem to understand how secrets work or why people wouldn’t tell them to her even if she wasn’t being mentally scanned for info on the regular. Also I found the sex kinda dull. 

American Smooth, Rita Dove. These were really good. I was charmed to read that the epigrams come from Tuvok quotes. Also, “Reverie In Open Air” really worked as a poem for The City and the City.

Unaccompanied: Stories of Brave Teenagers Seeking Asylum, Tracy White. Cybils finalist. Sad but factually based (adjusted to protect the identities, so details come from different kids) stories of young people fleeing dangerous situations, getting robbed and raped as they work their way into the US (either legally or illegally) and then finding that the US is not all that friendly either. Ouch.

Boy-Crazy Stacey, Baby-sitter’s Club Graphic Novel, Gale Galligan. I like the graphics in this, and the balance between competent baby-sitters and crush-drunk girl and her exasperated friend. The bit with the boy grappling with a fear of the sea was good. 

Books Started

Unaccompanied: Stories of Brave Teenagers Seeking Asylum, Tracy White. Cybils finalist.

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, David Okrent. Whew, finally getting to read the book mt brother-in-law lent me.

Lore of the Wilds, Analeigh Sbrana. Cloudy book pick.

Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement, Steven K. Kapp. Ebook I own.

Diamond Eye, Kate Quinn. River Runs Under It bookclub pick.

Very Nice Funerals, Jennifer Cruise & Bob Meyer. Sorta for Friday book club.

Boy-Crazy Stacey, Baby-sitter’s Club Graphic Novel, Gale Galligan.

The Legends of the Coral Cave (Squid Squad 1), Megan Miller. Next shelf in Renton Highlands Library.

Logan Likes Mary Anne (Baby-sitter Club 10), Ann M. Martin.

Bookmarks Moved

Airs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart. 

The Caphelon, Fletcher DeLancey. 

The City Beyond the Sea (Greenwild 2), Pari Thomson. Kidlit fantasy.

The Rook, Daniel O’Malley. (Audio)

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias & Lisa Lerner. Torches & Pitchforks book club pick.

What Makes This Book So Great?, Jo Walton.

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

Bookmarks Languished

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

 

                                           Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

                                           Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.          

                                    Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.

                                    Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

                            Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

                         Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

                        Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

                   Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

            True Colors, Abby Cooper.

            The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell. 

    South Riding, Winifred Holtby. Scintillation book club. I did not finish in time.

Saving Verakko, Victoria Avelina. I won’t finish this in time for the Romance bookclub. 

Books Acquired

From the library:

No idea.

For my shelves:

It was so long ago.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

Sorry, pictures are hard.

Dragons Love Tacos 2: The Sequel,Adam Rubin. I read this a few years ago but it made no impression.Cute enough.

Sari Sisters, Anitha Rao-Robinson. Little girl gets jealous when her older sister is promoted to a real sari, but kindness triumphs.

Life on Mars, Jon Agee. Lovely book where the pictures and the text tell different stories and both are good.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Dishes and how to wash them.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip meeting his heroes is hilarious.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). Mail bribe. Poe.

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. Mail bribe. Home stretch.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. Making reading analysis fun.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Made it to November.

Future Plans

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

I am reading: 

• Book I own: Into the Broken Lands
• Library Book: The Future of Silence
• Ebook I own: Airs Above the Ground
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Movie Month! NR
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  Dungeon Crawler Carl
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  Lore of the Wilds
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  The Fall of Roe
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The Diamond Eye
• Talbot Hill Book: Scary Stories For Young Foxes and Bad Guys 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: Mythology based romance

Taxes are Terrible, Also Any Paperwork Is Hard

Happy Pi Day! Happy St Patrick’s Day! I hope everyone celebrated just as they like. I had pizza on pi day, from a new place because we like to honor my mom by eating at new restaurants. We had a good book club discussing the coffee food cart mysteries. And the I had a good time at the library book club, although when they announced I had suggested the book (I had utterly forgotten) I was petrified that every had hated it. And then they made me go first! 

That book club is made even better by the giant tree that crashed down across the river a few months ago. I guess the city sent some people out to trim off a few branches but most of it is still there enhancing the River environment and slowly swinging around. Eventually it will have to pass under the river and head for Lake Washington.

Wow, it’s Wednesday and I’m getting this out! It’s supposed to be part of the It’s Monday What Are You Reading thing and maybe next week I can join back in!

I think I am now reading 62 books, according to goodreads. Maybe I’ll get some reading done in April, which has a lot of vacations baked in.

Books Completed March 14-20

Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy. Mostly fascinating account of what happened, how it happened, why the information was so slow to trickle out, who was responsible, who got blamed, and the lasting political, social, environmental and medical effects. Reading this while headlines of the accidental firing of nuclear safety engineers came out was sort of surreal.

Ascendancy of a Bookworm: Short Story Collection Volume 2, Miya Kazuki. What can I say? I’m addicted. The author does a really good job of showing how various events are understood from various perspectives, which is cool. Also, Myne is awesome.

Masters in this Hall, K.J. Charles. Sweet novella with a guy caught up in a mess, and his lover who gets hurt by it, and how they extricate themselves with some old friends of the reader (not their old friends; they don’t like him at all).

The Firekeeper’s Daughter, Angeline Boulley. River Runs Under It Book Club pick. I zipped through but slipped the bits I remembered well. I had forgotten that I suggested this to the club! Thank goodness most people liked it. We did think it started slowly; it’s doing several different things (a mystery, a coming of age, grief processing, Indian tribal politics) so there was a lot to lay out before things started rolling. But that meant there were a lot of ways into the book. Also, we are a pretty old group so anything YA is going to be a bit tiring.

Stacey’s Mistake (Babysitter Club), Ann M. Martin. This is number 18, so it’s a known quantity. As a person who visiting her New York cousins as a kid, I enjoyed my nostalgia at seeing the New Yorker swing from pride at showing off her city to cringing at hanging out with all the tourists. I liked the babysitting stuff as usual; I always like when they have to deal with a giant crowd of kids.

Books Started

Saving Verakko, Victoria Avelina. I won’t finish this in time for the Romance bookclub. 

Baby-Sitter’s On Board (Baby-Sitter’s Club Super Special), Ann M. Martin. I have no idea what super-special means in this context.

Bookmarks Moved

The Caphelon, Fletcher DeLancey. 

The City and the City, China Mieville. Sword and Laser Book Club.

The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias & Lisa Lerner. Torches & Pitchforks book club pick.

American Smooth, Rita Dove. My next poetry book.

The Rook, Daniel O’Malley. (Audio)

Nova, Samuel R. Delaney.

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros.

An Immense World, Ed Yong.

Airs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart. 

The City Beyond the Sea (Greenwild 2), Pari Thomson. Kidlit fantasy.

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

Bookmarks Languished

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

 

                                       Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

                                       Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.          

                                Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.

                                Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

                        Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

                     Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

                    Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

               Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

        True Colors, Abby Cooper.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell. 

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

The Night Librarian, Christopher Lincoln.

South Riding, Winifred Holtby. Scintillation book club. I did not finish in time.

Books Acquired

From the library:

Just Saying, Ray Armantrout. 

For my shelves:

The Invention of the Renaissance, Ada Palmer.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

None. 

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Dishes and how to wash them.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip meeting his heroes is hilarious.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). Mail bribe. Poe.

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture). Mail bribe.

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. Mail bribe. Home stretch.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Made it to November.

Future Plans

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

I am reading: 

• Book I own: What Makes This Book So Great
• Library Book: The City Beyond the Sea
• Ebook I own: Airs Above the Ground
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Movie Month! Nausicaä 
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  Dungeon Crawler Carl
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  Lore of the Wilds
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  The Fall of Roe
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The Diamond Eye
• Talbot Hill Book: Scary Stories For Young Foxes and Bad Guys 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: Mythology based romance