All Appreciation To the Teachers!

I spent a lot of time at the local middle school, helping the kids appreciate their teachers. We (the PTA) provide free cards for the kids to write notes in, and then bundle the notes up with a present to hand off on Friday. And on Wednesday I managed to cook (well, heat up) eight lasagna between my kitchen and my sister's to bring to the staff lounge for a complementary lunch. Good thing I enlisted my sister's MIL (my mother-in-law once removed?) to help out, as when those two things overlapped we could be in two places at once.

It was a relief on Thursday to drive out to the library for some browsing time for myself, although I forgot to stay until my older son came home from his AP test when I got a text that my younger son (home with a sore throat) had been exposed to strep. I thought his doctor would want to test him, but apparently scarlet fever is not the fearful scourge it was back in Louisa May Alcott's day.

My loot from the hold shelf:



All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jan Anders. Sword and Laser read this a few months back, but it's a new release so I had to wait for the library to find it for me.

Hamster Princess 2: Of Mice and Magic, Ursula Vernon. I just found out this is already out so I called it up. I may buy it -- I got in early enough that I could collect the whole set.

I also picked up my next Reading my Library audio book, since I'm on the last disc of the current one:



Left For Dead, J.A. Jance. This is another mystery, but it takes place in Arizona, which I need.

That's a total of 33 things out, which creeping up a bit, but I blame my son who has been slacking about finishing his Cybils books. I'll go look at the Library Loot which is at Silly Little Mischief this week to see what everyone else is getting.  Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Linda from Silly Little Mischief that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post - feel free to steal the button (that pile of books up at the top) - and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. 

Library Questing

Here I document any progress I make in my Quest to read a book from every shelf in my local library.

Unnatural Causes by P.D. James is the current audio. It's only 8 discs and I'm on #8. We're in the final confession, which I find a bit unsatisfying. Dagliesh claims he knew who dunnit all along, but if you don't speak up before the taped confession it's not that impression, copper.

I'm still reading Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld, but I'm not really enjoying it and don't really care what happens to the characters.

I finished Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread. As usual, I found her ability to nail people's often unflattering foibles and moments of clarity absolutely realistic, and watching the various members of an extended family as they age and reminisce, in a pattern that shows off their relationships to each other even as it moves forward and backward in time. I admit that the final focus on the founding members of the household threw me some distance from the story; I'm just not dispassionate enough to handle some revelations, it seems.