Planning Reading Or Reading Plans

I'm making progress on my pile of the books I meant to read last year. On the other hand, I seem to be avoiding my kitchen, which is making it hard both to cook and to keep it clean. And I'm avoiding all my other responsibilities as well. Hmm.

On the plus side, I've plowed through a lot of five minute chores I've been procrastinating on, which gives me an excuse to reward myself with another 30 minutes of reading.

I still have two piles of last years Cybils, some started and some just glaring at me. Currently Reading is around 32 as a result.

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 that I'm going to sign up for. There's also a version that is kidlit focussed.  I'll go look to see what everyone else was reading at either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers.

This Week I started:




The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion. My next Reading My Library audio. It's actually from the shelf above The Homesman, but I checked out two at once before my big holiday road trip.

Slacker, Gordan Korman. A Cybils middle grade fiction.

Bubonic Panic, Gail Jarrow. A Cybils nonfiction.

Arabella of Mars, David Levine. Fun space stuff.

A Storm Too Soon, Michael Tougias. Cybils nonfiction.

Booked, Kwame Alexander. Cybils poetry.

Sachiko, Caren Stelson. Cybils nonfiction.

Fashion Rebels, Carlyn Beccia. Cybils nonfiction. 

Made in China: The New Superman Vol 1, Gene Luen Yang. 2017 Cybils graphic novel.

Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, Ben Hatke. Because I wanted to see what happened.

Change of Heart, Norah McClintock. From my shelves.

Hmm. Looking at this list it seems a bit excessive.


I finished:





Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman, Lindy West. My Feminist Book Club meets this Monday, so I hope I remember enough to speak intelligently. Last time I read the book as soon as they announced the date, and three months later I was "Uh, I liked it, I think." I liked her stance of fat shaming, although I would push back a bit on how much any minority can expect the majority to change to accommodate them. And I really liked her abortion chapters.

The Homesman, Glendon Swarthout. A Reading My Library audio. I managed to finish the last excruciatingly dull tracks, where somebody I didn't care about wandered about making bizarre decisions and doing dull things. He was either predictable or stupid. Sometimes both. Authors -- if your main character leaves, either end the book or take the time to make some other character important to the reader.

Bubonic Panic, Gail Jarrow. A Cybils nonfiction. This book panicked me a bit. Learning about plague in the olden days is fine, even the story of the plague threatening San Francisco around the time of the big earthquake was unsettling but not worrying because that's long ago as well, but then the final chapters document how well established it still is in many native American mammals and the surprisingly high incidence of plague to this day (almost a hundred a year?). My cats are definitely never leaving the house.

Benedict Hall, Cate Campbell. Reading My Library book. This was a fun historical story in post-World War I Seattle. I even recognized many landmarks. The rich family and their servants gave several windows into the times; the doctor sister was interesting and her psychotic brother gave voice to the more conservative feelings. Unfortunately, the author (who also writes SF and fantasy) had too much fun with the "mysterious" gem the brother brings back from the war. He thinks it gives him special powers, which would be more interesting if the author didn't apparently think it does as well. That detracted from the realism and lessened the tension and stakes of the book.

The Serpent King, Jeff Zentner. Cybils YA. This snuck up on me and grabbed my heart. The story never stooped to teaching the kids valuable lessons about life; instead the kids just had to deal with the world they lived in and the hands they were dealt. Their friendship stayed firm even through jealousy and family hardship. I ended up really liking it, even through the sad parts.

A Storm Too Soon, Michael Tougias. Cybils nonfiction. Apparently Tougias wrote a book for adults (same title, different subtitle) and this is the aimed-at-youth version. I bet the original is also good -- this version still shows us the people, then the danger, and then the rescue, both by the shipwrecked sailors and the Coast Guard Search-And-Rescue team. Gripping stuff. Also happens off the coast of North Carolina, so Yay!

Sachiko, Caren Stelson. Cybils nonfiction. Both major Axis powers get books in this years nonfiction batch; this one looks how the bombing of Nagasaki affected a six year old girl both immediately and into her adulthood. Calm text and pictures put things in perspective -- Japan's war aims, American attitudes towards its enemies, etc. It's a grim and gripping history.

Mighty Jack and the Goblin King, Ben Hatke. I read this in one big gulp. As a sequel, it didn't spend any time on character setup -- it was just action and adventure page after page. The three characters are separated and tension builds as the action shifts between them, and then they meet up again and things keep happening. I enjoyed it and also felt comfortable because I could tell everyone apart.

The Borden Murders, Sarah Miller. Cybils Nonfiction. I liked the author's balanced approach, showing the evidence gathered, the parts presented at trial, and the parts excluded. I agree with her that the Not Guilty verdict was appropriate based on the evidence the jury saw, and I have no idea who did it. Miller does not support Priest's Cthulhu ideas, I noticed.

Bookmarks moved in:




Alliance of Equals, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Episode 33. Things are moving along. Is it just me, or is Liadan culture not as confusing as they think it is?

Trashed, Derf Backderf. The history of trash and the hard life of a college drop out.

Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. My Tuesday Night Book club and Sword & Laser are both reading this. Once I separate myself from Frankenstein I appreciate it even more -- he's an awfully unreliable narrator. Not that the monster is any better, but then we only hear him inside Frankenstein's story.

Rebel, Rachel Brown & Sherwood Smith. Kids feel things so strongly. I'm exhausted but still interested.

Great Pumpkin Suite, Melanie Hill. This is a medical scene. I'm not handling it well.

These I'm barely reading; I use them as palate cleansers between books I'm actually reading.



Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott. Amy has crazy ideas. Tell the truth? No wonder everyone thinks she's mad.

A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George.

The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox.

Sammy Keyes and the Art of Deception, Wendelin Van Draanen.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. Putting vocabulary in context.

2018 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2017! 2/104-ish. I have started the first.
2. Cybils 2016!  81/107-ish. Knocked off five more. Made progress on four unfinished ones.
3. Reading My Library: Finished The Homesman, which ended with a prolonged whimper.  Started The Rosie Project, which at least has a fun Australian narrator. Finished Benedict Hall.
4. Where Am I Reading 2018?: 9/51. Added Michigan, Connecticut, Tennessee and Nebraska. Sadly many of the books I'm currently reading are very non-specific about their settings.