Happy Birthday To Me! Hey, Who Stole My Hour?

I am officially 50 years old, and can now round my age up to 100, unlike my pesky younger siblings, who still round down to 0. All the wisdom is belong to me! I had a very nice birthday weekend, which ended with being taken out to a delicious dinner with fancy drinks (served in a pineapple!). I thought I was taking everyone out, but Linda grabbed the check in a surprise move. As the only one at the table older than me, I guess she had the right. I love my family!

Then it was home for cake (made by Paulos) and prezzies, which were all delightful and included a fat B&N gift card. It's heartwarming to open my present bag and find the perfect treats because it shows they know me so well.

The movie this week was Every Day, which was nicely faithful to the book but stuck closer to the relationship between the two characters and avoided more plotty irrelevancies. A good time was had by Linda and me, especially as we had the theater to ourselves.

My friends bookclub got together and discussed The Long Winter, which we all read as girls but was fun to approach as adults, when I could see what tools the author used and what messages they tried to slip past us. And as it was my birthday, I only ordered my favorite pizzas and then a friend brought leftover cookies from work so it was all coming up ME.

The weather was gorgeous, so it was a good time to be invited to a behind-the-scenes zoo tour where I got to help train an Ambassador Raccoon (that's its job, not its species) and also see an Argus bird do its full plumage display.

I finished another Cybils from last year. Currently Reading is still hovering around 30.

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 join in there. There's also a version that is kidlit focussed at either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers. All my Cybils reading keeps me very eligible for that.

This Week I started:


Worth Dying For, Lee Child. My next Reading My Library Quest book.

Burn Bright, Patricia Briggs. I drove to my store and bought this the day it came out.

The Long Winter, Laura Ingalls Wilder. For my Friday book club.

I finished:



Burn Bright, Patricia Briggs. This book is more about friendship and community than Anna and Charles, who are comfortable with each other. Which is good, because there are some cracks in the community they need to deal with.

The Firefly Code, Megan Blackmore. 2016 Cybils. I'm always glad to see more science fiction among the fantasy, and I liked the take on a near-future utopia/dystopia where kids have to make ethical choices.

The Long Winter, Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was the only one who reread it and showed up, but everyone remembered the basics from their childhoods. I liked rereading with an adult perspective, seeing the authorial tools, the political interjections (from Rose Lane?) and evaluating how it would read for Native American kids.

Worth Dying For, Lee Child. Jack Reacher leaves behind a swath of bodies and a relieved town when some small-time villains make the mistake of messing with him. Also, his nose gets broke.

Bookmarks moved in:




Alliance of Equals, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Episode 39. Padi and Shan smooze on their way back to the ship.

London Rain, Nicola Upson. RML audio book. Blah blah. There doesn't seem to be a mystery in this mystery, so I'm bored.

Game Change, Joseph Manniger. I want more football in this sports novel, which is not very fair since I picked it up because of a review that raved about the non-sports stuff.

The Evil Wizard Smallbone, Delia Sherman. Cybils middle grade. It's happening in Maine! It never rains but it pours, I guess.

Arabella and the Battle of Venus, David Levine. Still hoping for more space battles!

The Collapsing Empire, John Scalzi. For my Tuesday book club. I've really started it now, though.

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



Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott.

A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George.

The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox.

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

Change of Heart, Norah McClintock.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca.

2018 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2017! 7/104-ish.  Have a nonfiction lined up but I never got around to starting it.
2. Cybils 2016!  101/10-ish. Reading a middle grade SF. I still need to find the missing board book.
3. Reading My Library: Working on London Rain which I'm disliking for the non-mysterious mystery. Finished Worth Dying For and I have the next one ready.
4. Where Am I Reading 2018?: 22/51. Montana, South Dakota, and a repeat of Massachusetts and Nebraska this week.