Reading Too Much

Another week of ignoring everything I'm supposed to be doing. At least I got some reading done. Oh, we celebrated Paulos's 17th birthday, only a few days early. For his special meal, he elected not to decide anything, so my sister mad lasagna and garlic bread and I provided a chocolate cake and he seemed happy.

Cooking for me this week went well -- I made an easy one-dish chicken alfredo dish that I threatened to add vegetables to but was dissuaded. My main complaint was that everything was white (white plates, pasta, cream sauce, chicken) and I should throw in some peas or broccoli, and Paulos's response was that no one looks at food and peas never make anything better. As a compromise I served garlicky sautéed chard on the side. Friday I made a fancy tuna salad because I had a craving for a tuna melt sandwich, which was my lunch on Saturday with the leftovers. I think I've finally turned into a cook, because suddenly it makes me happy when people eat food I've prepared. For the past twenty years I've just felt like my job was done if I served something, anything, and whether or not anyone wanted to eat it wasn't my problem.

Hmm, maybe I should give exercise another try. I may have given up on that too soon. I apparently have a twenty year learning curve for this sort of thing. I wonder if I have to start from scratch and practice for twenty years before I get any positive feedback.

Linda and I hit Pacific Rim: Uprising and had a great time. We had to go the mall cinema which was a bit of an adventure but was a good chance to see giant robots and big explosions. I hadn't seen the previous movie but Linda caught me up on important details (giant robots good, giant monsters bad). Afterwards we took advantage of the food court to grab some ice cream and enjoyed all the pleasures of being adults -- seeing fun movies and treating ourselves to an extra dessert.

I am plugging along on book club books, Cybils books, my Library Quest books, and books that somehow fell into my clutches. I'm hoping to make a project of reading books on my home shelves for a while.  My currently Reading is back up in the thirties so that might be a good place to start.

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. My Cybils reading keeps me eligible for that.

This Week I started:




The Glow of Death, Jane K. Cleland. My next Reading My Library book.

The Secret Life of Stories, Michael Berube. The library tempted me with this.

Bruno and the Carol Singers, Martin Walker. New audio Reading My Library book.

Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer. I'm going to try to clear out my ebook TBR.

How Dare the Sun Rise, Sandra Uwiringiyimana. Cybils nonfiction.

I finished:




All By Myself, Alone, Mary Higgins Clark. Finished a RML book! This read like a cosy mystery, so the setting was fun (luxury cruise), the characters were interesting but not deep, ranging from the ultra rich to the people attending them, and everyone got their few paragraphs of backstory. It did remind me of the fun time I had on our family reunion cruise.

Harmful to Minors, Judith Levine. Well, I was converted, but then I was pretty much convinced ahead of time so that isn't surprising. Truth is better than lies, kids deserve to know what is going on, and teens who have sex should know what they are doing and how birth control and STDs work. And the people trying to prevent that are bad and should be stopped. And since my youngest is about to turn 17, I don't have to worry about making tough decisions because clearly he's old enough to know everything. And our schools apparently are willing to teach everything, based on the unit I had to help my nephew with last semester.

Scythe, Neal Shusterman. Cybils YA. In the future, DEATH is outlawed. Our heroes recognize the corruption in the system and set themselves against it, one on the inside and the other from without. Tune in next time to see how they do. I liked how the two MCs had very different personalities and that we saw both how they viewed themselves and how they viewed each other, which was interesting in how much they got wrong about themselves and each other.

Master of Crows, Grace Draven. Although I've really liked other books by Draven, someone this one and I just didn't mesh. I found the hero dull and the heroine senseless. Her emotions and plans kept me thinking she was a young fifteen but apparently she was supposed to be an adult. She resents the guy for dumb reasons. For example, he avoids starting a sexual relationship because she is his apprentice and the power dynamics are skeevy. The world building also didn't work for me as the magic didn't aid the themes and people were needlessly clueless. Oh well, I'll give this series a miss as it clearly doesn't work for me but I'll look out for news stuff by Draven.

London Rain, Nicola Upson. Finished a RML audio book. I didn't enjoy the mystery and the character development wasn't enough to make the 8 discs worth my time. I felt the author sympathized with the murderer much more than I did, so the final dramatic scene fell flat for me as I didn't care about anyone involved and my main emotional connection was with how foolish the detective was to let either of them get the gun. Just as well as now I realize that we never find out what happens to anyone, so if I weren't indifferent that might bother me.

Bookmarks moved in:




Alliance of Equals, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Episode 45. It's hard to keep your temper when you are a ticking magical bomb.

Giant Pumpkin Suite, Melanie Hill. I am inching along.

Wolf Who Rules, Wen Spencer. I am still dipping in and out.

Shadow of a Doubt, Norah McClintock. I like the mystery parts, but I'm a curmudgeon who gets bored during the teen romance parts.

Fledgling, Octavia Butler. I don't remember the plot at all, but some things seem familiar after I read them.

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Same problem -- I'm reading all over the place. Do I just stop or do I count it as a reread? Ethical problems in tracking my reading.

Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty. I'm enjoying the world building and keep forgetting there's a mystery.


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



Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott. Poor Amy is not looking well.

A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George.

The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox. Why floors work.

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

Change of Heart, Norah McClintock. Kids can be foolish.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca.

2018 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2017! 7/104-ish. Finished Scythe and started the next book.
2. Reading My Library: Finished both the audio London Rain and the book All By Myself, Alone and started the next ones.
3. Where Am I Reading 2018?: 27/51. I guess I added the Atlantic ocean but I'm not sure how the show that. Nothing on the horizon, although I may have a record number of New Hampshire books this year.