I've been on the move these past two weeks. At the end of April I jetted off to Columbus with my son's chess team for Nationals. It was fun hanging out with a half dozen chess fanatics and their chess friends, especially as I have only a rudimentary understanding of the game. I still gave lots of helpful advice, of course. "Don't lose!" I'd suggest. Sometimes they even paid attention.
I use a service called Gathered Table for meal planning. They send me a suggested menu every week, I trim out what I actually want to good from their suggestions, which are about half things I put in myself and half things from their database of recipes. I like the combination of new things, old standards, and lack of effort on my part. This week I was delighted by their suggestion, which consisted of "buy some ravioli, boil them, and serve 'em with olive oil and some grated parmesan." Now that's some gourmet cooking I can get behind! Sadly it was very popular so that Paulos only gets one lunch out of it.
To keep my gourmet credentials I also made one of the suggested side dishes -- sweet and sour sautéed rainbow chard. Yum.
Somehow my currently reading is back up to 33, so I guess I should finish some of them. I did read a lot while traveling, but it was mostly book I started on the trip.
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 but I'm really late so I'll skip this week. 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, but again, I'm late.
This Fortnight I started:
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Jester. For my elementary book club.
Black Butler Vol 12, Yana Toboso. Working my way through this series.
Black Sands, Colleen Coble. A RML book that takes place in Hawaii.
Good Bones, Kim Fielding. Cleaning out my e-reader.
We Are Legion, We Are Bob, Dennis Taylor. The Sword & Laser pick.
Cold Welcome, Elizabeth Moon. From my TBR stack.
The Mountain Between Us, Charles Martin. Chosen because I'm going on an airplane.
Buried Bones, Kim Fielding. Sequel to Good Bones.
"The Gig", Kim Fielding. Sequel to Buried Bones. Hey, I'm a completist.
The Service of the Sword, David Weber (editor). I'm in a Weber mood, and it fit a book team challenge.
Laughing Gas, P.G. Wodehouse. The next audio book for my Reading My Library Quest. After this I head into audio nonfiction.
"The Price of Meat," K.J. Charles. Another ebook purchase lurking on my reader.
The Twisted Path, Harry Connolly. I bought this Ray Lily novella as soon as it came out, because I'm a huge fan. Then it languished on my reader because of my library problem.
Pashmina, Nidhi Chanani. Cybils graphic novel.
A Short History of the Girl Next Door, Jared Reck. Cybils YA.
I finished:
The Glow of Death, Jane K. Cleland. I jumped deep (#11) into this mystery series about a well-off antique dealer and her wealthy clients. The mysteries of the monied roll a bit differently than those of us regular folk, but the writing was crisp and the characters, both recurring and new, varied enough to be interesting.
The Secret Life of Stories, Michael Berube. This was a bit dryer and more repetitive than I wanted, but it was fun reading literary jargon again, and also to think deeply about how disability is used in literature and what this says about our society's relationship with it.
Six Wakes, Mur Lafferty. This was a successful book club read and we congratulated Webb on the success of his old roommate's wife's book. I liked the various ethical issues raised by cloning and while I wasn't completely sold on how the future society came to the decisions it did, I was convinced that the characters believed it. The mystery was solved as well, although I almost didn't notice.
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Jester. For my elementary book club. I really enjoyed this read through, and I think I found it less picaresque than last time. The kids heartily approved it, argued over words vs numbers a bit, and also discussed the movie, which a few of them had seen. Maybe I'll look it up.
Black Butler Vol 12, Yana Toboso. This volume gave me the satisfaction of usually knowing who was who; occasionally I got confused with the two grim reapers but their conversation was distinctive enough that things righted themselves quickly. The combination of zombies and luxury ship meets iceberg made for a good plot -- either alone would be silly of course. Also through a twisty and credibility-straining path I think Toboso is going to do something fun with Ciel's girlfriend.
Bruno and the Carol Singers, Martin Walker. Again I leaped to a short story deep into a mystery series, but everything was clear enough. French town for that exotic feel, simple dilemmas and solutions, feel-good ending for a Christmas story. I tend to frown disapprovingly when one parent unilaterally removes a child from contact with the other parent, but no one in the story felt this was at all remarkable.
Good Bones, Kim Fielding. Excellent plane reading, with fun, sweet characters in a romance (so I knew things would work out) and a hilarious take on werewolves.
We Are Legion, We Are Bob, Dennis Taylor. Two flights, two books. This was a light-hearted SF space romp with one main character and an interesting take on that one. I did wish for more women, but even the alien races concentrated attention on the men. I shared it with Paulos, who also seems to be enjoying it.
Rebel, Rachel Brown & Sherwood Smith. Good golly, I am almost as slow at reading these as they are at writing them, and I have no excuse. I knew I'd like it and I did. The adolescent characters are carefully drawn and distinctive; even the motives and actions of the villains are understandable if not forgivable. The mutant powers are fun and perk things up. I'm ready for the next one!
Buried Bones, Kim Fielding. Sequel to Good Bones. Same cute boys, new and surmountable problems. The insecurities were enough to make them human but never tipped over into whiny. Another fun read while traveling.
"The Gig", Kim Fielding. The short story that mixes together characters from two series. Fan service, but I'm a fan.
"The Price of Meat," K.J. Charles. I had forgotten that this was a short story instead of a novel, so was surprised when I glanced at the page count while reading. It does a lot of world building in a tiny space, so I hope that means Charles plans to go back there.
The Twisted Path, Harry Connolly. I did know this was a novella, and it gave me the heroic and obnoxious Ray Lily that I know and love, along with more depth on the Twenty Palaces and a deep wish for even more. Great plane read during a lot of turbulence.
Fledgling, Octavia Butler. It's interesting that I'm seeing a lot of stuff on social media about censoring fanfiction that deals with rough subjects like underage sex when this book centers around a person who looks like a ten year old girl who enters into a polyamorous sexual relationship with several men and women. Butler does a great job of examining many racial and societal taboos and assumptions in this vampire story about revenge and redemption.
The Service of the Sword, David Weber (editor). Fun tales of daring-do in space, some set behind enemy lines and some set on battleships. A nice change of pace was the one set on a disfunctional ship manned by graduates of the Peter Principal of incompetence. Honor Harrington makes an appearance, but most of the stories are set among the nooks and crannies for various authors to explore.
How Dare the Sun Rise, Sandra Uwiringiyimana. Cybils nonfiction. This autobiography of a child raised in a precarious but loving home, traumatized by an ethnically inspired massacre at a refugee camp and then settled with her family in Rochester New York helps put a face on all the refugees monolithically condemned by Republicans. She and her writer do a great job in showing her resilience and pain and humanity. It also covers a lot of her struggles in America, from dealing with racism in overt and subtle ways to finding a gulf between her new culture and her family's expectations.
Pashmina, Nidhi Chanani. Cybils graphic novel. Fantasy of a lovely spirit guide to India is mixed with a middle school (? -- the ages were very confusing to me) story of fitting in and family jealousy. Both parts worked, although the fantasy stuff wasn't resolved to my satisfaction -- it didn't really end up blending with the family drama which worked much better as old histories were explored and resonances with the modern day found.
Bookmarks moved in:
Alliance of Equals, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Episode 49-50. Practical jokes on a trader with PTSD may be hazardous to your health. I say "may." Also, fiction may not be the best predictor of reality so AIs need to be careful in their studying.
Air Awakens, Elise Kova. Sadly I am not in the mood for adolescent goofiness, even in a fantasy setting. Our heroine whines about how horrible having magic is, sulks when her friends express a fraction of the same feeling, refuses to pay any attention to the cautions showered upon her by experts, completely disregards all romantic warning signs, also ignores all political danger, and then wonders why her life is hard. Her life didn't seem hard to me even before she was invited in the world of magical luxury. Luckily everyone likes her. A lot.
Giant Pumpkin Suite, Melanie Hill. I am inching along through the sad part.
Shadow of a Doubt, Norah McClintock. Oops, I peeked at the end. Now it's duller watching them follow the red herrings.
Wolf Who Rules, Wen Spencer. I should sit down and reread all the un-reread parts.
Tinker, Wen Spencer. Same.
Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer. I get the feeling that reading this a few pages at a time will be bad for my comprehension. The author wants me to take it seriously; she seems to respect the reader. Oops.
Virtues of War, Bennett Coles. More space battles on my reader, which I was enjoying getting back to until the power went out on my flight.
Boys in the Boat, Daniel Brown. Again returning to books languishing in mid-read. I should work on this as I borrowed the book from my brother.
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. Kids can be foolish.
Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca.
2018 Challenge Progress:
- Cybils 2017! 11/104-ish. Finished How Dare the Sun Rise, and started the next book.
- Reading My Library: Finished the audio Bruno and the Carol Singers and started the last fiction audio Laughing Gas. Also finished The Glow of Death and started Black Sands.
- Where Am I Reading 2018?: 27/51. Nothing new. More New Hampshire, Washington, Oregon, California and New York. I forget where the American parts of Pashmina happen, hmm.
No comments:
Post a Comment