Summer is Here!

Well, the heat came along, the sun shone, school let out, the planet spun around on its path, and now summer has arrived in all senses!

My mom came out for a week and we manage to have a great time; another friend was also in town so we all met up on Bainbridge and I finally poked around a bit in their downtown. My brother gave us his VIP tickets to the Seattle ferris wheel, and my mom and I had a great time rolling around in the elite BLACK GONDOLA and pushing all the extra buttons in our special car. It was also fun to see my sons and nephews being so caring around their grandmother -- I'm not sure my mom opened a single door for herself while they were around.

We also spent a fun day checking out my brother's new house and some of his favorite spots in his new neighborhood, including a walk along a beach where my SIL helped me watch one crab eat a smaller one. Nature is grim in tooth and claw! And then my poor mother made the mistake of noticing the painting I made in a class a few years back and mentioning that she had always wanted to do that. ZING! I found a local Paint Nite session at a bar nearby and my sister and BIL joined us in an artistic endeavor. Three beers in and my art production has doubled!

Somehow my currently reading is STILL at 32, and I keep picking up new books as fast as I finish old ones, so I clearly am comfortable here. Especially the rereads. Finishing some things is made harder by the library wanting their books back.

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 sign up there. There's also a version that is kidlit focussed at either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers.

This Fortnight I started:





When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead. Family book club pick.

A Call to Vengeance, David Weber, Timothy Zahn, Thomas Pope. Continuing a series.

All Systems Red, Martha Wells. Tuesday book club.

The Good, The Bad, and the Emus, Donna Andrews. For my book team.

My Brigadista Year, Katherine Paterson. A gift!

The Lawrence Browne Affair, Cat Sebastian. Left book team that I didn't need but wanted to read.

Murder On a Bad Hair Day, Anne George. For my book team.

For We Are Many, Dennis Taylor. Continuing a series.

Decider, Dick Francis. For my Friday book club.

Ruin of a Rake, Cat Sebastian. Finishing a series.

I finished:





Though Hell Should Bar the Way, David Drake.  This was a lot of fun. It's been a while since I caught up with Leary and Mundy, so when I heard on Baen's podcast that Drake had written this one from the viewpoint of a young man rather haplessly caught in their orbit I thought it was a great chance to reconnect. And knowing that it's all (very loosely) based on an actual historical event makes me feel sweetly intellectual. The kid was fun, the girl only slightly annoying, and the derring-do and devotion to competence just what the cover promised.

The Giant Pumpkin Suite, Melanie Heuiser Hill. After panicking at the tough emotional parts of this book, involving lost dreams and identity and disappointment, I suddenly realized I had promised to give it away at the final book club for my elementary school. So I forced myself to finish this highly engaging book about gardening, the cello, twins, and the state fair. Recommended.

New York 2140, Kim Stanley Robinson.  The consensus of the book club was that it was too big for what it did -- several people didn't finish. Those of us who did think the author should have picked a few of the characters and concentrated on them -- we would have plumped for the kids or the building super. Keeping the whole dozen made the thing annoyingly long and unwieldy and also diluted most of the tension in any individual plot line. None of us thought the final love story made any sense for anyone either.

When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead. This worked really well for a family book club (ages from 11-79). It's short enough that it was possible for fast readers to read it in a day or so (good job, Mom!) and for laggards to at least skim the beginning, end, and important scenes (I name no names). It had lots of fun stuff to discuss, such as differing philosophies of time travel, the understanding of such expected of sixth graders, the nature of memory, and the sophistication expected of New York children (the narrator was lacking in this). And then delicious food and fun conversation with friends.

All Systems Red, Martha Wells. This was was short and fairly well liked by the Tuesday crew. A bit too short -- we were just supposed to acquire it and everyone finished the whole thing, so I hope we get the next book rolling in time. Some wanted a bit more of a look at the ethics of enslaving cyborgs; maybe the next few books will give us that. I enjoyed rereading this so soon after my first read, as it gave me a chance to see how the ending was set up and also to have a better sense of which name went with which crew member.

Night's Master, Tanith Lee. This was an interesting read that I was glad Sword and Laser nudged me to pick up. The archaic gender roles and baroque language isn't really my cup of tea, but I enjoyed seeing Lee's visions and the sense of myth and legend that she created. I should go check out last month's discussions to see what everyone else made of it; I liked hearing Tom and Veronica's take.

The Good, The Bad, and the Emus, Donna Andrews. It was fun to pick up another Andrews after reading one for a book club a few weeks ago. This one has jumped forward; Meg has a husband and annoyingly perky toddlers, but her father and newish grandfather provide plenty of comedy as well as an excuse to hunt emus through the mountains of Virginia. Fast uncomplicated fun.

My Brigadista Year, Katherine Paterson.  I received this early and promised to share it with my book club, and then kept putting it off. Finally it was time to give it away so I gulped it down in a day. It has all Paterson's talent for conveying a vivid, flawed girl through a first person narrative that described a history I had no idea about -- the Cuban revolution's giant literacy push in the early '60s. Fascinating on many levels -- history, literacy, and a coming of age as a shy bookish girl leaves home for a year.

The Lawrence Browne Affair, Cat Sebastian. Fun historical romance with two very different men who make a great team together. I liked the secrets they kept from each other, and how they had inaccurate understandings of which secrets were known. It's also a good look at the society around them, the benefits of wealth and position and the expectations at different levels of status.

Murder On a Bad Hair Day, Anne George. I chose this book for the word "bad" in the title, but I enjoyed it as a cozy mystery starting two sisters a decade or so older than me. It's fun to have retired folks in books. The mystery wasn't much, and the sisters' didn't really solve it, but I enjoyed seeing the slice of life in Birmingham Alabama, with the full moon of a naked Vulcan statue gracing the city. It was also fun to see how much cell phones have changed our lives -- I was honestly confused at one point when the main character tries to sketch something she sees on the wall instead of taking a picture with her phone. But in 2001 she didn't have a phone.

Ruin of a Rake, Cat Sebastian. Sometimes it's fun to read all the books about a family in one go, so you can appreciate the intersections. Other times you need to get a short break from the author. This was definitely more of the former -- I picked it up because I couldn't see how Sebastian would make me care about the titular rake, but she managed it. Both men were making a hash of their lives in very different ways, and I liked how their differences made them appropriate for each other despite appearances. And I liked seeing Lawrence Browne and the other characters again.

Bookmarks moved in:




Alliance of Equals, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. Episode 55-6. It's all up to Shan's daughter now.

Grunt, Mary Roach. My audio RML book. I'm enjoying the chapters on the science of supporting a troops and it's usually fairly interesting for any passengers. Somehow my sons' didn't find the section on the treatment of exploded penises easy listening. Strange.

Marry in Scandal, Anne Gracie. This continues to move along at a slow pace. They are now married and having misunderstandings about sex.

Cold Welcome, Elizabeth Moon. I can't help hoping the rescue attempts don't work, because I like seeing the protagonist figure stuff out.

Song of the Current, Sarah Tolcser. Fun but not exceptional yet.

Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer. There are many interesting pieces in this story. I keep getting distracted.

Wolf Who Rules, Wen Spencer. It's fun watching Tinker solve things.

Ancestral Machines, Michael Cobley. RML book. Fun world, but I'm hoping the various viewpoints come together soon.


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




Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott. Kenilworth's faith in Amy dies as soon as it is politically convenient.

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! 11/104-ish. Still reading Song of the Current.
2. Reading My Library: Working on Grunt and Ancestral Machines.
3. Where Am I Reading 2018?: 35/51. More than half-way! But it gets harder on the back half.