Phone Phobia

Another fun reading week. I'm planning out my books, because lists and orgainization is fun. Of course, half the time I ignore the plan and read whatever I want, but that's fun too.

I'm in a few book clubs. So at the beginning of the month I read for my friends club, and on weekends I read for my Tuesday club (there we usually have a rough idea of how far to go in the book), and if I finish those I try to read the Sword and Laser pick. That's usually a good variety of books.

I have a goal of reading all the Cybils books by the end of the year. I'm way behind, but still working on it, so I usually have a YA Cybils book lurking on my shelf -- it might be fiction, SF, nonfiction or a graphic novel, but it's there.

I like to be able to properly fangirl for the Foolscap GoH, so I try to read their books in preparation for the convention in February. Currently that means catching up on Nancy Kress -- I'm alternating between new work and older stuff, although I've been holding back on rereading the Beggers in Spain stuff because I know I love that.

And because goals are good, I also have a Quest to read a book from every shelf of my local public library. So I have one of those on the shelf as well. These are fun because I'm often pushed out of my comfort zone -- I'll pick one based on its location, or because of the cover, or because I hate all the other options.

And then I have all the other books -- the ones I've bought or acquired, the ones I picked up from the library, the ones I saw recommended, or were lent to me by friends. That's the biggest pile, really.

My currently reading is down to 24. I made a little progress with some of the dusty books, but haven't finished any yet.

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 Texts or Unleashing Readers and as I read through the Cybils Easy Reader Finalists I'll sign up there.

This Week I started:



On Basilisk Station, David Weber. For my Tuesday book club -- we wanted classic competence SF.

Piercing Me Together, Renee Watson. Cybils YA.

Clockwork Boys, Ursula Vernon T. Kingfisher. Because she's awesome.

Jade City, Fonda Lee. THIS MONTH's Sword and Laser pick. This promptness is highly unusual.

Black Butler 14, Yana Toboso. Still working my way through the series. I read them a tiny bit faster then they are written, I think.

I finished:




Robots vs Fairies, ed. Dominick Parisien. I made it! My favorite stories were the ones which managed to combine the robots and fairy themes, either unexpectedly or in direct battle. Many authors found very innovative ways to do this, which was fun. Also I found the book and so did not have to pay for it!

The Midnight Line, Lee Child. Sadly, this mostly takes place in Wyoming. It was a fun read, but Reacher never really found any opposition. He didn't even get beat up! And I found the final scene with the drug heist morally dubious.

A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers. I have now caught up to my Tuesday book club. This was fun the second time around, where I could see how Chambers was setting this up to ask the questions she was interested in. The group really liked the Jane chapters; some thought the android was an overly heavy metaphor for being trans, which was interesting because I hadn't even considered that. We had a fun discussion on what it means to be an individual, and what to do when society disagrees with you on that definition.

Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott. I finally finished this! I went into it knowing nothing but expecting a story of adventure and escapades and heroism. Instead I got creeping ambition, dire villainy, hapless maidens, and condescending ex-boyfriends. Probably well done, but I never got over my preference for a young hero zipping about.

Mortal Engines, Philip Reeve. Sword and Laser pick from last month. I read it and then felt smug as I finished the two podcasts they discussed it in. I was expecting grimness from this author, so the YA tag didn't lead me astray -- there's a lot of death in this, including main characters and the dog. I'm looking forward to the movie, but I don't think I'll continue on. I'm not in the mood for frantic teens right now, and this world gives them a lot to be frantic about.

Clockwork Boys, Ursula Vernon T. Kingfisher. OK, I need the next book. And this is a tragic paladin, and an excellent forger, and even the assassin and the young scholar are growing on me.

Black Butler 14, Yana Toboso. I've mostly forgotten what's been happening, but we started with a flashback chapter that I really liked, and then I remembered they were on not-Titanic with a bunch of Grim Reapers and zombies. My face-blindness in graphic novels means I have no idea what happened in the fight scenes, but the right people survived and went home to celebrate Easter, where just when I was drowning in characters there was a handy tutorial and I was happy again.

If Tomorrow Comes, Nancy Kress. I am so glad that Kress is the nextFoolscap 2019 GoH, because it inspired me to dig up her latest books, and they are great! I really like the different viewpoint characters, and how they mess up but stay true to themselves. And how adults get taken seriously, which is honestly often a weak point in SF; the carry-over character from the first book is a woman now in her 60s, who is a major player in the fate of two worlds.

Bookmarks moved in:






The Compleat Gentleman, Brad Minor. My audio RML book. 3/7  He still hasn't addressed why honor and coolness should be for men only, except to say that's history.

Son of the Black Sword, Larry Correia. 2-4/? Baen is serializing this on their podcast, and I'm on board for the ride. So far the guy I'm guessing is the son of the sword has fought some scary sea monsters.

Long Time Gone, Mary Connealy. My next Reading My Library book. The action is staying firmly in New Mexico.

Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer. Chugging along.

Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown. Weather is making training difficult, and inter team rivalries are rampant.

Virtues of War, Bennett R. Coles. I tend to daydream a lot during actual combat scenes in my mil-fic.

The Dispossesed, Ursula LeGuin. He just landed on the planet.

Shadow of Doubt, Nora McClintock. I am starting to dislike Nick simply because he drags so much relationship drama into these nice mysteries.

Someplace to Be Flying, Charles deLint. Is it magic, or is she crazy?

Cybils Books

Collected and read all the Easy Readers.  For my reactions, see my Cybils Finalist list. Here are the covers:



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




A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George.

The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox. Tachyons and oddities.

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

Change of Heart, Norah McClintock. The best friend is still being a brat.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca.

2018 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2017! 44/104-ish. Working on Piecing Me Together.
2. Reading My Library: Working on The Compleat Gentleman and Long Time Gone.
3. Where Am I Reading 2018?: 36/51. Wyoming is a duplicate; I did add Greece and Canada.