Last weekend was my Foolscap Convention, which is a time to celebrate books and making things and authors. But it meant I was away from home and forgot about my little blog. So this is two weeks worth of reading.
Right after Foolscap I had a week of book clubs, including my elementary book club at the local school (split into two this year because of strange lunch schedules), the Romance Series run by a local librarian, and my oldest bookclub where I hang out with friends. I skipped a movie last week because there was absolutely nothing I wanted to see. Well, I wouldn't mind seeing Birds of Prey, but I didn't think my friend would like it. I should go see two this week to make up for it!
My family has started the birthday season -- my nephew and my mom share a birthday, so there were presents and phone calls to make. Later this month comes my sister, and then me, and then my son, then my niece. It would be a cake a month until summer but some of these people don't like cake! Astonishing, I know. I have gifts ready to go because there were good selections at my convention this year.
My currently reading shelf snuck back up to 21, mainly because I've got three audio books on the go. And I've misplaced one book somewhere around here.
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. Ditto for the children's lit version at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers. My book club reading qualifies me there.
Started:
Dreams From Many Rivers, Margarita Engle. Cybils 2019 poetry. Audio CD.
The Matchmaker's List, Sonya Lalli. For Renton Library Romance Series.
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The Clone Codes, Patricia McKissack. And also John McKissack. For the Talbot Hill Elementary Book Club.
Little Wolf's Book of Badness, Ian Whybrow. For the other Talbot Hill Elementary Book Club.
Fortune's Pawn, Rachel Bach. For my Friday book club.
Honor's Knight, Rachel Bach. The sequel because I liked Fortune's Pawn.
The Pearl, John Steinbeck. For the River Runs Under It library book club.
Giant Spider and Me Vol 2, Kikori Morino. A delightful and delightfully bizarre manga.
Completed:
The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang. Wow, made it! It's tough for me to read about such young people having such horrific experiences, and making such horrific choices in response. I'm glad I read it but I'm not sure I'm up for the sequel.
Masques, Patricia Briggs. I liked this even more on the reread, although I'm sad that I squished my copy a bit. I like the fantasy world and the characters and I want to spend a bit more time there. Lucky for me there's a sequel!
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The Clone Codes, Patricia McKissack. And also John McKissack. The kids are getting lazy -- almost no one read this! On the plus side, three of them checked out it on the way out of the library so I think they regretted it. We picked a short book for next time.
The Matchmaker's List, Sonya Lalli. For Renton Library Romance Series. I'm not sure whether to count this as read -- I skipped all over to finish in time for book club (I tend to take a break at embarrassing moments and this was full of them so I'd skip ahead and then come back and then zip all over. So I probably read most of it? But I could show up at book club, where we had some new people who seemed happy with the book and the group. Anyway, it was a fun peek at Canadian life.
Little Wolf's Book of Badness, Ian Whybrow. For the other Talbot Hill Elementary Book Club. Another bunch of slackers! I gave them a long book for next month to see if that is more interesting. I found the mix of wolf cub and boy very British and amusing, although the story was fairly predictable.
Fortune's Pawn, Rachel Bach. For my Friday book club. I have forgotten every last bit of the plot, but I remember enjoying the character and the story. So rereading it is fun. I picked it for that, and was glad to see that everyone else seemed to like it as well, and a few people even read the sequels. We liked the different protagonist -- Devi was brash, career oriented, and hyper good at her job, and the guy who loved her was overwhelmed by his emotions, which was a fun reversal on the trope.
Giant Spider and Me Vol 2, Kikori Morino. Rachel Manija recommended this manga, and apart from some of the text being awfully small for my aged eyes, I find it as delightful as she told me. There's good cooking advice, a child managing by herself in a vaguely post-apocalypse world, the friends she makes, and of course, a giant spider helpfully befriending her. In this book we get the guess that the spider is young and sorta imprinting on people so probably unlikely to go on a killing spree, no matter what the silly villagers moaning about "monsters" fret about.
Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:
Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan. 4/10 discs. The bear seems quite pleasant, which is why I was so confused when I thought he was also the dwarf.
Book Lust, Nancy Pearl. Forgot to read this.
Tropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan. The library called this home.
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke. It is not a good sign when I seek out the sleepy poetry readers rather than this book. I'm still at 29%.
Kill the Farm Boy, Delilah Dawson and Kevin Hearne. My next RML book. This isn't really plot driven, so I am happy when I pick it up but not driven to seek it out.
Picture Books / Short Stories:
None this week.
Palate Cleansers
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 Educated Child, William Bennett.
Cookie, Jacqueline Wilson.
Give All to Love, Patricia Veryan.
Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt.
Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca.
Reading Challenges
- Cybils 2017. Have some middle grade fiction out from the library. Haven't read it yet.
- Cybils 2018. Got some more out from the library.
- Cybils 2019. Woot -- the winners came out! I'd better get started.
- Reading My Library. I am reading one.
- Ten to Try. I've got 4/10 already!
- Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. 6/24. I'm ahead! No progress.
- Where Am I Reading: Seven states, six countries so far.
1 comment:
So... I didn't even know The Poppy War was from a series, so I feel completely out of the loop. I just kept hearing the title and I added it to my list for that reason. I still want to read book #1 and I guess we'll just see after that. And I guess with five children there seems to always be a birthday coming up around here, but our birthday season is especially heavy around the start of the school year -- August through October. I hope the b-day season goes well for you all, this year. Have a wonderful reading week, Beth!
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