Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Stay Far Away! Stay Home Already!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Well, things certainly escalated fast, didn't they?

Social distancing is the new mantra. This week I went to three stores. And I drove by a book store so they could throw my order through the window. I wanted to support the new book store, so I'm glad they got creative when they closed their store. But after this week it will be mail order or nothing.

I tried to skip one of the store trips by ordering for Pick Up, but after getting a spot at the end of the week it was canceled at the last minute. At that point I decided that people stuck at home needed those spots more than I did and I braved the store to do my own shopping.

Committee meetings are all on computer now, and we finished up the Mandalorian with my brother watching from his house. Come to think of it, we should have invited my other brother was well... Maybe next week!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous, so I've been going on walks with my sister just around the neighborhood. We wave at the neighbors and they wave back, and we all cross the street so we don't get within the regulation 6 feet of each other. We've very law-abiding here in King County.

Stay safe, everyone!

My currently reading is back to 20 but I think I'm finally settling down to some reading.

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 Cybils books qualify me.

Started: 

The Vagina MonologuesThe Light BrigadeSmoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson, #12)American Dreamer (Dreamers #1)Refugee

The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler. For my Torches and Pitchforks book club, which will be held remotely.

The Light Brigade, Kameron Hurley. For Sword and Laser book club, both online and local (remote this month!).

Smoke Bitten, Patricia Briggs. New release bought from a new bookstore just as they went from a browsing store to a drive-up store. Order remotely, drive by, and they toss the books through your window.

American Dreamer, Adriana Herrera. For my Cloudy book club, which will be remote this month.

Refugee, Alan Gratz. 2017 Cybils book.

Completed:

The Orphans of Raspay (Penric and Desdemona, #7)The Affair (Jack Reacher, #16)Smoke Bitten (Mercy Thompson, #12)The Epic Fail of Arturo ZamoraThe Vagina Monologues

The Orphans of Raspay, Lois McMaster Bujold. They closed the gyms, so I gobbled this up. Lots of cheerful fire and explosions and sinking ships, and the orphans come out OK.

The Affair, Lee Child. Reacher solves the case, bangs the girl, and sees that justice prevails, but the price is his army career. That's not a spoiler, since the first two happen in every book and the last is the reason for this one. During the first days of the home stay part of the epidemic it was good to have a predictable book to snuggle into.

Smoke Bitten, Patricia Briggs. This one took a hard look at Adam's role in their marriage, showing where he needed to bend and where Mercy needed to either challenge or accomodate them. That worked really well for me, and I liked how it played into their dealing with their enemy. Well, enemies, although one was much more important than the other, the the latter's chagrin. A fun book to binge read.

The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora, Pablo Cartaya. 2017 Cybils middle grade fiction. An interesting slice of life story that worked well with what it did. The crush part was not that interesting, but I liked his developing relationship with his family and how he dealt with the changes caused by both external and internal challenges.

The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler. For my Torches and Pitchforks book club. This was good to read, and fun to start reading aloud whenever my adult sons wandered into the room (they are both home from college for remote learning). A lot of it is stuff I've heard a lot, but some of it was deeply moving, other pieces infuriating in their necessity, and some pieces heart-piercing. I'm looking forward to the discussion.


Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:

Tender MorselsThe Tropic of Serpents (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #2)Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Uncompromising Honor (Honor Harrington, #14)Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)Shout


Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan. 4/10 discs. All car reads have slowed tremendously -- I don't go many places anymore!

Tropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan. The library called this home. I will try to get it back, probably after I finish Jonathan Strange. They are a bit too close together to read simultaneously.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke. I'll need to find a way to listen at home. Maybe if I try exercising?

Uncompromising Honor, David Weber. Baen Free Radio Hour's serial. Again, podcasts are not getting listened to since I'm not in my car.

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir. I'm starting to like this house.

Shout, Laurie Halse Anderson. 2019 Cybils poetry. This goes very nicely with Vagina Monologues.



Picture Books / Short Stories:

There was a short story in the back of The Affair, which was a little story of Reacher being smart and aware and a good fighter back in his childhood. He even got to kiss a girl, so the whole novel package in a few pages.

Palate Cleansers

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

A Traitor to Memory (Inspector Lynley, #11)The Educated Child: A Parents Guide from Preschool Through Eighth GradeCookieGive All to Love (Sanguinet Saga, #11)Tell the Wolves I'm HomeReading and Learning to Read

A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George.

The Educated Child, William Bennett. History and geography for the elementary grades.

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. More about Basal readers.

Reading Challenges
  1. Cybils 2017. Finished Epic Fail. 
  2. Cybils 2018. Nothing.
  3. Cybils 2019.  Read in Shout
  4. Reading My Library. Nothing.
  5. Ten to Try. I've got 6/10 already! I forgot I counted my friend's book club pick.
  6. Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. 11/24. Nothing new. Penric was a few pages too long.
  7. Where Am I Reading: 12/51 states, what with adding Mississippi and Florida.

2 comments:

Laurie C said...

That's a long list! I listen to all Jack Reacher books on audio from the library. Love the constancy of the character, and usually space them out so they don't become too repetitive.
We only JUST got the word that we can close down the curbside pick-up at the public library I work at. We librarians will be working remotely promoting online resources for the next couple of weeks.

2Shaye ♪♫ said...

My, oh my. I don't envy your location right now. My brother and sister in law live in Seattle and it sounds like they're going nowhere. He's an electrician, so he's basically out of work right now with no pay/benefits. We're in a very secluded section of the country, so we'll probably be one of the last places this will hit. So far, nothing in any of the surrounding counties. But our day is coming. Anyway, I really enjoyed listening to Shout because it was narrated by Laurie Halse Anderson. I seem to especially appreciate audiobooks when the author reads them -- feels like I'm getting something extra. Take care this week, Beth!