Things Got Worse

Well, I'm in Phase One, but apparently we're recognizing that it will be ages before we would get out (we still don't have testing capacity) so they are inventing a "Modified Phase One" just for us. As far as I can tell it's just like Phase Two but you have to eat outdoors at restaurants. Walking around the neighborhood I can see that the CAUTION tape blocking off the playgrounds is gone, but I don't know if kids ripped it off or they are officially open. I think the fear of formites on surfaces has gone down a bit.

I got to do my Elementary Book Club again, through a ZOOM call, and it was wildly popular. All my plans for managing things with two-five kids didn't work as well with twenty or so faces on my ZOOM screen, but I think we had fun anyway. We're doing it again next week, so I hope they come back. I also drove to a bookstore to get more books, and showed up at a potato giveaway but they had run out of potatoes. I deliberately showed up at the last five minutes because my household isn't hungry, I just like potatoes. Apparently with so many stadiums closed french-fry consumption is way down so potato farmers are donating their surplus crop to food banks.

And while I was living my quiet life, the world fell apart again. There were peaceful protests in my little town, and then when night fell there was also some looting so we've had curfews and some property damage. Luckily locally the police aren't aggressive so there hasn't been much violence and the people who showed up hoping for free stuff were quickly discouraged. It's sad to see people try to take advantage like that.

My currently reading is 18, four of which I probably won't touch this week so they won't appear on this blog. 

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.

Started

Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation, James Runcie. For my book club with friends.

The Midwinter Witch, Molly Ostertag. Because I liked the earlier ones.

Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton. For my Tuesday book club.

Magic for Liars, Sarah Gailey. Because I like the cover and I liked her hippopatamus books.

Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson. For my Torches and Pitchforks book club.

Mangos, Mischief and Tales of Friendship, Chita Soundar. A Cybils book. Audio.

Completed

Magician: Apprentice, Raymond Feist. Sword and Laser pick. This is a standard fantasy book, with a lot of leaning on standard fair: fantasy European politics and colonialism, sturdy mining dwarfs and tree-hugging elves, a plucky young hero with a strange type of magic, girls who show up to be love interests, etc. There are some original twists -- the rifts that let the fantasy Asian invaders in, the cursed armor the hero's best friend finds, but not enough to make me want to read the second book, which is apparently the back half of the original first novel. I enjoyed this well enough though.

Sidney Chambers and the Dangers of Temptation, James Runcie. Whew. It turns out that this is more a collection of stories that remember each other rather than a novel, and the first story was lousy. Since it was my fault my book club picked this I panicked, but my sister reassured me and it did get better later on. The setting is the late sixties/early seventies and the descriptions of the clothes were my favorite part, although I started to enjoy watching Sidney and his wife and their friends. The mystery part is definitely not the leading interest here, though. Definitely not about to become as beloved as my Daisy Dalrymple series, which was what I told the librarian to base the recommendations on.

The Midwinter Witch, Molly Ostertag. This one also spent a lot of time with Ariel, who isn't my favorite. That's probably because that's who I'd be in the family of nice people. Anyway, she's moving towards maturity but in fits and starts, and the mom in the family hasn't really accepted the idea of a boy witch, which hurts her son's feelings as he is a witch. But the story was good, the characters believably decent, and the illustrations very enjoyable. I did manage to confuse a few of the characters a few times, but that's because of me, not Ostertag.

Tropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan. I quite enjoyed this audio. There was a lot of action and leaping about and dragons, along with note taking and social concerns and language problems. Oh, and a war.

Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson. It was interesting reading this so soon after SHOUT, the book she wrote that talked about her own rape and how it influenced her writing (among many other things). I was also interested in what was familiar and what I had forgotten. Melinda actually talks a lot more than I remember. I hope the group liked it -- it should be a good discussion.

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:



Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan. 6/10 discs. Did I go for one drive or two? Any way, I made a bit of progress.

Uncompromising Honor, David Weber. Baen Free Radio Hour's serial, part 15. I do some podcast listening while doing housework now, so I guess I'll try to keep up.

Witchmark, C.L. Polk. I'm on a roll with fake-historical English stories.

13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher. I'm hoping this book convinces me that the tape-sender was not an incredibly cruel person. So far it has not done that.

The Ballad of Huck and Miguel, Tim DeRoche. My next RML book. So far the fake-kid language mistakes are endearing rather than annoying, which is amazing work by Tim DeRoche.

Picture Books / Short Stories:

I read another Greek baby book! This one, part of a series about a tricky little crow, had a lot of repetitive sentences which helped me, and of course I could follow the incrementing numbers. 

  

Palate Cleansers

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




The Educated Child, William Bennett. 

Cookie, Jacqueline Wilson. 

Give All to Love, Patricia Veryan. The ball is complete.

Wool, Hugh Howey. A sheriff who is a detective!

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. Moving from learning to read to reading

Reading Challenges

1. May Asian Heritage Month: I ended up having read 4 books, which completed 3 of the 4 challenges. I have a few blank spots on my calendar which I will try to complete.
2. Cybils TBR Challenge: #CybilsReaddown: Count now at 19! 
3. Cybils 2017. Nothing. 
4. Cybils 2018. Nothing. 
5. Cybils 2019.  I am listening to the first early chapter book and have the others on hold.
6. Reading My Library. I started The Ballad of Huck and Miguel. But I'm in no hurry because I can't get the next book until the libraries reopen, which is apparently sometime in Phase 3. We are still in Phase 1.
7. Ten to Try. At 9/10. I now have my KCLS staff recommendation on hold. And my musician book is lame. 
8. Where Am I Reading: 17/51 states. 13 Countries. Nothing new. 
9. Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. 17/24. Six left:  #2 (retelling by PoC author), 6 (play by PoC or queer author), 13 (food book about a new to me cuisine), 17 (sci-fi novella), 23 (literary magazine), and 24 (Indigenous author).