All Countries Matter But I Wear Red White and Blue

It was a fun reading week although I've started so many books that it seems like I'm not making any progress. But they are all good books so I'm enjoying myself. I had several good book groups -- my Tuesday gaming group officially decided to skip Tooth and Claw because half the people had finished it before the other half start, so we are currently officially reading The Warden to see what the genesis was like. That's fun. And my Sword and Laser and Cloudy book groups met and we had a good time discussion The Memory of Empire and New Suns. And I'd better start rereading Spinning Silver so I'm ready for this Friday.

My libraries are almost open! The librarians are inside, and about a third of the libraries are available for drop off and scheduled pick up. So I'm slowly sending back the books I have out, where they will sit for a few days before being processed. And I'd better finish the ones I've been hoarding, but I want to make sure some of my holds show up for a possible pick up. I'm apparently a library addict, so I have to make sure I have my hit.

I've also been rearranging my bookshelves, so I've listed some on paperbackswap.com and have been happy to send some out to new homes. I only like to list about a box full because otherwise I tend to lose them and get all flustered. And I'm super distracted because I get to vote for the science fiction Hugo Awards this year so I feel I should read a lot of stuff. I'm working my way through three novels and the graphic works right now. 

The weather has been chilly and then sunny, which is good for my running. I've managed to complete WEEK FIVE of the Couch Potato training program, which is a huge accomplishment for me. I had to run for 20 minutes in a row! No walking breaks. Yikes. A month ago I would have laughed at the idea, so kudos to Alexander, who has proved to be an inspirational personal trainer.

I put a Biryani on the menu plan for Wednesday, which was very stressful for the cook as he had no idea what that was. Apparently he likes to taste along the way to make sure things are going well, but since he had no idea where he was going that proved difficult. I thought it turned out well (it's rice and veggies with spices), but we had a lot of leftovers. Friday was a tasty pasta with tomato/cream sauce, so that was more straightforward. And he makes real salads to go on the sides, which I'm enjoying. Saturday was the 4th of July, so my BIL fired up the grill and we had burgers, hot dogs, corn-on-the-cob and all the traditional sides. Then the illegal fireworks went on all night, but I figure as long as people were social distancing as they set 'em off it's all good. 

My currently reading exploded a bit (23), but everything is a good read so I'm happy with it. (Three of which I probably won't touch this week so they won't appear on this blog.) The Hugo voting is in a few weeks, so I have to read a lot of stuff. 

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 CYBIL reading makes me eligible this week.

Started

LaGuardia, Nnedi Okorafor. Graphic finalist for 2020 Hugos.

Paper Girls Vol 6, Brian K. Vaughan. Graphic finalist for 2020 Hugos.

Middlegame, Seanan McGuire. Novel finalist for 2020 Hugos.

Parker Inheritance, Varian Johnson. Cybils finalist.

The Warden, Anthony Trollope. For my Tuesday Minecraft club.

Mooncakes, Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu. Graphic finalist for 2020 Hugos.

The Chosen: Monstress Vol 4, Marjorie Lu. Graphic finalist for 2020 Hugos.

Completed

A Longer Fall, Charlaine Harris. Library book. I really like the character and the world Harris is building her. Her alternate North America is reminiscent of the real one but with plausible-enough differences. And Gunny Rose is a young, honorable woman who hasn't yet had all the newness rubbed off; she is building a reputation and wants to deserve it inside and out. I'm not Eli is a good partner for her, but he's interesting and brings in some glamour with his royal connections and magic. I think I'll get this for my shelves.

New Kid, Jerry Craft. Cybils 2019 Graphic novel. Thank you to Completely Full Bookshelf for hosting the 2020 Books By Black Voice Giveaway where I won this book. It's a great graphic story about the a year starting at a new school, with the young artist (his own art is mixed in with the narrative art in a great combination) deals with bullies, friends, strange puppet-wearing kids, and the vast income differential in the school. And he's black, which is inevitably a part of the social world and mediates many of his interactions. 

Die Vol 1, Kieron Gillen. Hugo Graphic book finalist. This was a neat twist on the "the D&D game gets real" idea, throwing in the difference between teenagers and adults and how the adults developed after trauma. I was a bit thrown by all the faces to learn, since there were the characters as kids and then as adults, and then also as their player characters, but I mostly managed.

LaGuardia, Nnedi Okorafor. Graphic finalist for 2020 Hugos. Good graphics and a fun story, with a family adjusting to a late-coming new baby in the front and then politics with aliens and drama in the background. The varied aliens made it easier for me to tell characters apart, which is nice. I found the main character rather annoying -- she walks out on her unborn baby's father without warning. Her excuse is that she is discombobulated to find out that he was infected with alien spores, which, fair enough, but she never raises the issue with the alien itself, who carelessly infected them without knowing the result or what the effects would be. So it seemed a bit emotionally shallow but still fun and colorful.

Paper Girls Vol 6, Brian K. Vaughan. Graphic finalist for 2020 Hugos. It's a bit late to jump into this series; I did manage to figure out the story and which characters were friends and which were clones or time-displaced or just vaguely similar strangers, but it meant the relationships didn't have much weight. And there was no nostalgia because my life as a paperkid did not share many features with these kids' jobs. But it was interesting.

New Suns, edited by Nisi Shawl. For my Cloudy book club. This was a Nebula-winning collection of short stories, which few of the members finished (none of us are huge short story fans). I made it through, and really there weren't any duds. Some were fun like Bucknell's opener, some fun but also thought provoking ("One Easy Trick"), and some left me thinking "oof" which is a big complement ("Robots of Eden" and "Harvest"). We got some new authors out of it to help us pick future books, which was the main point.

A Properly Unhaunted Place, William Alexander. A Cybils 2017 middle grade finalist. This was charming -- the world was complete, the characters were interesting and fresh, and the problems were the right size and solved by our heroes. I would gladly hand this to a kid to read. 

Mooncakes, Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu. Graphic finalist for 2020 Hugos. This is a YA story about two childhood friends who meet again in adulthood, fall in love, and defeat the bad guys. It's very diverse in a earnest, natural kind of way, with all the good guys being incapable of clannishness but the bad guys can show their colors by being unaccepting. It's a fun, fairly easy read, and I could tell most of the people apart most of the time, and it didn't matter much when I couldn't.  (To tell you how bad I am at recognizing people, I got the grandmothers confused a few times. They look nothing alike.) 

The Aeronaut's Windlass, Jim Butcher. (Audio) Chapter 50s. I started this a few summers ago, but the library called it back. But I had mostly enjoyed it, so I got it again on audio and finished it. It's a great summer read -- lots of daring adventures and young brave military heroes, one of which is a cat, ships that sail through the air, evil magicians and the good ones to counter them -- zoom! The characters themselves are easily recognized, but the pace and suspense works well. 

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:

Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan. 7/10 discs. Interesting things are happening, bear-wise.

Uncompromising Honor, David Weber. Baen Free Radio Hour's serial, part 19. I'm behind on my podcasts because I'm been listening to the Hugo finalists.

Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton. For my Tuesday book club. The older sister's new home. It's fun to read this alongside an actual Trollope.

Stamped From the Beginning, Ibram X Kendi. (Audio) For an online book club. Into part III! From Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson to William Garrison.

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer. OK, I can finally get back to this now that I finished the Aeronaut book. Too bad the library wants it back pronto!

Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler. Reread. I didn't manage to finish it before the club, but I got enough to understand and even throw in a few bits. And now I'm hooked and want to finish the reread and probably read the sequel.

The City in the Middle of the Night, Charlie Jane Anders. Another Hugo book. OK, the story is good and the characters interest me. But I, like Sophie, want to go back to the alien crocodiles.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alex E. Harrow. I'm finding it harder to get into this fantasy alongside all the good SF I'm reading, but I think I'll like it.

Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling. I'm listening to celebrities read this to me. Stephen Fry is up.

Picture Books / Short Stories:

 

Well, there was a whole book of short stories. I'm a bit sad some of them didn't show up in the Hugos; I would've nominated "Robots of Eden" if I had read it in time.

I'm also working my way through a Greek alphabet book. Oh -- my 'ex said that the word for "bandage" and "cigarette" in Greek is very similar and has been trending towards cigarette, which is why Google failed me. Also he is not impressed with my reading material. Hey, I'm slowly moving from a two-year old to a three-year old proficiency in Greek -- I'm happy with myself!

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. I suspect most of the people complaining about New Math (or New New Math) don't actually know what it is. Classroom education is a bit more complicated than whether or not to make kids chant the multiplication tables.

Give All to Love, Patricia Veryan. 

Wool, Hugh Howey. 

The Wind Gourd of La'amaomao, Moses Nakuima. This is great. There's lots of Hawai'ian words in it, which gives it the feel of a SF story. 

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. Nonfiction books and how to evaluate them. 

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils 2017. Finished Properly Unhaunted Place. Ordered A Face Like Glass.
2. Cybils 2018. Finished Harbor Me. Started The Parker Inheritance.
3. Cybils 2019.  More Early Readers are on hold.
4. Reading My Library. I wonder if I could make a librarian pick a book for me...
5. Ten to Try. At 9/10. I now have my KCLS staff recommendation on hold. 
6. Where Am I Reading: 19/51 states -- I'm pretty sure A Longer Fall is in Louisiana. 17 Countries. LaGuardia is mostly in Nigeria.
7. Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. 20/24. Four left:  6 (play by PoC or queer author), 13 (food book about a new to me cuisine),  23 (literary magazine), and 24 (Indigenous author).