Well, I'm showing up late this week but my excuse is strong. We had our online conventions this weekend, and it was more socializing than I've done since, well since this convention last year. So I was exhausted, and gave myself a few days off from screens afterward. I had fun watching panels, chatting on Discord, and playing games. Some new friends showed up (easier to get to a convention from your home than traveling!).
I also managed to finish more books than I started, and to make progress on most of the books I'm claiming to be reading. So that felt almost like accomplishing things.
My nephew turned 18 (gulp) and we had a nice celebration at home, with cake from the Cheesecake Factory and dinner from Red Robin. He's been into Egyptian stuff lately, so I gave him a box of assorted Egyption stuff. And then we all watched The Mummy.
Other than that I haven't seen much TV. I did watch one episode of Nailed It (Mexico version) to see if that would remind me to cook, but it didn't work.
My currently reading is still 23, which is still ridiculous but less so than last week.
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" but I'm late so I probably won't sign up. Ditto for the children's lit version at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers.
Started
Kat & Mouse 2: Tripped, Alex de Campi. Sequel to a book I enjoyed.
Nightshades, Melissa F. Olson. For my Friday book club. Which got postponed.
Completed
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, Ursula Vernon aka T. Kingfisher. This is a charming children's book filled with competency and a willingness to work hard at one's job and to do the right thing, which may be helping orphaned friends or may be defending one's city from an attacking army. I liked how it paused to examine things like the political abuse of heroism, or what children should be protected from, but I also liked the idea of a sourdough starter as a weapon of mass destruction and a gingerbread man familiar. I'll keep recommending these books.
One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission that Flew Us to the Moon, Charles Fishman. As my brother said, once you start thinking of this book as a collection of essays about the moon landings instead of a history of them, it works much better. I had bogged down on the chapter about computers, because Fishman never mentions the people known as computers in his excitement about how Apollo helped define modern computers (NASA bought transistors in such volume that companies learned to make them quickly, cheaply, and accurately). But the stuff about Kennedy's deeply political attitude towards space versus the legacy he left to Johnson and the discussion of the constantly redefining of success and the massive gains the project brought to America, science and the world are things that I'll probably remember. For a little while, anyway.
Kat & Mouse 2: Tripped, Alex de Campi. Sequel to a book I enjoyed. The first book was a Cybils finalist, and I liked the mix of middle school shenanigans, mystery of the prankster, and MacGyver type sleuthing, so I came back for more. The friend drama was rather standard (jealousy, mean girl maneuvering) but there were also several pranks and a science move using batteries to retrieve mail from a mailbox during a crime investigation. I'm enjoying these and will read the next ones.
Punching the Air, Ibi Zoboi. 2020 Cybils finalist. I'm still not a huge fan of verse novels, but the hopelessness of his situation is gut-wrenching. You can see Amal making many poor choices, but he's pushed towards them by the racism in the system -- teachers assume many things about him and also make choices while teaching that tells him they don't care about him, and then wonder why he's reluctant to trust them. And then the world assumes he's a thug and the white boys who attacked them are victims. Details like the racist tattoos on the guards reinforce how the deck is stacked against him at every turn. It's a harsh depiction of America today.
Return of the Thief, Megan Whalen Turner. I loved the new and the old characters, I was stressed by the political intrigue and the costs political decisions took of the individuals involved, and I loved the elephants. Now I want to reread the entire series from the beginning.
Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:
My wall of currently-reading books is slightly less massive!
Uncompromising Honor 50/??, David Weber. Baen Free Radio Hour's serial. Argh, for some reason the podcasts aren't automatically appearing in my Apple podcasts lists. And then they keep falling off. I listen on the road (which I've been avoiding because SNOW) but download from wifi so this is a problem.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James. Sword and Laser pick. Made some progress!
A Long Time Until Now, Michael Z Williamson. Made some progress!
Children of Time, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Made progress!
The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein, Farah Mendelson. Hugo finalist. Made progress!
The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton. Made some progress!
Someplace To Be Flying, Charles de Lint. Didn't touch it.
The Bourne Supremacy, Robert Ludlum. Didn't touch it.
The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brien. My previous Tuesday book club book. Didn't touch it.
An Extraordinary Union, Alyssa Cole. Made progress!
Sucker Punch, Laurell K. Hamilton. I renewed it so now I'm concentrating on my other dim hero book. But I picked it up a few times.
Seven Sisters, Lucinda Riley. Because my mom and aunt recommended it. And now the library wanted it back. But I requested it again.
Midnight Sun, Stephanie Meyer. Oh Edward, you sweet vampire child. You have a nice vocabulary and are clearly ready for the SATS. But it's better to only use the longer word when it actually fits the meaning you want better.
Penric's Fox, Lois McMaster Bujold. Yum. Also, this one is fun because it was written out of order. But I didn't make much progress because I refused to drive anywhere with snow on the ground.
Picture Books / Short Stories:
Who Would Win: Green Ants Vs Army Ants, Jerry Pallotta.
Who Would Win: Tarantula vs Scorpion, Jerry Pallotta.
Who Would Win: Tyrannosaurus Rex vs Velociraptor, Jerry Pallotta. My 2/3rd grade book club topic was this series, since we've had trouble all getting copies of the same book and we like to make sure there's an audio for beginning readers. This was a big hit -- everyone enjoyed the ones they read, and we had fun discussing if Pallotta was right about who would win and then proposing our own battles, starting with other animals and then I started pitting fictional characters against each other and then ending with Librarians vs Teachers! I hope we have as much fun next month.
Bears (Animals Attack), Gail Jarrow. This is me stalking all of Jarrow's nonfiction books. It paired up nicely with the Who Would Win books, and I'd definitely send the kids who finished all the former towards these. The message is, bears don't usually attack people, but when they do, they'll mess you up.
Good Dog, Aggie, Lori Reis. 2009 Cybils Early Reader finalist. Cute pictures, pleasant and simple text in a few short chapters. I read this as a description of how to train a dog that isn't really food oriented.
Camp Babymouse, Jennifer Holm. 2006 Cybils Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novel finalist. Babymouse would be a very annoying student in a class, but I can see why kids like reading these; she is just silly and just brash enough to be comforting. I would dodge these but I'd make sure the kids had them.
Never Race a Runaway Pumpkin (Roscoe Rules 7), Katherine Applegate. 2009 Cybils Short Chapter Book finalist. I have no idea where my personal line for picture book vs book book is, but this felt like a picture book to me. A first grader avoids having common sense, and sometimes gets in trouble for it. But mostly he got in trouble for being mean to his baby sister, which he accepts as fair even as he prefers to describe it as a pumpkin racing incident.
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.
Wool, Hugh Howey.
Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho.
Under the Eye of the Storm, John Hersey.
Dates From Hell, Kim Harrison & others.
Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. More about formal and informal methods of evaluating reading skills.
Reading Challenges
- Cybils 2020. Finished Punching the Air which is very depressing.
- Cybils 2019. Starting Sal and Gabi Break the World today. For sure.
- Cybils 2018. None.
- Cybils 2017. None. I just need 3 YA books to be done. But YA is hard.
- Early Cybils: Read a short chapter book and some picture books.
- KCLS 10 To Try: 2/10. Cog had a non-human characters. And the Penrics are beloved rereads.
- Reading My Library. Nothing.
- Where Am I Reading 2021: 0/51 states. 1 Country.
I'm putting this at the end because I suspect it's complete fiction, but I feel I should attempt some structure.
I am reading:
- Book I own: Children of Time. Next: A Deadly Education
- Library Book: Midnight Sun. Next: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe
- Ebook I own: Extraordinary Union. Up Next: Hmm... Probably the new Penric.
- Library Ebook: Luminaries. Next: Bourne Factor
- Book Club Book: Nightshades. Next: The Fold
- Tuesday Book Club Book: Somewhere To Be Flying. Still haven't finished Wine Dark Sea.
- Review Book: None. Up Next: Not sure.
- Hugo Book: The Pleasant Profession of Robert A Heinlein. Next: Joanna Russ.
- Rereading: Well, there's one more Magpie books...
- Audio: The library seems to have all the Penrics on audio.
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