Sad News

Well, it was a tough week for my mom; her beloved cat Luna succumbed to cancer. It's especially hard because mom has only started making new friends after moving out here last fall, so she and Luna were especially close. Luna spent her last weeks lapping up her pain medicine from endless supplies of her favorite food, but when the medicine stopped working mom make sure she was all right. It was a hard time.

We both had doctors appointments -- mom with a face bone expert (I forget the polysyllabic name for the speciality) who seemed on the ball and gave concise answers to what to expect, what risks are reasonable, and what will be the treatment plan for the jaw issues. It was overall very promising. I also had a consult with the doctor who will do my MOHS procedure early in March, so my excuse to get out of everything will soon disappear. 

My sister came home from their weekend in Portland and we had her cake ready. I can't believe I only recently learned how easy buttercream icing is to make, especially since I've been making the similar child-friendly hard sauce all my life. I made the cake and the frostings, with Alexander's help, and then got Paulos to combine them. Which caused him to make fun of the temperature I like to keep the house at (as cold as possible) as it made spreading the icing really difficult. 

Paulos also made falafel one night and mac n' cheese another night, that last one using our insta-pot, a contraption we still regard with suspicion and some fear. But nothing exploded and it was very tasty. Alexander heroically stepped up to make the pita for the falafel, since I was with my mom for Luna's last trip to the vet.

I was a real social butterfly this week -- lunch with a friend, a movie with Alexander (Uncharted, which does what it says on the tin and was fun), and several zoom things: Foolscap Music Night, Foolscap Book club to discuss Harry Connolly's Child of Fire, which I heartily recommend, and the usual family zoom, where I forced them to solve both the daily Wordle and the Quordle, which is 4 wordle's at once. We triumphed, of course.

I'm trying to keep up with my Deep Space 9, and made it through 3.14 Heart of Stone, where Odo confesses his affection for Kira  but she doesn't really hear him as she is trapped in crystal. The special effects have not aged well but I'm enjoying the story. Then I had more laundry so I watched 3.15 Destiny, where Sisko learns he may be in the prophecies, but that doesn't mean he has to follow the orders of the people interpreting them. Kira also has to confront that her boss is her Emissary. 

I retain my top score on my list of all the Cybils finalists. Ha! I am leaving the link here in hopes that other people try their luck. Even if they beat me. 

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'm going to go sign up. Ditto for the children's lit version at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers.

Started

Strange Love, Ann Aguirre. For Cloudy book club.

The Canyon's Edge, Dusti Bowling. Picked up at library.

One For the Books, Jenn McKinlay. Picked up at library. Set in Connecticut!

The Barren Grounds, David A. Robertson. Picked up at library.

Salt Magic, Hope Larson. Cybils finalist. 

Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms, Crystal Frasier. Cybils finalist.

Cranky Chicken, Katherine Battersby. Cybils finalist.

Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear. From my shelves. Twice -- I have it on audio and paper.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou. For Torches and Pitchforks book club.

My Body in Pieces, Marie-Noelle Hebert. Cybils finalist. 

Completed

Strange Love, Ann Aguirre. For Cloudy book club. This was adorable! It's very close to Ice Planet Barbarians in theme, but while that one felt like a good natured joke that ran a bit long, this one was actually romantic and fun. The aliens were very alien! The woman-whose-life-was-a-mess becomes successful on her new planet in very believable ways! The dog who learned to talk was not annoying but rather a lot of fun. The world building was, well, not really robust but very interesting and fun to picture. I liked the friendships our protagonists made and think they will do well in their final ending, and now I really want to read the rest of the series.

The Canyon's Edge, Dusti Bowling. On the plus side, this was an exciting story of a girl lost in the desert who has to save herself with luck and grit and very few supplies. I read it very quickly.  Wow did this girl have bad luck! Her tragic backstory is that her mom was killed in a random shooting, and that made her dad super paranoid, so she's also isolated now, except for her great therapist. And then this book happens, which has a lot of unlikely but possible bad things happening, so she has to deal with all them but doing so helps her grow emotionally and actually make use of many of the things her therapist has been trying to teach her. On the minus side, most of this is told in verse, and it's interesting and well done, but I have a distaste for verse novels so it was a bit of a slog for me. But I made it through, so that's a huge sign that it's very well done. Being set in Arizona didn't hurt, of course.

Salt Magic, Hope Larson. 2021 Cybils Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novel finalist. I really liked how the fantastical and emotional layers worked together. Vonceil's brother is growing away from her because he's older, he's fought and returned from a war, and he had a close encounter with a salt witch. Their farm and family are in trouble because the Dust Bowl is looming and because their water has been cursed. She has to figure out the magic to appease the salt witch as well as decide what kind of adult she wants to grow into. It's really well done and also a gripping story.

One For the Books, Jenn McKinlay. A fun cosy mystery, where our hero librarian has to solve a murder while also frantically putting together her wedding, which has unexpectedly drastically increased in size a week before the event. Oh, and the murdered guy was the officiant. It was fun, but I was croggled at the inciting incident, which rests on her having accidentally sent out dozens of invitations, and NOBODY REPLIED. Apparently because there was no RSVP card. This is in a small Connecticut town, with a lot of old people on the accidental invite list. Who all apparently thought that no pre-paid reply card meant they didn't have to mention whether they were going to the reception. Um, I guess that explains why there are 11+ murders in this small town -- they are all psychopaths!

Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms, Crystal Frasier. 2021 Cybils Young Adult Graphic Novel finalist. In an unnamed place where cheer squads are very different from my experience, two girls on the team share some struggles and go to homecoming together. One girl is antisocial and smart; she needs to have some team stuff for her college applications. The other girl is trans and dealing with the issues of being the first trans girl at her school; the rest of the team secretly want her to be captain because that will help THEIR college applications, a boy figures she'll be so grateful for his attention he doesn't have to listen to her refusals, and her parents want to be sure all this transition "stuff" won't affect her grades. So it's a story about two girls and their problems, and the problems are interesting but it works because the girls are engaging and convincing characters.

Framed, Frank Cottrell Boyce. 2006 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction finalist. I really liked the Welsh village described, although it was odd how none of the girls liked to play soccer. The large family was loving but flawed, and I liked how drastic the reactions to the artwork were, and how the stuff English guy missed almost all of it and kept his attention on the kid who wasn't really getting it. The heist stuff was fun, as well as the feeling of knowing more than the narrator and seeing the things that the kids didn't understand. I think it would be a fun family read-aloud. 

Cranky Chicken, Katherine Battersby. 2021 Cybils Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novel finalist. Just over the line from a picture book, this buddy story features a unibrow chicken and a hyperactive worm, who somehow the chicken isn't tempted to eat. It's goofy and fun and would work for late early readers. 

My Body in Pieces, Marie-Noelle Hebert. 2021 Cybils Young Adult Graphic Novel finalist. A grim memoir about fatphobia and the transition from happy childhood to an unrelenting reminder that you are lesser and hideous and only seen as a overweight failure. The graphite pencil artwork does a great job showing through blurring and unfocused images how the world is felt emotionally. I like the notes of hope at the end but the journey felt authentic and bruising. 

-------  And now a book from my blogging hiatus! Someday I will mention them all -----

Shout of Honor, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. A side story in the Liaden universe that was just what I wanted as I attended WorldCon last December. There's a love story, a Yxtrang double crosses, and a sexy Yxtrang. It didn't surprise me but it entertained me. 

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:

Ok, I'm only going to put a book in here when I actually try to read it. Or at least actually pick it up and think about reading it. This week I made some progress in:

Live Free or Die, John Ringo. This is The Baen Free Radio Podcast serial, so every week they read a few pages to me. I made it to December! Dragon Tears for breakfast!

Forging a Nightmare, Patricia A. Jackson. I feel like I should work at deciphering the code.

Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emyrs. I am enjoying this.

Terra Nullius, Clare G. Colman. I am going to finish all the book club books from when I was Cybils-ing. This is from Sword and Laser, maybe November?

Chaos Reigning, Jessie Mihalik. There's only one bed! 

Forfeit, Dick Francis. Hmm, maybe I should read another Francis while I get up the nerve to read the hard part.

Sweep of the Heart, Ilona Andrews. Another Innkeeper story! I'm on chapter 8. 

Red Hood, Elana K. Arnold. Cybils finalist. I had to buy this from the library because by cat puked on it. That put me off a bit, I must say, and there's no more due date. 

Coyote Dreams, C.E. Murphy. Well, I missed the meeting but now I'm enjoying the book. 

Picture Books / Short Stories:

"This Will Not Happen to You," Marissa Lingen. Well, this 2018 short story sort of sums up the pandemic in many ways. Quietly chilling.

Palate Cleansers

These books I'm barely reading; lately I use them as bribes to get me to deal with the mail. I've been ignoring my mail.

The Educated Child, William Bennett.

Wool, Hugh Howey.  

Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho. We see what is behind our hero's reticience!

 

Dates From Hell, Kim Harrison & others.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. OK, I'm doing the day's song, and then jumping back to where I fell behind.

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils 2021: Finished three graphic novels!
2. Early Cybils: Finished Framed. Picked up Red Hood again.
3. Reading My Library. The library had a pipe break and is closed for repairs!
4. Where Am I Reading 2022. Arizona and Connecticut. Also a solid Oklahoma, which I will replace my guessing-it's-in-Oklahoma book with. 
5. Libraries: I've started Ancestral Night, and I hope it's a place I want to visit. 15/55 for the Tacoma Extreme Challenge.

Future Plans

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: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Next: Forging a Nightmare
• Library Book: His Unexpected Amish Twins Next: More Reachers? 
• Ebook I own:  Winter's Tale. Next: ???
• Library Ebook: Chaos Reigning.  Next: Coyote Dreaming
• Book Club Book: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Next: Pandora's Star
• Tuesday Book Club Book: Jack Reacher books!
• Review Book: The Queer Principles of Kit Webb  Next: Back Home
• Rereading: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Meal Companion: The Barren Lands
• Audio:  Ancestral Night