The weather has been absolutely lovely and yet I huddle inside. I think I managed one walk this week. I need to figure out why I don't want to do things that make me happy. Maybe I'll do yard work, which would get me outside but still make me miserable.

I had the excitement of having my phone COVID warning go off -- apparently I was near someone with a phone who had COVID last week. So I diligently tested and came up negative. So far so good.

The KCLS Romance Reading series discussed Slow Burn Romances last Wednesday. We discussed the difference between a category and a trope and why some get marketing slots and others get maybe some vague cover hints. I accidentally had read a book that moved slowly because the characters were adults who wanted to get to know each other (I like that kind) and also one where they both declare themselves on a dating hiatus when they meet, so they get to spend many pages regretting that declaration before daring to bring up the idea of altering it. That method usually needs a lot of madcap plots to distract both the characters and the reader, but that can be fun too.

I am still second on my list of all the Cybils finalists. But I'm still working on the categories (as you see, middle grade nonfiction is showing up), so I have hopes of regaining the top spot. Look out, Shaye! I only need like ~~thirty~~ ~~thirty-five~~ forty ~~thirty~~ more books to catch up! (Shaye continues to read the rest faster than me. I'm doomed but happy about it.) Ha! Shaye has read 95% of the books -- she can't climb much higher.

I'm also working my way through the Hugo finalists for this year.

I'm currently reading about 35 books, which is actually an improvement over 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" and I think I'm in time this week! Ditto for the children's lit version at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers.

Started

Valley of the Shadow (Cornish Mystery #3)

Life's Too Short, Abby Jimenez. For my Romance Reading Series (Slow Burn).

Happy Families, Tanita S. Davis. From library.

Thanks a Lot, Universe, Chad Lucas. Cybils finalist.

Valley of the Shadow, Carola Dunn. Zipping through this series.

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir. Hugo finalist.

Finding Junie Kim, Ellen Oh. Cybils finalist.

Cobra, Timothy Zahn. The Baen Free Radio Podcast serial. I've made it to part 7, so I think I'm here for the ride.

Completed

The Educated Child: A Parents Guide from Preschool Through Eighth Grade

Inside the Shadow City (Kiki Strike, #1)

From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement

Never Say You Can't Survive, Charlie Jane Anders. Hugo nominee -- Best Related Work. This is a writing guide that is partly about how writing benefits the writer, and partly about how the writer can get better. Although Anders is careful to repeat that what matters is what works and that can vary from person to person, she also describes what works for her, giving details on how she figured it out and what doing that gives her. The idea is to help the reader discover their own process and learn to identify what they are doing and whether they want to be doing that. It's a personal and inspirational book -- anyone looking for encouragement as to why they should keep writing should find good stuff here.

Life's Too Short, Abby Jimenez. This was a lot of fun! She's built her life around the possibility of developing ALS, so she is all about seizing the moment. He's designed to avoid emotional pain. She gets a baby, he gets a pesky dog. After agreeing that romance is off the table, they become best friends. It's a slow burn because of that agreement; they have time to really learn to trust each other. I still hate the requisite ending of current romances, but at least it was only a small part of the plot. (I mean, obviously they get together, but the giant fight at the end seemed extremely unlikely.)

Measuring Up, Lily LaMotte. 2021 Cybils Middle Grade Graphic Novel finalist. I liked the balance of angst from Taiwanese immigrant child missing home and worrying about fitting in at her new school in Seattle and the stress of a local weekly elimination cooking competition. There were a few glitches (skipping the announcement of who was eliminated?) but it flowed well. There were a variety of side characters -- the original friends and the development of the friendship at the contest, which has to survive when cooperation turns into competition. A good balance of interest, suspense, and payoff.

The Educated Child, William Bennett & Chester E. Finn Jr. Well, I finally finished it, long after my kids grew up, so the information isn't practical for me which is just as well as a lot of it is outdated. It was a good chance to think about what your kid is learning each year in school, with some reality checks to see if things have gone awry, but a lot of the advice for dealing with teachers and administrators seems unhelpful, and the studies I've seen do not reinforce much of what they'd like to be true (homework isn't as useful as you'd think). But I liked the constant reinforcement that caring parents are vitally interested in their children's education.

Emerald Blaze, Ilona Andrews. Heroic family does heroics! Also, LOVE! Frothy and fun.

Valley of the Shadow, Carola Dunn. I really liked the interesting crime in this one -- the book was much more concerned with the refugees and their situation, although the final action scene was very enjoyable if rather unlikely. But the interactions of the intimidating detective, the elderly aunt, the lady cop, and all the others were interesting and historic enough to be a bit exotic. The descriptions of the sea rescue teams and the rescue itself was especially vivid.

Inside the Shadow City (Kiki Strike 1), Kirsten Miller. 2006 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction finalist. OK, I'm amused that this wasn't shelved as a speculative book -- there's a secret underground city beneath New York, there are near sentient rats, and there's a magic-science whistle that chases rats away for life, in addition to child spies, alchemists, disguise artists, and master thieves. But the fun of the book is the retrospective voice -- the narrator is looking back at her youth from an obviously advanced age (probably at least thirty) and pauses sometimes to directly give advice and tips. I liked the twists of the story and the elaborate spy plot.

The Girls I've Been, Tess Sharpe. 2021 Cybils Teen Fiction Finalist. Lots of tense moments. It's a story of a girl and her friends dealing with a hostage situation at their local bank (the situation being that they are the hostages). But it's also about dealing with abuse and with friendship, and what honesty is demanded from you, and how does using your past as a weapon hurt you, and it's very suspenseful with a great use of flashbacks. I was hoping for a bit more secret reveals from the girlfriend, but I was okay with the direction they went there.

Thanks a Lot, Universe, Chad Lucas. 2021 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction finalist. Two boys negotiate middle school -- this is a winning recipe for a book. The boys themselves are nuance and real, and deal with problems with ethics and varying amounts of skill and maturity, helped and sometimes hindered by the adults around them. One boy is also dealing with the realization that he is gay, and the other has just had the absolute worst day imaginable, and now must deal with the consequences, along with all the other problems that come with middle school. I hope to see more books by Lucas. (Hmm, he published another book LAST WEEK.)

Finding Junie Kim, Ellen Oh. 2021 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction finalist. Junie is having a tough time with middle school; she depressed and the racist bullying from some classmates is feeding the negative thoughts in her head. Dealing with this has her turning to her grandparents for support, and that gives the book room to tell their stories as well, stories of their childhood experiences during the Korean War. These two narratives mesh well thematically -- what support do kids need? How can we respond to our friends? How about friends who make mistakes? What if we are the ones failing? Big themes, very specific reality is a winning formula for a book.

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir. Hugo novel finalist. This had a lot of strengths like The Martian -- lone guy uses science to solve his problems in an isolated environment. But I liked all the variations -- the resources he found, the way the flashbacks were handled, and the resolution. I also like the unreliability of the narrator, where he was unreliable more to himself than to the reader.

-----------------Book From Blogging Hiatus -----------------

From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry, Paula Yoo. 2021 Cybils nominee. This reporting on the murder of Vincent Chin and how that marked a key beginning to the Asian American Movement was all new history to me; I was a child for most of it and none of it registered with me. The reporting of the murder itself was devastating and clear, and Yoo then follows the court cases that followed, from the original incredibly light punishments through the civil rights cases brought (and re-brought) partly in response to the movement inflamed by the original response. Yoo does a great job reporting the events, but I could have used a bit more help with some of the legal issues, and the separation of the general principles from the particulars of this case.

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:

Sweep of the Heart (Innkeeper Chronicles, #5)

Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe

Red Hood, Elana K. Arnold. Cybils finalist. Girl power! Also, incels are terrible.

Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys. America does not look good in this.

Vampire Trinity, Joey Hill. Back to talking too much.

Sweep of the Heart, Ilona Andrews. Bachelor to the stars!

Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear. Yay!

Phoenix Extravagant, Yoon Ha Lee. I met the cover dragon!

Risk, Dick Francis. Stiff upper lip.

Forging a Nightmare, Patricia A. Jackson.

Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Disaster, Serhii Plokhy.

Pandora's Star, Peter F. Hamilton. March Sword & Laser pick.

Ship Without Sails, Sherwood Smith. I'm in May!

Picture Books / Short Stories:

Marsupial Sue Presents "The Runaway Pancake"

The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest

Pomelo Begins to Grow, Ramona Badescu. SCIENCE AND NATURE shelf in my library. OK, this shelf confused me a lot, because I might file this book under philosophy but science? Huh? It's quirky and odd and I guessed it was a translation because it felt a bit off kilter from my expectations somehow. The strange elephant thing is confronting body changes, maturity, the loss of childhood's innocence, and all sorts of existential crises, and it would be delightful to read this with a preschooler who maybe could help it all make sense.

Marsupial Sue Presents "The Runaway Pancake," John Lithgow. RHYMES AND SONGS shelf in my local library. The conceit of animals putting on a play gave an extra level to the illustrations which I really enjoyed. Apparently this is a sequel, but I had fun with it on its own. I mean to listen to the CD but I forgot.

Very Grumpy Day, Stella J. Jones. FEELINGS shelf in my local library. The cosy pictures and friendly tone keep the obvious message from overwhelming the story -- grumpiness is easy to spread and friendliness is the same. I also appreciated that the animals apologized for hurting each other even when the injury wasn't their fault -- Fox was tripped and dropped his groceries, and he apologized to the animals splashed by his milk, just as Mole apologized for leaving his tools lying about to be tripped over.

Parachute, Danny Parker. FEELINGS shelf in my local library. I loved this. I loved the use of white and the emotionally resonant pictures that amplified and exemplified the situations described by the words. The book really echoed my parenting philosophy that kids grow best from a place of emotional safety and that having parachutes is a temporary need that secure kids will mature and leave behind.

The Leaf Detective, Heather Lang. 2021 Cybils Middle Grade Nonfiction. Biography of a scientist I was unfamiliar with, although her work has affected me. I look forward to the day when these biographies don't have to mention the sexism their subjects overcame. I like reading about the new techniques Lowman designed and how much she pushed our knowledge about forests, trees and leaves.

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.

YEAR OF WONDER: Classical Music for Every Day

Dates From Hell, Kim Harrison & others.

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture).

Stinger, Nancy Kress.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Yay, I listened to a few!

Reading Challenges

Cybils 2021: Finished a YA, two middle grade fictions, a graphic novel, and a nonfiction picture book.
Early Cybils: Working on Red Hood again. Finished the 2006 Kiki. Escape is on deck.
Reading My Library. Have the next one waiting. Continued with the picture books from Renton Highlands.
Where Am I Reading 2022. Picked up Maryland and Minnesota. 20/51
Libraries: 38/55 for the Tacoma Extreme Challenge: Picked up 1-Historical figure, 21- Body positivity, 33- Heart on cover, 49 - Asian fantasy,
Read a librarian-recommend book for KCLS 10 to Try.