We had a nice Memorial Weekend, with my sisters on vacation and so not hosting our family gathering. My mom and I drove out to visit my brother on Vashon Island and admire their garden. Then I forgot to post.

This week my sister and I joined my mom for the Renton Wine Walk, which was a lot of fun. We made it to 10 out of 12 stores, and were just deciding we were getting tired when the rain started. That confirmed our exhaustion and we summoned a ride home after giving our leftover tokens to some nice looking (and more energetic) people.

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 at least not worse 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" 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

A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan, #2)

Heartstopper: Volume Three (Heartstopper, #3)

The Outskirter's Secret (The Steerswoman, #2)

The Lost Steersman (The Steerswoman, #3)

The Language of Power (The Steerswoman, #4)

Black Butler, Vol. 21 (Black Butler, #21)

Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 1 Volume 2

Buried in the Country (Cornish Mystery #4)

A Desolation Called Peace, Arkady Martine. Hugo finalist.

Escape!, Sid Fleischman. Cybils finalist.

Flight of the Puffin, Ann Braden. Cybils finalist.

Fated Blades, Ilona Andrews. From library quick-pick.

Red At the Bone, Jacqueline Woodson. Torches & Pitchforks book club book.

Heartstopper Vol 3, Alice Oseman. Reading along with my nephew.

The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein. For Scintillation convention.

Many Points of Me, Caroline Gertler. Cybils finalist.

The Outskirter's Secret, Rosemary Kirstein. For Scintillation convention.

Elder Race, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Hugo finalist.

The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein. For Scintillation convention.

The Legend of Auntie Po, Shing Yin Khor. Cybils finalist.

The Language of Power, Rosemary Kirstein. For Scintillation convention.

Chalice, Robin McKinley. For my Tuesday book club. We actually tried to pick something by Patricia McKillip, whose obituary we just saw. But one of our members lives near a very small library, and they had no McKillips. So we went a shelf adjacent choice.

Black Butler 21, Yana Toboso. Chugging along.

Machinehood, S.B. Divya. Sword & Laser's June pick.

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Part 1 Vol 2, Miya Kazuki. The light novel.

Shirley and Jamila's Big Fall, Gillian Goerz. Grabbed from library QuickPick display.

Buried in the Country, Carola Dunn. Sadly, this is the last one in the Cornish mysteries.

Linked, Gordon Korman. Cybils finalist.

Completed

Risk, Dick Francis. Ah, this one has it all -- emotional and physical torture, modest hero overcoming it all, intelligent women around him doing smart things, sometimes sexy things. Very relaxing.

Fated Blades, Ilona Andrews. Two supremely physically and morally superior bosses have to deal with their loser spouses, and surprise! they fall in love along the way. Another fun romp!

Red At the Bone, Jacqueline Woodson. This is for my Torches and Pitchforks book club, which is doing banned books this year. I guess people could ban this beautifully written book about several generations of a family and how trauma, love, and parenting affect them all, but they would be making a mistake.

Heartstopper Vol 3, Alice Oseman. These kids continue to be incredibly cute and also a bit bumbling. Their carefully kept secret is leaking out all over, but luckily most of their peers are amused and approving. Event the bully from last book is trying to improve himself. These kids are so pure that when one kid becomes sick from overindulgence in illicit booze they go straight to their teacher chaperones for help.

Flight of the Puffin, Ann Braden. 2021 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction finalist. This was a mosaic book, with the stories of four kids weaving back and forth, all of them managing to touch each other. It kind of snuck up on me, so that by the end I cared a lot about all of them, and was rooting for them all the learn to value their own worth.

The Steerswoman, Rosemary Kirstein.

The Outskirter's Secret, Rosemary Kirstein.

The Lost Steersman, Rosemary Kirstein.

The Language of Power, Rosemary Kirstein. I read this probably about thirty years ago, and loved it. And now a group of friends are falling in love with the series as well, so I'm reread it. It's still a great set of books and everyone should go read them. But I was also fascinated by how much my memory had scrambled. I read them all as they came out, and the second two came out much later than the first, so more of the later scenes stuck with me, but my mind scattered them all over the place. Huh. Well, I had good taste, if not a good memory.

Elder Race, Adrian Tchaikovsky. Hugo novella finalist. I really enjoyed the alternating viewpoints, especially after the characters met and started miscommunicating with each other. At first it was just a fun gimmick, but Tchaikovsky pushes it a bit to let us explore ideas of identity and connection. Neat.

Black Butler 21, Yana Toboso. OK, this volume had a lot of action shots and people in different places doing various things. The problem for me is that I don't recognize anyone, so without people calling each other by name I have no idea who is who. But clearly various people were winning various battles, and I can tell the Butler from the other people (mostly). But I'm going on to the next!

Buried in the Country, Carola Dunn. Just in time for Pride Month, there is a subplot with a gay couple! Despite the laws and prejudice, they found a way to carve out a life together in our Cornish village. And our main characters are there to help solve mysteries and complications when baddies from the past come from London to make trouble out here.

The Legend of Auntie Po, Shing Yin Khor. 2021 Cybils Elementary / Middle Grade Graphic Novel finalist. This had great historical details, a varied and interesting plot involving personal and external problems, clear graphics (I could tell people apart! I'm getting better and this was good work.), and a satisfying conclusion. I liked the exploration of a non hetero-sexuality in the terms that felt period accurate; I liked how friendships could cross racial lines but not erase society's racism. And I liked how the imagination could bring Auntie Po to life and how she could inspire people but not solve all their problems.

Red Hood, Elana K. Arnold. 2020 Cybils YA Speculative Fiction finalist. This was a tough one for me, because I am not a teenager. Arnold uses a second person point of view for much of the book, which I have a strong antipathy for. Worse, during the sex scenes it made me feel like a creepy adult. But the weaving of fantasy revenge and real strengths against male violence was powerful and I enjoyed the ending.

Happy Families, Tanita S. Davis. The story of two teen siblings whose father is coming out as trans. I liked that it showed them as good decent kids who are struggling to be supportive but also resentful that their father had this huge secret. They don't want their family to break apart. I also appreciated that the family was Black but that was not the big focus; it's about dealing with the changes to their family and what that means and how they want to handle it, and if they can ask questions without being accusatory or intrusive.

Winter Tide, Ruthanna Emrys. This was a slow read for me -- I enjoyed it while reading it but didn't seek out opportunities, as they put it on Sword and Laser. But I liked the calm but deeply felt ambitions of the protagonist, and the way it was as important to live by her moral code as to achieve her goals -- living by her standards was one of the most important goals, after all. The science seemed goofy so I could have gone for less of an assumption that the magic was science, but the implications were cool and the ruthless stupidity of the government felt very realistic.

Chalice, Robin McKinley.This was actually a good pick for us -- not too long, with lots of possibilities for Minecraft illustrations; we've got a giant chalice in the sky (it's also a portal to the Nether!), a house with a cellar full of cauldrons, stone chairs outside for sitting, and lots of bee hives. Hmm, I guess we could release a zombie into the sun to represent the Master before his return from Fire Priest status... As a book I liked the use of an inexperienced viewpoint character to give us information on the world and people, and how we had to sift through her impressions to figure out what was going on. She was the only fully formed character, but the book was short enough that wasn't a problem.

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

Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Young Readers Edition

Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask, Young People Edition, Anton Treuer. 2021 Cybils nominee (eventually finalist). There were questions I would have been hesitant to ask, but also many questions I wouldn't have known I needed to ask. The organization was pleasantly conversational -- it didn't feel like reading an `````` encyclopedia but like sitting with a friendly, non judgemental friendly expert willing to share facts and opinions, and to make clear which was which.

Black Birds in the Sky, Brandy Colbert. 2021 Cybils nominee. This history of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre takes time to set the context and then show how and why it happened, and what were the prevailing attitudes of the white killers who thought this was something they had the right to do. The final chapters show how the information was hidden by white historians, some because they didn't consider it important and some because they knew enough to be ashamed. I'm glad that history is willing to look at the truth more closely now.

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)

Vampire Trinity, Joey Hill. OK, they've moved from doing strange sex things as part of the political plot to doing sex things as part of an action plot.

Phoenix Extravagant, Yoon Ha Lee. Looking at the tech stack.

Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear. I'd probably be done if I kept my kitchen clean.

Sweep of the Heart, Ilona Andrews. Reading this as they write it means I get to vote in the Bachelor Style plot of the book.

Cobra, Timothy Zahn. The Baen Free Radio Podcast serial. Just got a few minutes this week.

Ship Without Sails, Sherwood Smith. I misread the dates. I'm only in April!

Picture Books / Short Stories:

Arthur and the Baby: A Classic Arthur Adventure

Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie, Herman Parish. FAMOUS FRIENDS. Although it misses out on some of the charms of the original Amelia Bedelias because the kid version doesn't have the agency of the adult, it still has the goofy puns and misunderstandings and the kid still gets to do some stuff. Like make a pie.

Arthur and the Baby, Marc Brown. FAMOUS FRIENDS. Confession -- the TV show has made me leery of these characters. The siblings have little compassion for each other -- the sister wants to assert her gender competence, the brother is reluctant to help his family in any way, and then they both use the baby as a tool to make the other feel bad. Yikes.

Mr Lazy, Roger Hargreaves. FAMOUS FRIENDS. Wow, talk about life goals. This is my new role model. OK, I'll even put up with the exercise dreams; I'm sure I'll learn how to lucidly escape.

If a T. Rex Crashes Your Birthday Party, Jill Esbaum. DINOSAURS. It's a fun little book that does what it says on the tin. Of course, the dino ends up ruining the party, but it's so sweet when he thanks the kid for such a good time that the boy decides to invite it back next year. Hey kid, kindness is great but boundaries are not a sign of evil.

"Field Biology of the Wee Fairies," Naomi Kritzer. It's always fun when SF stories look at the real world -- in this case expectations and limitations on intellectual girls back in my mom's day.

"Unappreciated Gifts," Patricia Briggs. Reread one of Asil dating stories. Lots of fun.

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: Finished Red Hood again. Finished the 2006 Kiki. Started Escape.
Reading My Library. Have the next one waiting. Continued with the picture books from Renton Highlands.
Where Am I Reading 2022. Picked up Massachusetts. 21/51
Libraries: 38/55 for the Tacoma Extreme Challenge: Picked up 36-Dream Job, noticed that I had a duplicate!
Still working on Ancestral Night for KCLS 10 to Try.