River Days And Nishi Ducki

Well, my mom came down with COVID last week, which was of course concerning. She's all vaxxed up and everything, but there's a strain chasing itself around her retirement community and she probably got it there. Or maybe at her doctor's office. Anyway, she had a rough first few days but then started feeling better so she refused anti-virals, since she likes to feel independent and doesn't like drugs. The rule at the community is that if you are positive you stay in your room and they bring you food; at least her grandson managed to be the one bringing food up a few times. 

My younger son (who is not that young) had his wisdom teeth pulled and also had a rough time of it. He was just feeling really unwell for days afterward and finally called a doctor and they pulled him off the cautionary antibiotics and he improved immediately. Chalk up another family member who thinks drugs are what ails us!

The local library has a great book club with the awesome name of A River Runs Under It (a river runs under our library, get it?) and WE ARE BACK. I had only joined a few months before the pandemic, because I was making an effort to have more social avenues as I became an empty nester (HA!) but I had enjoyed the meetings. Then BOOM -- two year hiatus. It was good to be back, and now the library is providing a facilitator. I think during the pandemic they got used to doing that because they tried to zoom-host as many library-meeting clubs as possible (we were too full of non-techie members). It was a fun discussion of Last Train to Key West which I accidentally read last week, and we voted to move the meeting to the afternoon because our lives are very busy in the evenings. I'm also trying to lure my mom to this club and afternoons are better for her. 

Duolingo has all these little games to encourage people to do more lessons. I'm having fun hanging out in the ELITE DIAMOND league, and now they have this extra tournament thing for us top players. So I mad it into the final round, and suddenly found myself churning out tens of lessons a day (as opposed to my usual 2-4). It's not actually very efficient, but I managed to tag onto the very bottom of the winning side, so now I can relax. I may relax my way out of my elite diamond status, but honestly I'm OK with that.  

Our little town had its summer celebration -- RENTON RIVER DAYS. For two years they haven't been able to hold it, but this year they wanted to come back. It's not as big (or crowded) as in the before times, but they had a parade, and outside band playing, tables set up companionably, booths from local artists and businesses, and encouragement to patronize the local restaurants. For me (I mean, I assume they had me personally in mind) they had two new events -- a 5K walk at your own pace on Saturday morning, which I convinced my usual walking buddy to do with me. She picked the Hill Lover's route, which OK, was not the one I was going for, but it took us in a new direction and there were indeed great views of the town from the top of the hill. And it helped with the other innovation -- a Scavenger Hunt that I roped my son and brother-in-law into with me. We met a giant dog on our walk, and got my team got extra points for Biggest Dog Friend.  I think we did all the missions, although I took some liberties with the definitions. My family humored me, especially my sister who drove around and helped with the camera work. She knows that if I see a list I am compelled to work my way down it! (Looking at the scores, I think we may have won. Everyone go like www.facebook.com/Nishiducki to make sure! Duck with the most likes gets extra points!) 

I am still second on my list of all the Cybils finalists. I'm working through the categories -- I'm finishing up poetry right now. Look out, Shaye! I only need like thirty twenty-five forty thirty more books to catch up! (Shaye has made the strategic error of finishing all the books -- she can't increase her lead anymore!)

I'm also working my way through the Hugo finalists for this year; I've got two more novels to go.

I'm currently reading about 37 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 (barely)! Ditto for the children's lit version at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers.

Started

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Vol 1 Part 6 (manga), Miya Kazuki. Thank you, library. I have just looked at the dates, and the manga was translated AFTER the light novel, so my plan to go ahead on the comics and follow with the prose is dead in the water.

Out of Darkness, Ashley Hope Perez. For a book club.

Starfish, Lisa Fipps. Cybils finalist. 

The Darkness Outside Us, Eliot Schrefer. I think this was on the Romance Reading club list for YA Romance month, but I didn't get it in time and finally it showed up on my holds options when I had some space.

Me (Moth), Amber McBride. Cybils finalist.

Completed

Spear, Nicola Griffith. For Foolscap book club. This was lovely to read -- I love how Griffith works with language, how it flows and always enhances the understanding of the character and the world she is moving in. I loved how she weaves in Arthurian stories, bringing in elements and twisting them a bit to fit the story she is telling. I read a bit of her commentary on her story, both in the afterward and in her Big Idea on the Whatever blog, and she talks about the sources she drew from and how she made some of the decisions she did in which to choose and how to adapt them. The book club was a lot of fun -- we had people ranging from a woman who did a college dissertation on Arthurian stuff, a guy who hadn't known in advance that King Arthur would be involved, some other people like me who adore Griffith's work. We had fun talking about both this book and all the wide ranging examples of retellings of the Arthurian myths. 

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Vol 1 Part 6 (manga), Miya Kazuki. Myne spends more time with the guildmaster's family (and Freya) and tells them some secrets. She also tells her family about her mortality, and asks for their help. And her fashion ideas make for a very interesting baptism dress. I like how her big sister is good hearted but also aware of all the special treatment Myne gets, and sometimes is jealous. 

Forging a Nightmare, Patricia A. Jackson. I really wanted to like this book because I met the author and she was kinda amazing, but it's pretty far out of my comfort zone. It's a book populated with all the creatures of Christian biblical lore, and our hero is an FBI agent charged with figuring out who has been murdering and defacing people with twelve fingers, a question he is especially interested in because he had his extra fingers removed as a baby. This leads him into a dangerous world where even his allies are menacing and betrayal can attack from any angle. The author's vocabulary is impressive -- the book is full of SAT words which worked really well when describing the enormous stakes and history of the combatants, and also helped me stomach the often violent descriptions of the battles (I am a delicate flower). I mention this because I recently read another book with both angels and an extensive word list, but in that one the author tended to get all the words just a little bit wrong. I didn't even notice what Jackson was doing for hundreds of pages because she doesn't ever misstep (the few times I tripped were because I was wrong, not her). Anyway, I enjoyed the book but had to keep putting it down for a while because the images were strong. FBI procedurals are not really my cup of tea, although the addition of nightmares and the Four Horsemen and immense regions of hell did help. 

Immersed in Verse, Allan Wolf. 2006 Cybils Nonfiction finalist. I really enjoyed the passion Wolf brings to this how-to book on becoming a poet. He's sure that everyone will enjoy discovering the poems within them and around them, and he shares his own examples and those of skilled writers in showing different techniques and uses of poems. I like how his enthusiasm on getting a poem to express just what you want conveys the joy of writing, and his practical ideas on everything from journaling to organizing events where you can read your poetry. I'm not sure it would convert the poetry allergic, but it's definitely a great encouragement to anyway thinking to dip their toes into poetic waters.

Everything Blue, Joanne Rossmassler Fritz. 2021 Cybils poetry finalist. OK, when I read a poetry book I'm looking for poems, or a poem. I want to read something that blows my head off. That's not what this is. It's a verse novel, and I've always resented those because I hear "poetry book" and then I get something else. I get a story made of of poetic shards, pieces of emotions and moments of clarity that will build into a cohesive whole but that don't try to follow conventional linear and narrative paths. And while reading this and the other Cybils poetry offerings this year, I realized that if I recognize what it is and don't try to judge it as something it isn't, I really like these. I shall invent my own terminology and call these "Mosaic novels." I bet the rest of the world already figured this out decades ago and there is already a word for them, but I live in a cave where I've been grumbling about "novels in verse" and "kids on my lawn."

Anyway, here is a girl in a family that has good intentions but has been looking away from each other rather than supporting each other, and that hasn't noticed this. Sometimes they reach out to each other for comfort but usually in vain because they are looking away, and similarly the narrator doesn't see when her family needs her because she is only looking at her own needs. (She's only in middle school, so really this is expected from her! Her older siblings and parents have weaker excuses.) During the course of this book we see the family almost splinter apart but manage to start moving towards each other, and there is hope at the end. 

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation Vol 2, Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù. I am now thoroughly spoiled for the TV show because the super sneaky villain has been revealed and is currently several steps ahead of the sympathetic guys who are also starting to admit their feelings for each other. And there is at least one more book (maybe 2?) so I'm looking forward to the rest of the series. 

Starfish, Lisa Fipps. 2021 Cybils poetry finalist. This was heartbreaking and very moving -- the story of a fat girl who is bullied by her mom as well as at her school, but it's the stuff her mom sets the family up to do to her that really hurts. It's another mosaic novel, with the girl showing us how she feels in each moment, from her best friend leaving to finding a new friend next door, to her mom encouraging the contempt of her siblings and her father desperately searching for a way to help not just his daughter but the toxic mess his family is sinking into. It's condensed a bit -- everything that happens seems legitimate but it all happens very close to each other, but this isn't a memoir it's a story. It's a great mirror for fat girls, but also a transparent window for anyone thinking fatphobia is not big deal. Also it's a great mosaic novel.

The Zen Path Through Depression, Philip Martin. I read this a chapter at a time, dipping into it when I had a few minutes in the morning, afternoon, evening and bedtime. It was very soothing -- I've dealt with depression and never feel that far from the pit, and found the meditations and ways of thinking very soothing. Sometimes it was good to feel someone else has been there, some were addressing problems I had never really felt, and some were insights into ways to deal with thought patterns that were very familiar to me. I'm glad I finally got this off my shelves and into my eyes and my soul. I didn't want to open it when I really needed it, but now I have it ready if I need it next time.

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

Navigating Minefields: A Young Man's Blueprint for Success on Life's Battlefield, Victoria Duerstock. 2021 Cybils nominee. I found the short essays on adulthood and character refreshing, but other than a couple of bits of dating advice that seemed rather naive I wasn't sure why it was aimed at young men rather than young people, which felt a bit exclusionary to me. I could see leaving this book somewhere to be dipped into (do other families have bathroom books?) but I'm not sure if young people, men or women, would pick this up on their own. My own sons would've reacted very cynically to it so maybe that is influencing my judgement. I did get one of them to skim through it for his opinion -- he's a bit older than the intended audience, and he was also unsure who he would give this to.

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:

Ethan of Athos, Lois McMaster Bujold. I hope I'm not being too annoying with my obvious anticipation of favorite scenes during this audio. My son seems to enjoying Bujold's quite snarky comments from Ethan's viewpoint.

Many Points of Me, Caroline Gertler. Cybils finalist. Still struggling with the protagonist, who is now choosing to hide her regretted misdeeds from her mom rather than make an effort to put things right.

Sinister Magic, Lindsay Buroker. Audio for while I do my chores. Thank you, Ms Buroker, for helping me keep my kitchen clean.

Cobra, Timothy Zahn. The Baen Free Radio Podcast serial, part 16. The close-to-graduation screw up part!

A Desolation Called Peace, Arkady Martine. Hugo finalist.

Sweep of the Heart, Ilona Andrews. More political intrigue! Friends and new acquaintances are in cahoots.  

Warcross, Marie Lu. I was supposed to read this for Foolscap book club but I cheated and skipped the middle. Going back for it.

She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan. Hugo novel finalist.

Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy. 

The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. I lost this! But now I've found it.

The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brian. 

Ship Without Sails, Sherwood Smith. Sadly she is sending these faster than I read them, because I don't always read on my ipad.

Picture Books / Short Stories:

Sally's Snow Adventure, Stephen Huneck. ANIMALS. Sally, a dog, goes on vacation in the snow and hangs out with other dogs, all being their perfect doggy selves. No people, no distractions, just dogs. If your kid likes dogs, this is a great book. Sally is a very good dog -- 10/10. (Reading-My-Library book)

The Crocodile Under the Bed, Judith Kerr. ANIMALS. Hey, this is by the author of When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. I had no idea she was still alive. It's a nice book about a kid denied a treat who ends up having a much nicer time, with fun interactions with various wild animals. The illustrations aren't quite my cup of tea, but this would be a fun book to read with kids. (Reading-My-Library book)

Berenstain Bears: Inside Outside Upside Down, Stan Berenstain. EASY READER. I've always disliked the BBs, finding them smug and unsympathetic. This was easy to slot in there, as the boy is heedlessly worrying his parents and is saved from disaster by happenstance and not any effort on his part. But this is exactly the kind of book I'd like to read in Greek -- I need a lot of work on those prepositions and location words. Too bad I had the English version! (Reading-My-Library book)

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.

 

Dates From Hell, Kim Harrison & others. 

50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture). I like seeing how different people translated Horace and other Latin guys.

Stinger, Nancy Kress.  

Dragon's Breath, E.D. Baker. I think I've been brought up to speed (this is not the first book in this series)

You Can Write Children's Books, Tracey E. Dils. Picture books. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. I'm mostly keeping up with the present July selections. Mostly.

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils 2021: Finished two poetry books. 
2. Early Cybils: Finished Immersed in Verse. I have the next one on deck.
3. Reading My Library. Still only working on the kids books from Renton Highlands Library -- I finished off picture books and started on EASY READERS and also grabbed an audio CD book. I figure the audio book can go simultaneously since I can only listen in the car (no CD player in the house).  
4. Where Am I Reading 2022. Everything Blue was in Delaware!. 27/51. I've got 13 countries. 
5. Libraries: 44/55 for the Tacoma Extreme Challenge: Picked up 10-Fiction from 2022, 20-Refugee, 
   Finished Ancestral Night for KCLS 10 to Try.

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: She Who Became the Sun Next: Desolation Called Peace
• Library Book: Never Tell  Next: Heartstoppers 4
• Ebook I own: Wine-Dark Sea  Next: Your Perfect Year
• Library Ebook:  On the Corner of Hope and Main  Next: Threadbare
• Book Club Book: Threadbare
• Tuesday Book Club Book: Wine-Dark Sea
• Hugo Book: She Who Became the Sun
• Review Book: Back Home  Next: 
• Rereading: Heidi. 
• Meal Companion: Never Tell
• Audio:  Sinister Magic