Well, I don't get to the East Coast that often anymore, so I grabbed the chance to visit a friend. After congratulating the grad one more time and wishing her luck in loading up the car for her drive home with her dad, the west coast branch broke apart. First we all drove from Dartmouth to Boston and ditched the sister and her fam along with the expensive minivan rental, and then my little brother (he's barely 50) and I drove to Maine. It's actually faster to go this way because you get the good highways. I dropped him off with an old college friend (who I like; she made me cookies once) and drove up to see a childhood friend.
Her kids have over doubled in age since I last saw them (wow) and it was great to see the young people they have turned into. I also enjoyed the giant dogs and hanging out in a house devoted to good food and good books. Thanks for hosting me!
Her kids have over doubled in age since I last saw them (wow) and it was great to see the young people they have turned into. I also enjoyed the giant dogs and hanging out in a house devoted to good food and good books. Thanks for hosting me!
And then I drove back to Boston, flew home, and drove out to Oregon for an arduous task of catsitting. Two lovely fluffly girls in a beautiful house with a view of the sea. The weather was delightfully chilly, and would have been perfect for running except every time I dressed out it rained. So instead I moved from window to window and occasionally went out to recommended restaurants. Ah. Lovely.
I might be back up to a third page of currently-reading on Goodreads. I'm at 33 books checked out but a few of those are ebooks I checked out so I wouldn't bring too many paper books on my travelers. No word on the picture book I seem to have misplaced, oops.
I'm off to check out the other books at The Bookdate's It's Monday, What Are You Reading headquarters. And since I read the Harry Potter play, I'll also sign up at the Children's Book central version, held at both Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers. And then I will dive around to see what everyone else has been reading.
Started
Network Effect, Martha Stewart. I got my Tuesday book club to read it. Mainly because I'd be busy and I've already read it and rereading it would be fast.
I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy. A librarian recommended this to me (I'm doing the KCLS 10 to Try).
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling. My friend has a great set of bookcases overflowing with books.
Convergence, C.J. Cherryh. Continuing the series.
Blood Vow, J.R. Ward. From my shelves. I find this serious hilarious. Hhilarious?
The Russian Cage, Charlaine Harris. The full cast audios make for great car ride listens.
Completed
Your Perfect Year, Charlotte Lucas. Remember when everyone loved A Man Called Ove? (I recently watched the movie with my son.) I thought it was really depressing; I didn't laugh at any of the suicidal mishaps. I think I had some of the same problem with this book. I couldn't just dismiss the tragedy because the woman's tears were so overwrought. So I liked it in bits and pieces, but I never wanted to read it for more than a few chapters. On the other hand, getting a calendar like that sounds amazing.
I'm Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy. OK, I mostly brought this along on my trip because I wanted spotlight the elephant in our reunion (our mom did a few months ago), but it was a great book and several of us had heard of it so it made for some good discussions. It's also tainted what pleasure I got out of iCarly as a TV show; watching it now feels like watching high school football -- children risking their lives for my viewing pleasure. McCurdy has a great balance of humor and emotion as she remembers her childhood as a reluctant actor but a dedicated mom-pleaser, with a mom devoted to achieving her missed aspirations through her kids whether it's becoming a star or being sufficiently thin. Yikes.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling. I bet this works better as a play, because you can see Harry being a bit off with his son; in the text I mostly just see Albus being a jerk, which makes it harder to sympathize with him being an idiot. But by the second part, where everyone is trying to deal with the results of the mistakes instead of just making the mistakes, I was swept up and enjoying it.
Network Effect, Martha Stewart. I got my Tuesday book club to read it. I'm still a huge Murderbot fan. This time I was watching how its relationship with ART worked. ART is really scary. It makes them a good match.
A Longer Fall, Charlaine Harris. I like the Audio Dramatizations. I got tired of podcasts while driving from Maine to Boston and then from Renton to Seaside, so I switched over to a Movie In My Mind. I am endlessly amused by Lizbeth grumbling about having to wear skirts and heels in Dixie, and I find Felix more amusing on audio than in text.
Picture Books
None
Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:
Ascendance of a Bookworm, Vol 5 Part 4, Miya Kazuki. Deep politics are afoot back home, and Myne needs to figure out a way to pursue her goal of librarianship. This means dodging the people who want to crown her.
Ascendance of a Bookworm, Miya Kazuki. Pausing my reread of Part 3 while I read the new book.
Cobra, Timothy Zahn. Part 48-49. Johnny doesn't like the idea of making more soldiers like him.
Warcross, Marie Lu. Left at home.
Flood Circle, Harry Connolly. No chance to read.
Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon. Left at home.
The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brian. No chance to read.
A Half-Built Garden, Ruthanna Emyrs. For my Reading My Library Quest. This is very nuanced and thoughtful. Humph.
Purple Hearts, Tess Wakefield. I think the topic was books made into movies? This doesn't seem like the kind of movie I'd like.
The Shuddering City, Sharon Shinn. I lugged this around on my trip but didn't get a chance to read it much.
Numb to This, Kindra Neely. Cybils finalist. Left it at home.
Ship Without Sails, Sherwood Smith. Almost done!
Palate Cleansers
These are at home, where I am not. No progress!
50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane (no picture).
Stinger, Nancy Kress.
Dragon's Breath, E.D. Baker.
The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture)
The Road to Mars, Eric Idle.
The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas.
Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Hmm. I am falling behind during my vacation.
Reading Challenges
- Cybils 2022: Working on YA Graphic Novels. Well, hardly working this week :-)
- Early Cybils: Not done.
- Reading My Library. Working on Half-Built Garden.
- Libraries: Working on the 10 to Try for 2023. Read the Staff Recommend.
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: Blood Vow
- Library Book: The Shuddering City
- Ebook I own: Flood Circle
- Library Ebook: Purple Hearts
- Book Club Book: The Fourth Wing
- Tuesday Book Club Book:
- Review Book: Back Home
- Rereading: A Russian Cage
- Audio: Fourth Wing
5 comments:
Wow, what a trip with so much going on. I'm sorry about your mother passing, did not remember that you shared before. Books bring things into our lives we may never have thought of, right? I marked a few books, wondering if I'll get to them soon. I have quite a stack going. Happy summer this week!
That sounds like some wonderful traveling!! I love Maine - one of our favorite places to visit. And I would love to visit the Oregon coast - we've only just barely been into southern OR, to Crater Lake NP and to stay in a treehouse! (a very cool experience). I want to see the rest of the Pacific NW.
Enjoy your books this week -
Sue
2023 Big Book Summer Challenge
I'm sorry about your mom, but the book you might need more than the McCurdy is Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast. That really resonated with me in the long years of declining health for my parents. As for cat sitting, I'm glad tou enjoyed it. I'm more of a dog person, but did spend a week with my daughter's cat when she and her new husband were on their honeymoon. That was an experience. Glad you have had a chance to do some traveling!
It sounds like you've been enjoying some wonderful travels, Beth! I'm so glad you got to see a friend in Maine, then help a friend out with some cat sitting (the view of the beach is definitely a perk!). I'm Glad My Mom Died is definitely a book I keep hearing and hearing about—I had unfortunately already known about some of the badness behind-the-scenes of iCarly, so my love of it died before the book came out, I'm afraid. But I'm glad McCurdy spoke out about her experience! (And I'm also glad another Nickelodeon show I loved, True Jackson, VP, wasn't problematic as far as I know.) Thanks so much for the wonderful post, as always!
For all her sins (and don't all mothers have a few) my mother was mostly ok. It was my father who had demons to deal with. So long as we did well enough in school, we were ignored. Whew!
I am a hard core Murderbot fan. I have now read each book in the series at least 3 times. I adore them as audiobooks!
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