OK, I'm moving into fall. I'm scheduling all the school stuff (workout sessions, school book clubs, etc.), and finding a few pieces of my mom's estate to clean up. And we had a nice time going out to celebrate New Restaurants Day. My mom had enjoyed going out to restaurants with her friends, so we started doing that in Renton with the intention of inviting more people to join, but we only had the first meeting (yum) before she got sick. So now I am keeping on, although so far just with the family.
Where did we go this month? The Big Chicken, which is Shaq O'Neil's chicken chain that recently opened a branch in Renton. My mom would have hated this place! But we enjoyed it, despite them being out of the Gramma's Banana Pudding ice cream sandwiches (guess I'll have to go back). Let me highly recommend the sweet potato waffle fries.
At home we had more gourmet food, as I snuck Fish Tacos onto the menu. Then two adults said they couldn't make dinner so it would be just me and my son. He and I secretly prefer to eat around ten at night, so he waited until then and then made them -- spices for the fish, radish and cabbage slaw, avocado sauce. Yum! He did skip the sides I had suggested because my sister dislikes fish. I guess we could make them this week.
I barely exercised at all. Even though the weekend weather was perfect for it! But I did sign up for a CERT class to get training on emergency procedures. Hopefully that will remind me why I wanted to get fit.
Official Plug For Cybils: OK world, it's time to line up all the new kidlit that you enjoyed this year, because we are gearing up for CYBILS NOMINATIONS. No, not quite yet, (hint, it's in October) but soon you will have a chance to nominate the picture books, middle grade books, YA books, fiction and nonfiction and poetry books for kids that came out in the past year and that were great to read and great to recommend!
--- End Official Plug ---
I'm back up to 3 pages of currently-reading on goodreads. I'm at 30 physical books checked out which includes some picture books plus five ebooks. And we're about to enter Cybils season. 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'm reading picture books as well as Cybils and other kidlit, I'll also sign up at the Children's Book central version, held at Unleashing Readers. And then I will dive around to see what everyone else has been reading.
Started
FaceOff, ed by David Baldacci. Reading My Library Quest, Renton Library, Fiction. I picked this off the first F shelf.
The Talk, Darrin Bell. Grabbed impulsively from a Seattle library branch.
Shattered, Lisa J. Morgan. From author, for review.
Completed
Starship Repo, Patrick S. Tomlinson. For my Friday book club. This was a light-hearted heist novel, with a lot of interesting aliens and dubious finances and a young human with a talent for electronic theft, here turned to a (mostly) legal use. There were some implausible bits I was completely willing to swallow and some I had to choke down, as well as modern Easter Eggs scattered about, some subtle, some I probably missed, and some glaring (yes, I'm talking about the statue in the casino). We tend to read these fun books in the summer, although I don't think our next picks are getting more challenging. But still fun to talk about!
The Walls Around Opportunity, Gary Orfield. The premise of this book is that our society is set up so that Hispanic and Black children are specifically disadvantaged, and that color-blind policies will fail to accurately target the people who need them, since the needs are to a great extent determined by past or present racism in our country. For example, poverty for White or Asian people tends to be a short-term situation (students, recent break-ups, sudden job loss) while for many PoCs it's a long term, sometimes generational issue. School and school districts are carefully set up to segregate people by color, which often also means segregating by income, and then those feed on each other. Colleges who are denied the ability to seek out and support students of color will continue the American habit of separating the best elementary and secondary education by race, then pretending innocence when color-blind "merit" selection sends mostly White and Asian kids on to college from their well funded and institutionally favored schools.
FaceOff, ed by David Baldacci. I enjoyed this anthology even though I'm not a big thriller reader. The gimmick was to have famous thriller writers team up to have their series regulars (if they had series) meet and deal with a problem, usually on the same side. (I had assumed they would be facing off against each other, but mostly they cooperated directly and occasionally indirectly.) Baldacci wrote intros for each story, which was handy since I didn't know most of the characters (or authors), but the stories worked for me anyway. And in the few cases where I recognized people (Hi Jack Reacher!) it was a bonus.
The Talk, Darrin Bell. This graphic novel memoir starts when Bell is frightened first by a growling dog and later by a police officer, both inspiring long nightmares. The fear of police is actually fairly rational for a young black boy, as explained by his White mom. His brother and father don't want to admit to this; the brother insisting that they are targeted for being poor, his father refusing to speak about it at all. Bell tells of his life through college and beyond, constantly having to ask himself if he's seeing patterns or imagining them. And at the end, he has to contemplate giving "The Talk" to his own children, seeing how things have changed and yet not changed, and how he's going to handle the issue with his own children, given the examples he has encountered throughout his life. Powerful story and amazing I think I rarely had to figure out who was who!
The Marvellers, Dhonielle Clayton. 2022 Cybils MG Spec Fic finalist. A strong entry in the "kid goes to magic school" genre, which I am glad to see is still going strong. This one has an international school that isn't sure it wants to accept "conjurors" such as our heroine and her family, and she and her friends have to grapple with prejudice as well as normal boarding school issues. I like the idea of different kinds of magic and how institutions that think they have categorized everything are uneasy with power that doesn't quite fit their guidelines. As an adult, I thought her stated reasons for avoiding adult help a bit bogus (her aunt was right there) but I suspect kids would wonder why she needed a reason at all; kids solve problems in kid books.
Picture Books
None
Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:
Yes, this is getting ridiculous. I'm definitely going to finish some of these. Any day now!
Ascendance of a Bookworm, Miya Kazuki. Continuing my reread of Part 3 while I await the next book. We are just meeting Sylvester's evil sister!
Cobra, Timothy Zahn. Part 51. Huh, somehow I haven't been getting to the Baen podcast.
Warcross, Marie Lu. Made it a few pages. I really going to remember to schedule that service for my car!
Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon.
The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brian.
Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros. The June Sword and Laser book club pick.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo. Cybils finalist.
Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff. Into the danger lands!
The Creeping Shadow, Jonathan Stroud. The next audio in my Reading My Library quest. I'm on disc 7, so I hope I finish before the library calls it home.
The Serpent in Heaven, Charlaine Harris. I'm enjoying the accent of the narrator.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb.
Planetfall, Emma Newman. Sword & Laser pick a while ago.
Resurgence, C.J. Cherryh. Continuing the series.
China Mountain Zhang, Maureen McHugh. Sword and Laser's September pick. I do not trust this author not to break my heart so I keep losing my nerve when we switch narrators.
A Shadow in Summer, Daniel Abraham. Scintillation book club pick. I have about a week and a half to finish this and the next three books. Oops.
40-Love, Olivia Dade.
Smek For President, Adam Rex. Boovs are great, especially J.Lo.
Borderland, Anna Reid.
Ship Without Sails, Sherwood Smith.
Palate Cleansers
I'm slowly marching through these books.
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.
The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. I'm hoping some of these women get character roles.
The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. How Rue is used for Katniss's growth in Hunger Games.
Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. I am falling behind on my email!
Reading Challenges
- Cybils 2022: Working on middle grade SF.
- Early Cybils: Working on some nonfiction.
- Reading My Library. Working on an audio. Picked up some Easy fairy tales at Renton Highlands.
- Libraries: Working on the 10 to Try for 2023. Need an artist and a summer book.
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: China Mountain Zhang
- Library Book: The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry
- Ebook I own: The Wine Dark Sea
- Library Ebook: Forty-Love
- Book Club Book: A Long Petal of the Sea
- Tuesday Book Club Book: Going Postal
- Review Book: Back Home
- Rereading:
- Audio: Serpent in Heaven
3 comments:
Whew! That's a lot of books! I can only read one at a time, since I write reviews of most things and would get so confused! Keep up with Cybils reading is always a challenge. Good luck on the new season!
I loved reading about the food, but eating at 10, wow. I thought I ate late because it's usually after 7! I've heard especially about "The Talk" and did you know there's a picture book, too. I noted it especially. And, yes, I am gearing up for the Cybils nominations, too. I'll be intrigued at what's on all the lists! Have a great week finishing up the summer days, Beth!
I feel I should go over the books I read in case I do some CYBILS nominating.
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