Reading and Writing and Reading

This was a week with a lot of talking about books but not as much reading of books. Sometimes it be like that. 

I had my monthly Friends Bookclub on Friday, where we went out for Thai food and discussed a fun space heist book called Starship Repo and also how we are doing. Instead of pizza at my house I arrange for this to be at a Thai restaurant a block or so from the Seattle BrickCon, where cool Lego people display all their cool Lego constructions, especially the Great Ball Contraptions that my brother helped develop. (If you have a spare minute that link is well worth your time, although it ends just before you get to my brother's creations). A very successful evening! We walked over after dinner and were amazed.

Sunday was my monthly Triple Book Club, and I managed to read all three books! I also got to hear about the excitement at last month's meeting, and see the new baby produced by one of our members. We had fun discussing Ninth House, then Daughter of the Moon Goddess, and then an assortment of books about recent Supreme Court decisions and why we approve or disapprove of the way the country is going. Lots of fun and also a chance for Greek food, sandwiches, or dumplings, depending on your mood. 

Um, I helped my nephew check out some possible job situations to see where he should be aiming his applications. I made it to the gym a few times, and then managed to destroy my sleep schedule which in turn destroyed my exercise mojo. My new fitness goal is to go to bed on time. Anything else is a pleasant surprise until I re-master that. 

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, 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 both Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers. And then I will dive around to see what everyone else has been reading. 

Started

Smek For President, Adam Rex. Because I remember enjoying the first one.

Borderland, Anna Reid. Ukraine seems like someplace I should know about. 

Starship Repo, Patrick S. Tomlinson. For my Friday book club. 

Completed

Ascendance of a Bookworm 5.5, Miya Kazuki. Another very satisfying installment. The royal family continues to delight with the cluelessness and the scheming of their attendants. The final story in fact highlights their myopic understanding of the world. Rosemyne finds more ways to be unique, but she is determined not to lose her chance at a library, even if she's forced to wed a prince. Also, she seems very comfortable with the idea of sex for someone in a different body that is now approaching maturity. 

New Suns 2, ed. Nisi Shawl. This is a great collection of short stories -- I read the first one and grabbed the second and was not disappointed. Fantasy, science fiction, even some horror. Of course, I sent it back to the library and have forgotten all the titles of my favorites, but none were clunkers so I just recommend everything. I wonder if there will be a third collection?

Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo. Sword and Laser August pick. I finished all three in time for my Triple Book Club! (My local Sword and Laser club meets before the Cloudy club, which meets before Torches and Pitchforks.) This book is about how evil Ivy League schools are, and how easily the students who attend them accept that evil as their due, because by being special enough to attend a school like that they deserve to rise above petty ideas of humanity or a social contract. Well, except the contract that gives them the right to all the money and power. Our hero is an outsider, and realizing that an outsider might actually be a person causes her mentor a bit of a system shock, but then he falls into a demon trap and we get distracted by the murder mystery and the evil person exploiting this evil system for her own gain. Gotta stop that! So the evil system can continue... Anyway, lots to discuss!

Picture Books

Because Claudette, Tracey Baptist. Reading My Library Quest: Renton Highlands, Easy Biography. I give this fairly low marks as a biography of Claudette Colvin, but higher marks as a book about how the rebellion against racist bus laws galvanized the Civil Rights movement. It shows how one step followed another, and how relationships were built between Colvin, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr and others. The illustrations were serious and realistic, although true to from I couldn't tell people apart. (This is a me thing.)

Nelson Mandela, Kadir Nelson. Reading My Library Quest: Renton Highlands, Easy Biography. That cover is awesome -- a huge face inviting you into the book to learn about the man. I liked the text and the illustrations, charting his life from boyhood through professional career to activism and prison, and then out triumphantly. 

 

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:

Yes, this is getting ridiculous. I'm definitely going to finish some of these. This week for SURE-ZIES!

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Miya Kazuki. Continuing my reread of Part 3 while I await the next book.

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. The protagonist sometimes reminds me of Edward in the fifth Twilight book. Often wrong but never uncertain. 

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. Poor Whispering Skull!

The Serpent in Heaven, Charlaine Harris. I'm enjoying the accent of the narrator. 

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb. My original plan was to read this just before turning off my light for sleep, in the hopes that it would make me think about my life. But this doesn't work to well because half of it is memoir rather than therapy stuff, and also sometimes I read a different book until my eyes fail me. 

Planetfall, Emma Newman. Sword & Laser pick from month's ago. I like this but I keep trying to read the books for the book clubs that haven't happened yet...

Resurgence, C.J. Cherryh. Continuing the series.

The Walls Around Opportunity, Gary Orfield. For Torches and Pitchforks book club. When I was young I could read small print books with footnotes without blinking. Now I need to sit in a quiet area and concentrate. I'm out of practice!

The Marvellers, Dhonielle Clayton. Cybils finalist. Very Harry Potter in setting (magic school, outsider protagonist) but different feel and themes. 

China Mountain Zhang, Maureen McHugh. Sword and Laser's September pick. I do not trust this author not to break my heart. 

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. 

Ship Without Sails, Sherwood Smith. 

Palate Cleansers

I'm slowly marching through these books.

 

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

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. This seems awfully guy-ish. Like women are seen as an alien species. 

The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. How Rue is used for Katniss's growth in Hunger Games. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. So far I'm enjoying these and staying on top of my mail!

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils 2022: Working on middle grade SF. 
2. Early Cybils:  Nope. 
3. Reading My Library. Working on an audio. Finished Easy Biography at Renton Highlands.
4. 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: Faceoff
• 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