All the Appointments

Lots of adulting this week, both in fun and dreary ways. On the dreary side, this was a week of maintenance appointments. Got my car serviced. Got my eyes checked (I needed a new prescription). Got my teeth checked (no cavities!). 

But on the fun side, my son had a birthday! I missed his birthday dinner because I was off PUTTING OUT FIRES but I made him a cake. And got him a present and arranged for his uncle to come out to dinner with him and his aunt's family. So I think that was OK. 

And two days later my brother had his birthday. He had been reminiscing about the games nights we used to have on New Years, so we threw him one. First he came down and helped me clean out my garage a little and move some furniture around (he likes it!) and then we played Chupacabra and Simon's Cat and Chronology and Apples to Apples and had wine and beer and whiskey. Probably some other games as well, but what with all the wine whiskey I don't remember them. At the end we estimated that the Birthday Man had won the most games so he was awarded the traditional Ugly Christmas Ornament. I have to say, it's more of a challenge to find one of those in September than it is in early January!

My CERT class this weeks was on fire safety, and we got to play with extinguishers and put out fires. Woot!

Official Plug For Cybils: 

It's time for CYBILS NOMINATIONS. 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! I need you to look over middle grade speculative fiction and find me the best of the best from the past year!

--- End Official Plug ---

I'm still at 3 pages of currently-reading on goodreads. I'm at 28 physical books checked out which includes some picture books and then there are a pile of ebooks. And we're about to enter Cybils season. Oops. I mean really, 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

Marie Curie, Kathleen Krull. Cybils finalist. 

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Part 5, Vol 6, Miya Kazuki. Yay! The new one is out! Let's see how long I can make this one last. 

Elf Dog and Owl Head, M.T. Anderson. Warm up for Cybils.

The Witch's Heart, Genevieve Gornichec. Cloudy pick this month. 

Black Butler 28, Yana Toboso. Continuing the series.

Hometown Christmas, Joleen James. I think I got this for free from the author?

Completed

Smek For President, Adam Rex. The great thing about Rex's books is how well he balances humor and heart. There are lots of laugh-out-loud moments, there are great comedic scenes, the whole tone is light-hearted, and yet there these are real characters who really grow and sometimes hurt. Also their weapons are cool. 

Stinger, Nancy Kress. I can always count on Kress to have real people with adult reactions and emotions doing real work. I like her science. This was a nifty thriller with a mosquito plague. And of course, having just lived through a pandemic, it was interesting to see how people reacted in this fictional setting.

The Serpent in Heaven, Charlaine Harris. I liked the voice a lot, and seeing how Harris's fascinating alternate history works with this character is a pleasure. I really enjoyed the audio reread, and now that it's done I need to find another way to entice myself into cleaning the kitchen. Hmm. 

Planetfall, Emma Newman. Sword & Laser pick a while ago. I think Newman did what she wanted very well, but it wasn't quite what I wanted. It was a very interesting perspective on a mental disorder, with a well grounded onset and emotionally logical progression, but I was here for the alien colonization. Also, none of the characters were particularly endearing, and they almost all ended badly. Apparently the second in the series goes off in a very different direction and again does what it means to do very well, so I might try that one. 

Elf Dog and Owl Head, M.T. Anderson. This had great bits and some missteps. I really liked the world the boy found and how the dog was both utterly a dog but also a magical being. I liked how the family had to deal with the magic run offs, although sometimes it veered too far into slapstick, which undercut the emotional realism. I found the sisters more stereotypes rather than real characters, which fed into the unpleasantness of the family's relationships. I guess that's why Amos Owl Head was a better friend than any of the humans. The setting and story was great, but the mix of fantasy and the real world was a bit clumsy and pulled me out a few times.

China Mountain Zhang, Maureen McHugh.  Sword and Laser's September pick. This was described to me as a mosaic novel that was more than the sum of its parts (by Jo Walton) and that's right. I really liked how the different threads sometimes barely intersected but gave a wide overview of the society and made things feel really solid. I liked watching the rather hapless young adult grow into himself and eventually realize it and appreciate himself. I liked the couple on Mars and their struggles and am very concerned for the pretty girl. 

Black Butler 28, Yana Toboso. More twin shenanigans, with old characters (who I had mostly forgotten coming back to crow over their plot. But it does throw our characters into a fun situation, so that makes me look forward to the next book. I continue to be mostly baffled by action scenes, which is all on me and does not mean the author isn't doing a great job for everybody else. 

Hometown Christmas, Joleen James. This is a novella in the middle of a romance series, I think, but because it is so short it reads more as a thriller than a romance. The protagonist uses the opportunity of the hostage situation she finds herself in to think about her relationship, but the story is about how she and her sisters deal with the attackers. Which made it easier for me to jump in and enjoy it without having to keep the family straight. 

Ship Without Sails, Sherwood Smith. This is a strongly realized world, and this book is just a step in the history. I still need the next book! Luckily I have it.

Picture Books

How to Count to 1: And Don't Even THINK About Bigger Numbers, Caspar Salmon. Thanks for recommending this, Blogger that I checked out! It was a lot of fun. I like both number books and books where the kid gets to be smarter than the text, and this works for both. The way that the illustrations echoes a counting book -- three whales, one of them balances a sausage on its blowhole -- Count the Sausage! This would be a fun family read. 

The Little Red Hen: An Old Fable, Heather Forest. Renton Highlands Library Reading My Library Quest book. The 398 fairy tales get their own section, and I pulled this one off. It has an odd mix between the picture tone and the text tone sometimes, and also tended to fall out of rhymes unexpectedly. But it covers the bases of the fable, and the reluctant animals shape up by the end. Oh, I always heard the hen making bread, but here she bakes a cake. 

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:

While still ridiculous, this is slightly less so than last week. Progress!

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Miya Kazuki. Abandoning my reread of Part 3 now since the new one just dropped. 

Cobra, Timothy Zahn. Part 51. Huh, somehow I haven't been getting to the Baen podcast. 

Warcross, Marie Lu. Made progress. 

Priory of the Orange Tree, Samantha Shannon. 

The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brian. 

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros. Good intentions, no follow through. 

Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo. Cybils finalist. 

Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff. I need more time in my day.

The Creeping Shadow, Jonathan Stroud. The next audio in my Reading My Library quest. I am seeking reasons to drive my car so I can listen. 

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb. 

Resurgence, C.J. Cherryh. 

A Shadow in Summer, Daniel Abraham. Scintillation book club pick. Missed the book club.

40-Love, Olivia Dade. 

Borderland, Anna Reid. Got through another chapter. 

The Clackity, Lora Senf. Cybils finalist. I sorta ignored laundry for a week, and laundry is when I read old Cybils finalists. 

Going Postal, Terry Pratchett. For my Tuesday book club. Not sure if I'm behind or ahead. 

The Hunt for the Hollower, Callie Miller. Warm-up for Cybils. 

Palate Cleansers

I'm slowly marching through these books.

 

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

Dragon's Breath, E.D. Baker. Cats and dogs and marketplaces.

The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. (no picture). More personal essays. 

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. 

The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. Finished Hunger Games and Rue, moving on to Gwen in Merlin. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Whew, caught up. Also caught up with my mail. 

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils 2022: Working on middle grade SF. 
2. Early Cybils:  Working on some nonfiction. 
3. Reading My Library. Working on an audio. Picked up some Easy fairy tales 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: Into the Broken Lands
• Library Book: Allegiance
• Ebook I own: The Wine Dark Sea
• Library Ebook: Borderland
• Book Club Book: The Flight Attendant
• Tuesday Book Club Book: Going Postal
• Review Book: Back Home 
• Rereading: Chalet School books
• Audio: considering my next one. Many options.