So, last week I made a meal plan and then we completely ignored it, once because we didn't notice that the meal involved several hours in a crock pot until ten minutes before dinner (oops) and once because it was book club night and that means PIZZA. But it all worked out because we made the forgotten meal on the weekend and lasagna makes great leftovers and the other meal could just roll over. Low expectations for the win!

I made it to the gym a few times, and ran part of the distance suggested by my running program. And then I made it to the park with my friend and we greatly exceeded our (low) expectations. Go me!

I read some books, and started some other books, and showed up at most of my bookclubs with most of the books read. I'm in a lot of book clubs, OK?

Oh, Alexander and I went to see Argylle, which we enjoyed a lot. It lived up to the previews and had a few twists we didn't expect and a few we did, so we were both entertained and flattered.

Winners on Valentines Day! Finalists out now!

I'm still at 3 pages of currently-reading on goodreads. I'm up to 41 physical books checked out which includes some picture books and then there are (mumble) some ebooks.

I will be posting at The Bookdate's It's Monday, What Are You Reading headquarters as well as the kidlit version at Unleashing Readers.

Completed

Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans (Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, 1)

The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes. This did some interesting things with time loops and unreliable narrators, which made for an interesting discussion. We kept challenging each other about what had happened and what it meant. Why were the girls shining? I argued that nobody was shining -- the killer just liked killing people and they were shining because he had killed them. And that all girls have the potential to grow up to be amazing women, and in fact almost all of them do that. Was the house sentient?

But in the end it didn't really feel like a science fiction story. No one was interested in "why," and the protagonists didn't figure out what was going on, they just got lucky. It's definitely horror though. And we agreed that the romance was kinda creepy.

Cultish, Amanda Montell. This was a fun and interesting look at the languages used by cults and near-cult organizations, with a discussion about when they cross the line from building community to dangerous isolation. Groups tend to build their own languages, with catch phrases showing membership and a connection to each other, but when some of the phrases are used to shut down independent thinking and questioning, that's a big red flag. Montell looks at a range of organizations, from clear examples of dangerous cults (Scientology) to pyramid schemes like Amway and the frantic enthusiasm of fitness centers.

Fox Point's Own Gemma Hopper, Brie Spangler. I enjoyed this middle grade graphic novel. Gemma had a good mix of problems -- at home, at school, with her brother, with her friend group, with her body. I liked how she navigated her height and how she and her brother would clash but also had each other's back, and how they worked out a common solution, which matched how Gemma reached an understanding with her friend even as they had different social ambitions at school. It dealt with the specifics it set up, but also addressed deeper issues of family loyalty and wounds, social anxiety, and the way sports can warp athleticism.

Spear, Nicola Griffiths. I got this on audio from the library because I thought I had lent my copy to a friend. (Which I had, but he returned it.) Griffiths does a great job reading it, and also she knows how to pronounce all her character's names. I really liked how she played with the legend, taking some bits, upending other bits, making something fresh and new. At the book club we discussed things from who decides for a society, I mentioned how ironic it was to see a horny Percival who was still seen as innocent (a beardless boy -- forever!), what it means that without an heir the coalition is doomed, the mix of the two legends and how they worked together, and other bits.

Gone Wolf, Amber McBride. This had strong bits among other parts that didn't really click for me. I'm a bit adverse to free verse, and the main character drops into it a lot. She also keeps apologizing for using similes like "the leaves were a blanket on the ground," carefully explaining that she knows they aren't a blanket, but that's what it feels like, which just made me mad at her caretakers for squashing her imagination while trying to help her with her delusions. Also, that's not a simile. The other problem was that the fantasy part turned out to be the story the girl is telling, which makes the heavy social commentary even more rocklike and also means we never hear the end of that story. So I was cranky. But it's got a great dog character, so if anyone is looking for a Black girl/sad dog story I can recommend this one.

Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, Isi Hendrix. This was great! I loved the protagonist and her common sense and also terror of her own uncontrolled powers. The goddess was unpredictable and often socially clueless and really fun, the friendships were varied and let Adia work out what was important to her and what lines she couldn't cross. The ending was satisfactory and yet there's room for more, something I am delighted about.

Started

The Olympian Affair (The Cinder Spires, #2)

Greenwild: The World Behind the Door (Greenwild, #1)

Is this a lot? Seems like a lot.

Cultish, Amanda Montell. Torch and Pitchfork book, kicking our our Red Flag year.

The Shining Girls, Lauren Beukes. Sword and Laser book club.

Spear, Nicola Griffiths. Audio. For Scintillation book club.

Devil's Cub, Georgette Heyer. For Torches and Pitchforks club, free topic: Red Flags in Relationships.

The Olympian Affair, Jim Butcher. For my Tuesday gaming book club.

The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula Le Guin. Audio. For Scintillation book club.

Nona the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir. This series should be something I love. But I hated the first two. I'm trying one more time.

Greenwild: The World Behind the Door, Pari Thomson. Nominated for Cybls.

Resurgence, C.J. Cherryh. The library took this back before I was done, so I have rechecked it out.

Picture Books & Short Stories

Dinosaur vs. Santa (A Dinosaur vs. Book, 4)

A Terrible Thing Happened: A Story for Children Who Have Witnessed Violence or Trauma

Dinosaur Vs Santa, Bob Shea. Reading My Library Quest: Renton Highlands Library, Children Holiday. This was fun and exciting and I would have been delighted to read it to my kids when they were small.

A Terrible Thing Happened, Margaret M. Holmes. An earnest example of bibliotherapy, which I am of the firm if untested belief works best if the initial application comes before the problem it is meant to treat. From that perspective, this also works as a general story, if a bit dull, and would work well followed by discussions of how sometimes people acting up are coming from a place of pain, and compassion towards others as well as towards ourselves is never misapplied.

Papillon Goes to the Vet, A.N. Kang. Not primarily an attempt at bibliotherapy, this is definitely a fun book about a puffy cat who is puffy. I do not recommend this as an example of what happens at a doctor visit, but if a kid has read this before an medical emergency it might help them draw their own comparisons. And the puffy cat is very cute. And puffy.

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:

Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 3 Volume 1

Ascendance of a Bookworm: Part 5 Volume 7

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

The Outskirter's Secret (The Steerswoman, #2)

Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Miya Kazuki. Abandoning my reread of Part 3 now since the new one just dropped. I'll get back to it, don't worry!

Ascendance of a Bookworm, Part 5, Vol 7, Miya Kazuki. Well, the excitement is high and I'm ready to see Rosemyne kick butt in Vol 8!

Cobra, Timothy Zahn. Still at part 58. Audio books with book club deadlines have been eating into my podcast time.

Hild, Nicola Griffith. Foolscap pick. Reading this at the same time as Spear was interesting.

Farther Than the Moon, Lindsay Lackey. 2023 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction finalist. Lots of Houston nostalgia.

Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes DuMez. This is not helping me have a compassionate attitude towards evangelical Christians.

In Five Years, Rebecca Serle. Renton River book club pick. Maybe I will recommend this to my very successful friend.

Outskirter's Secret, Rosemary Kirstein. Into the Outskirts!

Winter's Orbit, Everina Maxwell. Huh. I did not clearly remember what was in the AO3 version and what was new.

Bold Spirit, Linda Laurence Hunt. I have ordered up the kidlit version to read when I finish. They are currently in Idaho.

Palate Cleansers

I'm slowly marching through these books.

Dragon's Breath (The Tales of the Frog Princess, #2)

The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games (Postmillennial Pop, 13)

YEAR OF WONDER: Classical Music for Every Day

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

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. I liked the mentions of Monty Python. Well played, Mr Idle.

Windswept, Adam Rakunas. In audio I tend to forget people's names, but then the plot clues me in. But there are sure a lot of people mad at Padma.

The Dark Fantastic, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas. Why Bonnie rarely got a boyfriend, and why no one was surprised by her sacrifice.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Just a wee bit behind.

Reading Challenges

Cybils 2023: Working on middle grade fiction.
Early Cybils: Nothing.
Reading My Library. Music CDs have been displaced by Lathe of Heaven CD.
Looking at Tacoma's Monster challenge for this year.

Future Plans

I'm putting this at the end because it's complete fiction, but I feel I should attempt some structure. Actually, I've started listing all the bookclubs I'm in, so I hope some actually happens.

I am reading: