I meant to post this last week, about things I did and read the week before that. But I didn’t.

I had some fun book clubs: the triple one for Sword and Laser (Akata Witch)), Cloudy With a Chance of Clit Lit (Embodied] and Torches and Pitchforks (Jane). I also woke up in time to discuss Liberty’s Daughter with a Montreal based club. I was still fighting my New Years cold, so I ignored all opportunities to exercise but did manage to visit some libraries. I should track that somewhere.

I’m doing well at reading books from my shelves although I’m better at starting them than finishing them. Oops.

Books Completed

Revenge (Blood and Honor 1), Dana Delmar. From my shelves. This was a gift from the author at a Seattle Romance convention. It’s a mafia romance (with the Northern Italian baddies, not the actual mafia) and I wasn’t really buying either of the characters when the book abruptly ended. Turns out it was only a starter teaser! But since I wasn’t liking it I’m not going looking for the rest, and I’m still counting it as a book gone from my shelves.

More Booklust, Nancy Pearl. From my shelves. This was her second collection of themed book lists. Now my TBR list on goodreads is even longer. I enjoy books about books a lot. Turns out I borrowed this from the library when it came out, but I didn’t recognize anything. I should probably reread them all.

Puzzleheart, Jenn Reese. Cybils nominee. Fun adventure with a (magical?) house trying to live its live of puzzles and tricks while its creator prefers to mope ever since her partner and co-creator died. Her grandchild is hoping that she will reconcile with her son and thereby pull them both out of depression, but the house is young and sentient and sorta dangerous, and kids aren’t actually that great at solving their parent’s emotional problems. I really liked the friendship between kids and how the kids worked together to solve puzzles; I sincerely felt for the loneliness of the house, and the emotional growth stuff was well paced but a bit too explicit for my taste.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Vol 1, Hayao Miyazaki. Okay, I’m ready to go in! Graphic novels and manga are hard for me to decipher so I have the roadmap from the illustrations and the picture book to guide me. So far I’m on team Nausicaä and I think I know who the other characters are.

ADHD Is Awesome, Penn and Kim Holderness. Cheerful but realistic guide to how ADHD can affect people and the ones around them, and how to address the strengths and represents. I’ve never been diagnosed but somehow reading this book made me manifest many of the symptoms to a greater degree. It does reinforce that the crazy systems I have in place to keep me functioning are probably a good idea.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Vol 2, Hayao Miyazaki. Foolscap book club. Ok there are several empires, easily distinguishable by their very different uniforms and major characters. I of course cannot tell them apart. I’m here for this! Even if it sometimes takes a few pages for me to figure out which princess is talking.

Baseball: Our Game, John Thorn. From my shelves. Tiny little book expressing Thorn’s love of the game and its role as a uniquely American pastime but in ways that try to skate over the ways that it rejected many Americans who weren’t like him.

Brooms, Jasmine Walls. 2023 Cybils finalist. Cool historical fiction with magic racing inserted as part of the southern experience. But I struggled to keep up with the very different characters and what the stakes were.

Jeep, Keith Robertson. From my shelves. Aka The Year of the Jeep. Written the year I was born, this book has kids living in a golden time, wandering around on their own, hitchhiking across the county, being clever, and having fun. Also getting a jeep, I guess.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Vol 3, Hayao Miyazaki. Foolscap book club. Ok, the boundaries are getting bigger and the problems humanity is causing are growing even faster. Nausicaä is setting high ethical standards.

Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin, Erin Hunter. Talbot book club. Although I disagree that pet cats are a lesser breed, it is fun to watch this one stretch his wild self. The different tribes and their politics, the ambitions and the betrayals of the baddie, and the naïveté slowly falling away.

The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee, Tom Angleberger. From my shelves. I vaguely remember the first one, and I skipped the second. But I like the idea of the girls working to make things better and the guys believing in the idea enough to help make it happen.

Books Started

Revenge (Blood and Honor 1), Dana Delmar. From my shelves.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Vol 2, Hayao Miyazaki. Foolscap book club.

More Booklust, Nancy Pearl. From my shelves.

Notes From the Air, John Ashbery. Poetry.

Baseball: Our Game, John Thorn. From my shelves.

Warriors Graphic Novel: The Prophecies Begin, Erin Hunter. Talbot book club.

Jeep, Keith Robertson. From my shelves.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind Vol 3, Hayao Miyazaki. Foolscap book club.

Making Book, Teresa Niesen Hayden (with Patrick Nielsen Hayden). From my shelves.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds Vol 4, Hayao Miyazaki. Foolscap book club.

In Too Deep, Lee Child & Andrew Child. I like Reacher.

The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee, Tom Angleberger. From my shelves.

Bookmarks Moved

Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor. Sword and Laser club pick. (Audio)

Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler.

Deal With the Devil, Kit Rocha.

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

Grimspace, Ann Aguirre. Reread.

Devil’s Cub, Georgette Heyer. Reread.

Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.

Bookmarks Languished

Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler.

Heroes of Havensong: the Last Ice Phoenix, Megan Reyes. Cybils nominee.

Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño. Cybils nominee.

True Colors, Abby Cooper. Cybils nominee.

Poems, R. Hawley Truax. I switched to a library book of poems.

Picture Books and Short Stories

“Become of Me” by Veronica Roth. This description of a robot mom bears no relationship to my experience of being a mother either to my own kids or to the other children who have been part of my village. Bit it was interesting in its differences.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Silverware! China! Dining rooms.

Renegade Love, Ann Aguirre. Another section a day book. There is alien sex in this book. Also a heist.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. I love the pacing.

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

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

The Road to Mars, Eric Idle. Mail bribe.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe. The misogyny is lampshaded! Character, not author.

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. It’s interesting to see whole language in action versus the idea of it in the podcast about failing schools.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. I like jamming a bit of classical music into my day.