Pre-Christmas

Hi again! 

So, I’m still behind. This is the week I had my Renton library book club party, which I brought oatmeal lace cookies to. Paulos helped make them so they turned out well. He has a good sense of timing. I also talked to my lawyer about my will, and then talked to everyone in the will about my will. And then I packed for our Christmas trip. Spoiler, I had a great Christmas, but that post should follow shortly. I hope. 

Books Completed

Love Bites, Sienna Mercer. 6th Sister the Vampire book. If you want a cheerful, low tension, predictable middle grade series, this one is great! Here the kids are off to visit their aristocratic vampire relations, and their boyfriends are sweet, the misunderstandings amusing, and their sisterly devotion stronger. Add in some vampire princes and cross-class romance and everything is awesome! Except that the sequels seem to have fallen off my Libby so I can’t keep going in this decades old series.

Rocky Start, Jennifer Cruise and Bob Meyer. I liked the dialogue and the interior thoughts and found the whole town of retired wet workers interesting, but I didn’t really buy the insta-love between the two leads. re was enough of the good character work going on that I didn’t really care.

The Last Rhee Witch, Jenna Lee-Yun. Great story of a girl at camp, struggling to hold onto her best friend and worried that her dad is getting frustrated with her issues, including an unnerving habit of uncontrollable rhyming. But it soon appears that the rhyming, the camp, and some of her new friends are all related the the dangerous forces that killed her mom, and unless she uncovers the secrets of her past she will be next. Lots of cool Korean mythology and different ways of being biracial and also what it takes to have and be a friend.

Embodied: an Intersectional Comics Poetry Anthology.Wendy Chin-Tanner (Ed). I enjoyed this, especially seeing how the artists interpreted the poems and how that deepened my understanding of them as well.

Books Started

Embodied: an Intersectional Comics Poetry Anthology.Wendy Chin-Tanner (Ed). For Cloudy book clubs.

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendelsohn. A book on housekeeping that will go in the Slow Reads section.

Love Bites, Sienna Mercer. 6th Sister the Vampire book.

Kwame Crashes the Underworld, Craig Kofi Farmer. Cybils nominee.

Nomad, William Alexander. Sequel to a book I liked.

Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño. Cybils nominee.

Ash and Splinter, Marieke Nijkamp. Cybils nominee.

True Colors, Abby Cooper. Cybils nominee.

Bookmarks Moved

Soma and the Golden Beasts, Rajanni LaRocca.

Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler.

Deal With the Devil, Kit Rocha.

Grimspace, Ann Aguirre. Reread.

Citizen of the Galaxy, Robert Heinlein. Audio reread.

Bookmarks Languished

Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

I was preparing for the Foolscap Hugo Short Stories December meeting.📆 

 “Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer. Reread, but I still like it. Hopeful, sf-nal, and with good people.

“Answerless Journey”, Han Song / 没有答案的航程, 韩松, translated by Alex Woodend. I’m not sure if I misunderstood the point or if I just found the point pointless.

“The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones. Grim, current, and twisty enough to be powerful.

美食三品 (“Tasting the Future Delicacy Three Times”), 宝树 / Baoshu. This one was fun! Sf-nal andughtful.

“On the Water Its Crystal Teeth,” Marissa Lingen. Quiet look at the urge towards parenthood.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section, report on it to the family discord, and so improve our understanding of our home and its routine.

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

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. I read the next bit every morning before starting my day. 

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. I’m near the end.

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe.

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe.