Taxes are Terrible, Also Any Paperwork Is Hard

Happy Pi Day! Happy St Patrick’s Day! I hope everyone celebrated just as they like. I had pizza on pi day, from a new place because we like to honor my mom by eating at new restaurants. We had a good book club discussing the coffee food cart mysteries. And the I had a good time at the library book club, although when they announced I had suggested the book (I had utterly forgotten) I was petrified that every had hated it. And then they made me go first! 

That book club is made even better by the giant tree that crashed down across the river a few months ago. I guess the city sent some people out to trim off a few branches but most of it is still there enhancing the River environment and slowly swinging around. Eventually it will have to pass under the river and head for Lake Washington.

Wow, it’s Wednesday and I’m getting this out! It’s supposed to be part of the It’s Monday What Are You Reading thing and maybe next week I can join back in!

I think I am now reading 62 books, according to goodreads. Maybe I’ll get some reading done in April, which has a lot of vacations baked in.

Books Completed March 14-20

Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy. Mostly fascinating account of what happened, how it happened, why the information was so slow to trickle out, who was responsible, who got blamed, and the lasting political, social, environmental and medical effects. Reading this while headlines of the accidental firing of nuclear safety engineers came out was sort of surreal.

Ascendancy of a Bookworm: Short Story Collection Volume 2, Miya Kazuki. What can I say? I’m addicted. The author does a really good job of showing how various events are understood from various perspectives, which is cool. Also, Myne is awesome.

Masters in this Hall, K.J. Charles. Sweet novella with a guy caught up in a mess, and his lover who gets hurt by it, and how they extricate themselves with some old friends of the reader (not their old friends; they don’t like him at all).

The Firekeeper’s Daughter, Angeline Boulley. River Runs Under It Book Club pick. I zipped through but slipped the bits I remembered well. I had forgotten that I suggested this to the club! Thank goodness most people liked it. We did think it started slowly; it’s doing several different things (a mystery, a coming of age, grief processing, Indian tribal politics) so there was a lot to lay out before things started rolling. But that meant there were a lot of ways into the book. Also, we are a pretty old group so anything YA is going to be a bit tiring.

Stacey’s Mistake (Babysitter Club), Ann M. Martin. This is number 18, so it’s a known quantity. As a person who visiting her New York cousins as a kid, I enjoyed my nostalgia at seeing the New Yorker swing from pride at showing off her city to cringing at hanging out with all the tourists. I liked the babysitting stuff as usual; I always like when they have to deal with a giant crowd of kids.

Books Started

Saving Verakko, Victoria Avelina. I won’t finish this in time for the Romance bookclub. 

Baby-Sitter’s On Board (Baby-Sitter’s Club Super Special), Ann M. Martin. I have no idea what super-special means in this context.

Bookmarks Moved

The Caphelon, Fletcher DeLancey. 

The City and the City, China Mieville. Sword and Laser Book Club.

The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias & Lisa Lerner. Torches & Pitchforks book club pick.

American Smooth, Rita Dove. My next poetry book.

The Rook, Daniel O’Malley. (Audio)

Nova, Samuel R. Delaney.

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros.

An Immense World, Ed Yong.

Airs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart. 

The City Beyond the Sea (Greenwild 2), Pari Thomson. Kidlit fantasy.

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

Bookmarks Languished

I have not given up on these! Ignore all evidence.

 

                                       Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

                                       Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.          

                                Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.

                                Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

                        Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

                     Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

                    Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

               Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

        True Colors, Abby Cooper.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell. 

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

The Night Librarian, Christopher Lincoln.

South Riding, Winifred Holtby. Scintillation book club. I did not finish in time.

Books Acquired

From the library:

Just Saying, Ray Armantrout. 

For my shelves:

The Invention of the Renaissance, Ada Palmer.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

None. 

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Dishes and how to wash them.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip meeting his heroes is hilarious.

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

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. Home stretch.

Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon. Mail bribe. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Made it to November.

Future Plans

This is for the actual future, so a week beyond the books in this post. It is also probably wrong.

I am reading: 

• Book I own: What Makes This Book So Great
• Library Book: The City Beyond the Sea
• Ebook I own: Airs Above the Ground
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Movie Month! Nausicaä 
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  Dungeon Crawler Carl
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  Lore of the Wilds
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  The Fall of Roe
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The Diamond Eye
• Talbot Hill Book: Scary Stories For Young Foxes and Bad Guys 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: Mythology based romance

My Birthday

Happy Birthday to me! My son Alexander took the extended family out to dinner to Whistle Stop, one of my favorite local restaurants. And then we went home for cake, made by my kids. The other son has been experimenting with different spices in his whipped cream frosting; this one came out really well. And then I got a new book bag and a game of Never Have I Ever cards, which everyone cheerfully played with me. Really a lively day.

Also I had my usually enthusiastic elementary book club who broke into singing Happy Birthday when I let slip that it was my day. Now we pause birthdays until April. And finally I picked up a new library (Newport Way, very nice) and went back to Newcastle to get a picture and a stamp.

I think I am now reading 64 books, according to goodreads. Maybe I should have made a resolution to start a whole bunch of books from my shelves, not to finish them…

Books Completed March 7-13

Claudia and Mean Janine, Babysitters Club, Ann Martin. Text version. This one is really about Claudia’s grandmother’s stroke. It’s interesting that no one suggests anyone else learn any Japanese as Mimi works at regaining her voice and especially with remembering English words. I liked how Claudia was worried that she had caused the stroke and so she apologizes and learns and accepts that it was not her fault. Done.

Tough Boy Sonatas, Curtis L. Crisler. With this one I could always see what the poems were trying to do, or at least have some ideas of what and how they were doing. Much more to my liking, even if none of them sank deep into my heart. They mostly weren’t aimed at me anyway.

Fudge-a-Mania, Judy Blume. For Talbot Hill book club. Huh, this was written about ten years after the previous ones, but the family picks up where we left them. Family vacations to Maine are eternal, I guess. It’s a funny book, although I wish the parents didn’t let Fudge bully his older brother so much; the boy is plenty old enough to practice compassion. The kids liked the parrot stuff the most.

Poems, R. Hawley Truax. I think these are by my cousin’s grandfather. He was a little too fond of word enjambment (splitting a word so he gets a rhyme out of an inside syllable). Good read. 

Babysitters Club: Kristy’s Big Day, Ann Martin. Original version. I liked seeing the differences in the graphic novel and the text, which mostly reflected the medium. So, complicated shenanigans were more in the text, and the drive to create a beautiful picture was more in the comic.

Never After 1: The Thirteenth Fairy, Melissa de la Cruz. Talbot Hill book club pick. We talked about the meta aspect of writing a book series about a girl who loves a book series and then gets to go into that book series and change it, and which series the kids would go into and whether they’d change things. And about fairy tales and truth.

Good-bye Stacey Good-bye (Babysitters Club), Anne Martin. Original version. I like the garage sale stuff because it’s nostalgic, and then it’s endearing how the other kids use the money to throw a big party with all the little ones.

The Great Space Iguana (Hilo), Judd Winick. Another good mix of snappy plot, compassionate choices, and Hilo humor.

All the Hidden Paths, Foz Meadows. As I feared it leaned more into the character angst stuff that I found slow and away from the super fun worldbuilding, but I got enough to keep the pages turning. I did wonder at making the mystery so prominent if our protagonists weren’t going to solve it. They could have been smart enough.

Books Started

Fudge-a-Mania, Judy Blume. For Talbot Hill book club.

The Night Librarian, Christopher Lincoln. Next shelf in Renton Highlands.

Babysitters Club: Kristy’s Big Day, Ann Martin. Original version.

South Riding, Winifred Holtby. Scintillation book club. I’ll never finish in time.

Good-bye Stacey Good-bye (Babysitters Club), Anne Martin. Original version.

The Great Space Iguana (Hilo), Judd Winick. These are great. I’ve been on hold for ages.

The City and the City, China Mieville. Sword and Laser Book Club.

The City Beyond the Sea (Greenwild 2), Pari Thomson. Kidlit fantasy.

The Fall of Roe, Elizabeth Dias & Lisa Lerner. Torches & Pitchforks book club pick.

The Firekeeper’s Daughter, Angeline Boulley. River Runs Under It Book Club pick. I’ll probably skim this as I read it recently.

American Smooth, Rita Dove. My next poetry book.

Stacey’s Mistake (Babysitter Club), Ann M. Martin. This is number 18. 

Bookmarks Moved

Ascendancy of a Bookworm: Short Story Collection Volume 2, Miya Kazuki.

Masters in this Hall, K.J. Charles.

The Caphelon, Fletcher DeLancey. 

An Immense World, Ed Yong.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell. 

Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy.

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros.

The Rook, Daniel O’Malley. (Audio)

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

Bookmarks Languished

I have not given up on these! Ignore all evidence.

 

                                   Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

                                   Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.          

                            Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.

                            Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

                    Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

                 Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

                Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

           Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

    Airs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart. 

    True Colors, Abby Cooper.

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

Nova, Samuel R. Delaney.

Books Acquired

From the library:

Scary Stories For Young Foxes: The City, Christian McKay Heidicker.

Scary Stories For Young Foxes, Christian McKay Heidicker.

Embers of War, Gareth L. Powell.

A Fate Inked in Blood, Danielle L. Jensen.

For my shelves:

The Tomb of Dragons, Katherine Addison. 

Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist, Dorothy Gilman.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

“Bravado” by Carrie Vaughn. This is on Reactor, and as a stand alone it’s ok but apparently there are other stories about the guy and I think it would be fun to read more stuff in the setting.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. I’m never inviting this lady over to dinner.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip meeting his heroes is hilarious.

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

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. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Still back in October.

Future Plans

This is for the actual future, so a week beyond the books in this post. It is also probably wrong.

I am reading: 

• Book I own: What Makes This Book So Great
• Library Book: The City Beyond the Sea
• Ebook I own: Airs Above the Ground
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Movie Month! 
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  The City and the City
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  Lore of the Wilds
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  The Fall of Roe
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The Diamond Eye
• Talbot Hill Book: Scary Stories For Young Foxes and Bad Guys 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: Mythology based romance

Birthdays Slow Down

  Argh, I’m falling behind again. This post is a week late. No siblings had birthdays, I had several in person book clubs, and I added four library stamps to my collection, two new libraries and two return visits to get the stamp. 

I think I am now reading 66 books, according to goodreads. Oops.

Books Completed March 1 - 6

Oceans Godori, Elaine U. Cho. Cloudy bookclub pick. This had fun worldbuilding and a good crew-as-family (but the captain is not really in the group) vibe, but also it’s the first half of the story! It’s not quite that bad, the emotional arcs end in decent places, but the plot arc is still in media res. This was not reflected in the cover and so the pacing felt very odd. I’ll want to read the back half when in comes out in a few months.

The Will of Many, James Islington. Sword and Laser book club pick. This Romans-with-magic would have been much better with about 30% fewer pages. It had a neat concept and some good characters but tended to repeat things both ona small scale (narrator ruminates over something until the author is sure the reader got it) and a bigger scale, where he learns the same lesson several times. This matters a lot at the end when Islington does something fairly cool with the last two short chapters, after training the reader not to pay close attention. I knew the Sword and Laser hosts were confused and so were several people in our local meetup. I mean, maybe I missed some stuff as well.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Serafi, Shannon Chakraborty. The 2024 Hugo finalist I didn’t quite finish is now finished! I can now nominate for 2025 with a clear conscience! This was a fun pirate vs evil wizards book set in the Indian Ocean, although I got a little tired of the protagonist proclaiming she wanted to go home and be boring. Nobody wanted that, including her. Oh, it’s in the romantic past, so scimitars and sails, not machine guns and cargo ships.

Fresh Brewed Murder, Emmeline Duncan. For my main book club. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately and I liked this low stakes cosy murder mystery with lots of nice food and competent adults.

Claudia and the New Girl, Babysitters Club Graphic Novel, Gabriela Epstein. I was a little confused by the timeline; did the club really get that mad when Claudia was befriending a new girl for a week? Was it more? Didn’t anybody ever get overwhelmed at school or something before? These kids are usually much calmer.

Death Unfiltered, Emmeline Duncan. I was in the mood to stay in this safe (well, except for all the dead people) version of Portland, so I gobbled down the whole series, numbers 1, 4, 2, and 3. The little company grew from one food truck to an additional traveling cart and a store front, the protagonist gets engaged and has an adoring almost-stepchild, and the shadow of her criminal mom looms and shrinks and looms.

The Year We Disappeared, Cylin Busby & John Busby. 2008 Cybils finalist. This was a gripping story from two different directions, telling how a family decided to handle the policeman dad getting shot by a guy who probably would be coming back to try again. I thought it was going to be about remaking themselves, but it mostly focused on the months after the late 1970s attack. John spends a lot of time thinking about vengeance, especially when the police department lets both his case and the case he was shot over die. Cylin goes from enjoying the treat-filled chance to live with her cousins (with their pool!) to an understanding of the damage to her daddy and the new restrictions and fear in their lives. The two perspectives reinforce the reality of each other.

Double Shot Death, Emmeline Duncan. Jumped back to number 2.

Flat White Fatality, Emmeline Duncan. Stepped ahead with the third. I think a fifth is coming out this year.

Books Started

Nova, Samuel R. Delaney. For Scintillation book club. Which I missed, so not finishing in time was not an issue.

Claudia and the New Girl, Babysitters Club Graphic Novel, Gabriela Epstein. Still liking these.

Tough Boy Sonatas, Curtis L. Crisler. Poetry from library.

Fresh Brewed Murder, Emmeline Duncan. For my main book club.

Masters in this Hall, K.J. Charles. Ebook I bought because this author is great.

Claudia and Mean Janine, Babysitters Club, Ann Martin. Text version.

Death Unfiltered, Emmeline Duncan. It is always acceptable at this book club to read on in a series. I jumped to number 4.

Double Shot Death, Emmeline Duncan. And back to #2.

Flat White Fatality, Emmeline Duncan. And now I’ve caught up with the author by reading #3.

Never After 1: The Thirteenth Fairy, Melissa de la Cruz. Talbot Hill book club pick.

The Caphelon, Fletcher DeLancey. Spaceships! I have no idea why I checked this out but it looks fun.

Bookmarks Moved

Ascendancy of a Bookworm: Short Story Collection Volume 2, Miya Kazuki.

All the Hidden Paths, Foz Meadows. 

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell. 

Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy.

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros.

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

The Rook, Daniel O’Malley. (Audio)

An Immense World, Ed Yong.

Bookmarks Languished

I have not given up on these! Ignore all evidence.

 

                               Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

                               Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.          

                        Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.

                        Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

                Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

             Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

            Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

       Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

    Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

Poems, R. Hawley Truax. This will get displaced by a library book again.

Airs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart. 

True Colors, Abby Cooper.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

Am I Small? Mol ke Idek?, Philipp Winterberg. This is a fun picture book about relativity (big things think you are small, little things think you are big, lots of chance for fun illustrations) but the main gimmick seems to be that its many editions are bilingual across all sorts of languages. The one I read was English/Marshallese, a language I am so unfamiliar with that at first I thought it was a made up language used by the creatures the narrator converses with. I was very impressed with it for working as a real language, which made sense because it is!

44 Uses For a Dog, Harriet Ziefert. Nice concept, worth the time, but the illustration style was not my cup of tea.

How Does Chocolate Taste on Everest?, Leisa Stewart-Sharpe. The life of an intrepid explorer involves all the senses as well as a good sense of humor, and this picture books shows them all. The frame of the reader zooming around the world is a good vehicle for the information and makes for a fun read.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. We’re on to keeping your kitchen clean. I feel very judged.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Kip is a nice guy to be marooned with.

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

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. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. 

Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill. Mail bribe. Back in October.

Future Plans

This is for the actual future, so a week beyond the books in this post. It is also probably wrong.

I am reading: 

• Book I own: An Immense World
• Library Book: The City Beyond the Sea
• Ebook I own: Airs Above the Ground
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Movie Month! 
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  The City and the City
• Scintillation Book Club: Tam Lin
• Cloudy Book Club:  Lore of the Wilds
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  The Fall of Roe
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The Fire-maker’s Daughter 
• Talbot Hill Book: Scary Stories For Young Foxes and Bad Guys 
• Friday Book Club: Lavender Blue
• Romance Book Club: Anywhere but Earth romance

Happy Birthday Oldest Brother

Another Friday, so time to post last Monday’s book diary! My big brother had a birthday, I had several online book clubs, and I now have a library post card to track my libraries with, so I guess I’m going back to a few to get their stamps. But it feels more official now.

I think I am still reading 62 books, according to goodreads.

Books Completed Feb 22-28

Kristy and the Snobs: Babysitters Club Graphic Novel #10, Chan Chau. Can these girls who mock an old mutt be redeemed? Turns out yes. Also, Stacey is awesome at dealing with rich bratty kids.

Waverider: Amulet 9, Kazu Kibuishi. Emily has her legs under her and is no longer frightened by the creature her great uncle released. I liked seeing how some of the environmental themes matched up with Nausicaä.

Golden Hour, Niki Smith. The pictures of the kid having flashbacks to the gun violence at his school were really disturbing and really reflected his jangle of emotions. His new friends seemed a bit too good to be true, but I liked seeing how they helped bring him back to equilibrium.

Mary Anne Saves the Day: Babysitter Club #4, Ann Martin. I like the text ones because there is more interiority. Also I like Mary Anne standing up to her dad, and the drama at the kid birthday party. 

To the Gorge, Emily Halnon. This resonated with me on several levels; I’ve been reading about the Pacific Coast Trail, which Emily is running on through Oregon to honor her mother while dealing with the grief over her death. My own mom died around this time a few years ago, so it’s a timely book about grieving.

Kristy’s Big Day: BabySitter Club Graphic Novel # 6, Gale Galligan. Giant babysitting party in the backyard! This was fun, and with a little emotion over blending the families as a spice.

The Shadow of the Gods, John Gwynne. I started this last year when The Sword and Laser book club picked it, but fell behind. It’s got really vivid descriptions and a solid setting in a Norse-like land (with rotting gods, so reading it against Will of the Many was amusing). This is the start of a series, so the whole book is just getting the three main characters set for the rest of the saga; the book breaks the world at the end. I found that a bit frustrating although I know it’s a genre convention; the characters do get solid emotional arcs but I’m not convinced to go on. Also it’s a bit gory for me and I’m a wimp.

Jessi’s Secret Language: Babysitters Club Graphic Novel #12, Chan Chau. Jessi is smart, and I like how she organizes a whole thing for the deaf class.

Books Started

Oceans Godori, Elaine U. Cho. Cloudy bookclub pick.

Kristy and the Snobs: Babysitters Club Graphic Novel #10, Chan Chau. I’m on a Babysitter roll now. 

Waverider: Amulet 9, Kazu Kibuishi. The end of the series!

Mary Anne Saves the Day: Babysitter Club #4, Ann Martin. Rolling, rolling rolling. 

Kristy’s Big Day: BabySitter Club Graphic Novel # 6, Gale Galligan. Keep those pages rolling.

Jessi’s Secret Language: Babysitters Club Graphic Novel #12, Chan Chau. Raw hide!

Bookmarks Moved

Ascendancy of a Bookworm: Short Story Collection Volume 2, Miya Kazuki.

The Will of Many, James Islington. Sword and Laser book club pick.

Poems, R. Hawley Truax. This will get displaced by a library book again.

Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy.

All the Hidden Paths, Foz Meadows. 

An Immense World, Ed Yong

Airs Above the Ground, Mary Stewart. 

The Rook, Daniel O’Malley. (Audio)

Tinker, Wen Spencer. Audio.

True Colors, Abby Cooper.

The Year We Disappeared, Cylin Busby & John Busby. 

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell. 

Fourth Wing, Rebecca Yarros (old Sword and Laser book club pick)

Bookmarks Languished

I have not given up on these! Ignore all evidence.

 

                           Poppy and Marigold, Meg Welch Dendler. 

                           Serpent Rider, Yxavel Magno Diño.          

                   Wow, No Thank You, Samantha Irby.

                   Into the Broken Lands, Tanya Huff

            Samantha Smee: A Pirate’s Life, M.C. Dingman. 

        Into the Vast Nothing, J. Bruno.

        Marry Me By Midnight, Felicia Grossmann. 

   Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan.

Lamplighters, D. M. Cornish.

Picture Books and Short Stories  

Our Blue Planet, Leisa Stewart-Sharpe. This author was recommended at one of my book clubs, but although every page was interesting with a good balance of information, whimsy and illustrations, I wanted more of a through line to pull me across the pages.

Books on Slow Mode

Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Onto the kitchen, where I feel bad about my knives and smug about my pans.

The Adventures of Amina Al-Serafi, Shannon Chakraborty. Tying the end back to the beginning.

At the Feet of the Sun, Victoria Goddard. Challenge accepted says the tough bureaucrat.

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

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. 

War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. 

Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. 

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

Future Plans

This is for the actual future, so a week beyond the books in this post.

I am reading: 

• Book I own: An Immense World
• Library Book: All the Hidden Paths
• Ebook I own: Airs Above the Ground
• Foolscap Book Club Book:  Movie Month! 
• Sword and Laser Club Book:  The City and the City
• Scintillation Book Club: South Riding
• Cloudy Book Club:  Lore of the Wilds
• Torches and Pitchfork Book Club:  The Fall of Roe
• River Runs Under It Book Club: The Fire-maker’s Daughter 
• Talbot Hill Book: Fudge-a-mania and Thirteenth Fairy
• Friday Book Club: Freshly Brewed Murder (done! Actually I read the whole series)
• Romance Book Club: Anywhere but Earth romance