My Fitbit watch now has an AI that will tell me how to exercise. I see no way letting giant evil corporations and their unregulated self-learning machines know everything about my health and daily activities could possibly go wrong, so I am embracing this opportunity. I had many good bookclubs this week, including one where I convinced a bunch of fourth graders that they didn’t hate poetry but in fact had been enjoying it all along!
And I managed to do some decent running, although that was before I learned to appreciate my new robot overlord.
Books Completed March 6 - March 12
I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005, Graphic Novel, Alvin Epps & Lauren Tarshis. I liked this adaptation. It did a good job of swapping out graphics for text in an effective way, leaving enough time to include the complexity of the family and neighborhood dynamics. It also made the action scenes really vivid.
King of Elfland’s Daughter, Lord Dunsany. This worked well as a Minecraft book club, where we had things to do while talking about the different plot and character expectations the author had from what we now expect. Also it set up the pattern where I run off and find a new village for us to do plot stuff on.
Miss Martin’s Incomparable Adventure, Courtney Milan. I did not see a way for Milan to give me a believable HEA, but I had faith because she’s really good at that while also maintaining historical believability. I liked these women and did not mind that Milan was not interested in the interiority of their male antagonists.
Terry’s Crew, Terry Crew. Well, apparently Terry Crew is a famous person so the title is kinda a pun. This is in the New Kid genre but with a celebrity author. I liked the depiction of the racist coach who is in denial about his biases, and how the kid can negotiate with his mom.
Clean Getaway, Nic Stone. This book juggled a lot of balls and didn’t drop many. It’s a fun middle school book about a kid slowly realizing he’s in a situation beyond his capability to cope, while he is re-negotiating his relationship with his father as he matures, and it’s a fun travel book showing off the countryside and what it’s like for a biracial kid to be hanging out with his white grandmother.
The Headless Ghost, R.L. Stine. Wow, these protagonists were real bullies. I was sorta pulling for a bad end to come to them.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell. I spent the entire book expecting horrible things to happen to everyone, which was not entirely the case but did mean I read it very slowly. I am starting to learn to appreciate David Mitchell though.
Hemlock & Silver, T. Kingfisher. I really like having middle aged protagonists, and once that are working out of their comfort zones. Kingfisher has found a real sweet spot here, and combined it with her fascination with crafts and talent for cool magic ideas and worldbuilding. It’s not doing new stuff but doing the stuff it’s doing really well. The romance side plot was small but satisfying.
Inventing the Renaissance, Ada Palmer. I loved this. It takes history seriously, it takes historians seriously, and it takes its readers seriously. I’ll probably forget a lot of the history I learned but I hope I’ve internalized a lot of the stuff about what historians are doing and how history is written.
Pokémon Sun and Moon Volume 9, Hidenori Kusaka. I am definitely losing track of all the plot threads.
Partly Cloudy, Gary Soto. These poems make me glad I didn’t really have much interest in crushes in middle school.
Books Started
I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005, Graphic Novel, Alvin Epps & Lauren Tarshis. I Survived books are solid!
Karen’s Home Run, Anne Martin, or one of her shadows. Babysitter’s club book.
Terry’s Crew, Terry Crew. I liked the cover.
Clean Getaway, Nic Stone. I like this author.
Trans, Helen Joyce. Books about the politics around trans people.
The Riddlemaster of Hed, Patricia McKillip. Friends’ bookclub.
Pokémon Sun and Moon Volume 9, Hidenori Kusaka. Two strange ageless kids who have bonded.
The Forest in the Sky (Greenwild Volume 3), Pari Thompson. I liked the first two.
The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Tuesday gaming club.
The Prince, Katherine Ashe. For romance book club.
Bookmarks Moved
Someplace to be Flying, Charles De Lint
Testimony of Mute Things, Lois McMaster Bujold
Promise the Night, Michaela MacColl
Sunbringer, Hannah Kaner
The Gilded Crown, Marianne Gordon
Ascendance of a Bookworm Short Story Collection, Volume 2, Miya Kazuki
Josephine Against the Sea, Shakira’s Bourne
The Luminaries, Eleanor Cattonq
River of Fire, Mary Jo Putney
Seven Sisters, Lucinda Riley
Read Dangerously, Azar Nifisi
Bookmarks Languished
I have given up on a few of these, actually.
The Hunger and the Dusk, G. Willow Wilson
Bourne Supremacy, Robert Ludlum
Death in the Spires, K.J. Charles
The Last Witchfinder, James K. Morrow
So Let Them Burn, Kamilah Cole
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
Lepunia: Kingdom of the Gallopers, Kevin Ford
The Morgaine Chronicles, C.J. Cherryh
Ariel, Sylvia Plath
Fair Trade, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
One Jump Ahead, Mark L Von Name
Blood at the Root, LaDarrion Williams
Calypso, Oliver K Langmead
Simply Unforgettable, Mary Balogh
An Exchange of Hostages, Susan R. Matthews
Champion of Fate, Kendare Blake
Picture Books, Poems, and Short Stories
All of Us, Götçe İrten. Well intentioned.
Books on Slow Mode
Home Comforts, Cheryl Mendleson. I read one section a day. Laundry and fabric stains is our current concern.
50 Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. Mail bribe. Hopkins is hard core.
The Writer's Stance: Reading and Writing in the Disciplines, Dorothy U. Seyler. Mail bribe.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf, Marlon James. The ending moves back to the personal.
War Cross, Marie Lu. Mail bribe. My gaming is not on this level.
Teaching With Caldecott Books, Scholastic books. Mail bribe. Good chapters about things to do after and while reading the books.
Books Acquired
I only notice when I’m caught up.
Future Plans
This is for the actual future, so weeks beyond the books in this post. It is also probably wrong.
I am reading:
- Book I own: Everybody’s Perfect
- Library Book: Language as Liberation
- Friend Book Club: What Fresh Hell Is This
- Foolscap Book Club Book: The Obelisk Gate
- Sword and Laser Club Book: A Midnight Pastry Shop
- Hugo Reading: Incandescent
- Talbot Hill School:
- Scintillation Book Club: Telling
- Cloudy Book Club: An Ocean Apart
- Torches and Pitchfork Book: All We Want Is Everything
- Romance Book Club: New authors: Love at First Sighting
- River Runs Under It Book Club: The Return of Ellie Black
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