Ready For December

Despite my claim that this month I'm devoting to managing my library tally, I've almost doubled the books I have out. On the plus side, if I read them all in December, I'll manage to finish most of my challenges. On the minus side, I probably won't have time for other small parts of life, like Christmas decorating, baking, and gift-shopping. We must all choose our priorities, after all. I probably won't consult the rest of the family on this, in case their selfish desires keep me from my Grinch impersonation this year.

I did have the fun of doing the library run in a rush with my son while printing out his school assignment. Since he can never find his library card, I was tasked with logging into the printers while he went off to get my holds. His exaggerated stumbles under the load of books were mostly fake, I'm pretty sure, as were his pleading whispers for a chiropractor. Actually, there were only eight books, which means fewer than last week, but I think he was trying for some sort of point that I've obviously missed.

So, after hogging an entire shelf of the holds bookcase, I came home with:

• Blood Oranges, Kathleen Tierney. I think this takes place somewhere useful.
• In Zanesville, Jo Ann Beard. Next Best of the Best pick.
• The Adventures of Beanboy, Lisa Harkrader. Cybils finalist. Kidlit, stolen by High School kid.
• Last Airlift, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. Cybils finalist.

• Almost Home, Joan Bauer. Another Cybils kidlit finalist. And another dog story, it looks like.
• Chomp, Carl Hiassen. Another Cybils finalist. Kidlit.
• The Last Dragonslayer, Jasper Fforde. Cybils kidlit finalist. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.
• The Last Present, Wendy Mass. This is mostly for my niece, who already bore it off.

Also, I got two music CDs, in case I ever finish my audio book..

This means I now have 62 things out on my library cards, which is well over my age so I'm not allowed to buy any books this week. At least it's still under my mother's age, and not even close to my grandmother's. I'll go share my Library Loot at the event co-hosted by Claire from the Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader, where all the library addicts compare their treasures. And I think I'll sign up at Tynga's Stacking the Shelves, which asks for all the books acquired, which this week is just the library stuff.

Beginning to Look a Lot Like -- The Autumn

 
My reading choices lately are highly driven by library due dates, with a close second of Reading Challenge deadlines. More pleasantly, I've overlapped my reading with my kids a bit more lately, which is always a source of warm delight to me.

I'm also part of a committee looking at our school district report cards, so I have some reading for that. And this week I went to see Gravity, and was politely quiet for most of the movie even though I sat by my brother. It was well worth the ticket price, although actually I didn't pay it since I had a free pass.

I'll sign in at Book Journey or Teach Mentor Texts since I finished both adult and kidlit books this week.

This week I managed to finish:

• Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein. I loved this YA Cybils finalist and immediately handed it off to my 9th grader. I had avoided it for a while because it looked depressing but it was one of the few five-stars I've awarded this year.
• Dancers in the Dark, Charlaine Harris. NOOK. This actually came as part of two stories in Dead of Night, but the second story was so different in tone that I abandoned. I was reading the book because I was in the mood for some Harris or Harris-like stuff.
• Standing Bear of the Ponca, Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve. Kidlit. This present from librarything gives a good, nonfiction, elementary-aged view of the lawsuit Standing Bear used to establish Native Americans as legal entities before a court.
• Beswitched, Kate Saunders. Kidlit. A Cybils finalist that again surprised me with its pleasantness. I liked it better when I realized the protagonist was twelve -- she had been awfully immature and bratty when I thought she was fifteen.
• Senrid, Sherwood Smith. YA. More history from Smith's imaginary country. Sometimes I find her characterization jarring, but it feels more like clumsily described real people rather than poorly drawn fictional characters. I hope that is kind of a complement?
• Ichiro, Ryan Inzana. YA. Another Cybils finalist. I was the last in the family to read this, and boy did my kids get tired of my asking when the baseball stuff was going to start. (Hey, I'm from Seattle!)

What am I currently reading?  My book bag has a library book out too long to be renewed, my next Reading-My-Library selection, a book from my shelves, and my NOOK. When I finish these, I'll pick a book from my shelves that helps with a challenge, and the next book on the Best Books of 2012 list from last year.

• Chime, Franny Billingsley. Audio YA. The evil step-mother is back from the grave! I think secrets are about to spill.
• Bomb: The Race to Build (and Steal) the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, Steve Sheinkin. I was reading this Cybils finalist, but my high schooler stole it. Then he brought it back, and my middle schooler stole it.
• Native Star, M.K. Hobson. This is a several months old pick from Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy book club. I couldn't get into it the first time I tried, but I'm having better luck today.
• Listen!, Stephanie S. Talon. RML. To taunt me, this book takes place in North Caroline, a few miles from the South Carolina border.
• The Round House, Louise Erdrich. NOOK. A North Dakota book!
• The Shameless Diary of an Explorer, Robert Dunn. This is a warts-and-all story of a failed attempt to climb Mt. McKinley, which so far consists of a group of men swearing at each other as they struggle to find the dang mountain.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. Still not making progress, although it's almost time to execute their grand plan.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Another book I'll inch through over the next few months. Set in North Carolina.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. The were-wolf was wounded, so it's a good thing there was a flying doctor on the watch.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. The three different kinds of brain are explored.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Lots of dull lawyer stuff. Again.
• A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays, Laurie Lecomer. What to expect from various therapists.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 58/74.  Code Name Verity was amazing. Finished Graphic Novels and knocked off another middle grade fantasy.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 37/51. Nebraska is checked off! Currently reading an Alaska story and a North Dakota book.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 6/9. Need patterns, green, and brown. I have a verde book out from the library -- I think that's green, right?
4. Reading My Library: Reading a Tolan book, set painfully close to, but not in, South Carolina.
5. Best of the Best 2012: 57/25.  Still slogging through CHIME. Have one waiting to start.

Crunch Time

This November, I'm focusing on finishing my library books. Ideally I'd only have about five or ten books out at a time, since I get more from the library each week. But my eyes are always bigger than my, er, eyes, so I tend to pick up enough books for two or three weeks every Thursday. And then I notice the problem, try to show some self-restraint and read as fast as I can to catch up.

Of course, November is traditionally also the month when I notice that I'm far behind on my reading challenges, so I rush off getting the books I need to finish them. For example, I need about fifteen more Cybils books, so I requested them all from the library. I also need about fifteen more states for my state challenge, as well as a few colors for the Rainbow challenge. So I've got two incompatible goals here.

So, after hogging an entire shelf of the holds bookcase, I came home with:

• Endangered, Eliot Schrefer. Cybils finalist. YA. Set in Africa.
• Boy 21, Matthew Quick. Cybils finalist. YA. Takes place in Bellmont. I don't suppose that's in Delaware?
• Four Mile, Watt Key. Cybils finalist. YA. Alabama. The author sounds familiar.
• Moonbird, Phillip Hoose.  Cybils finalist. YA NF. I thought this was about outer space, but the cover made me double check the author, so birds make more sense. Takes place globally.

• Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, Mike Jung. Cybils finalist. Kidlit.  Looks fun.
• Titanic: Voices From the Disaster, Deborah Hopkinson. Cybils finalist. YA NF. Will probably be depressing.
• The Cabinet of Earths, Anne Nesbit.  Cybils finalist. Kidlit. Takes place in France. Why does nobody want to write about Vermont?
• The Storyteller, Antonia Michaelis. Cybils finalist. YA. Translated from the German, which I guess is as hint to its setting.

• The Peculiar, Stefan Bachmann. Cybils finalist. Kidlit. Takes place in Bath, which is probably in England. 
• A Dangerous Talent, Charlotte & Aron Elkins. I believe this takes place in New Mexico. I checked it out last year but ran out of time before reading it, so I'm trying again. I think a friend recommended it when I asked for specific state books.
• The Lord of Mountains, S.M. Stirling. OK, this one wasn't even on the hold shelf, but I saw it in Quick Picks and knew it's on my list to read someday. So I grabbed it.

Also, I got another music CD.

This means I now have 55 things out on my library cards, which is well over my age so I'm not allowed to buy any books this week. And before I got around to posting this I've noticed that I have another four books waiting for me.

Finish Something Already

 
Apparently I've very motivated by threats, even weak ones (BRING BACK THE BOOKS or we'll charge you 10 cents a day!). So I finished a pile of library books that have been lurking in my library case for months. Still no book reviewing, but at least I can imagine it happening someday.

I'll sign in at Book Journey or Teach Mentor Texts since I finished both adult and kidlit books this week.

This week I managed to finish:

• The Queen's Pawn, Christy English. From my TBR list, but from so long ago I can't remember who recommended it. An interesting description of Queen Eleanor, King Henry, and Alais, mistress to the king. I really like stories about Queen Eleanor, especially ones like this that praise her power.
• Sidekicked, John David Anderson. Kidlit. I won this in last summer's 48-Hour Readathon, but kept putting it aside for more library books. I didn't like how the character seemed a typical Nice Guy (the boy who is friends with a girl only in the hopes that she'll like him, so that all his interactions are lies, and then wonders why he never gets the girl). But my sons concentrated on the superhero aspects and liked it a lot more.
• Spellbinder, Helen Stringer. Kidlit. A Reading-My-Library pick that I enjoyed a lot, about a girl who can see ghosts, which means she can notice when the bad guy sucks them out of the world as part of his Evil Plan. With the help of a trouble making friend, a lingering ghost, and a ham sandwich, she fights for truth, justice, and the return of her ghostly parents.
• Congo, Michael Crichton. SF. My book club read this, and it was interesting to revisit an author that most of us really enjoyed back in the day. I mostly noticed that, except for the dead porters, none of the characters changed at all really during the course of the book -- the status quo was basically preserved from the first pages to the last, despite the pages in between.
• Hokey Pokey, Jerry Spinelli. Kidlit (?). A Reading-My-Library pick. This read more as a meditation on a particular kind of childhood, in an interesting way. I didn't actually have that childhood, and neither did my sons. A huge difference is the idea that boys and girls can never play together, which I think makes for a diminished childhood.
• Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, Carl Sandburg. This is one of the books I've been inching through all year. I now know much more about Lincoln's life prior to the White House, and I recommend it to anyone contemplating reading about his vampire hunting years.
• Still Life With Shapeshifter, Sharon Shinn. I like these books that avoid bad guy/good guy conflict -- Shinn's books tend to be about decent adults figuring out how to deal with their peculiar situations.
• Elephant Run, Roland Smith. A Reading-My-Library choice. I thought this was going to be a book about two kids in the wilderness, but instead it was about two kids caught up in the war with the Japanese in WWII. Since I love WWII books, this was a happy discovery.

What am I currently reading?  I concentrate on the library book due REAL SOON NOW, and after I finish that, I butterfly about between another library book, a book from my shelves, a library NOOK choice, my personal NOOK book, and maybe a book club book. And my audio book and all my inch-worm selections. Also, it was interesting that my currently-reading list is so short -- I think at one point is was down to only seven books, which for me is astonishing.

• Ichiro, Ryan Inzano. YA This is what I'm reading first, since it must go back soon. It's the last Cybils Graphic Novel. And no, it's not about baseball.
• Chime, Franny Billingsley. Audio YA. Everyone time the narrator complains about her romantic rival, I switch to radio. I think I'm developing an aversion to girls-hate-girls plots.
• Dead of Night, Charlaine Harris & Amanda Stevens. NOOK. I've actually already read the Harris story, but since I remembered it as being shorter I thought this one was knew. I think the Stevens story is long enough to make up the rest of the book.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. I managed to read a bit of this last week as I plowed through almost everything else. I like it, but without a due-date it's not urgent.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. The men-folk are not-so-secretly deploying themselves around the women.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. This is going to be the chemical and physical basis of love -- cool!
• Senrid, Sherwood Smith. YA. The Norsunders are banished!
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Lots of dull lawyer stuff. Again.
• A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays, Laurie Lecomer. What parents can do to support themselves and their children.

What will I read next? My next library book is another Cybils book about the Bomb, and I've got a book LibraryThing sent me set in NEBRASKA, and the library just mentioned that Erdrich's Round House (set in NORTH DAKOTA) is available for my NOOK. Basically I'm working on keeping ahead of my library due dates while frantically whittling down my challenges.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 55/74.  Read another picture book.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 36/51. I'm now nine books behind quota. I've got a Nebraska book in the bag. Also, I've read 3 books on each continent (not Antarctica). I found an Alaska book on my shelves, and an Indiana book at the library.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 6/9. Need patterns, green, and brown. Does Bronze count as brown? I have that one out from the library. Also checked out a green pick.
4. Reading My Library: Finished three. checked out the next six - T, U V. 
5. Best of the Best 2012: 57/25. I have one out from the library now. Also slogging through CHIME.

Salmon Run Under It

Schools been running for over two months, and I'm still exploring my new library day. Foolishly I like to go every week, at which time I pick up enough books for the next month. And then I drown in pages, but it's a good way to go. Lately I've been trying Thursdays, since I'm picking up at a kid at the city bus stop conveniently outside the library. If I'm early, I go in and browse. If I'm late, I'm unconcerned since he can do that. And I bring along any handy volunteers I can get my hands on.

My two goals this week were to get my library numbers down, and to check out all the books I needed for my yearly challenges. This goals are not actually compatible, you may notice. I had two books waiting for me on the hold shelf, and then I searched through the teaser display at the front looking for books that satisfy my various geographic challenges. And then I got the next six books for my Reading My Library challenge. So I came home with:

• The Yellow Birds, Kevin Powers. I saw this in the Quick Picks section and was intrigued.
• Final Sail, Elaine Viets. I'm hoping this takes place in Central America.
• The Round House, Louise Erdrich. Quick Pick from North Dakota.
• The Fifth Assassin, Brad Meltzer. Quick Pick from Washington D.C.
• After Dead, Charlaine Harris. I thought this hold would take longer to appear; it's a list of what eventually happens to everyone from the Sookie Stackhouse books.
• Battle Magic, Tamora Pierce. Another hold my library delivered super-efficiently.

Over in the kidlit section, I examined the penultimate section of the J Fiction, and from the six shelves I chose:

• Listen!, Stephanie Tolan. Some kind of dog story; I'm hoping it takes place in West Virginia or maybe South Carolina.
• The Shadow Thieves, Anne Ursu. Because I liked Bread Crumbs so much. My cover is much cooler, though.
• Navigating Early, Clare Vanderpool. Again because I recognized the author. Also, I hope the characters escape from Maine and move the book to a geographically desirable state.
• Paperboy, Vince Vawter. I've been interested in this book due to some reviews I liked. Also, I'm interested in selective mutes.
• Coyote Autumn, Bill Wallace. Another dog story, which I hope takes place in an obscure state.
• The Templeton Twins Have An Idea, Ellis Weiner. I'm a sucker for books about odd smart kids.

Also, I got another music CD.

This means I leapt up to 49 things out on my library cards, and I can't age fast enough to surpass that, so no new book from the store for me this week. I've got to read all the Cybils books while getting my library count down -- I think the mid-twenties would be a good place but that's a far way off.

November Is For Library Books

 
Well, I'm still not really finishing anything, but at least I'm opening a few books. Occasionally. I think my November reading will have to concentrate on Getting My Library Pile down, and then December will be a mad dash to finish my challenges. Wish me luck.

I'll sign in at Book Journey or Teach Mentor Texts as a proof of concept that someday I want to be the person who thinks about what she is reading. Maybe next week?

This week I managed to finish:

• Edge Chronicles 7: Freeglader,  Paul Steward. kidlit. Part of my Reading My Library quest; sadly I feel that the seventh book was not a great entry to this series. Lovely vocabulary, though.
• Looking For Alaska, John Green. YA. I spent the entire book recoiling in horror from the cigarette smoke, which completely distracted me from the themes, characters, and plot.
• Bone: Quest for the Spark 1, Tom Sniegoski. Another Reading My Library pick, which gave me the chance to see what these Bone books my kids have read are all about. 
• UnBEElievables: Honeybee Poems and Paintings, Douglas Florian. kidlit poetry. Rather dull picture book instructing kids about bees. A 2012 Cybils nominee.

What am I currently reading?  I have my basic bag of library book, my own book, book club book, and NOOK. I've added a library book doomed to be called back Real Soon Now. 

• Elephant Run, Roland Smith, Kidlit. A Reading My Library pick that takes place in Burma.
• The Queen's Pawn, Christy English. A story of Queen Eleanor, King Henry, and a woman they both love. Pretty decent, but I can't remember how it showed up on my TBR list.
• Chime, Franny Billingsley. Audio YA. Now she is blaming her jealousy on bad magic. Way to build credibility, kid.
• Sidekicked, John David Anderson. Kidlit. The super hero is not coming to the rescue.
• Congo, Michael Crichton. NOOK. November book club book. The gorilla is headed for the jungle.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. Another assassin story. I only read this after I've completed a NOOK library book, and since I haven't completed anything in weeks, it's been languishing.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. I think the set-up is finished.
• Abraham Lincoln: Prairie Years, Carl Sandburg. Lincoln is elected President.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. Just starting this.
• Senrid, Sherwood Smith. YA. Senrid might take back his country.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Lots of dull lawyer stuff.
• A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays, Laurie Lecomer. What interventions look like.

What will I read next? I've got a werewolf book up, some more Reading My Library picks, and the new Sarah Rees Brennan. If only my fingers remembered how to turn pages...

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 54/74.  Read a picture book.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 36/51. I'm STILL four books behind quota. I need Alaska, Delaware, Indiana and Nebraska, to name a few. Time to go specifically hunting. And then read those hunted books.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 6/9. Need patterns, green, and brown. Does Bronze count as brown? I have that one out from the library. 
4. Reading My Library: Finished two, working on the next. On kidlit S's.
5. Best of the Best 2012: 57/25. I have one out from the library now. Also slogging through CHIME.

Coming Up For Air

 
I've been in a bit of a reading slump, during which I've read very little new books, instead visiting my favorite bits of many old favorites but not completing anything, old or new. But with November looming ahead of me, it's time to get serious about my various challenges or face the dread prospect of Lists Uncompleted.

I'm not signing in at Book Journey or  Teach Mentor Texts since I haven't reviewed anything in MONTHS, but I'll keep the links around in case next week I start recording my literary life again.

This month I have read:

• Dark Currents, Jacqueline Carey. This was for Felicia Day's Vaginal Fantasy book club.
• Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, Andrew Solomon. My cousin helped edit this book.
• Warrior, Zoe Archer. This was for last month's Vaginal Fantasy book club.
• Wonder, R.J. Palacio. This is a Cybils pick.
• Sammy Keyes and the Killer Cruise, Wendelin Van Draanen. The conclusion of a great kidlit series.
• Eight Million Gods, Wen Spencer. Technically I've previously read the ARC, but this was the real deal.
• Spy to Die For, Kris DeLake. Sequel to a book I liked.
• Drama, Raina Telgemeier. Another Cybils pick, this one a graphic novel.

In late September I read:

• Stronger, Michael Carroll. Another strong Quantum series book.
• The Runaway King, Jennifer A. Nielson. This might have been a Cybils book, in addition to being a Family Book club pick.
• The Elusive Mrs Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman. I'm enjoying this series a lot. Thanks MM!
• When Diplomacy Fails, Michael Z Williamson. Another spy action book, about as different from Mrs Pollifax as humanly possible.
• Born of Night, Sherrilyn Kenyon. Another Vaginal Fantasy pick.

What am I currently reading?  I have my basic bag of library book, my own book, book club book, and NOOK. And I'm trying to cherry pick the easy read books so I can get my library count down to a reasonable number (I'm getting close!) And I have the six books that I'm reading deliberately slowly, so they turn up every week.

• Chime, Franny Billingsley. Audio YA. Still disliking this. She continues to be insane, to wallow in false guilt, and now adds in pathetic jealousy of other girls. Hitting so many bad buttons!
• Sidekicked, John David Anderson. Kidlit. Dark tale about children trained as sidekicks. Mine.
• Congo, Michael Crichton. November book club book.
• The Edge Chronicles 7: Freeglader, Paul Steward & Chris Riddell. RML pick. Since I haven't read the first six book, I'm finding the characterization a bit thin.
• Looking For Alaska, John Green. NOOK. I'm too cranky to enjoy this story about kids drinking and smoking. Basically, anyone who thinks smoking is cool is hard for me to emphasize with.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. Another assassin story. I only read this after I've completed a NOOK library book, and since I haven't completed anything in weeks, it's been languishing.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. I think the set-up is finished.
• Abraham Lincoln: Prairie Years, Carl Sandburg. Lincoln is elected President.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. Just starting this.
• Senrid, Sherwood Smith. YA. Senrid might take back his country.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Lots of dull lawyer stuff.
• A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays, Laurie Lecomer. What interventions look like.

What will I read next? I don't know -- I can't decide anything lately.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 53/74.  Finished YA Science Fictii.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 36/51. I'm STILL four books behind quota. I need Alaska, Delaware, Indiana and Nebraska, to name a few. Time to go specifically hunting.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 6/9. Need patterns, green, and brown. Does Bronze count as brown? I have that one out from the library. 
4. Reading My Library: Reading one now.
5. Best of the Best 2012: 57/25. I have one out from the library now. Also slogging through CHIME.