Stay On Target

 Still on the hook for my challenges -- I've only one last Cybils finalists to finish so I'm turning my attention to my geography lists.  I need eleven more states, including D.C. I think this is the worst shape I've been in for December since I started this challenge.

Of course, there may be some other distractions going on this month. At least I finally have my tree up, and have scattered my outdoor lights across the floor of my living room. If you peer through my windows you may get a glimpse of them blinking.

I'll sign in at Book Journey or Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month.

This week I finished:

• Ruby Holler, Sharon Creech. Kidlit. For my elementary school book club.
• Boy21, Matthew Quick. YA. Cybils finalist. My high schooler recommends it.
• The Last Dragonslayer, Jasper Fforde. Kidlit. Cybils finalist. The protagonist is 15, but it does read more as kidlit than YA. Another book receiving my son's praise.
• The Cabinet of Earth, Anne Nesbit. Kidlit. Cybils finalist.
• The Adventures of Beanboy, Lisa Harkrader. Kidlit. Cybils finalist. My son recommends it, although he thought it took place in Ohio. Sadly, it is Kansas based.
• Chomp, Carl Hiassen. Kidlit. Cybils finalist.
• The Peculiar, Stefan Bachmann. Kidlit. Cybils finalist.
• Endangered, Eliot Schrefer. YA. Cybils finalist.
• A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman. I defiantly read a book just for me. Go Mrs Pollifax, international agent in a spiffy hat.

What am I currently reading?  My book bag has some essays by Fadiman, a cozy mystery in Indiana, the latest paperback In Death book, and my NOOK. 

• At Large and At Small, Anne Fadiman. Library. Gems of essays for the sake of being essays.
• The Storyteller, Antonia Michaelis. YA. Library. The last of the Cybils, but so dark I'll probably take a week or so to read it.
• Paradise, Toni Morrison. It's been pushed aside by Cybils reading, but its Oklahoma setting may push it back up.
• Calculated In Death, J.D. Robb. Library. Only one dead body so far, so maybe it's not one of the gruesome ones.
• Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?, Louise Rennison. Audio. YA. Library. On disk 4/5. The boys are liking this even though they only here it intermittently -- I listen even when they aren't there.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. Still not making progress. The library picks always push in front of this poor purchased book.
• Developing Standards-Based Report Cards, Thomas R. Guskey & Jane M. Bailey. I should just finish this -- the last session roamed all over the book.
• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. The new teacher does not respect the radio.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Service sometimes demands sacrifice. And guests.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. I like the progress of the rich gardener.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. Some false notes about autism.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Pickwick is defiant, and goes to Bath. I snore.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. I like his definitions of science fiction.

What's up next? I'll attack the eleven books I need for the Where Are You Reading challenge, and hope to fit in two more colors books as well. I got a bunch from the library, so that should help.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 73/74.  I'm 50 pages into the last one.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 40/51. No change -- I had zilch luck with the wave of Cybils I just finished, which I was kind of hoping would give me a few of the remainder.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 7/9. Still need brown and patterns.
4. Reading My Library:  Not this week, either. Maybe next week.
5. Best of the Best 2012: 46/25.   In Zanesville is on deck. 

Eye on the Goal

All my books this week are concentratd on my Where Are You Reading Challenge, which calls for me to read a book from each of the 50 states. I've thrown in Washington, D.C. in the interests of fairness, and find myself staring down December with some significant gaps. So last week I raced around the online library catalog and ordered up books to meet those gaps.


Hidden in Plain View, Jacqueline Tobin & Raymond Dobard. This chronicles the quilts used to guide and assist the Underground Railroad, which sounds fascinating. It's centered around South Carolina.

The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, Terry Ryan. I've actually had this book on my to-read list for years, but now that Ohio has become a standing joke in our house (I've started about ten books that mention Ohio before veering off somewhere else) I'm going to pin down the tale and the state.


When We Were Strangers, Pamela Schoenewaldt. This looks like a strong story of an immigrant and dreams, but it also appears to take place in Chicago, so I have no idea what I was thinking. It may have to wait for next year.

I also got a few books for my High School son, mainly Steven Brusts so he can finish devouring the Vlad series. And a music CD.

Challenge Time

  It's crunch time for my challenges. I've got all the Cybils finalists lined up, and I really want to finish my January 1st, so I can start next years list. Which will be even harder, since I feel like I've hardly read any of this years books as I plow through last years...

Also, my Where Are You Reading list is still thin -- I need eleven more states, including D.C. No wonder I don't have a Christmas tree up yet.

In exercise news, completed our city's K9 CandyCane Run, which is a cute 5K that people bring their dogs to. The weather was sunny but cold -- 20F, which is probably the coldest I've ever tried to exercise in. I made my usual turtle-like pace, and hit my goals, and was only 50% slower than my son. Only one son, since HS Boy was left home sick -- I'm intimidated by sub-freezing weather and banned him when he woke with a cold. And I won the raffle at the end!

I'll sign in at Book Journey or Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month.

This week I finished:

• The Theory of Everything, JJ Johnson. A Cybils YA finalist -- good story, but man those parents were breathtakingly cruel -- "If you let your grades slip while you grieve your dead best friend, we'll kill your dog!"
• Fourmile, Watt Key. A Cybils Middle Grade finalist. Another book about grief, this time for a dead father.

• The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes, Randi Davenport. A memoir from my TBR list. From the cover I thought it was going to be about a kid who gets better, but it was pretty clear from the beginning that the happy ending was more a not-the-worst-possible-thing kind of ending.
• Almost Home, Joan Bauer. A Cybils Middle Grade finalist. This kid only has to deal with homelessness -- no one dies.

• Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities, Mike Jung. Cybils Middle Grade SF finalist. About the top fans of a superhero. The cover has lured High School Boy into picking it up.
• Battle Magic, Tamora Pierce. YA. What happened to Briar that aged him before The Will of the Empress. I enjoyed this.

• Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95, Philip Hoose. Cybils YA Nonfiction finalist. Fascinating story of endangered migrating birds.
• Big Girl Small, Rachel DeWoskin. YA. Traumatised teen reflects over the worst week of her life. This is an Alex Award, which means it's technically for adults, but as an adult I didn't find the voice convincing, which wouldn't have bothered me as a YA.

• Etiquette & Espionage, Gail Carriger. YA. NOOK. Fun steam-punk twist on the boarding school genre.
• Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan's Rescue From War, Marsha Skrypuch. Cybils YA Nonfiction finalist. Biography of the transition of a war orphan from a Vietnamese orphanage to a Toronto family.

What am I currently reading?  My book bag has a library book from the 2012 Best of the Best list, the most recent Tamora Pierce, a literary novel from my shelves, and my NOOK. Tomorrow I'll add a Cybils book to that and hope the stitches don't break.

• Paradise, Toni Morrison. I like the women in the opening chapters.
• A Palm For Mrs. Pollifax, Dorothy Gilman. Library.  I'm still enjoying this series -- I'll order up the next as I finish this one.
• Calculated In Death, J.D. Robb. Library. This series is not as fresh, but I'll pick them up when they fall in front of me at the library.
• Endangered, Eliot Schrefer. YA. Library. The next Cybils finalist for me, this looks like a better book about the Congo than Congo was.
• Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?, Louise Rennison. Audio. YA. I'm enjoying this, although I haven't read any of the other books in this series. HS boy enjoys her vocabulosity.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. Still not making progress. The library picks always push in front of this poor purchased book.
• Developing Standards-Based Report Cards, Thomas R. Guskey & Jane M. Bailey. Time to get to chapter five.
• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. The new teacher does not respect the radio.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Service sometimes demands sacrifice. And guests.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. I like the progress of the rich gardener.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. Some false notes about autism.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Pickwick is defiant, and goes to Bath. I snore.
• How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy, Orson Scott Card. This is my reward book -- I read a page or so whenever I finish something. I don't plan to do anything with it.

What's up next? A whole bunch of Cybils finalists, and then state work. I need to read at least one a day, and I'm really hoping that I get lucky and knock of some missing states for the geography challenges. Sadly, I don't feel lucky. I have The Storyteller up, but it looks too grim to read in one day, so I'll swap out some others if I have to.  If I have time afterward, I'll read the library books, replacing the soon-due Gilman with the similarly recalled At Large and at Small by Anne Fadiman and Calculated In Death with my next Reading My Library pick.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 65/74.  Six down, nine more to go.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 40/51. No change. May swap out my Oklahoma book for a shorter one. I'm hoping my Cybils books will give me a few freebies, but it's not looking good.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 7/9. Still need brown and patterns.
4. Reading My Library:  Not this week, either. Maybe next week.
5. Best of the Best 2012: 46/25.  Finished Big Girl Small. Will start In Zanesville when I stop panicking about my challenges. 

Racing Through the Library At A Snail's Pace

I have a hopeless goal of reading a book from each shelf in my lovely local library. It's hopeless because we are due for a major renovation which will shuffle everything about, but when should certain doom discourage me in any endeavor? I've already finished Picture Books and Juvenile Series, and I'm turning the last corner in Juvenile Fiction.

Ordinary Magic, Caitlen Rubino-Bradway. A magical school book with a twist -- the world is magic and the special school is for the rare Ordinary child. After the initial shock and horror, the characters settle down into boarding school work, mischief, and defeating evil-doers.

The Dreamer, Pam Munoz Ryan. Lyrical biography of a famous poet. Not so artistic that children would avoid it, but still displaying the love and beauty of language.

Night of the Howling Dogs, Graham Salisbury. Boy scouts in Hawaii deal with a earthquake and tsunami while trapped on a beach during a wilderness camp. Good characters and good action.

Smells Like Dog, Suzanne Selfors. Mysterious societies, vanished uncles, and a town that just doesn't appreciate Homer's eccentricities make up this adventure story. I liked the flying cloud vehicles.



Blue Jasmine, Kashmira Sheth. A family moves from India to Iowa. I admit to grabbing it because of the Iowa thing, but it was an interesting culture shock story from a culture different than mine.

Elephant Run, Roland Smith. A World War II story about kids, English and Burmese, in Burma (later Myanmar) resisting the Japanese.

BONE: Quest For the Spark #1 Tom Sniegoski. A band of heroes assembles and begins to fight against the darkness while searching for the Spark. My first BONE book, but it looked fun and explains why my kids liked them.

Hokey Pokey, Jerry Spinelli. A magical realism story about childhood and growing up, which missed the mark a bit for me since my childhood was significantly different so my mythical landscape would have be different as well. I'm not sure which kids would enjoy it.


Liar & Spy, Rebecca Stead. A mystery with the mystery located slightly askew to where the main character thinks it is, with an additional puzzle he also hides from himself but which most readers will figure out. A good read if not quite as shiny as her previous book.

Edge Chronicles 7: Freeglader, Paul Steward. Delicious vocabulary and fantastical creatures abound in this book, but I never quite got in the spirit of things, probably because of that BOOK 7 thing.

Spellbinder, Helen Stringer. Good solid children's fantasy, with a girl who can see ghosts, a boy who believes her, and the problem of all the ghosts disappearing from the world.

Challenge Panic

  I have the library juggernaut under control, as long as I keep reading. Unfortunately, I now have to read a few dozen books to finish all my challenges -- I need 11 states, two colors, and a large sack of Cybils books. I'm a bit stressed, to be honest.

In exercise news, I've promoted myself to Week 4 of the Couch Potato program. This is big news, because I've been working on this intermittently for two years now and this is the first time I stuck it out this far. I'm signed up for a 5K on Sunday, so we'll see if my time reflects my new exalted status.

I'll sign in at Book Journey or Teach Mentor Texts since I want to see what everyone else is reading this month.

This week I managed to finish:

• A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays, Laurie Fivozinsky LeComer. My sister gave this to me about five years ago. It would have been quite helpful for me to read it.
• Outpost, Ann Aguirre. YA I find I like this author in both her adult and YA incarnations. The second book in this post-apocalyptic world worked even better than the first.
• Blood on the Verde River, Dusty Richards. This is an example of the kind of book I do these crazy challenges for -- I read it because I needed a book with green in the title. It was not a treasured gem, but I do enjoy stretching myself by reading something completely out of my sweet spots now and again. Also, my kids enjoyed my quoting some of the more gary-stu-ish bits.
• The Shameless Diary of an Explorer: A Story of Failure on Mt McKinley, Robert Dunn. I obviously read this for the Alaska connection, but it was a refreshing tale of five men bickering and complaining through the wilderness and part of the way up a mountain.
• Chime, Franny Billingsley. YA, audio. This did not work for me as an audio, as there were many places where I would have read quickly ahead. But the story overall was good -- my teen liked it.

What am I currently reading?  My book bag has a library book from the 2012 Best of the Best list, the most recent Tamora Pierce, a literary novel from my shelves, and my NOOK. Tomorrow I'll add a Cybils book to that and hope the stitches don't break.

• Paradise, Toni Morrison. I've had this book on my shelves for years, and I'm finally driven to read it because I need an Oklahoma book.
• Battle Magic, Tamora Pierce. YA. This story fills in some gaps -- it's looking to be rather grim.
• Big Girl Small, Rachel DeWoskin. YA. I'm at the end, where we catch up to the events that almost destroyed our main character.
• Etiquette and Espionage, Gail Carriger. YA NOOK. Lots of fun initiative on the floating dirigible / finishing school for spies.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. Still not making progress. The library picks always push in front of this poor purchased book.
• Developing Standards-Based Report Cards, Thomas R. Guskey & Jane M. Bailey. Time to get to chapter five.
• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. Killing a parrot on air is not the best path to a successful advertising campaign.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. The vicar loves his wife.
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. More clues about the body in the garden.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. More about our limbic system.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Courtroom losses. Yawn. Least favorite Dickens so far.

What's up next? A whole bunch of Cybils finalists, probably starting with the older nonfictions. The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes will replace Big Girl Small. I've picked up Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? from the library and will start listening to that on my next drive of more than five minutes.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 59/74.  No change as I worked on library books instead.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 40/51. Argh, I miscounted! I still need eleven, although I finished the Alaska book and am reading a Oklahoma one. Have Indiana waiting.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 7/9. Finished a green book. Have brown waiting.
4. Reading My Library:  Not this week.
5. Best of the Best 2012: 58/25.  Finished Chime. Almost done with Big Girl Small.

Post Turkey Day

I dragged all the boys with me on my post-Thanksgiving library run. Unfortunately, we somehow offended the 5th grader on the way, leading to strong sulks and stalking about and a refusal to look for books. I found three paperbacks to bring home, had one audio book on the hold shelf for me, five for my son, and demanded two music CDs as tribute before consenting to return home. So it was close to my goal of only getting as many books as I can read in a week. Three books is reasonable, right?

I probably won't read the books I got for my oldest son. I mean, I don't have time, what with all the challenges coming due and all. So I won't even mention them here.

I came home with:

• Wyoming Bold, Diana Palmer. I'm hoping this takes place in Wyoming.
• Mirror, Mirror, J.D. Robb & others. Because I've read almost all the Dallas books already.
• Defender, Mike Shepherd. Again, because I've read the other books in the series
• Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me?, Louise Rennison. The next audio from my 2012 Best of the Best list.

This means I now have 65 things out on my library cards, which even more over my age than last week. So no purchases for me this week. 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.

Reading Against the Clock

 
I'm not quite managing a book a day, but I am keeping a few steps ahead of the library guillotine. Next month I'll also be reading a heap of library books, since I have to finish all my sadly lagging challenges.

I also managed to get in a few jogs with my nephew, once with nephew and sons, and we rewarded ourselves with a a trip to see Despicable Me II, where we consumed about three times our caloric output in popcorn. Yum! Also I signed up for a 5K run in December, even though I can barely make it through our 2K jogs. It's the K9 Candy Cane run, so I'm hoping for lots of big scary dogs to propel me along.

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:

• Kris Longknife: Training Daze, Mike Shepherd. NOOK. I actually meant to read Shepherd's other novella, but I didn't realize there were two and the library had this one.

• Bomb: The Race to Build -- and Steal -- the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, Steve Sheinkin. YA. A Cybils finalist that my high schooler enjoyed so much that he now is reading Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb. The middle schooler picked it up but then put it back down. I liked it.

• The Round House, Louise Erdrich. NOOK. This book felt less authentic than Erdrich's usual; maybe I don't emphasize with her male characters as much? 

• The Native Star, M.K. Hobson. A Vaginal Fantasy pick from months back. I found it hard to get started but then enjoyed the ride after it got traction. Now that I think of it, there wasn't any sex, which is odd for that book club.

• Listen!, Stephanie S. Tolan. kidlit. I chose this Reading-My-Library book in the hopes that, as a dog story, it had a good chance of taking place in West Virginia. Sadly it was another North Carolina story. Also, the magical way the girl knew what the dog was doing weakened the realistic power of the girl-meets-dog story.

What am I currently reading?  My book bag has a library book from the 2012 Best of the Best list, a book I cannot renew (and that works for my Colors challenge), a nonfiction book from my shelves, and my NOOK.

• Chime, Franny Billingsley. Audio YA. All is revealed!
• The Shameless Diary of an Explorer, Robert Dunn. They are finally on the mountain, stumbling around and arguing about which way to the top. Even the wimpiest camper is far tougher than me, of course.
• Blood on the Verde River, Dusty Richards. I grabbed this months ago from the Quick Pick library shelf because I'm pretty sure Verde means Green.
• Big Girl Small, Rachel DeWoskin. This is from the 2012 Alex Awards, which are adult books good for teens. It feels like a YA book that adults can slog through to me. I don't find the voice at all believable -- it's written as a rather jaded adult who runs around doing idiotic teenage things.
• Etiquette and Espionage, Gail Carriger. NOOK. Set in her comfortable steam-punky England, but with a younger protagonist who has an enterprising way with mechanicals.
• Conspiracy, Lindsay Burokers. NOOK. Still not making progress, although it's almost time to execute their grand plan. The library picks always push in front of this poor purchased book.
• Developing Standards-Based Report Cards, Thomas R. Guskey & Jane M. Bailey. I'm reading this as homework since I'm a parent representative on our district report card revision committee.
• Radio Fifth Grade, Gordon Korman. My kidlit inch-worm book, that I will read at the pace of about 25 pages a week for the next few months.
• Out to Canaan, Jan Karon. Another book I'll inch through over the next few months. The parson's garden party was a success!
• Keep Me Forever, Rosemary Laurey. Incher. Now all of the vampire's girlfriends know she has a wolf for a boyfriend.
• A General Theory of Love, Thomas Lewis. More about our limbic system.
• The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens. Courtroom losses. Yawn. Least favorite Dickens so far.
• A Parent's Guide to Developmental Delays, Laurie Lecomer. Summary about how to cherish our special snowflakes.

What's up next? I'm hoping to get to Ann Aguirre's Outpost before the library calls it home, and then probably Tamora Pierce's Battle Magic. I'll replace Big Girl Small with the next book on my TBR list, The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes. The Alaska story came from my shelves, and when it's done I'll read something else from my shelf that works for a challenge; probably Toni Morrison's Paradise, which looks like it takes place in Oklahoma. This makes me sad, because I have the next Sarah Rees Brennan calling my name, only rather faintly since my son grabbed it to read and has left it at his father's house.  Unspoken, come back to me! Chime is on the final disk, so I've ordered Are These My Basoomas I See Before Me? from the library.

2013 Challenges:

1. Cybils: 59/74.  Bomb was good fun, and inspired further reading in two of us. Good show.
2. Where Am I Reading?: 40/51. Got North Dakota and a surprise New Mexico. Almost finished with my Alaska book.
3. Crazy Quilt Colors: 6/9. Reading a green book. Need brown and patterns.
4. Reading My Library:  Finished the Tolan book.
5. Best of the Best 2012: 57/25.  Still slogging through CHIME. Have one waiting to start.