Star Wars Day

May Day, Star Wars Day, Cinco de Mayo, all holidays that involve not that much work but are fun anyway. It's a good way to start spring, which Seattle did in the past few weeks. Which sadly means my lawn is growing. I should just pave the whole thing and paint it green.

I joined another reading team, so I have an excuse to rack up lots of pages. I'll see if anything changes in my reading habits. Also, I forgot to do this status check last week, so I'm putting two weeks worth out now.

The Book Date does a weekly roundup of what people are reading, want to read, or have read each week called It's Monday! What Are You Reading and I'm going to sign up. There's also a version that is kidlit focussed, and as I finished four kidlit books and 10 picture books, I'll check in with either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers for their version.

My completed books for this fortnight:




Written in Red, Anne Bishop. The alt Vaginal Fantasy book. I ended up liking this one (I abandoned the main pick), enough that I wouldn't mind reading the next few. I'm still a bit squeamish about the setting in North America after removing all Native Americans and instead sticking a lot of American Indian imagery into the Others, but I liked the strengths of the main character and her ability to handle the puppy/boy she babysat. (This was the only book I finished last week. It was not a very productive week.)

The Span of Empire, Eric Flint and Dave Carrico. I never really got into this third entry to the series, and I suspect the change in authors had something to do with it. The new aliens were a bit dull, and the expanded look into the Big Bad aliens bored me. I also somehow had the feeling that Crowning Moments of Awesome were reserved for the guys, which was probably unfair but still how I felt.

The Sea Without a Shore, David Drake. Installment 48 finished off this audio books. I enjoy the radio-serial nature of the audio books included in the Baen podcast. My son and I enjoyed this Master & Commander in space book (I'd previously read it and some others in the series) but I don't think he'll go out hunting for more. There's a lot of repetition in the characterization of Mundy and Daniel, which slows down the action a bit too much. Even the narrator seemed a bit bored a few times.

* Heretic, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I read this for a library book club that is aimed at promoting discussions "across the aisle" to get people to talk to people they disagree with. We didn't actually get any Muslims at the meeting, but we managed to disagree on the definition of Islam, the need for reform, and a few other things, all while sharing apple juice and cookies.

* Dressed to Steal, Carolyn Keene. The first book I read for my reading team. It was interesting to see a modern Nancy Drew, who apparently has no qualms breaking laws right and left (breaking and entering is a daily habit). She also can't remember to put gas in her car, and Bess is now chosen as a runway model, which hints she may not have that pudgy figure she used to have. George is still athletic, though, and Ned is still devoted.

Shadowed Souls, ed. Jim Butcher & Kerrie Hughes. Lots of short stories pulled from various author's standing series, so a good sampler for people looking for more urban fantasy. I had to reread the first story to count this for my reading team, so I could appreciate the Butcher story even more. Nothing clunked, and I liked seeing some old favorites (Tanya Huff's Vickie) and even enjoying some authors I had tried but failed to click with earlier (Anton Stout).

* Break and Enter, Norah McClintock. I like this author, and I'm slowly digging through her backlist. This is #5 in a series I haven't tried yet, involving a smart teen age girl with a cop for a stepfather who has to deal with jealous rivals framing her with the too-credible help of a suspicious teacher. Gripping but not too silly.

Raven's Shadow, Patricia Briggs. I found the shape of the story a bit unwieldy, starting with two youngish people, then lurching twenty or so years into their marriage, and then dawdling again. But I found myself moving faster through the last half, finding the politics of the empire interesting and the complexities of three or four factions at the final scene worth the path to get there. I'll definitely read the second book this year (famous last words).

* My Life Before Me, Norah McClintock. After reminding myself that I like this author, I picked up another of her works on my TBR bookcase. This is the start of a series about seven orphans, with different authors going their own way with each one. I like the journalism angle of this one, with the protagonist clearly having a very personal stake in the history she chooses to investigate but she manages to keep a fairly objective head despite her youth. I'm not sure I'll try any of the linked stories in this series, but I won't avoid them either.

* Julie of the Wolves, Jean Craighead George. My last elementary book club pick of the year. I had completely forgotten the attempted rape scene, oops. We'll see how the kids take it. I hope they are like me and just look at the wolves and the competency fun.

I started but didn't finish:


Raymie Nightingale, Kate DiCamillo. (Cybils audio) The quirky Florida characters have the emotional sharpness associated with DiCamillo; I especially like Raymie tracing the size of her soul within her. The adults are blurry, but the interior life of children feels authentic.

Palimpsest, Catherynne Valente. This looks like it will have a similar feel to her planet book, with strange, vivid images coming together in a mosaic to show a complete novel. I'll trust her even though the first sections haven't gripped me much. I think this is a book club pick for somewhere; maybe my local Vaginal Fantasy? The official pick isn't a library option.

Blood, Bullets, Bones, Bridget Heos. A Cybils NF finalist. We try to keep our choices diverse in my Tuesday book club, so we went with a nonfiction book. We're lazy, so we opted for a YA one from my Cybils list, since they've been good to us in the past. I'm not supposed to finish this, as we need time to pick another book. But it gives us a lot of scope in picking the accompanying movie -- anything with murders or death or bullets.

Bookmarks moved in several books:




Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi. My reading-my-library audio. I have lost all sympathy for Boy with the start of Part 2, and so far Bird is not winning a popularity contest with me. I'm also distracted by having to listen to a Cybils book as well, so this has slowed to a crawl. 5/8 discs.

City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett. The bad guys are ambitious, there are betrayals and forged betrayals and the emergence of hidden players -- the last few chapters are exciting.

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo. This is for Friday's book club. It involves a lot of adventurous teenagers who accept torture as a normal working condition, but I worry about them. It's hard reading YA as a mother of young adults; it makes me sensitive.

These I'm barely reading; I use them as palate cleansers between books I'm actually reading.



The Quantum Universe, Brian Cox. Popular science book about quantum effects. Good thing I've been discussing math with my high schoolers, as I managed the trigeometry-optional chapter with ease.

Kenilworth, Sir Walter Scott. I think this is the least favorite Scott I've read, because so much of it hinges on the girl being stupid. Even Ivanhoe's Rowena had more on the ball.

Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen, Wendelin Van Draanen.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca.


Picture Books (read in the library while waiting for an appointment):




When the Wind Stops, Charlotte Zolotow. Lovely. I liked the story and the theme of renewal, which stayed gentle enough for a bedtime story. This would be fun to read to children.

The Matchbox Diary, Paul Fleischman. Great pictures, good story, emotionally real frame. This is a book that would reward rereading, and which also can spark discussions about history, family, or literacy.

Lala Salama, Patricia MacLachlan. Simple and sweet. The words and pictures complement each other. A simple bedtime story for a quiet child (or one you would like to become quiet).

Little Tree, Lauren Long. This is a charming illustrated story of a tree who refuses to change and loses the chance to grow. It ends happily, although the cynic in me thinks the tree would have been doomed once it was under the canopy. Nature, unlike children's books, doesn't always give second chances.

Interstellar Cinderella, Deborah Underwood. Fun. I liked that it ended with her declining marriage and becoming a mechanic, rhymes with panic. The verse and the pictures were unexpected enough to entertain.

Bug on a Bike, Chris Monroe. Cute but random. The story seemed driven mostly by the need to make the next rhyme, which might charm small children but I wanted more. And the party at the end didn't seem like a balanced payoff.

Pakkun the Wolf and His Dinosaur Friends, Yasuko Kimura. I didn't much like the art, and there were too many boys. I'm starting to really notice the unbalanced ratio in picture books, and the slightly repulsive art only gave me an extra reason to speculate. I didn't emphasize with any of the characters. Kids probably would like it fine, but I was annoyed when the mother chicken called on a small boy instead of dealing with her lost egg by herself.

You Are Here For a Reason, Nancy Tillman. I found the message pressuring rather than validating, probably because of the personality of my kids. I think this would work very well for some kids -- the pictures are warm and the text simple, but I'd have trouble reading it aloud with the correct emphasis (just as I can't read Rainbow Fish without revealing that I think of it as a tale of horror and body-dismemberment in a failed hope for acceptance).

Help! A Story of Friendship, Holly Keller. Too many boys. I worry for the continuation of the species in all kids books. This book was unfortunate enough to be the upteenth boy club book in rapid succession, so its rating suffered. Also, and this is even sillier, some snakes do eat mice so it was not a ridiculous worry. The pictures were nice.

Charlie and the New Baby, Ree Drummond. Cute but not much drive. The pictures are sweet but not very memorable, and Charlie doesn't even bond with the new calf -- he just wakes up and it's off his blanket so he goes back to eating.


2017 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2015: 81 out of 82. Need to finish these up. I own the last one, so it keeps getting pushed behind due library books. Focus! (No change from last week)
2. Cybils 2016! 3 / a lot. Mostly through the second audio.  Started two YAs -- a fantasy and a nonfiction.
3. Reading My Library: Now on disc 5 of Boy Snow Bird. Picked up a book from the next shelf.
4. Where Am I Reading?: 18/51. The elementary school book club book was set in Alaska, the Canadian author's book was in Indiana, and I read a review that placed Written in Red in Ohio, so I'm claiming that as well.

Happy Birthday To My Son

This week I am facing off with a cold (so far it's two out of three; we'll know tomorrow who ends up victorious), marched for SCIENCE, and celebrated my youngest's birthday. We made him a cake and took him out to dinner, since he apparently could not think of anything I cook that he likes. I will assume it was because the choices were so plentiful he was overwhelmed. I will assume that very hard.

The Book Date does a weekly roundup of what people are reading, want to read, or have read each week called It's Monday! What Are You Reading and I'm going to sign up. There's also a version that is kidlit focussed, and as my audio book qualifies, I'll check in with either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers for their version.

My completed books for this week:



The Wooden Prince (Out of Abaton #1), John Claude Bemis. This is a Cybils audio finalist, so I'm actually making miniscule progress on this year's choices. It's a fun audio book, especially if you have a Pinocchio background (I've read the book and seen the Disney film, although not recently). The narrator was flexible and fun, and the special effects kept things lively. Recommended.

The Stolen MacKenzie Bride, Jennifer Ashley. I have finally conquered this shelf for my Reading My Library Quest. This is the third or fourth attempt. I didn't actually like it much (it's not a good romance when you spend the book rooting for them to get away from each other) but I was determined to finish it. The writing itself was fine and the history stuff was interesting; I suspect I'd like her books from earlier in this series, which are set about a hundred years later.

* Never Go Back, Lee Child. I rolled another die to select my next Jack Reacher book, and got the one that the movie I saw was mostly based on. It was fun enough, especially with the distraction of noticing the changes (New Orleans vs Los Angeles, how much time the kid spends with them, how much sex he has with the woman, the interaction with the cop who catches up to them, the conclusion) and how they worked with book vs movie. I won't mind reading another Reacher book, although I'm not in a hurry to do so.

By Jove, Marissa Doyle. Not a bad read, but it felt oddly old-fashioned, as if it were written about twenties years ago. Maybe people who read classics are always behind the times in terms of what they worry about? I got a bit impatient with the protagonist, both her whininess and her vacillation, as well as her willingness to accept blame for being raped, but not so much I didn't enjoy her final victory.

(* Books I started this week.)

I started but didn't finish:

NOTHING! I am attempting to finish up books instead of starting them because I signed up for another team-reading thing that starts May the Fourth (be with you). I'm team Revenge of the Sith.

Bookmarks moved in several books:



The Sea Without a Shore, David Drake. I think we're near the end. The boy client is safe and Daniel has figured out how to find all the treasures. Then traffic let up and we got to school.

Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi. My reading-my-library audio. It looks like Arturo is here to stay, since we're meeting all his family. I like the book store crowd.

Written in Red, Anne Bishop. The alt Vaginal Fantasy book. I'm liking this better than the Falconer, because we get more viewpoints and the main character doesn't rejoice in the blood of others. Well. The supporting characters do, but they aren't supposed to be human and we are supposed to find that a bit off-putting.

City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett. I'm clearing off my currently-reading shelves! I got halfway through this before I got distracted, but now I'm concentrating. I forget who the good guys are; I think this is one of those murky books. I hope I'm old enough to handle that.

Sammy Keyes and the Psycho Kitty Queen, Wendelin Van Draanen. Sammy is out to lunch with her annoying mother, who makes eyes at the mother of her nemesis, who shares her birthday.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. Where does vocabulary come from? How is it used?

I abandoned:



The Falconer, Elizabeth May. Sorry, I found the narrator annoying, and the discussion over at Vaginal Fantasy indicated that all the annoying stuff was there to stay. She had me convinced she was a murderous psychopath and that the fairies she blindly hunted were mostly good guys, which I don't think was the author's intention. So her gloating, drug-addict like pleasure every time she slaughtered someone didn't make for a fun reading experience.

2017 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2015: 81 out of 82. Need to finish these up. I own the last one, so it keeps getting pushed behind due library books. Focus! (No change from last week)
2. Cybils 2016! 3 / a lot. Finished my first audio. I have something checked out but haven't started it.
3. Reading My Library: Now on disc 2 of Boy Snow Bird. Finished the Ashley romance, and can now return to the B shelf.
4. Where Am I Reading?: 15/51. Lots of duplicates. I'm regretting a little that I only record one book per state.

Oops -- Forgot It Was Monday

My tax year resolution is to keep this status post up to date, so I can see what I was reading and what things I was reading against each other. It's the first week of this resolution, and already I forgot. So, a day late, here is my reading for the week..

The Book Date does a weekly roundup of what people are reading, want to read, or have read each week called It's Monday! What Are You Reading and I'm going to sign up. There's also a version that is kidlit focussed, and as I read a couple of kidlit books, I'll check in with either Teach Mentor Text or UnLeashing Readers for their version.

My completed books for this week:


The Enemy, Lee Child. This book was a surprising amount of fun, and those of us in book club who bothered to read it were quite pleased. I did object to the end, where Reacher sacrifices himself to protect the reputation of a marine who was a poor innocent who had the misfortune to be gay. Apparently the small detail that the man also casually beat up women wasn't worth remembering, despite the fact that the thing that tripped Reacher up was that he didn't hesitate to beat up the guy who he had *thought* beat up the woman. When he realizes it was someone in the army, well, then she probably had it coming. But besides that, we felt lucky that we had accidently skipped to the chronological first book (#8 in the series) where the author had a firmer grasp on narrative and character.

* Aunt Dimity and the Buried Treasure, Nancy Atherton. I was just wishing for a book without conflict this week, and then I picked up the latest Aunt Dimity and it fit the bill perfectly. This was was sunny and pleasant all the way through. The children were cute and convenient, strangers were quirky and accommodating, and everything came up roses all the time. The closest thing to gloom was that the characters would occasionally muse that something not perfect might happen, but then of course the imperfections never appeared and life continued along harmoniously. Also, our heroine Lori probably has the most important Anglo-Saxon archeological find of this century in her backyard, but she doesn't tell anyone because she likes a quiet life.

* A Week in the Woods, Andrew Clements. I've read this before, but not for probably over ten years. I vaguely remember Mark, the rich kid who is lonely in his new town, but on this rereading I was much more interested in the teacher who misjudges him, and even more so in the rarely mentioned mom who is concentrating on her career while Mark is home with the housekeeper and her spouse, and who compensates for her absence by being a bit overprotective. I was very interested in my changing reactions; the kids in my book club were mostly interested in the question of whether teachers are expected to be fair.

Summer in Orcus, T. Kingfisher. Ursula Vernon has been publishing this serially (I'm a Patreon) and finished at the end of last year, but she had got ahead of me because I was enjoying savoring it. It's a kidlit portal fantasy with a girl who is brave and determined but utterly without super powers, and yet she still manages to do a lot and to acquire many good and loyal friends. It's a great weaving of myths and fairy tale stories and tropes with a solid emotional core.

(* Books I started this week.)

I started but didn't finish:


The Falconer, Elizabeth May. This is the current Vaginal Fantasy pick, and I'm finding it a bit of a slog. An emotional teen has dedicated her life to killing fairies after the murder of her mother; we see her behaving badly at a ball as she continually sneaks off to kill stuff. I'm afraid she's coming off more as a psychopath than a righteous vigilante; I know she thinks all fairies are evil and deserve to die in a fire but I have no reason to believe her. Hints of steampunk inventions all about would be more fun if I didn't have a slight distaste for that genre.

Written in Red, Anne Bishop. The alt Vaginal Fantasy book. Obviously I ordered and obtained both of these almost simultaneously because they are both coming due this month. I'm slow starting the Bishop because I wasn't too enthusiastic about her earlier works, and I find the "American Indians don't exist" premise a bit off-putting. But I'll give it a try.

Bookmarks moved in several books:



The Sea Without a Shore, David Drake. We only got a few more minutes in, but things are looking good for their client in terms of life-expectancy.

By Jove, Marissa Doyle. The men are rather annoying, but if they are supposed to be Greek or Roman deities, I guess that makes sense. It's a bit slow moving for a romance, actually.

The Stolen MacKenzie Bride, Jennifer Ashley. This is my next text Reading-My-Library quest book, and I'm really not enjoying it. Still. He's still annoying and I don't want her near him, and reading from the back they are all going to be idiots for Prince Charles.

The Span of Empire, Eric Flint & David Carrico. So far it's delivering what I expect, although we're still in the process of delineating the main characters and info-dumping back story. They have managed to annoy the crazy-evil aliens, so that's a good start in the plot direction.

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo. They are close to the actual heist location, but keep pausing to get some more angsty background about the horrors these children march through on their way to their current personalities. I can only take a few childhood horrors before needing to switch to something else, but it's a good book.

Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi. My reading-my-library audio. I appreciate the independence and individuality of the main character, although I'm not sure about the Arturo fellow she keeps seeing.

Raven's Shadow, Patricia Briggs. This is an earlier work, before she went into urban fantasy. I like it, but I own it so I tend to read the things that are due to the library. However, the characters just figured out a major plot point, so I expect they will start getting stuff done, encouraging me to read on.

The Wooden Prince (Out of Abaton #1), John Claude Bemis. This is a Cybils audio finalist, but I couldn't read it for a long time because first the library called it home, and then I switched cars with my sister and couldn't plug my phone into the audio system. But my car came home to me and I took a road trip to Oregon, so I've almost completed this retelling of Pinocchio with steampunk alchemists and magical fairies serving their immortal lord. It's fun to have the extra sound effects and music to the story; it feels more like a performance.

2017 Challenge Progress:

1. Cybils 2015: 81 out of 82. Need to finish these up. I own the last one, so it keeps getting pushed behind due library books. Focus! (No change from last week)
2. Cybils 2016! 2/ a lot. Very close to finishing my first audio, which will bring me up to THREE!
3. Reading My Library: Still on disc 1 of Boy Snow Bird. I still don't like the Ashley romance from the paper section of the library.
4. Where Am I Reading?: 13/51. Andrew Clements clearly set his book in New Hampshire -- thanks, Mr Author!