New Normal

We are now settling into a new normal, with the kids home doing college remotely, the adults preparing  family dinners six days a week, a a complete lack of going anywhere. Since I've almost always shared custody with the boy's dad, this is a pleasant routine. Except for the corona deaths, including that of a dear family friend. That was a stark reminder of why all this is happening.


My cooking offerings were not very popular this week. I made an emergency lasagna for my vegetarian son, so he would always have food even if the rest of us had steak. But the store was out of ricotta, so I substituted yogurt. That usually works out, but they were also out of our usual yogurt, so I substituted this organic strained uber-Greek stuff that had a very different consistency. Then on my night I made a big black bean salad, which is a transparent excuse to have nachos for leftovers on the following days. But the store was out of red pepper (?) so I substituted carrots which wasn't as nice. And I had made myself a sardine pasta dish that the family tried and hated, which was what I expected, but I liked it. A lot. Which was why the family thought it was for them -- I made enough for a weeks worth of lunches. For me.

On Friday I made my son cook, and he made his tasty lentil stew, which is also only popular among about half of our crowd. But I redeemed myself by showing up with freshly made bread to the amazement of all. And Alexander had also made a new batch of his chocolate chip cookies, so even the lentil averse showed up for dinner and left happy, although they probably made themselves a frozen pizza for a midnight snack.

Another pandemic accomplishment, which is almost a cliche -- I finished the Duolingo Greek course! Which is probably one of their shorter offerings, and I still can't really speak Greek. But to celebrate I've started working through some of the Greek picture books I have in boxes from when we used to take the boys to Greece in the summer. I remember reading them to my infants and having to fake it since I only understood about half of what I read, but without toddlers on my lap I can stop and look up words. So I apparently did learn a language in my time at home. Please put quotes around "learn" there.

Stay safe, everyone!

My currently reading has slid back up to 22, since this was a week of starting books, not finishing them. I'm making progress on most of the new ones though so I don't feel too bad.

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" so I'll sign up there. Ditto for the children's lit version at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers. My Cybils reading and my picture books qualify me this week.

Started: 



The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah. This library book has been on my TBR list for ages. I've even checked it out before. But now I have time to read this historical book set during my childhood.

Rediscover Catholicism, Matthew Kelly. My local church gave this to me years ago when I took my mom to Mass. She kinda hoped I'd read it. So I will.

The Countdown Conspiracy, Katie Slivensky. A 2017 Cybils finalist.

Grand Theft Horse, G. Neri. A 2018 Cybils finalist.

Wolfsbane, Patricia Briggs. This book from my shelves will finally complete my interrupted 2018 reread of all her books.


Completed:



Hadriana In All My Dreams, Rene Depestre. For my Cloudy book club. The language in this was incredible -- so sensual and evocative. The main character dragged things down a bit; he was a bit dull when young and rather creepy when adult. I liked when I could forget about him and just read him as the voice of the Haitian town. The last section in Hadriana's voice was my favorite -- she came out from the veil of Philip's obsession into her own personality and ambition. I'm just sad she apparently ended up with him; in my head canon he made that part up and she just took her pleasure and went on with her life. The book really celebrated humanity's ability to take pleasure.

As the Crow Flies, Melanie Gillman. 2018 Cybils graphic book. This had the feel of a short story, as its arc isn't really concerned with events but with the emotions of the main character. So there's a lot of discussion and concern about the ceremony to be performed at their final destination, but the book ends the night before they reach it, when our protagonist has realized that she doesn't need to accept the weight the adults put on this ceremony, that if it is so narrowly constructed that it doesn't acknowledge women from diverse racial, sexual or other backgrounds then the problem lies with the inadequate founders, not with the girls it leaves out. The illustrations were lovely but I am easily distracted.

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:





Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan. 5/10 discs. Started the new disc while making my donut run. I feel like Liga is being unfaithful to Bear, which is an odd thought.

Tropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan. The library called this home. I will try to get it back after I finish Jonathan Strange. They are a bit too close together to read simultaneously.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke. I'm in part III! There's no stopping me now! I should be done within two months. She's killed off another character I liked, leaving me with the dull and unpleasant ones.

Uncompromising Honor, David Weber. Baen Free Radio Hour's serial. Got through Part 6 and started 7! I'm hoping we are close to finishing the background info so the action can start, but I admit I needed all the reminders I was given.

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir. More deaths, which are helpful, so I think now I know all the active characters. Unfortunately the two main ones have reverted to prioritizing unpleasantness over effectiveness. Bleh.

Gathering Edge, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. I like the Liaden series, although I've somehow fallen behind. This one follows Theo, which means it moves a bit more slowly than I'd prefer as we stop to watch her navigate between the very different people on her crew. I like the complications she finds.



Picture Books / Short Stories:

I found some picture books on my shelves that I haven't read in decades. I haven't actually figured out the Greek keyboard on my laptop yet, so I can't capitalize all the titles.

My Grandson Lew, Charlotte Zolotow. I see why I kept this little book, honoring both the memory of children and the love they share with their family. Also, from studies of how memories work I think the boy would lose his memories of his grandfather as time went on, so his choice to share them with his mom means that he will preserve them. He'll remember the conversations.

πάμε στο μύλο, Susan Muhlhouser-Tritsis. (Let's Go the the Mill) I have vague memories of reading this with my oldest, but at that time I would have been mostly faking it. Now that I have completed the Duolingo Greek course, I decided to try again. This time I read it by myself, and made myself double check any words I was unsure about. And I made it through! This is a major accomplishment for me. I feel like my Greek skills are at a low three-year old level, but with literacy! Go me! Also, it's a fun book with wheels you turn to see different animals in little windows on the pages and a warm sibling relationship between the sisters.

Πού είναι το Spot, Erik Hill. (Where's Spot?) This board book was easier for me to understand and does a good job working on my prepositions, which are a week area for me.  I think I remember reading this one as well, because there are lots of animals hidden in the spots where Spot is not, and I'm good at animals.  So I would have been able to talk about the pictures a bit with him as I pretended that Greek was a language that I spoke. Now that there is no toddler in my lap I have the luxury of checking my vocabulary on each page.


Palate Cleansers

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




The Educated Child, William Bennett. I am proud to say that my college junior son aced that "What a 8th Grader Should Know About History" checklists.

Cookie, Jacqueline Wilson.

Give All to Love, Patricia Veryan. Getting ready for the ball, and learning to like women who rejected your favorite guy.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt. Chickens come home to roost.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. Why it's often not best to use all the stuff provided in the basal reader teacher workbooks, and how experienced teachers decide on the best stuff for a class.

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils TBR Challenge: #CybilsReaddown: I counted As the Crow Flies. 
2. Cybils 2017. Started The Countdown Conspiracy.
3. Cybils 2018. Finished As the Crow Flies. Started Grand Theft Horse. 
4. Cybils 2019. Nothing.
5. Reading My Library. Nothing. It's patiently waiting on my shelf.
6. Ten to Try. At 8/10. But it was a weak pick for a musician book.
7. Where Am I Reading: 13/51 states. 12 Countries. 
8. Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. 17/24. Hadriana is officially a horror book and it's published by an indie press. Still need 2 (retelling by PoC author), 6 (play by PoC or queer author), 13 (food book about a new to me cuisine), 15 (climate change), 17 (sci-fi novella), 23 (literary magazine), and 24 (Indigenous author) 

The Cybils Awards TBR Reading Challenge: CybilsReaddown

The Cybils Awards are giving us a fun challenge during this time at home, and it's one that I sorely need. They challenge us to tackle our TBR piles, from our libraries or our bookshelves, and clear out what we can. There's even a prize but I hope I don't win because I'd feel bad. I already have a Cybils tote. 

The goal is to "share with other reader" what we've got, what we've liked, what we recommend. That a good frame of mind to have when penning a review, either on twitter or goodreads or on my blog. 

There's a hashtag: #CybilsReaddown to use with social media; I think I'm only going to twitter-tag Cybils books because they want you to limit to three a week. So books that are either past Cybils finalists or prospective nominations from me will get tagged, and on here I'll list what I've read for this challenge.

So far I've read:

1. As the Crow Flies, Melanie Gillman, a Cybils 2018 YA graphic book finalist. I recommend it to young teens who appreciate beauty and who are are questioning and identifying their identity as they move from childhood to independence. This book specifically looks at racial, gender and religious identity, Charlie finds herself in a group where she's not sure she fits in along any of those lines. 
2. Gathering Edge, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. #20 in a long running space opera with lots of different cultures clashing and space pilot zooming about.
3. Countdown Conspiracy, Katie Slivensky, a Cybils 2017 SF book. I really like the team work and the trope of super-smart kids doing real work, and Slivensky did a great job making them real kids while also showing the amazing things they were capable of. I found a lot of the science rather shaky; the programming of Ruby seemed rather magical and the descriptions of rocketry and orbits sounded bizarre; it's possible it was simplified for the audience and I just couldn't recognize the truth behind the words. But it made it hard to suspend disbelief; luckily the emotional connections between the team were more realistic and brought the story back to life for me.
4. Grand Theft Horse, G. Neri. A Cybils 2018 YA graphic book finalist. A gripping and inspiring story of a woman willing to sacrifice her life for a horse, and maybe also to spite the men determined to hurt that horse. The comic was sometimes hard for me to parse, since I'm not very skilled at reading graphic novels, but the story line was intense and kept me turning the pages. 
5. Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir. A 2020 Hugo novel finalist. The youth of the future exhaust me.
6. Last Day on Mars, Kevin Emerson. A Cybils 2017 middle grade SF book. Super fun plot, with twists and hints that leave me wondering want will happen next. Liam is a friendly and determined guy with some good friends and skilled robots on his side, which he needs if he's going to save himself, his friends, their parents, the colonist ship, humanity and the universe.
7. Golden in Death, J.D. Robb. Fifty books in and I'm still having fun. Charles isn't as much fun now that he's respectable, but it's hilarious seeing Eve still whining about being filthy rich. And the bad guys were bad but not grotesque, so their take down was pure relish.
8. Hey, Kiddo, Jarrett J. Krosoczka. A Cybils 2018 YA graphic, a memoir of a complicated childhood (almost all childhoods are complicated) done with emotional precision both in writing and in the art.
9. Other Words For Home, Jasmine Warga. Cybils 2019 poetry book that's a verse novel documenting a middle schooler's move from Syria to Cincinnati and her struggles to both learn to love her new home but not to give up on her old one.
10. Wolfsbane, Patricia Briggs. I like the way it looks at family from several different directions, and what it means to have people you will love and forgive and sacrifice for.
11. Great Alone, Kristin Hannah. The book has been on my to-read list for two years, and I've checked it out of the library twice, once just before the COVID closure that gave me an extra four months to read it. Once I managed to start it I found it smooth going -- lovely evocative setting, complex characters, coming of age bits. At the end a stupid problem made me put it down for a while, but I pushed through to completion. But the end kind of spoiled things.
12. Spirit Hunters, Ellen Oh. Cybils 2017 MG SF finalist, where the middle sister must defend her little brother from badness. I like how it turned out that she needed her grandmother's skills in this fight, and her new friends new and old also stood with her. 
13. Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt.I read this excruciatingly slowly because it brought back all the intense emotions of a young teen, when you are sure you are going to be the worst person ever. It's a story of an unlikely friendship and of a family that is uncertain of each other but also ultimately strong.
14. On a Sunbeam, Tilly Waldon. 2018 YA Graphic novel. I found it hard to tell the characters apart (I'm terrible at this in general!) so it was a bit hard to follow. I also found it hard to tell when they were in a flashback. Some of the art was lovely; I liked when I could just admire the pictures and not try to figure out what was going on. 
15. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. A book I'm glad to have read because it sits comfortably in my memory but it was a long slog to get through it. My favorite character was the fairy king, who unfortunately had a habit of slaughtering people. 
16. All the Pieces Fit, Judd Winick. HiLo is great. This story had a lot of heart -- loss, sacrifice, redemption, tears, and triumph. It was a bit light on real world situations, but instead it had a mom coming through in an awesome way. 
17. Winter Sisters, Robin Oliveira. This was supposed to be for my local library's book club back in March. I think that ship has sailed away, so I finally read it. I liked the historical detail -- it's set in Albany after the Civil War and starts with an unexpected late blizzard that wreaks havoc on the city. The status of women is shown through the prostitutes and the doctor characters -- one doctor is a woman and she faces a lot of discrimination. The characters are authentic but the author's tone is disapproving of the injustice. The family details are well balanced and I enjoyed it and would have liked to discuss it!
18. Rediscover Catholicism, Matthew Kelly. A deeply sincere and loving description of how Catholicism helps Kelly be the-best-version-of-himself (his term) with details into how this works and what is important to him (Mass, the rosary, prayer, etc.). It's a good reminder of the good derived from the Church, although it doesn't really address faith or the issues I have with it.
19. The Midwinter Witch, Molly Ostertag. I'm a bit tired of Ariel's dramatics, but she is slowly starting to mature. At least she is flouncing off trying to help people rather than destroy them. And I could sympathize with the mistakes the adults were making. Easy to read pictures help my enjoyment, although I did manage to confuse all the brunettes at some point. I'm so bad at faces, and not much better at clothes -- it does make graphic novels hard for me! But Ostertag is very good at what she does.
20. The Tropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan. I paused reading this one because it felt too close to Jonathan Strange but enjoyed it when I went back to it. The combination of poking around with dragons in a foreign country while learning what it means to be a responsible, moral adult and fighting the traditional role for one's gender was a pleasing one, and I'm old enough to appreciate the perspective of writing memoirs.
21. Mangoes, Mischief, and Tales of Friendship, Chitra Soundar. An Early Chapter Book from 2019. I got the audio since my library didn't have it as an ebook, and it was a delightful listen, with the taste of India permeating the sweets, the village sounds and trades, and the court of the king. The two boys who raced around dispensing fairness were extra fun. But I missed all the illustrations which I bet is a pity.
22. Frankie Sparks and the Class Pet, Megan Frazier Blackmore. A fun book about friendship, inventions, and rodents. I like the inventor hook, and how Frankie isn't that good at reading and writing but recognizes their value and researches stuff even when it's hard. The moral was rather blatant but also the sort of thing elementary kids struggle with -- what is fair to expect from and demand from one's friends? How do you handle conflicting desires when there is only one outcome?
23. The Orphan Band of Springdale, Anne Nesbit. Set in Maine just before WWII, a period I love reading about: Check. Protagonist has a family involved in the labor movement: Check. And she wrestles with ideas of fairness and courage while pushing herself to be a better version of herself, surrounded by complex people who are a mix of good and failed. And the scenes where she learns to see with her new glasses are beautiful and reflective of the overall themes. This book could have been written for me. Clearly I loved it.
24. Witchmark, C.L. Polk. Tor.com gives out a free book each month, but sometimes my science fiction book club is reading something else and I fall behind. I'm glad I went back to this one -- I enjoyed the worldbuilding, which took and Edwardian English backdrop and mixed it with magic, gender equality, and limited tolerance of homesexuality in an interesting way. I also liked the protagonist, a self-effacing guy who had a lot of backbone to him.
25. A Is For Elizabeth, Rachel Vail. This Cybils early chapter book was delightful. I share her name, so I enjoyed her creative spelling and name poster, and thought that the kids resolved the fairness issue with great wisdom. And the short chapters would be great for beginning readers, or would also work for a shared read.
26. Mr Penguin and the Lost Treasure, Alex Smith. A light mystery with a budding penguin detective and his spider-bodyguard. Not as much to my taste as the Elizabeth book, but I can see it appealing to kids as Mr Penguin has to learn his trade and they may be quicker at seeing some clues than he is. It did feel a bit light on girls, though.
27. Cookie, Jacqueline Wilson. I enjoyed the very British feel of this book, although the characters seemed a bit flat. But it was nice when life turned out happier than Cookie expected in the first chapters. 

And that's a wrap! And our libraries should be opening again (for curbside pick up) so good thing I got through some of those.

So Many Gatherings! So Little Contact!

Another week of beautiful weather and social isolation! I've managed to keep up my busy virtual whirl so I'm in good spirits.

Another week of book clubs always gets me in a good mood. My weekly Tuesday group has always been virtual; friends from three states (and five town) come together to play online games and chat about a book. We like SF books, and Tor.com has a charming habit of giving a way a book for a book club every month. So we're frugal as well. And luckily we all safe physically and economically so far -- we're mostly programmers so work at home isn't hard to arrange.

On Friday it was time for my friends' book club -- we've been meeting probably for over ten years now. My sister came over and we ate pizza while I figured out how to actually start a meeting instead of joining someone else's. I somehow manage to remain rather incompetent with computers. I choose to think of it as charming.

And on Saturday we had our two-family book club to discuss Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones, with pizza from a completely different place. We think we'll try to meet at least a few more times before the college kids finally can go back to their respective campuses.

Thursday my BIL grabbed Paulos and caravanned with my niece back to WSU to pick up their stuff, confirming that this semester will not resume in its natural surroundings. I am nagging my other son to sign up for a time to get his stuff from Oregon but so far no answer. I'm not sure if the lag is on his part or theirs.

I also found to time get to a park for a walk. A friend of mine showed up at the same park, so we walked together with the path between us in proper distant behavior, but it was good to see her. I think we'll try to walk simultaneously a few more times this week.

And on Sunday we invited all the far-flung family to dinner, then let the non-Trekkies escape while we watched another Picard.  We're hoping to finish the series by next week so the cheapskates among us can bail before having to pay for their TV time. Easter was pretty much a non-event; we didn't even have chocolate or eggs. No one really likes hard boiled eggs so it seemed a waste to color any, and besides my kids were baptised Greek Orthodox so technically their Easter is next week.

Stay safe, everyone!

My currently reading has tipped back down to 18, including the books that I'm going to get back to real soon now, really.

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" so I'll sign up there. Ditto for the children's lit version at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers. I read some kidlit this week, both CYBILS and free range.

Started: 



Quince, "Sebastian Kadlecik," Kit & Emma Steinkellner. 2018 Cybils graphic book. A library book.

Gathering Edge, Sharon Lee & Steve Miller. I like the Liaden series, although I've somehow fallen behind. This is from my shelves.

Hadriana In All My Dreams, Rene Depestre. For my Cloudy book club. A library ebook.

As the Crow Flies, Melanie Gillman. 2018 Cybils graphic book. A library book.


Completed:




Her Other Secret, HelenKay Dimon. For my monthly Friday book club, which met last Friday. I thought it was emotionally bonkers, but in a fun way that didn't take itself seriously. There were two fun people who found each other hot, and fell into sex (and I guess love) while sternly telling themselves this was definitely not going to happen and anyway they were much too busy dealing with the mystery and murder happening on their quiet island. But as a pandemic book, it was soothing and distracting. The club spent a little time on it -- only half of us had read it and we had low attendance at our virtual meeting (pandemic problems -- only one slot for grocery pick-up, etc.). We managed to get our meeting going after some shenanigans, and enjoyed checking in. The book was written by a friend of a friend, so we felt sophisticatedly close to the author. Hmm, the only book stuff I remember from the meeting was trying to figure out what the "other secret" was, and I don't think it was resolved. We only knew one secret that the Heroine had. But I like the idea of having a sexy handyman that you call for all problems -- the Heroine called him in to report a strange boat off the coast. Need a bird identified on your nature walk? Call sexy handyman! Kid can't learn to tie his shoes? A job for sexy handyman!

Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, Ari Folman. A 2018 Cybils book. I went into this book thinking it'd be fine -- I've read the diary several times, so the content would be familiar, and I'm not a huge fan of graphic books (being bad at faces). I came out very moved. The conversion into art and text worked beautifully to bring out the pathos and emotions of the young Anne in a new way, and the inevitability of her fate matched with the clear depiction of her ideals and dreams and fully realized life made a tragic contrast. Very highly recommended.

Redshirts, John Scalzi. For my Tuesday book club. We read all but the codas last night, which I told everyone to save for the next week. I read this eight years ago and I remember thinking that the codas really deepened and strengthened to book itself. I'm not so convinced of that on this reread; it's more of a spiral exploring the ideas already laid out, and the trick with the different voices is more obvious. But it's still an interesting read with a lot of fun banter and toying with standard SF tropes in television as frosting over a fun meta-discussion of the nature of characterization and the relationships of readers to characters in a book.

The Enchanting Hour, Meghan Gurdon. Well, that was a refreshing and validating read. Apparently, science shows that reading to your kids is great! It makes their brains better, expands their vocabulary, deepens your relationship, broadens their horizons, and probably makes them prettier as well. Since I currently have only adult children, no grandkids, I could read this with a nostalgic glow of self-approval without any niggly thoughts of how I could be doing better. It's a good read, but I admit I liked it because it said nice things about me.

Quince, "Sebastian Kadlecik," Kit & Emma Steinkellner. 2018 Cybils graphic book. This was a lot of fun! Lupe was loud and exuberant and had that teenage combination of self-confidence and anxiety. I loved how the artist drew her with large facial features and a big body -- she was still both cute and beautiful. She had a firm sense of morals but also wanted to have fun, and would stamp her feet when these conflicted. Her relationship with her abuela was also delightful.

A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George. I have to say, this never grabbed me, which is why it ended up in the slow read bucket. Perhaps my merry habit of ignoring series order hurt it -- I found the police (the recurring characters) as distasteful as the crooks they were investigating. No one had any concern for anyone else, and the police attitude towards anyone not in the force was contemptuous and contemptible.

Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:





Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan. 5/10 discs. Managed to finish the disk! I think when I went to the park for a walk.

Tropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan. The library called this home. I will try to get it back, probably after I finish Jonathan Strange. They are a bit too close together to read simultaneously.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke. I'm up to chapter 42 (halfway-ish) and only sheer stubbornness has me continuing. Also, the previous chapter features Mr Segundis (sp?) and I like him. I think he's about to disappear again.

Uncompromising Honor, David Weber. Baen Free Radio Hour's serial. I heard another short story but now I am about to start part 6.

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir. OK, we are now getting into the mysteries of the spooky house, and I'm slowly starting to tell the characters apart. This should get easier as some of them get killed off. At least the Ninth House girls are starting to entertain the idea of not being unpleasant all the time, which I find tiresome.




Picture Books / Short Stories:



"Magic and Other Honest Lies," Robert Buettner. Baen gave me this little story instead of their regular serial this week. It was a fun, light little thing about two people who start out distrusting each other (for good reason) who end up working together to save a cute alien. With teeth. It's available to read online as well: https://www.baen.com/honestlies


Palate Cleansers

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




The Educated Child, William Bennett.

Cookie, Jacqueline Wilson. Cookie and her mom admit they don't want dad.

Give All to Love, Patricia Veryan. Time for a ball!

Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. Worksheets and basal readers -- how they've changed and whether to use them.

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils 2017. Have some queued up but not started.
2. Cybils 2018. Finished Anne Frank's Diary. Finished Quince. Started As the Crow Flies.
3. Cybils 2019. Nothing.
4. Reading My Library. Nothing. It's patiently waiting on my shelf.
5. Ten to Try. Still at 7/10.
6. Where Am I Reading: 13/51 states. Still. But I picked up another country -- Holland. 
7. Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. 17/24. Spoke too soon -- Anne Frank give me two -- memoir from a religion different from mine, and graphic memoir.

Ages and Bs

I just read two kidlit books with protagonists aged 14 and 13. Kate DiCamillo's Beverly, Right Here and Rosemary Zibart's Beatrice On Her Own.

Both were gifts from LibraryThing EarlyReaders, and both got buried under the onslaught of Cybils reading I did last fall as a judge for the Junior & Senior High nonfiction categories. Oops! But now I'm back, and there is lots of time for reading, and I am uncovering my review copies.

If I could see my 4th/5th grade reading club again, I'd offer them these books at our end of the year part, but I'd try to push them towards the 5th graders. The reading level of the DiCamillo seemed smaller, but the emotional complexities loomed larger. On the other hand, the Zifard assumes a basic knowledge of history -- what was World War II, who was involved, and vaguely when did it take place. I think my kids have that, although they have a distressing tendency to group all historical events loosely together. Distressing because they include my childhood in that "historical event" category. So, the 1970s were a bit after World War II which was a bit after the American Civil War.

Both books star a teenage girl (Beatrice is 13, Beverly 14) who is independent. Beatrice is proud of her independence because it is newly learned; she arrived in America last year and struggled to learn to stand on her own. Even now she considers herself a child who requires adult supervision even as she has more and more adventures on her own. The adults around her honor and encourage this evan as they support her. Beverly has a broken family, including a mother who is abusive and distant. She doesn't even think about her independence; it's been a part of her since she was a small child learning that she couldn't rely on the adults around her. Her journey is the opposite; she needs to learn that there are adults who can be trusted, who will care about her. Starting from a place of deep grief -- her dog, the only one she trusted to care about her unconditionally, has just died -- she struggles with the idea of reaching out for connections to anybody.

The tone is the biggest difference. Beatrice is very pragmatic -- the details are real, the situations seem possible, the dangers and risks (from emotional fear of confessing a crush to physical danger of waiting with an injured dog during a snowstorm to the suspense of chasing a spy) tangible. I'd give this to any kid interested in history and quiet adventures. Beverly is more dreamlike; Beverly is stumbling through a cloud of grief, and unlikely coincidences move her into a place of healing. As a guide to running away, it's terrible! But I don't think kids would take it that way; it's more an acting out of emotions than a real predicament. I would give this to kids who want to explore deep emotions, who don't mind crying over books, and who don't insist on strict realism in their stories.

Thank you to LibraryThing's EarlyReaders program for sending me these books, and I apologize for my delay in reviewing them!

Seeing People On the Screen

We continue to stay home and now have plans to do that at least through the beginning of May. At this point the only question is how we are going to get my sons' stuff out of their dorm rooms.

Small things become big adventures in these times. I went to Costco! I made my niece do the regular grocery shopping! I cooked a dinner (well, two). Ever year (usually at Thanksgiving) I take the leftover turkey and make The Pioneer Woman's Turkey Tetrazzine which me and a few others enjoy and the rest put up with. Last week we had our Social Isolation Turkey, so this week I made my dish. I served a pesto lasagna on the side so my vegetarian son and the mushroom-adverse wouldn't feel obligated to hog some of my tetrazzini.

Having exhausted myself cooking double on Wednesday, I ordered pizza from a local restaurant on Friday. I even tried out Door Dash for extra sloth. Smoking Monkey employed both my kids last summer, so I was glad to support them in this time of Take Out. I also like their pizza -- they use provolone instead of mozzarella as a base and it's a distinctive and flavorful variation. Xan and I went for the Vegetarian which has kale and potato and is really good, while Paulos got something with Rosemary and goat cheese that smelled great but disappeared before I made a move on it.

Socially, I went many places from the comfort of the office. Tuesday was book club/Eve day, where we zoomed around in space ships and blew people up and chatted about John Scalzi's Redshirts, which Tor.com gave us a few weeks ago. That club is always online so we were all set for the pandemic.

Thursday was the day scheduled for my Triple Book Club, where ordinarily the local Sword and Laser, the local Vaginal Fantasies that is now the independent Cloudy With a Chance of Clit Lit, and the topical Torches and Pitchforks clubs meet for three one hour discussions. But obviously we couldn't meet, so we ZOOMED. Lots of cat crashing, a few cute kids, and I had the fun of slowly going dark since we started in sunlight and I was too lazy to turn the light on as the light faded over the evening. Good discussions of The Light Brigade, The Vagina Monologues, and American Dreamer. 

Then on Sunday I had a committee meeting for my Foolscap convention that went really well -- we figured out what was unknowable and decided to wait until we knew stuff before making decisions. Fast and efficient.

The we tried to have a family dinner across three states and four TVs to eat and watch Star Trek: Picard. That was plagued by technical difficulties so I think we need to rethink things. But it was nice to see my mom and my brothers and the show is interesting if a bit confusing with all the distractions.

Stay safe, everyone!

My currently reading has lurched back up to 20, including the books that I'm going to get back to real soon now, really.

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" so I'll sign up there. Ditto for the children's lit version at either Teach Mentor Texts or Unleashing Readers. I read some kidlit this week, both CYBILS and free range.

Started: 





Beatrice On Her Own, Rosemary Zibart. A present from LibraryThing, several months ago.

Redshirts, John Scalzi. For my Tuesday book club. Also because Tor.com gave it away in their book club recently.

The Enchanting Hour, Meghan Gurdon. A book about reading aloud to kids -- how could I resist?

Her Other Secret, HelenKay Dimon. For my monthly Friday book club.

Dogsbody, Diana Wynne Jones. For my newly reconstituted Family Book Club. Gotta take advantage of having my boys home.

Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, Ari Folman. A Cybils book.


Completed:



Beatrice On Her Own, Rosemary Zibart. I have a fondness for WWII stories, and as a child I read books about children in war all over the world. This one would have been great for me -- a British evacuee settled in Sante Fe New Mexico, set just as America also enters the world. There are details of the London Blitz conveyed in deliberately cheerful letters from her family back home, and details of America gearing up for war, from the recruiting of dogs for the army to the surge in racism as Japanese-Americans were rounded up, some to be dispatched to a camp near Santa Fe. Meanwhile Beatrice is growing up, having already adapted to the self-reliance prized by her American host, but now facing new challenges as that host is called away by the war. And with growing up comes complications in her relationships with boys and a deeper understanding of the adults around her. I think I'll go looking for the previous book.

The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart, Stephanie Burgess. 2017 Cybils middle grade fiction. A fun book about a girl turned into a dragon who faces her predicament with almost heartbreaking courage and drive. My impression of this book was colored by my seeing it on a list of books where "nothing bad happens" and boy was that recommendation wrong. I mean, it ends well, but the that kid goes through a lot. It's set in a standard fantasy city, but with chocolate houses, and she makes friends and has adversaries and gets things wrong and despairs and then rallies and there's a king and a crown princess and it's all a lot of fun. But just because the bad stuff gets resolved doesn't mean it doesn't happen!

Ink Knows No Boundaries: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, Patrice Vecchione. Cybils 2019 poetry book. Nothing struck me as something I wanted to add to my poetry book (I tend towards more structured verse) but this collection was a powerful and illuminating insight into the experiences and emotions of the poets. If anything, I might quibble that some of the feelings are more universal than that -- everyone is a stranger in their own land at times. I hope many high schoolers find and are inspired by this collection.

Dogsbody, Diana Wynne Jones. I've read this a bit early as book club was pushed back a week (which will hopefully give the sushi place time to reopen!) but it's hard to resist. I love Sirius with his mix of luminary and dog, and how the two natures trade dominance (just as they do in everyone), and his love of Katherine and how it's reciprocated, and Sol and Earth, and everything. I can't believe I neglected to read this to my kids when they were young, and now it's too late! (I offered and was firmly rejected.)


Bookmarks Moved (Or Languished) In:





Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan. 4/10 discs. I am about to finish this disc, and am very worried about Urdu, but rarely get in the car. And the car has my only convenient CD player.

Tropic of Serpents, Marie Brennan. The library called this home. I will try to get it back, probably after I finish Jonathan Strange. They are a bit too close together to read simultaneously.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke. I dug up some headphones and now try to listen while doing chores, and am making progress. Not enough, since it is due back at the library in two days, but some.

Uncompromising Honor, David Weber. Baen Free Radio Hour's serial. OK, I made it through a podcast but it had a special short story instead of the installment of this book. But I've started the next podcast so soon!

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir. Action is starting! The girls are still unappealing but some of the side characters are interesting. Oops.




Picture Books / Short Stories:



Soccerverse, Elizabeth Steinglass. Cybils 2019 poetry book. OK, how in the world do the judges compare this to stuff like SHOUT or Ink Knows No Borders? It's a energetic picture book that combines words and pictures to bring soccer to life, and I warm towards it because it's probably a picture book I could've snuck past my poetry-allergic sons at bedtime. I liked the variety of poems (there's even a list of poetry types in the back for the nerd parent) and was delighted to see a reverso.

The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-To Poems, Paul B. Janeczko. This is the kind of children's poetry book I like and my children hated -- an anthology with pictures. Some charmed me, some were so-so, but I liked the theme and most of the poems (I added "Rules" to my poetry notebook).

"The Age of the Warrior" by Hank Reinhardt. An old guy still has some moves in a world where women have very little agency. From the Baen Free Radio Hour. (Also available in the 2012 Free Stories collection.)


Palate Cleansers

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



A Traitor to Memory, Elizabeth George.

The Educated Child, William Bennett.

Cookie, Jacqueline Wilson.

Give All to Love, Patricia Veryan.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt. A previously burnt bridge is disastrously discovered, causing more wreckage.

Reading and Learning to Read, Jo Anne Vaca. Watching for bias or stereotypes in basal readers.

Reading Challenges

1. Cybils 2017. Finished Dragon With a Chocolate Heart and grabbed the next one from the library. 
2. Cybils 2018. Started Anne Frank's Diary. 
3. Cybils 2019.  Finished Ink Knows No Boundaries and the two poetry picture books. I've got Other Words For Home on hold for the ecopy, and I'm next up for the print copy of Ordinary Hazards, but who knows when libraries will open for me to get it.
4. Reading My Library. Nothing. It's patiently waiting on my shelf.
5. Ten to Try. Still at 7/10.
6. Where Am I Reading: 13/51 states -- Beatrice gave me New Mexico. 
7. Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge. 14/24. Did not get lucky. Most of the rest seem unlikely to happen through serendipity.