Cammykitty's 2015 Category Challenge

Guess it's time to start in on 2015. I'm probably going to be on a few panels at Diversicon this year so it's never too soon to start preparing for them. My challenge this year will be heavy on science fiction and fantasy so I can sound brilliant, ha, when the time comes.

And, as always, this thread will be filled with two pictures of my naughty dogs, Sage and Wanda, and will welcome all sorts of dog talk.



This is Wanda. I can't claim the picture though. It's one that Jerome took. He should be a dog photographer. My other dog is Sage, the Chicken Dog. Di, alias Bruce Krafft's evil twin, owns Sage's Courage Consultant Gracie.







And as usual, books over 400 pages count as two books.

1/2 of books should come from books I already own - as I type this - LT is up-to-date so I'll know if I'm fudging!

Books by and about Tiptree:



Panel description: Panels: The works of Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree, Jr: "Seminal" describes the early works of Alice Sheldon, a writer who fooled the science fiction community into thinking she was a man by hiding behind a jar of jam. Let's take a moment to celebrate her 100th year by talking about her works and her transformation from a male author to a feminist icon.

1. James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon

Animals as the Other

Panel Description:
Animals as the Alien Other: We don't need to look to outerspace to find living beings with minds that function differently than ours. They are right beside us on this planet. How are our fellow animals alien creatures? How have they shaped the aliens we read about in our fiction?

OMG! What was I thinking when I presented this idea? It sounds like a really difficult topic. Long time ago at WisCon, someone said that the tiger in the Life of Pi was about the best description of an alien life form they had run into. That's where the idea came from, but I can totally see this becoming the panel that wanders off to nowhere.

1. Blackbirds
2. Red Equinox
3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone
4. Redshirts
5. Should we drown in feathered sleep by Michael Merriam
6. Goosebumps: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp
7. The Boggart and the Monster
8. Wylding Hall
9. A Plague of Bogles
10. Aces Wild
11. Bad Kitty Meets the Baby
12. The Man Who Fell To Earth

Possibles:

Anthropological Science Fiction

Panel Description:
Anthropological Science Fiction: Ursula Le Guin, daughter of a prominent anthropologist, is credited with opening up another avenue for science fiction, anthropological science fiction. Then Clan of the Cave Bear took us back to pre-history. Steven Barnes and other authors have put their individual spins on it since. Let's discuss the works that are out there, and how they have explored the culture of humans.

1. The Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason
2. Ammonite
3. Left Hand of Darkness
4. Lockwood & Co: The Whispering Skull

Possibles:
Shadow Valley by Steven Barnes

Any suggestions for this category in particular would be greatly appreciated.

Tiptree Award Novels

Panel Description: What's your favorite Tiptree Award novel" A group of people got together and said there should be an award, funded by bake sales and honored with chocolate, that explores gender in science fiction and fantasy. Since then a variety of authors have worn the Tiptree tiara, from Nicola Griffith to Joe Haldeman. There are far too many books to discuss them all, but lets talk about a random selection of our favorites.

1. The Woman of the Iron People by Eleanor Arnason
2. Ammonite
3.
4.

Possibles:
The Knife of Never Letting Go
In the Night Garden
Filter House by Nisi Shawl
Half Life by Shelley Jackson
Rupetta
Redwood and Wildfire

Afrofuturism

This is a category inspired by this year's Diversicon Guest of Honor, Ytasha Womack

1. Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
2. Space is the Place
3. Rayla 2212
4. One Crazy Summer
5. P.S Be Eleven
6. And After Many Days

Possibles:

And to the non-panel categories. Continuing my tour of the world, I'm reading Western South American countries - Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile

1. The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano Chile
2. Turing's Delirium by Edmundo Paz Soldan Bolivia
3. Bruna and Her Sisters in the Sleeping City by Alicia Yanez Cossio Ecuador
4. Feast of the Goat
5. Feast of the Goat

Possibilities:

Paula by Isabel Allende Chile
Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa Peru
Lost City Radio by Daniel Alarcon Peru
Deep Rivers by Jose Maria Arguedes Peru
Red April by Santiago Roncagliolo Peru
Cochabamba: Water War in Bolivia by Oscar Olivera
The Villagers by Jorge Kaza Ecuador
The Potbellied Virgin by Alicia Yanez Cossio Ecuador

In the Spanish Language

1. Blacksad: Arctic Nation
2. The Day it Snowed Tortillas
3. y no se lo trago la tierra by Tomas Rivera
4. Nunca juegues con una bruja
5. Bone: La Carrera de vacas

Possibles:

Animal/Human Behavior (may combine with panel category)

1. Feeling Outnumbered
2-3. In a Different Key
4. Training People

Possibles:

Group or Book Club reads

1. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
2. Perks of being a wallflower
3.
4.
5.

Planned:

Portrait of a Lady LT Cat Challenge February
The Black Count Third Quarter
I know why the caged bird sings Fourth Quarter

Future Problem Solving

I'm coaching a Future Problem Solving team made up of 6th grade girls. It's my first year doing it, so I've read a bit on how to do it and plan to read at least one book on GT kids. It's also a panel idea. A friend and I are planning on proposing a panel on GT kids and FPS as an activity for them. The problem they are given, with 2 hours to solve it, is on a broad theme. I'll be researching the themes with them.

1. Feed topic=propaganda
2. A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailand's Struggle for Democracy in the Twenty-First Century topic=propaganda
3. All Art is Propaganda topic=propaganda
4. Transformative Transhumanism
5. Bringing our Languages Home
6. Unstoppable

Possible:
The Travels of the T-shirt in a Global Economy

Everything Else

1. Blacksad: Amarillo
2. Flat Stanley: Framed in France
3. A to Z Mysteries L-K
4. Mark of the Dragonfly
5. Henry Huggins
6. Henry and Beezus
7. TVA Baby
8. Shouldn't you be in school
9. The Moffats
10. Love from Paddington
11. The Wide Window
12. Ghoulish Song
13. House of Robots
14. The Miserable Mill
15. The Austere Academy
16. When did you see her last
17. Crandall's Castle
18. The Memory Maze
19. Alchemy and Meggy Swann
20. Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things
21. The Upstairs Wife
22. George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl
23. Pieces and Players
24. Say Cheese and Die by R.L. Stine
25. One False Note
26. Al Capone Does My Homework
27. The Quinx Effect
28. The Girl on the Boat
29. Beware the Young Stranger
30. Guys Read: Other Worlds
31. The Good Fortunes Gang by Margaret Mahy
32. The Vile Village
33. The Hostile Hospital
34. Between Shades of Gray
35. The Carnivorous Carnival
36. The Slippery Slope
37. The Terrible Two
38. The Grim Grotto
39. Al Capone Shines My Shoes
40. Why is this night different from all other nights by Lemony Snicket
41 The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity
42. The Penultimate Peril
43. The Trouble in Me
44. The End

visited 30 states (13.3%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Brazil travel guide for Android

This is a map of the countries I remember having read "in" within the last several years. I'm sure there are more, but can't remember for sure. Eventually, I'll get around the globe. :)

I see one very happy doggie smiling in the thread topper pic! Wanda must love playing outdoors in the snow! Glad to find your thread now set up and ready for 2015 reading adventures!

Will be interested to see how your panel categories fill up! Good luck with your challenge!

Thanks Lori! Yes, they both love fresh snow!!! They love taking their squeakies outside, running around and tackling each other especially in the snow. Jerome has a lot more pictures that I'm waiting for. I'll be posting more of them.

& RP, I think I'll need more luck on the panels than the challenge! It's going to be a good year.

👋 - Hi Katie! Glad to see you're finally here. Hope you have a great reading year.

Great pic and some interesting categories. Definite BB dangers for me here.

Good seeing both of you! & I hope to shoot of some BBs! Only fair since I've gotten hit by a few on your thread.

Woohoo, Sage and Wanda are back!!!

Yup! And they've been running around with the squeaky zombie balls I got them after Halloween. All day today! Mommy, don't read that book! Squeak Squeak! Come out and play in the snow with us!

Me: Sorry. I wasn't born with a fur coat.

Haha! Over here there's a squeaky giraffe and a squeaky snowman. I'm covered in doggie-slobber. :)

LOL! Doggie slobber is good! Full of natural anti-bacterials. ;)

#1 The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr might seem a strange entry under Afrofuturism, but having just read his accounts of the protests, speeches and goals, I think it fits. MLK was always looking to the future and what he thought and taught is still insightful and meaningful today. Sadly, his last struggles against ghettos and poverty are ongoing ones.

Just a reminder! Set up a link to your challenge thread on your profile page so we can find you easily.

#2 I read Feed as research for my Future Problem Solving team. The topic is propaganda, although Feed can fit in the next topic too, enhancing human potential - although there's an argument that nothing is enhanced in feed. It is a dystopian cyberpunk novel where people are bombarded with target ads constantly. Turn the computer off you say? All well and good, but the computer is internal and also controls your body's functions. And it can be hacked. Or you can make it malfunction yourself, just for fun.

The good news is that Wanda can't get lost in all that white snow! I sent a package to my dad with lots of treats for his pups. He's used them to teach them to come when he calls them. Go figure! I also send him a new Kindle since he wore the first one out.

I'll be interested to follow what you find to fill your categories!

Mamzel - dog treats and a kindle!!! That would make me happy.

& Wanda's Aunt Lila has made a good attempt at getting lost in the snow. I have a photo of her that is so covered in snow balls that some people thought she was a white dog with brown spots instead of a brown dog covered with snow.

#3 Blackbirds as the animal as alien category. This one didn't help me much as far as panel prep goes. The birds were used as a symbol. The main character, Miriam, made her living pick-pocketing dead people, therefore she was a sort of carrion crow.

As far as I know, there aren't any aliens that are scavengers or harbingers of death. Fairies, yes. Aliens know.

As for the book, it was an enjoyable, fast-paced, filthy-mouthed read with some mumble mumble theme about fate. It wasn't meant to be taken too seriously. No one is going to write a thesis paper on it (I hope). And despite all it's grit and eye-gouging, it was very sweet.

>28 cammykitty: - I does look like Wanda has gone through some rather deep drifts!

Lori, that's Auntie Lila a few years ago. We don't have that much snow yet this year. Thankfully!

>28 cammykitty:
That's a great pic!!

Thanks Eva!

I'm already rethinking the numbers in each category. Of course I'd love to read 15 in all of them, but I want this doable without burnout and I've been looking around my house and realize how many unread books fall into that "other" category. So, the answer is to shrink some of the categories and make some of them grow. So much reading! So little time!

>35 inge87: Happy New Year!

Thanks Inge!!! I started today out with a vet visit for Wanda. Healthy year for all. Now, I s h o u l d call and make an appointment with the d e n t i s t for me. ick

#4 doesn't really fit in any category but "everything else." Blacksad: Amarillo. Yes, it's all animals, but doesn't really fit as the animal as alien because the animals are soooo, soooo human. There's even a tacky macaw that makes a joke about being called "colored" instead of "colorful," he says "no offense" but our African-American hero, who is a cat gets revenge, "no offense" for the race joke.

I love Blacksad. There's only one I haven't been able to find anywhere, and since this one just showed up at B&N I have hope of finding the other now. I don't care if it's in English or Spanish. I just want to get my hands on it.

I know I've talked about Blacksad before so I'm jumping in, assuming you know. If you don't know, kitty noir. That's the best way to describe it. And the illustrations are beautiful!

Here is our hero:


And here is the car he gets to drive, oh too briefly, to Amarillo.


but later, he's reduced to doing this:

Hi Katie, Happy New Year! Those are interesting categories!

Birgit, Happy New Year to you too!

I'm a little late to the party but I have dropped my star and I am looking forward to another great year!

Judy, always great to see you, late or not!

Blackbirds is on my wishlist so I'm pleased to see a good review for it here. Thanks for the reminder that I still need to get my hands on Blacksad as well, never mind its sequels (glad to see you've another source or two for those GN's).

>21 cammykitty: Me: Sorry. I wasn't born with a fur coat. That's the sad true, or not, depending on who's asking :)

>28 cammykitty: That's a great photo, indeed.

>37 cammykitty: I really must get to it, the art is brillant and I don't have any excuses as the library has the whole bunch !

Wolfy - You should like Blackbirds. It's fun. Not the most profound book you'll read this year, but it'll certainly be entertaining. So I didn't learn about Blacksad from you? Anders? Plenty of other sources for GNs, but your the best.

Electrice - Yup, right now, wish I had a fur coat and I could look at Blacksad for the style. There's a pretty sexy siamese cat mask in there. ;) You're so lucky to have a library that has them all! I managed to order a Spanish copy from B&N that is coming from England. So then my reading will be caught up.

>37 cammykitty:
I've got Blacksad: Amarillo on the wishlist - can't wait!!

Eva, good! I'm sure you'll love it, especially if you've read Blacksad before.

I expect a lot of BB from this thread!

Katie I have been commenting on your 75 thread thinking I was in your Category thread. ??? Oh well. Here I am and howdy to you.

Paruline, thanks for stopping by! Here's hoping you find some BBs if your looking for them. I know a lot of us try to duck when one comes whizzing by.

Roberta, oh well! I get so confused moving between the two groups!

I really need to find that Alice Sheldon/Tiptree book. . . ! Because now I will have to read it too so we can talk about it.

I have a ARC about the MLK speech if you want to borrow it.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

#5 The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is this month's real life book club read. I'm liking this book club and most of the books we've been choosing. Everyone is an LT member, which might be part of the high quality of books. Who else knows how to pick a good book as well as we do?

I won't say much about Coldest since I'll be discussing it this weekend except it is Holly Black's latest, and like most of her work, it pushes the envelope for what adults think teens are able to handle. Hah! They handle vampires munching up bus loads of teens better than we adults do! From a writer's standpoint, I have to admire Black because every bit of information we need planted before it's really used is in fact planted. Yet, it isn't telegraphed. The novel still has lots of unexpected twists and turns. As for the vampire romance angle, even that is planted ahead of time. We meet Tana's previous boyfriend and he's no prize, so a vampire? That's an improvement.

>50 bruce_krafft: Di, I'm sure I got the same ARC about the "I have a dream" speech. It's interesting, and in his bio, he says nothing about the committee that met to help him write the speech he didn't give.

I got the Tiptree book from the library yesterday. May not start it right away though, but it would be great to talk about it, so do look for it above your pashminas. Not sure it's there, but something I wanted to read was there. That I remember for sure. ;)

And I'm home from school today. Thought I'd have the plumber out. Still a bit sick, but not enough to stay home from work. Alas, no plumber until tomorrow so I'll be washing and drying a load or two of towels today.

#6 A Woman of the Iron People fits in two categories, Anthropological Fiction and Tiptree Awards. It shared the first Tiptree Award with Gwenyth Jones's White Queen. The Tiptree website says this about it. “Four-square grumpy humor and effortless inventiveness. It explores the situation of a people much more obviously (if not more deeply) fixed in mammalian psycho-sexual wiring than we are (or think we are). No easy answers, no question begging, just a clean, clever job.”

I'll agree with that. Plot, if you can call it that, is that anthropologists from Earth meet furry aliens on another planet. In the furry society, men become solitary at adolescence and are generally regarded as bad-tempered. I should have known what I was getting into. I believe this is Eleanor's first novel, and Eleanor has always been far more interested in the social and political workings of an overall society than in what happens to who when. It is the perfect book for someone who likes to get lost in world-building. For me, I wanted some of that day to day stuff on the chopping room floor. It was a chore to complete it. Sorry, Eleanor.

And for a laugh, here's one of the novel covers.
I have no idea where all the well-washed and moussed hair, the skull and the sexy purple leather clothes came from. Eleanor's description of Lixia was hard-working, grubby because she was in the field, and wearing a borrowed native tunic.

Greetings! Your Categories are very inspiring - Tiptree is definitely on the list for this year! I just know I'm going to be fascinated by your reading.....

Thanks Dejah! I've just started reading Tiptree's biography. Her mother must have been something - society lady, writer, big game hunter... No wonder Tiptree wanted to hide!

#7 Insomnia reading. At about 11:00 pm, I snuck onto the library's website and downloaded Flat Stanley: Framed in France so someone could read me a bedtime story. Cute. I stayed awake until the very end.

Insomnia stinks! At least you had some comfy reading to get you through it.

Flat Stanley in any guise is usually fun. Insomnia not so much.

57 & 58 Yup, if you have to have insomnia, Flat Stanley is a good companion.

Update on me - been plagued by weird viruses!!! What have I done in a past life to deserve this!!! Okay, Thursday night, I was the patient in ER for my first time ever. I got some stomach bug and hadn't been able to eat or drink for three days. Hence, the insomnia and the low brain functioning and the flat stanley. By the time I got to ER, this plump little thing was looking a bit like flat stanley herself. I'd lost 5 lbs between the drs visit for "some virus" the week before and the drs visit on Thursday and another pound between the drs office and the ER. ??? Huh? They couldn't have drawn that much blood! Anyway, my brain now functions somewhat and I will live. I started getting brave today and tried soda crackers and apple sauce. Wow, apple sauce tastes so much better than gatorade!

So sick person "reading" #8 A toZ Mysteries L-K. Ya know, these must be popular with kids but I've never seen anyone in the middle school reading them. When I worked at Borders, we carried all of them. I found them annoying except for the Basset Hound. The world needs more Basset Hounds.

#9 The Mark of the Dragonfly I underestimated this one and was impatient with it early on. I figured it was a version of fantasy plot #1, Return of the rightful heir - but like Tolkein, it was going to take at least three books to do it. Nope. It's not that. It's a meandering little steampunkish novel about finding family in a capitalist/monarchist world that crushes people into slaves for the sake of technology. And it had a cute little romance in it with no sucking of blood. Romance is so much more convincing when one of the partners isn't also a prey animal.

>60 cammykitty: Romance is so much more convincing when one of the partners isn't also a prey animal. So true! I love all the paranormal books but yeah it is creepy if you think about it.

ETA: Oops, brain fart! I forgot to wish you a speedy recovery.

Yikes! That sounds horrible. I am glad the ER was able to sort things out and that your brain has resumed normal operations. I hope you'll be back on regular foods soon.

I'm so glad that it sounds as though you are finally on the mend - take care!

And Mark of the Dragonfly sounds interesting. You got a snicker out of me with the prey line, btw.

Hope the recovery continues.

The world needs more Basset Hounds.

It's a trademark of Mamoru Oshii. They feature in quite a few of his films somewhere. Quite prominent on this Ghost in the Shell 2 movie poster.

Katie, I'm sorry to read that you have been feeling so poorly. I hope you are on the mend now.

Hope you're feeling better this morning!

I think Ron Roy aims his mysteries at about second grade ...

Thanks for all the well-wishes! I'm getting to the point where I'm hungry but have to be very cautious. I'm going to try to add a few cooked veggies to my rice today. Bold!

Di (alias Bruce Krafft) has loaned me her little Gracie as a cuddle companion while she shops for rugs in the streets of Istanbul. Gracie has been trying to keep the other dogs in line, but she was unable to stop Sage from rudely awakening me with his squeaky toy this morning. Those zombie squeaky balls I got them last October - they are indestructible and don't have batteries you can take out. They make noise. They reliably make noise. Think twice before you arm your dogs with toys such as these!

Luv - glad to make you giggle! After being in the ER, that romantic bite in the coldest girl in coldtown where they bite each other and eat at the same time just doesn't quite do it. And if that were zombies? Nom nom nom not.

RP - be assured, I'm eating more normal food than a vampire! Rice & broth & applesauce! Yum.

Dejah - The really cool thing about the setting in Mark of the Dragonfly, the really steampunky bit, was they would have meteor storms where things like watches and trinkets and books would fall through. To be honest, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is the better book of the two, but as for romance, this one was kind of sweet and it still kept the "my boyfriend can beat up the whole world if I unleash him" feel that people look for at least unconsciously in the vampire romances.

Wolfy - Wow! You've given me a real good reason to move Ghost in a Shell higher up in the Queue! Actually, I thought I had it coming from netflix soon??? What's the deal? I know I've been watching a lot of Get Smart, but it should've shown up by now!

DQ - much better! My brain is definitely braining again.

Hailelib - I'm sure you're right that A to Z Mysteries are second grade reading level, but sadly, a lot of the kids I work with at the middle school are still second grade reading level. Our library has to carry all of those early chapter books. Magic Tree House and Captain Underpants still have quite an audience in middle school. One of my last days at work, I shoved a copy of Hank the Cow Dog at a boy and made him start reading it because he's been reading the same few pages over and over again of an adult book on war dogs since September. It's a huge problem finding books that are written at an easy reading level but are interesting to the older kids. Mysteries will work a lot of the time, but I don't think those have what it takes to cross the age gap. You're a librarian/writer though, so I'm sure you already know what a problem finding books for kids with reading issues can be.

As for third grade reading, last night I listened to Henry Huggins. Sure, it was a different life back then when Cleary was writing and all the prices have to be multiplied by ten, but some things stay the same. Henry Huggins was her first sold novel, and she talks about the boys being sent to the library because they were squirrelly and the teachers/parents hoped that she as librarian could do something with them but she found very few books about boys just like them. So she wrote down their stories. And a lot of the stories are pretty universal - wanting to have a dog, losing a friend's super something expensive, getting guppies - yup, we all know what guppies do. I really enjoyed it. Of course I read a lot of Cleary as a kid, but other than Runaway Ralph, I'd forgotten how good it was. I remember Ribsy being my favorite though.

Sorry to read that you have been ill. Here is hoping that you are well on the way to recovery.

Thanks Lori! I'm getting there. It's laundry day today. I wish I were feeling a little better, but enough energy to do massive loads of laundry has got to be a sign of recovery.

And the brain is working on reading. #11 my ER book A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailand's Struggle for Democracy in the Twenty-First Century fits in my Future Problem Solving category - lots of examples of propaganda working inside and outside a country. Fascinating, nasty little history that could compete with Game of Thrones. My official review is here: http://www.librarything.com/work/15380233/reviews

#12 All Art is Propaganda by George Orwell. This is a collection of book reviews and essays, often cranky, written in Orwell's clear, crisp style. It includes his essay that discusses how governments obfuscate the language for their own uses. He hypothesizes that if governments were forced to use clearer language, they would be more careful about their actions. Sounds likely to me.

It also has a really thoughtful commentary on a pamphlet that Tolstoy wrote that said the Shakespeare, King Lear specifically, is crap of the immoral sort. Definitely worth that one. I'm not sure what it makes me think about Tolstoy though. I'm sure I've read some short story by him, but I've never tried Anna Karenina.

That was a good Orwell collection! My favourite essay was "Confessions of a Book Reviewer".

RP, I agree! And his description of the book reviewer sounded a bit too much like me, until he got to the male with varicose veins bit. ;)

#13 Henry and Beezus is read by a male, Neil Patrick Harris, and Ramona is a pest, but when you hear this obviously adult male voice imitating that of a whiny toddler. Oh, she's really annoying! Funny.

I was glad to read your review of A Kingdom in Crisis: Thailand's Struggle for Democracy in the Twenty-First Century--I got it as an ER book also, and now I'm even more anxious to get to it!

Jennifer, I hope you like it! A title like that can be a little daunting, but it's not academic at all. Very readable.

67> Have you tried the I Survived books? More like grades 3-4, but boys really love them.

Oh, sorry to hear about your ER-visit. Those are never fun. Good to hear you managed laundry - even if that's not fun either - that should mean that there is definite improvement. Hope it continues!

Booklizard - The I Survived books do look high interest, like just the ticket. I've heard of the Titanic one. I'll have to look to see if our library has them so I can start promoting them. Of course a boy couldn't resist a book called I survived the Shark Attacks of 1916.

Eva, thanks for the sympathy. I'm back to work now although still tiring quickly and eating cautiously. I dared whole grain bread and cheese today!

Hope you're feeling better Katie.

Thanks Violet!

You have to loan me A Kingdom In Crisis.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Sure will, Di!

Proud coach moment! The Future Problem Solving team I coach just received the 2-6 award. They were one of 5 junior teams to receive this and it is called 2-6 because it means there step 2 and step 6, underlying problem and action plan, were solid. Too soon to know if we go to state, but that means we are seriously in the running.

I have All Art is Propaganda and I hope to get to it this year.

I'm glad you are feeling better and Whoop! Whoop! on your team getting the 2-6 award. Keep us posted if you go to state.

83> I have no idea what that means, but it sounds exciting. Best of luck to your team!

>83 cammykitty: Congratulations to you and your team!

Yay! I know you must be so pleased and proud. The year the elementary school Lego Robotics team that my SO coached made it to the state competition he was over the moon.

Luv, I didn't get to use All Art is Propaganda with the girls. Almost did, but ran out of time. But it's worth reading!

Thanks for all the congrats! Kay, I'm sure he was! We have a Lego League too - biggest conflict with FPS. Since it's my first year coaching, I'm just glad they made a good showing so I can quit feeling like the worst coach of the year!

#14 in the visiting Chile section was The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano. Strange reaction to this. Parts of it were brilliant. At times I was laughing. Some of the character sketches and personal stories were fantastic, but I felt at sea while Bolano rediscovered the life and poetry of Cesaria Tinajero, and that of Ulises Lima and Arturo Bolano, founders of the Visceral Realist poetry movement. Sometimes it felt tedious, but I was bound and determined to finish it. I "read" it on audio and wonder if I would have liked it more if I'd read it. I doubt it, but it's possible because sometimes when I'm listening I zone out and am not even aware of it. It might be worth a re-read now that I know the ending though.

#15 is a novella by Terry Bisson TVA Baby. Violent, funny and sarcastic, this grown baby acts exactly as you would expect someone who has been grown with a steady diet of action TV.

>89 cammykitty: I really liked the first part of the book but not so much the interview section (I liked some of the characters here but thought there were too many of them). The final part that returned to the story wasn't as good as the first part imo. I still have 2666 on my tbr shelves but not sure I want to commit to something of that size after not being convinced by The Savage Detectives and another novella of his in Monsieur Pain.

>71 cammykitty: Sounds like a good collection. I've read a few of Orwell's essays and enjoy his non-fiction writing as much as his fiction. I'll have to look for this volume.

>83 cammykitty: Congratulations and good luck with the next stage if you get there! I volunteer at my daughter's school, coaching kids for computer programming contests and I know how great it feels when they do well.

Wolfy - that's exactly how I reacted to The Savage Detectives. Yes, too many interviews. And yes, I was thinking of reading 2666 too, but I've got to have better incentive to make the time commitment. If I want a new doorstop, Murakami's IQ84 is far more appealing.

Mathgirl - I don't think you can go wrong with Orwell. He had such clean, fresh prose while talking about anything but clean, fresh experiences. Thanks for the congrats! We're supposed to know on the 10th how they did.

#16 on audio, on the unliterary easy side of things Henry and Ribsy! I remember this being my favorite Cleary book when I was young next to The Mouse and the Motorcycle. I loved Ribsy. I remember loving Cleary too, but oddly, I didn't remember any of the stories! I, personally, think Ribsy is a saint for not taking a chunk out of Ramona. He stopped at her ice-cream cone, which was volunteering to be eaten. Fortunately for the human race, there are a lot of real life dogs with a saint-like tolerance for toddlers and their nonsense.

Awww, Ribsy!

The Ramona story I remember most vividly was from Ramona Quimby, Age 8, in which she decides to wear her pyjamas to school under her regular clothes because she doesn't want to have to get out of them. Since we've been having very cold weather and frostbite advisories lately, I've been tempted to follow her lead!

Well, in that case Ramona is being very sensible!

I don't remember ever reading any of the Ramona books, but it sounds like she has the right idea. I'll confess to throwing on a pair of jeans and wearing my winter coat over my PJ top to run out to the car, take out the trash, do laundry, etc. around the condo complex. I got busted last week checking my mail in the front hall in just my jammies.

My favorite Beverly Cleary was Socks when I was younger and Fifteen when I got older.

>97 BookLizard: I wear my sleep pants and T to take out the trash too! I love wearing scrubs to work because that is glorified pajamas and I get paid to wear them as my uniform. :D

98> I'm jealous. Scrubs do look like fun. Many of the nurses I see wear purple scrubs, and purple is my favorite color. I wonder if that's a sort of "uniform" color for the hospital or just what's in style in scrub-land.

>99 BookLizard: We have a designated color but on Fridays we can wear any color.

One of my neighbors is a pediatric nurse and her scrubs have ducks and kittens and the like on them - I would love to go to work in "glorified jammies" with kittens on them!

>101 -Eva-: Eva she is so lucky! Pediatric nurses get to wear the most fun scrubs and they get to color their hair "colors not found in nature" as our dress code prohibits. LOL! Even though I envy their wardrobe, I don't envy their jobs. I love kids but when I did my pedi rotation in school I went home and cried every day. Those nurses are a blessing.

>102 luvamystery65:
She's amazing! I know I couldn't do what she does.

Our school usually has a wear your jammies to school day. And have to tell you, I used to have an 13 year old ebd boy living next door to me. One September, I woke up and saw him running around outside in his jammies shouting "you can't make me go to school if I'm in my pjs!" Don't know if he ever did get to school that day.

& I always wanted to work in a vet clinic because of all the scrubs with kitties and doggies on them, but I'd be just like Roberta. I'd go home crying every day. It's hard to see anyone, human or dog, who is so sick.

104> When I was little, I wanted to be a vet, but then I learned what was involved.

>104 cammykitty: Yes that would be hard to do at a vets office but I think I would handle it better than pediatrics. I much prefer dealing with adults as my patients. I love geriatric patients.

Now I'm in an office but I can still wear scrubs.

>104 cammykitty: Funny.

When my daughter was in high school but before she could drive I used to drive her and a friend to school (her friends Mom picked them up.) Amanda went to the local public school (it was sort of on the way to Drisana's school) and there were many days that Amanda went to school in PJ's AND slippers. She was an over achiever too, you know president of the student counsel, straight A's, star player on all the sports teams. . . in PJ's. Thankfully Drisana liked the fact that everyone at her school wore a uniform, and therefore the same thing.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

A couple of weeks ago I got in my car to drive to school. After a block I noticed my feet felt cozier than usual. Darn if I didn't go and put my slippers back on. Being so close to home I turned around and put on shoes. I could have saved myself some aggravation if I had known it was PJ day and could have gotten away with the slippers.

Lol! Mamzel, I'm always having that nightmare that I've shown up at work wearing sweats, no bra and a pair of socks! Never made it to the car for real though!

Di, you've got to like an overachiever a little better when they underachieve where it matters. Comfort!

Happy dance! Happy dance! The Future Problem Solving team I coach received 2nd place in their regionals and has been invited to compete at State. We made State! I haven't had a chance to tell the girls yet.

So, our next topic is "Enhancing Human Potential," otherwise known as Transhumanism in some circles. Any reading suggestions for precocious 6th graders? I'm thinking Feed, any Cordwainer Smith, The Speed of Dark which is about a company that is paying to have their employees who have Autism take a treatment that will make them neurotypically normal, and Flowers for Algernon.

Congrats!!!

Congratulations!

Feed is a great choice. I'll try and think of some more books for you. So far I've only come up with Captain America & Wolverine.

Hurrah, State! Congrats! :D

>110 cammykitty: Congratulations to you and your team - woohoo!!!!

Congratulations on the team making it to state! Whoot! Whoot!

Thanks for the congrats! Booklizard, let me know if you think of anything else. At least one of them is already at Wolverine fan. We did a brainstorm on super hero's super powers and plenty of the X-men's powers were rattled off. I'll add them to the list!

#17 James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon was an interesting biography of one of the strangest science fiction writers ever. Her younger life read like fiction, until she settled in to her older life of marriage, dexedrine, double life and depression. It ended, as you know from the beginning of the biography, in a murder/suicide - a death like that of one of her own short stories. Solidly researched and written, this book sheds light on the oddly-gendered life of a woman who has become a feminist icon.

As for talking about her fiction, I feel the biography makes it all the more complicated. She definitely made Tiptree a role and wrote her fiction in "his" voice. She initially consulted her husband, Ting, to make sure Tiptree's correspondence sounded male. The phallicness of her early writing seemed to some like honest male writing. To me, I knew it was a woman writing, and it sounded forced like a man writing with his "hard-on waving" to the world - to use Sheldon-as-Tiptree's own words.

As a feminist, she hid. She acted like a sensitive male and even participated in a long-term symposium as a male. She had a steady correspondence with both Joanna Russ and Ursula LeGuinn but hid behind her male identity until she was outed. Russ even beat her up as an insensitive, sexist man - regularly. So as a feminist, she was perhaps a bit of a coward.

As a person born into the world with a specific gender, huh, I don't know what to say there. She was raised with a lot of "male" experiences. She did a lot of "male" activities and enjoyed hunting, shooting and fishing. She lusted after a few women. She slept with a lot of men. At one point, I found it easiest to think of her as genderless. Not as a non-sexual being, but one who is of fluid gender - at times male, at times female, at times neither. So why was she never able to recapture her writing mojo after she was outed? Was it the depression? Her time of life? The speed? The limelight? The gender issue? Who knows.

Congrats on your team's success! When can we cross our fingers for the State competition?

You made State! That's huge!

Congratulations to your team!

>117 cammykitty: The Tiptree biography sounds fascinating, but rather sad. I feel as though I should read it, but I'm not certain I want to, if you know what I mean.

What a great achievement! Good luck at State.
You might want to rethink Feed. It has a lot of language that may not be suitable for 11-year olds. I don't know what is new in middle school books but you might see if your public library has a youth specialist that could come up with suggestions.
A glance around my high school library turned up:
Brain Jack by Brian Falkner
BZRK by Michael Grant
Cinder by Marissa Meyer

They are all considered YA. I have only read Cinder and don't remember anything not suitable for tweens.

Congrats on your team making state!

I have been meaning to read Brain Jack and decided to pick it up after recommending it to you. It's quite technical dealing with hacking, firewalls, bots, spiders, IPs, and other geeky stuff.

>122 mamzel: I had been thinking that Cinder might work, too. I don't read much YA, but I enjoyed this one.

I have Cinder on kindle if you want to borrow one of our devices. . .

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Thanks for all the congrats and the book recommendations. Feed is in our school's library and recommended by our media specialist, so I'm okay with it. I know it gets a little whatever at times, but these are some really precocious sixth graders. One just finished reading Game of Thrones. Another has a librarian for a mother and is complaining because she's not allowed to read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy until she's 13, not because of adult subject matter but so she'll enjoy it more then. I think it may be the mother's way of making sure the teen years start with a laughing kid instead of a surly, moody one. Mamzel, those three books look great! Di, I might just borrow a "device."

Speaking of devices, we cut up magazines and pictures from the net today at FPS. I couldn't help but add a few pics from The Weekly World News - "dolphin grows human arms" and "honey engineered to cure all." I resisted bat boy though. They did find pictures of people in flying suits though. Then I summarized an article from this month's Discover where this man is developing organs for transplants created with a 3-D printer and human cells. Awesome! They were pretty interested.

Speaking of Future Problem Solving, last night I finished reading a little e-book by a pen name Mike Beachem who is a psychiatrist, a front for a Transhumanist organization, and also no one person. So how can he be a psychiatrist? Part of him is one? I don't know. Anyway, the book is called Transformative Transhumanism and it would work well as a future scene document. I can see lots of problems in this one. It outlines the Transhumanist philosophy, which for some people is a religion. It states that people are adaptable and have adapted to live in almost every environment, and it is our duty to continue in this, to the poles, the deserts, mars and beyond. So, I'm imagining humans traveling as a swarm of locusts. I'll agree with the adaptable and need to keep adapting statement, but the Manifest Destiny part of this makes me really nervous.

Also, there was a section about the soul, which they do not believe in, and the personality which they do. The personality is something that out lives the body (so it is different from the soul how) and people can have multiple ones. They develop multiple ones from trauma such as childhood sexual abuse. Okay, that you can verify with the DSM. Then they go on to say that it isn't a disorder, it is just a way some people are and that it is misguided of us to think that these people with multiple personalities need treatment. ???Huh??? Multiple Personality Disorder is pretty rare, but from what I've heard of it, once the initial trauma is gone it is pretty maladaptive and difficult to live with untreated. For all I know, the treatment is no joyride either - but nothing wrong with it??? They weren't talking Tiptree/Sheldon personality splits here. They were talking about people with a Hyde personality that they had to imagine in chains in order to cope.

So, this book comes quite dis-recommended. Hopefully I can find/have time for a Transhumanist book that is a little more grounded in science.

>110 cammykitty: Congratulations on your team's success!

Regarding middle-school recommendations ....
Here in Canada, Eric Wallters's and Kenneth Oppel's books are really popular with middle-school kids. At that age, my daughter also liked the Gone series, all of Rick Riordan's books, and the Leviathan series. I really enjoyed all 4 books in The Giver series as well.

128> Well at least it was short.

I wonder if The House of the Scorpion would work for your theme. If you haven't read it, it's about a drug lord who extends his life by harvesting organs from clones of himself..

Booklizard, I don't know why I didn't think of The House of the Scorpion myself! It's perfect for the topic. And it's really good, too.

Mathgirl, we already had an "argument" about The Giver at FPS. One of the girls said it wasn't a "classic" like Harry Potter and I jumped in on the defender's side of the argument and said "Oh yes it is" and pointed out that it was older than HP and had one a Newberry. I Haven't heard of Eric Wallther and will have to check that out. As for Rick Roirdan, we've been confiscating his books during practice. After one of the girls engages in a shaming session because the offender gets sprinkles of cheese caught in the book's binding.

Thanks to both of you!

On prednisone for the latest respiratory ick that's going around. I'm much better now, but those of you who have been on prednisone can guess what I'm about to say. Did a lot of insomnia reading last night! Finished book 19 and 20, Shouldn't you be in school which was on audio and supposed to be soothing and boring and put me to sleep. Nope. I liked it a lot except the reader's voice wasn't very convincing as a 12 year old Lemony Snicket. This book is about third in a series I haven't read, but I've read some of the Unfortunate Events series. This has a very different tone, not Victorian spoof, but very educated while at the same time defining every big word and weird allusion for the younger reader. I think The Wrong Questions series is a sort of prequel for the Unfortunate Events that sets up the secret organization that the parents were involved in.

Book 20 was The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is about being a loner growing up in the '80s. Very well-done, meandering plot about sex and friendships which comes to an odd, but not completely unexpected conclusion. It rang true to me.

"can guess what I'm about to say"
Yes, I very much can. Terrible side effects, but what a great medication when you need it!

One of my relatives unfortunately had the "personality changes" side effect of prednisone... he started acting paranoid! It was so weird. I can't even remember why they prescribed it for him in the first place, but we got him off it as soon as possible. :S

Eva & RP - Yes! I do need it and can breath now! But spent the day feeling more and more depressed. I usually get the cranky, irritable feeling from pred, but depression? I supposed that's possible if paranoia is! And I totally believe that paranoia is. Glad most of the time pred is described, it's only for a short term.

My doctor gave me a two-page list of possible side effects when he prescribed it for me and when I had read as far as "psychosis," I got quite wary. :) I was on it for a total of three years and I was fortunate to only suffer from some of the minor ones, like weight gain (although that one was extreme) and insomnia. I did get cranky, but I think I would have been that with or without drugs. :)

LOL! I can see the weight gain! I've been stocking the house with chocolate and mac 'n cheese. & every time my old dog was on it, his usually polite manners around food got quite sharky. I just bought out all the clearance reeses valentine hearts at the drug store. I was embarrassed to check out, but then decided to look them in the eye while pretending the hearts were for coworkers. Hah!

I had a Golden Retriever who suffered from flea allergies. When his skin got so bad I couldn't bath him the doctor would put him on prednisone and warn me to pick the kitchen garbage can up from the floor so he couldn't get in it.

Dillon had skin allergies too. It had something to do with food, but we were never really able to find a diet that solved the problem. Just some obviously made it worse. Then the pred would make him bald! Poor guy!

#21 The Moffats - Nice little before bed audio. It's very episodic, so if you find yourself listening to it after you fell asleep and you've got no clue what's going on, it's pretty easy to find the last chapter that makes sense. Or move on. I remembered really liking The Moffats as a kid, but as an adult I wonder why??? I like it as an adult, but don't see what the kid appeal would be. It's a nice, comfortable story about life when there were still hitching posts in front of houses. Cars and horses were both on the street. Not all the houses had electricity. I must have loved the setting and the "cozy" feel, because nothing much happens in the plot, especially compared to the overly plotted, crash bang plots that are popular now.

#22 Blacksad: Arctic Nation in the Spanish Language. Oh sadness, I'm all caught up with Blacksad. Loved this one of course - but it was less successful with race issues than the first one. I think it was the first one. I believe there was one character from the first one that dies in the second. Yup, "people" die in Blacksad. There was a Nazi white supremacist group in this one. Instead of a swastika, they had a very stylized snowflake symbol. Clever. But I started thinking too hard. Many of the white supremacists were arctic animals, and often animals like weasels/ermine who are only white in the winter. I was thinking that they are such a minority, and in the dog world a genetically unfortunate (deafness and blindness) minority, that I couldn't really see them terrorizing a town. That said, the plot had some nice twists and turns and subtleties. Definitely worth it.

Here's one villain, el zorro Huk.

Was this author trying to reprise Maus?

No. It was more neo-nazi. There's a lot of KKK imagery in Arctic Nation too.

>141 cammykitty: Glad to see you still enjoying the Blacksad books. I really should get around to reading one sometime soon.

Yes Wolfy! You should read one soon! Don't know where to tell you to start, but you should squeeze one in. BTW, Ghost in the Shell showed up from netflix today!

Hope it's an enjoyable watch for you.

Wolfy, I liked Ghost in the Shell a lot but had the feeling it was a prequel. I was ready to follow the offspring around for more adventures.

And read #23 and #24. #23 was Love from Paddington on audio. It's the old, familiar Paddington tales told a different way - in letters to Paddington's aunt. Cute, and just right for a bedtime story.

#24 was Red Equinox, my ER novel. I wanted to like this, but so did not care. Perhaps I'm going through a book funk and it's my fault, but I think it's more likely a fault in the novel combined with not a good match. The novel started bothering me by using scientific terms incorrectly. A mirror swinging slowly to a stop is not an example of inertia. Really. Friction I might buy, but not inertia. But it's an uncorrected proof, so let's hope the editors have a grasp of middle school science. Those things fixed, I still don't think I would've liked it. It's a "Lovecraft" novel and I don't like Lovecraft. Too purple. I thought that I would like something set in his mythos though, and I would, but not this book. Egyptian scarabs, mad reincarnations of pharoahs and squidgy aquatic monsters are all up my alley, but something was missing from this novel. The main character didn't seem to have much emotional connection to the chaos around her, so I didn't either. I read it with more detachment than I would have watching an old Godzilla movie while munching on some buttery popcorn.

>147 cammykitty: I'm not a big of Lovecraft or Lovecraftian fiction either, with the exception of Charles Stross' Laundry Files books. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your ER book! I hope the next one is a winner.

>147 cammykitty: There are more adventures to be had if you want them. There's a sequel movie called GitS2: Innocence. Much more of a philosophical nature of a film rather than the action oriented affair that the first one was. Certainly a slower pace and much more visually stunning. There is also the Stand Alone Complex series that ran for 2 seasons (26 episodes for each) and features the same characters but on an alternate timeline. And finally there's a recent prequel series (just 4 mini-movie episodes) called GitS: Arise which shows how Section 9 came to be.

If you want to branch out a little in your anime watching then I'd be happy to supply some recommendations if you give some idea of what type you're looking for.

LOL Dejah! I just picked up one of the Laundry Files books two days ago. Hadn't put them into the Lovecraft world - should've seen the connection sooner though because I know Stross has a thing about giant lobsters.

Wolfy - what type I'm looking for? No idea! I liked Deon but hated the Count of Monte Cristo! Grave of the Fireflies was beautiful but too depressing for me. Suggestions would definitely be welcome.

#25 Daughter of Smoke and Bone This is one of those teen fantasies that reminds me that I am not the intended audience. I loved the fantasy aspect of it, the Chimeras and Seraphs, the war, the history, the plot but kept getting hung up on details meant for the teen girl - clothes, hair, beautiful people, more beautiful people, beautiful moments where the chemistry gets overwhelming with beautiful people. I'd be a horrible editor to tell Laini Taylor to cut that stuff out, but for my adult taste, it took a 4 or 5 star read down to a 3. Ba Humbug, aren't I a cynic!

>151 cammykitty: No, not at all a cynic. It's a natural reaction to all that syrupy beauty.

Katie, You're not giving me much to go on but I'll try and give you a few options to explore.

Let's start with some movies though I'll ignore the Studio Ghibli releases as they're just too obvious, though if you do like those then a couple of titles of a similar style/tone would be:
Metropolis - A YA romantic science-fiction adventure
Steamboy - A YA steampunk action adventure

Similar in content (but less depressing) than Grave of the Fireflies is the new film called Giovanni's Island. I saw it at the film festival I went to last year and wrote about it in my thread. Not sure on availability but the DVD should be available by now.

Jin-Roh (The Wolf Brigade) - My favourite anime movie though it does divide opinions somewhat. Mostly caused by the marketing of the release as it was seemingly aimed at an action junkies type audience but although there are plenty of action set pieces the whole middle section of the film is much more thought provoking.

Moving away from the more gloomy end of the market there are a couple of films by Satoshi Kon (was set to take over from Miyazaki (when he retired) as most acclaimed director until an early death cut his career far too short): Tokyo Godfathers is a comedy drama focusing on the meaning of family. Millennium Actress is an historical romantic thriller as an ageing actress reminisces about her past.

A couple of other movies worth mentioning would be The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and 5 Centimeters per Second or a shorter film called Garden of Words.

Not sure if you want to go the series route but here's some that I love in some very different styles that should give you an idea what can be done with this type of mediium.

Fantasy: 12 Kingdoms - an exceptional exponent of character development where an honour student is destined to become a ruler in a distant world.
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood - a retelling of an earlier series that sticks closer to the manga of two boys using alchemy to try and restore something that was lost.

Supernatural: Death Note features a brilliant high school student who finds a book left by a god-like being that will bring about the death of anyone whose name is written within. Not without consequences of course.
Boogiepop Phantom - A psychological thriller which episodically builds up a story from different characters viewpoints where current disappearances may be linked to an event 5 years past.

Mystery: Mushi-Shi - An investigator tracks down strange phenomena that affect people which may be being caused a a primeval life-force known as Mushi.

Adventure: Kino's Journey - The story of Kino's travels to various fantastic countries on a motorcycle with a life of its own.

Action: Cowboy Bebop - Everyone's heard of this one but it's still worthy of bringing up again even if it's just for the fantastic music.
Black Lagoon - A fun romp with a group of modern day pirates who first kidnap a salaryman who then becomes a fully fledged member of their group.

Comedy: VanDread - A mecha based science fiction series that does have some very touching moments.
Full Metal Panic - A hidden military organization mobilizes crack troops to secretly protect a young Japanese girl in the most dangerous battleground of all: her high school.

Science Fiction: Steins;Gate - A young, mad scientist develops a machine from a cellphone and a microwave that can send messages back in time. Want to use it to stop evil company from dominating the world but thei experiments have unforeseen circumstances. There's also a follow-up movie.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes - A truly epic space opera series that even though the animation is very dated the story more than makes up for.

Music: Nana - Slice of life drama that follows two young women (both called Nana) as they move to Tokyo. One whose intent is to become a star in the music world and the other to move in with her boyfriend.
Beck - Deals with the formation of a rock band and its rise to stardom.

I think that's enough to be going on with for now and I hope that I've piqued your interest with some of these. Want to know more about any of them then just ask.

Miss Watson - I read Daughter of Smoke & Bone for my RL LT book group. We haven't met yet, but Rachel (hibernator) reacted the same way I did so I think perhaps it's an adult reaction, but not a cynical one. Perhaps I can convince some girls to read it to see how they react? It would be interesting to see if it's an age reaction, or a non-romance reader reaction.

Wolfy - Thanks!!! I'm adding a bunch of your suggestions to the netflix cue! I have to watch Gattaca first though because I've been told that it is our Future Problem Solving problem. I'll give you reports.

#26 The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket. Reading that Lemony prequel made me want to get back to the Unfortunate Events series so I started where I thought I left off and then remembered I'd read this one before. I'd forgotten enough that it still made it interesting, and I even was able to use it for coaching Future Problem Solving. Our current problem involves genetically enhanced babies, so I asked the group "Would you disown your child if they couldn't write grammatically?" Hah! That got an interesting response.

#27 Ghoulish Song by William Alexander was a fun twist on the musical instrument made from a human bone tale. A girl does a favor for some goblins and is rewarded with a bone flute, but the music of the flute separates her from her shadow - which in her culture means she must be dead. Never mind she is still talking and breathing, she must be dead. The story gets weirder after that.

Both of these were on audio which I find I can listen to when I feel too tired to read, really read, an adult book. I'm thinking this is distracting me from my true categories though! But it's also a bit of new toy - I got a galaxy nook in November and have recently learned how to download audio books from the library. It's like shopping without spending money! And I get to use my new toy! A lot of the books that are for my challenge aren't even out on e-book, like Left Hand of Darkness or Her smoke rose up forever. So sadly, will have to request old fashioned, frequently fine-gathering books from the library.

#28 - I'm doing it again! Sleepy so I listen to an audio book. Maybe my main book just hasn't got rolling yet. Anyway, this one was House of Robots. Sammy's mother is into robotics and he's gotten used to having them all over the house, but when she creates a "brother" for him that will go to school, it's just too much for him. What she isn't saying is that the robot is really for his sister who can't go to school because she has an immune deficiency disease. Sad reason for a fun and funny book.

#29 The Miserable Mill continues on the Lemony Snicket thing. I'm pretty well convinced that Lemony is Count Olaf but don't tell me if I'm right. I loved the moment when Phil the optimist (love having an optimist in the middle of all this misery!) is reading the town constitution and says "I'm pretty sure paying people with coupons is illegal." Yup, it's slavery. And I love having the "stupid" optimist being the one with the smarts to figure it out.

And speaking of misery, I just realized the dogs are staring at me and licking my face because I forgot to feed them dinner! This is why I can keep dogs alive and not plants. I've never met a plant that can make it nearly impossible for you to ignore them. Must dash and correct this situation!

I've been tired, sick and crabalicious lately so haven't kept up with my thread! News, the Future Problem Solvers made it to State, and did not embarrass me. They had two judges, one loved them and one hated them. Guess that's a life lesson for them! I thought FPS judging wasn't all that subjective, but I've been proven wrong.

Wanda is visiting a Grrls Only farm. I'm sure she is having a great time, but is probably getting in trouble at this very moment for dumping her bowl of kibble on the floor before she eats. We don't use bowls in this house. Sage is missing her. He's mostly being a cuddly companion, but he isn't running around the house with his squeaky zombie ball like usual and when a neighbor dog started barking, he went to the window and whined, like he was saying "have you seen Wanda?" Wanda was supposed to be bred, but she was also supposed to come in season in November. Since there are about three other IWS in season or about to be in season right now, we decided it was too many puppies. Besides, her intended beau drools. How not romantic.

I've "read" 5 books. Four are audio kids books. I've read The Austere Academy where the orphans make some orphan friends, When did you see her last where Lemony gets in trouble for pestering the police, Crandall's Castle in which a family decides to turn a haunted house into a bed and breakfast. Today, I finished The Memory Maze where a boy hypnotist gets his own memories messed up when he connects deeply with a 96-year-old millionaire who wants to prolong his life through hypnosis.

As for the challenge categories, I finished #34 Ammonite yesterday. It's both an anthropology science fiction novel and a Tiptree award winner. Marghe, an anthropologist, goes to a planet to try out a vaccine for a virus that kills all men and some women who get it. The women who survive are changed, and able to have babies without men. The novel moves slowly, but the different communities that have developed on the planet make this book worth reading.

Boo to being sick! There seem to have been a lot of colds and other bugs going around this year. A lot of people at my office, including me, have had colds at some point over the past month. But I don't think we're sharing them; they seem to be different strains. I hope you're feeling better.

Poor Sage, missing Wanda! But I hope she's having fun. How long is she on her girls' trip?

"her intended beau drools. How not romantic."
Yeah, that'd be a deal-killer for me too. :)

Sorry to read you have been hit with the Big Three: tired, sick and crabalicious

Feel better soon!

Hi RP & Eva! Yes, boo to being sick. I'm pretty much okay now, just a little listless and using a tad too much tissue. And my job #2, doggy daycare, has eaten up my spring break. Crazy there! Today we had a crisis. Two dogs were playing hard and one got his jaw caught on the collar of the other one. It's just as scary as a fight, and looks and sounds like a fight. One of the dog handlers got bitten, not bad but yes, just as dangerous as a fight. It's also the 4th time it's happened in about a year. So, no, not a common thing but it may be time to start talking about no collars again.

& yup, drooling is a deal killer! I don't know if he drools because he's nervous or drools because of the way his lips are formed. Either way, blech! It's not like we're talking Newfies here, that are supposed to drool. Don't know how long Wanda will be gone. A couple weeks I think. & she'll need a bath right away, before she even goes in the house! Yup, she's going to have fun on the farm. Last time, Laurel told me she was fascinated by all the barn cats but never got a chance to get too close to them.

Haven't finished any more books since yesterday's update, although I have started The Upstairs Wife which is quite interesting so far. I have, however, been working on Wolfy's anime list! I've seen some of Mushi-Shi, which had to make me laugh. I've been through middle school science classes way too many times. My reaction to it was "Wow! The pathogen theory of magic!" One of the mushi is a snail-type thing that gets into the cochlea, and silly me had to notice that they left out the eardrum in their diagram of the ear. Other than that, cool! Ear snails! Some of the episodes were quite beautiful and I'll probably watch more. & just finished Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Wolfy is right, the music is fantastic for this one. And the hair! If you like your anime characters with hair, this one is for you.

I know how scary it can be to work around a frantic dog's mouth. A Black Lab we used to have got his tongue caught inside a can with a lid that wasn't completely removed. Luckily he came to me and really seemed to understand I could free him. When I was working on him I was more nervous about cutting myself or the tongue on the sharp edge than about being bitten though. After I freed him I went next door and really lit into the gardener who was tossing his garbage into the bushes. I hope your coworker isn't traumatized by the bite.

Sorry to hear you've been sick. Glad to hear that the Future Problem Solvers did well. I'm sure judging can be uneven, so as long as you and the team were happy with what they did, that sounds like a success to me. My daughter plays in piano and violin competitions, and judging is all over the place; she tries to not worry about placement and just enjoy the experience and get whatever useful feedback is given.

Mamzel, how awful!!! Smart dog to go to Mom! That would have totally freaked me out if it had been one of my own dogs! One coworker definitely needed a "break" to bring her blood pressure down, and then we sent her to the small dog room where it's much calmer. The one who got bit seemed sort of proud of it. "I'm not going to worry about getting bit when some dog is hurting!" I quietly said, "Ideally, neither would happen." It didn't seem to be the time to mention that some people are really good at not getting bit, even when they handle fighting or frantic dogs.

Mathgirl, Thanks! They did have a good time, and that's what matters. It's a good lesson to learn!

OMG! Just saw the post for the Library Thing "EmDash" Just click it any time you fear you might run out of books. Ha Ha Ha Ha!!! Cool product, but I don't see a need for it here! No book famine in the foreseeable future in this house!

Glad to hear that you are well again. I'll recommend Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress for interesting sci fi and Talking in whispers by James Watson for YA set in Chile.
Love that photo of Sage after walking in the snow.

Kerry! Thanks much for the recommendations. I'm hoping life is treating you well and that you'll get more time for reading an LT soon.

I've finished "reading" Alchemy and Meggy Swann by Karen Cushman. As is true with all of her novels, it was interesting from a history point-of-view. I learned something about ballads I should have known, but didn't. At one time, they were a common way to tell the news. The story, I almost didn't finish. At first, Meggy is a sharp-tongued harpy that deserves half of what comes her way. I got tired of that, but stuck with it because I've loved some of Cushman's novels and trusted her as a writer. I'm glad I did because the sharpness soon lost its sting and became funny.

For real books, I'm still reading The Upstairs Wife which is quite interesting and a fast read compared to Ammonite and Feeling Outnumbered which is a training book for people who own more than one dog. Right now, Sage and I are feeling lonely. Wanda is visiting the Convent for Wayward Grrls. We miss her, but Sage is going to have a new set of trained behaviors (ha ha) before she comes back.

Catching up with you and saying I'm glad you're feeling better!

Hey, my cat drools when he's purring and I still consider him quite attractive. I mean, I wouldn't want to date him because, well, he's a cat and also a jerk (but I repeat myself) but other cats might want to.

Hi Jennifer! Good to see you.

Kay, well drooling when purring or sleeping is okay. After all, I know I drool when I'm falling asleep. I've never purred much though, so don't know on that score. This guy reportedly "drools all the time" which may be an exaggeration, but he slobbered all over me. He ran away when he was on a trip to one of the Dakotas. He's been a bit of a scaredy, nervous boy since. I know his owner has been nothing but wonderful to him, but something unpleasant probably happened while he was on the loose that he isn't over. I remember meeting him before that event, and he didn't drool and wasn't shy then. Kind of sad.

Been a bit moody lately, and also ran over my wifi plan. ???? When I first got wifi, I used about 1 GB a month. Now I'm over 10??? Huh? Anyway, excuses for not being here much. Besides, not reading much. I've finished Feeling Outnumbered which is how to train/handle more than one resident dogs. I have this weird feeling I've read it before? Not too much new. Just made me resolve to do a better job training/handling my own pack. Wanda is now registered for an intermediate obedience class.

Also read Mister Max: The Book of Lost Things which was kind of a cute story about a boy who is left behind when his actor parents sail off to open a theater for a maharaja who doesn't exist. It's about achieving independence, and finding lost things of course. Although some things remain lost.

Do you stream media? That'll push those numbers up, for sure! Mister Max looks very cute indeed - I think I've read something by Cynthia Voigt before, but I can't figure out what it was, so it must have been pre-LT. :)

I'm sorry you've been feeling blue, Katie, but I'm glad you're back.

Eva, I don't usually stream media but did. I think that's what did it, plus I've got an ebook of The Arabian Nights that isn't right so I kept deleting it and redownloading it, thinking that might fix it. Nope. Going to have to go to the store for that one. I think I'm going to have to get an unlimited data plan, but I'm just going to watch what happens this month. Spotify doesn't seem to take much. I'm a Spotify junky - my playlist is 24 hours long, and that's just my latin playlist.

Cynthia Voigt wrote the Dicey books, Dicey's Song and Homecoming etc as well as Alexander and the terrible horrible no good very bad day. You probably have read her! Mister Max isn't as inspired as those books are, but it's certainly a good, feel-good read.

Kay - Thanks! The sun is sort of back in the northern hemisphere. Things will get better. ;)

#38 The Upstairs Wife I'm still thinking about what I want to write for my official ER review. I'd like to say I liked the book, but I found myself on the meh to dislike side once I finished. I liked the more official/historic part of the book and thought it did a wonderful job explaining what it was like to be a woman living in Pakistan. Yuck. But that's part of my problem with the book. I found myself annoyed with Aunt Amina and wishing she'd been more generous in accepting the second wife. That said, this is real life and not fiction. If it had been fiction, Aunt Amina would have undergone a more significant character change. She did grow in that she learned to enjoy her weeks without her husband eventually but if the book had been fiction she would have at least made a show of accepting her husband's if not accepting the second wifes' overture of friendship. In real life though, this kind of thing is so messy that it isn't anyone's place to judge. I grew up next to a household with a similar situation - although add alcoholism into the mix. The first wife tolerated the "second" who eventually truly became the second wife after the first died. We always got to hear the first wife mock the second. It was her way of coping. The second though always came over, cleaned the kitchen and made sure there were enough meals in the refrigerator for when the first wife would be home alone. Even with the mocking, it was clear that they didn't really hate each other. The one just resented the second and the second understood and responded with patience.

Anyway, the book was interesting and beautifully done. It's just the dissatisfaction of the main lives of the memoir made me feel dissatisfied too.

#39 I actually finished one! Space is the Place a biography of Sun Ra. Sun Ra was a jazz musician who claimed to be born on Saturn, so much so that the passport people gave in and let his birthplace be Saturn. I think he was eccentric, not insane. If he was insane, he held it together a lot better than other insane jazz musicians did. Monk's end of life was tragic with mental illness. This bio was interesting because Sun Ra wasn't a Duke Ellington or a Coltrane. He was a working musician without much aptitude for making money but he managed to keep a band going, and his band almost looked like a cult. Quite interesting to see how they managed or failed to make ends meet.

>178 cammykitty:
I've not heard of him before, but the Wiki-page shows sign of a very interesting character. :)

Eva - I hadn't heard of him before either until Eric suggested him as a posthumous guest for Diversicon after I suggested Billy Holiday. He won. Very interesting! I don't think you could've made up someone as unique as he was. And enigmatic.

I finished The Left Hand of Darkness. Can't say I enjoyed it much. It read like a translation, the language was so inadequate to what she was trying to do. At least now. The use of the masculine pronoun seems dated by today's standards, and it also seemed as though she was talking about an all male society that somehow found a way to procreate. I know that wasn't the intent, but that was the effect. & I know Le Guin talks about her difficulties with the language of the time and says she wouldn't change it now, but that it would be a very different book if she were to write it now, after the English language has undergone some pressure to become less inherently sexist.

Interesting about the language used in the book. If I do read that one, I'll have to have some of her comments handy to read afterwards. Maybe there's an edition with an afterword?

There might be one with an afterword? It seems like it's beginning to be a "forgotten classic" and she does have a few books of essays on writing and ideas that include at least one piece on Left Hand of Darkness. I think it's worth reading her comments, and one thing that people forget when reading it now is that she was just as interested in the winter world and trek across the ice as she was about the gender questions. As a culture, we've explored a lot of her gender questions further so I found it best to look at it as cultural background/characterization of Genly Ai. It's still valid, but a lot of writers have stepped on her shoulders and reached higher by now.

LOL - my Diversicon panels aren't going to happen this year, and I'm relieved. Can we say pieces of paper hide among other pieces of paper = reprieve. So I'm going to focus on the Latin part of the challenge now, or I might just be a little self-indulgent. In the meantime, I've got three more books to report on.

41. Redshirts If you've watched Star Trek over and over, you can guess what the title is referring to. In Science Fiction talk, "Redshirts" has become a critical term for writing. It means a character that's sole function is to die to move the plot forward. I had black & white tv when I was watching the original Star Trek, but if you had color I'm sure you knew that the members of the away team wearing red that didn't have any backstory weren't going to live long. So Redshirts is a meta-fiction about that. A bunch of new crew members on the Intrepid (remember the Intrepid?) realize that decisions made by the commanding officers don't make sense and that for a newbie to go on an away mission is practically a death sentence. The Intrepid's casualty rating far outpaces other ships in the fleet. So what is going on here? And how can they survive.

42. Rayla 2212 is a very Sun Ra inspired romp through time and space, complete with Egyptian royalty and lots of gold.

43. Should We Drown in Feathered Sleep is a novela by local author, Michael Merriam. Michael is legally blind and therefore writes well about people with disabilities. This one is no exception. His main character is a woman who lost the use of her legs when she climbed onto a roof during a bombing. The US's environment was destroyed in the bombing and very little wildlife has survived, but the pair of loons that have survived need human sacrifices. I mean loons like everyone in Minnesota would think of, waterfowl that is very awkward on land, has red eyes and a white necklace around their necks. They have a prominent place in Ojibwe beliefs. This is a satisfying blend of science fiction and folklore.

44. The Day it Snowed Tortillas is a bilingual folktale of mostly Mexican tales. Yup, La Llorona is in there as well as some other lesser known tales. For me, it was an easy read which is a relief after some of the harder stuff I've attempted or pushed through. I didn't have to check the English very often, and when I did, I found out I'd usually guessed right from the context. Definitely a good book for someone who is sharing folktales with kids or working on their "learned" language skills. (Apparently you don't learn your first language. Right now they say ELL, English as a Learned Language, instead of ESL, English as a second language because after all many people learning English already speak multiple languages.)

This is Wanda thinking about swimming at Crystal Lake Park. I went to a dog seminar that talked about "enrichment" for dogs, and it talked about doing "explore" walks where you took dogs to a cool place and followed the dog around instead of having the dog follow you. Wanda was too polite to do that, until I unhooked the leash. Then she went wild. You mean I can swim!!! She didn't like the part about the bath afterwards, but the swim part was good.

#45 And #45. Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012 by Dave Eggers and Ray Bradbury - I've been reading this one off and on since 2012, which tells you something about it. It was compelling enough that I finished it, but easy enough to put aside that it took almost three years to finish it. Some of the pieces were wonderful, some a slog. The last piece was about racism and the experience of being Asian, which was interesting reading after Diversicon. Yes, it's bad, but I was reminded of a few things.

1. Sherman Alexie on a public tv show talking about education and minorities. The Asian woman was complaining because universities had higher standards for Asian applicants because of diversity. They had to reject some Asian students that scored higher than, for example, a black student because they wanted a diverse campus. Alexie was trying to say but there are almost no Native Americans in Universities, and she kept talking right over him. He visibly shut down. He knew he wasn't going to be heard and whatever he said wasn't going to make a difference, or at least that's what his body language said. (I so prefer the Canadian term, First Nations. Native Americans doesn't feel right. After all, if you shortened that to Natives, most people will get a negative image in their minds.)

2. The article almost shut out women. I kept thinking the Asian man still has it better than the average woman for earning potential. Yes, he did talk to/about one female Asian business person, but it didn't balance out the general feeling I was getting that was intensified by his discussion of $1,000+ course for Asian men that teaches them how to pick up blonde women.

Wow, what an imperfect and complicated world we live in. As for Diversicon, the Guest of Honor was Ytasha Womack and her focus is Afrofuturism, which is a very freeing concept. She spoke about how a lot of African American writers feel they are expected to write about the horrific events of slavery, lynchings etc even if they are writing a book that isn't about that. I started thinking of The Watsons go to Birmingham while she was talking. Watsons is an outrageously funny book about growing up in Chicago, Black, but close to the end of the book, the family is in Birmingham during the church bombing that killed four little girls. And I started thinking about my dog training, you can't train a negative. You can't train "don't jump" but you can train sit politely when you want to greet someone. She was talking about talking to some 5th graders and asking them what they wanted their neighborhood to be in the future. "No violence." So how does that look like? No violence? How do people treat each other instead? - So I can't explain Afrofuturism without writing a book, and Ytasha has already done that - but it was interesting talking about the power of fiction to reclaim history, address alienation, and imagine and shape the future.

My dog Emmie was often too focused on me to really play and even when she was having a great time, she was quick to come the minute I called her. I miss her. Glad Wanda had a great time!

Interesting comments. Sherman Alexie always has interesting and insightful things to say. It's too bad he was shut down because he could have contributed to the conversation. His twitter feed is fun.

Emmie sounds like she was a fantastic dog!!!

Yes, Sherman Alexie is fascinating. It probably was a good thing he shut down, because no one was stopping this woman! But it is too bad the others, he wasn't the only one who couldn't speak, didn't get a chance to talk because it could have been an interesting dialog. Racism/prejudice is bad, but it's interesting to see how it has effected groups in very different ways. And I was thinking how my friend Bryan who is Hmong is a mover and shaker, and not at all the stereotypical Asian and not hindered by the kind of things mentioned in the essay... and then I remembered that he is adopted and group up in a white family and has been criticized for not being Hmong enough, even though he is Hmong enough to speak with an accent. He still feels invisible and has fought to make Hmong voices heard.

>186 cammykitty:
Explore walks sounds like a great idea! She even looks happy from behind in that picture, if that's possible. :)

Eva, LOL - Yup, they can look happy from behind! That tail is definitely in a happy place.

46 and 47. Two children's audio books. George's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl - yup, typical Roald Dahl. Funny, but not if you want no harm done to dumb beasts and elder relatives. And yes, there was some gastro-terrorism too. He specializes in that!

Pieces and Players by Blue Balliett - A mid-grade to ya mystery about an art theft in Chicago. The attention to actual sites and artworks in Chicaco was a treat in this book. One of the characters, Zoomie, was a bright, legally blind boy that reminds me of one of the kids I work with. He's sighted enough and bright enough that sometimes you forget that he can only see the board if he's no more than 5 feet away from it. But the detective work was very random and it got annoying at times. Honestly, it wasn't really detective work at all. And the teacher that was leading the 5 kids (8th graders) struck me as patronizing. So, it was a sort of meh read.

48. Say Cheese and Die - My first Goosebumps book. Not bad. Interesting to see how they keep up the tension, and just how far they'll go since the audience is around 4th grade or so.

49. Turing's Delirium by Edmundo Paz Soldan of Bolivia and US. He is a native of Bolivia but teaches part of the year in the US. This book is about self-perceptions and self-deceptions. What happens to the self when you find that your story of what you have done isn't quite right? And it's a story about espionage, hacking, revolts and cryptoanalysis (codebreaking). Other than that, it doesn't do much good to tell you the plot. It's too complicated, but well worth the read.

So the latest are all audio books.
#50. Lockwood & Co: The Whispering Skull - was tied for best in the group. World is near future England, but there has been some sort of epidemic which makes ghosts very real, but only clearly seen by children. There is an industry around ghosts and ghost artifacts that throws the child labor laws out the window that gives the book a Victorian feel even though it isn't Victorian. Our heroine works for Lockwood, a teen in charge of his own ghost-busting agency, and has a skull in a jar that likes talking to her although she doesn't feel the same.

#51. One False Note Really? This is part of the hot series that has all the kids supposedly running to the next book? Blah. Pointless meandering. Annoying villains. Just in general, annoying. So did I like it? Will I read another? No.

52: Al Capone Does My Homework I generally avoid sequels like this one because the author clearly had a story that demanded to be written when she wrote Al Capone Does my Shirts. I figured it would be a let down, but I was wrong. Choldenko knows the world of Alcatraz and of Autism so well that she did have more than one book to write on it. She probably has several. Next AC Does My... book that comes past me, I'm going to grab it. & yes, this is the one Lockwood & Co tied for best.

53. Goosebumps: The Werewolf of Fever Swamp Not bad but certainly not as well done as the other Goosebump book I read. This one got annoying because the main character kept freaking out over werewolfy clues. Example - a rabbit ripped in two on his lawn. Could his nice stray dog have done that??? Nooooo, he's not a killer! (Close your eyes, ye of faint heart. All my dogs have killed a rabbit. Tons of dogs kill rabbits. It means they haven't lost their predatory instincts but it doesn't make them unnatural.) So, in other words, they kept building up nothing events imho into clear evidence of evile! Big whoopy ding. The dog didn't kill the rabbit. The werewolf did. That doesn't mean the dog didn't want to.

I just downloaded Lockwood & Co for my son. Since reading Leviathan he can't get enough of that sort of book. Do you have any others you've loved?

Hmmm, Kay. Let me think about that. Holly Black's White Cat series? I know there are others I've read with the same feel as Lockwood & Co but can't think of any at the moment. He'll probably like the White Cat series though. Premise is (with slight spoilerage) boy lives in a magical family in a world quite like today's but different. Most people with magic live on the outskirts of society because it is illegal to use it. Therefore a magical mafia has come into being. This particular boy thinks he has no magic but, actually has a very powerful type of magic that his older brothers have been keeping secret even from him so they can use him to make hits. so it has a lot of the broken man with the heart of gold feel to it.

#54 The Boggart and the Monster was a kind of sweet take on Nessy. The family's Boggart is related to the Loch Ness Monster. The kid of the family has made friends with a scientist who is hunting Nessy, but everybody's lives will be upset with the increase of tourists and researchers etc. So Nessy has got to leave the Loch.

#55thatWasn't Gravity's Rainbow I was supposed to read it in college. The professor had assigned it thinking how bad can Pynchon be. It had just come out at the time and he hadn't had a chance to read it yet. When his 1st lecture on the book was "Why I do not like this book" I quit reading it. I didn't have much sense of humor when it came to the bawdy back then and could care less about whether bombs just happened to land wherever the American had sex or whether he was conditioned to respond erotically to bombs approaching. Yup, seriously. That's part of what the book is about. So I thought, I'm an adult now. I'll try it again. On Audio. When I spent over 15 minutes with one of the characters drunk, in a bathroom, fallen into the plumbing system, submerged with dingleberries... I can't do it. I just can't make myself finish this book. I swear, it's the literary version of Captain Underpants.

>194 cammykitty: Several years ago I was fortunate to be the only person to turn up to an author signing event with Stroud at a bookshop so was able to have a one on one chat. I had intended to go to a special event the night before where he was speaking to a large crowd but my car broke down and I couldn't make it.
I enjoyed The screaming staircase and still haven't got round to reading this second book and now the third is already out. sigh

>195 RidgewayGirl: Brian Falkner is a great YA writer and I've just started his latest, Battlesaurus: rampage at Waterloo, and it feels like it will be an exciting read. Arthur Slade's The Hunchback Assignments is also maybe worth a look as is Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines. Also Oisin McGann's Wildensterns trilogy.

Lucky you Kerry! I would have loved to have been at that signing. I haven't read the first yet. I read The Whispering Skull out of order. Thanks for the recommendations. Arthur Slade was a virtual friend of mine back when I kept a live journal so I'm interested to see you like his work. I've never read him. It was when he was just breaking into print.

And the real #55 The Quinx Effect by Tyree Campbell is a little small press novel that is really a collection of related short stories. Tyree handed it to me saying it was YA, I would like it, but I should read it before I shared it with my students. Ha ha ha!!! Maybe two pages are appropriate for my students.

>194 cammykitty: You'll be happy to hear there is a third in Choldenko's series, Al Capone Shines My Shoes. My friend works in a middle school library and always let me read them before putting them on the shelf.

Thank you, Katie and Kerry! I've picked up White Cat for now and favorited your posts for the next time he needs a book to listen to. I like that Holly Black has several other books, because Max tends to like to stick to authors he's already tried. We are currently dealing with the injustice that the Skullduggery Pleasant books are all available on Australian Audible, but the American Audible only has the first few.

Mamzel: Yeah!!!! I'll look for it soon, when I need another Alcatraz fix.

Kay: I know!!! It's so unfair that there are so many good books available in Australia and New Zealand that you just can't find in the US, even though we speak the same language (mostly). It is an injustice!

Not really doing well on working on my categories or really "reading" a book lately. I must be tired a lot lately! I finished books 56 and 57 on Audio and they were both a bit meh for me. The Girl on the Boat by PG Wodehouse didn't have Jeeves and Wooster in it, but it had a lot of the same tropes. The reader though sounded too snotty, snottier than Stephen Fry doing Jeeves. Always snotty. And I was thinking that Scott Thompson really should have been reading the part of the Aged Aunt.

Beware the Young Stranger by Ellery Queen. Mysteries were shaped differently back then. The front was filled with a lot of back story necessary to understand the murder, but the important murder didn't happen until we were well into the book. That's okay, I guess, but I found myself being impatient, and also found I'd missed some things because my attention wandered a bit while I was listening. Bad me.

#58 Well, I've completed the West Coast of South America! Bruna and Her Sisters in the Sleeping City is an epic magical realism novel (and a mean true magical realism steeped in Catholocism) that reminds me a little of 100 years of Solitude. Original title makes much more sense - Bruna, Soroche y los tíos. Los tios means uncles and aunts, and this novel was very much about all her uncles, aunts, grandparents etc. This novel follows several generations starting with the Spaniard + Mayan (gasp) generation and shows the revising of family history to suit the purposes of the next generation. Soroche refers to an "illness" that is in the town. It's a kind of malaise that keeps people from fully participating in life. By the time Bruna comes around, the wealth in the family is no longer there and all they have is their prestigious history that was built on a lie anyway. Her use of Magical Realism is beautiful, but what really is interesting is how the generations of orphans (the children are always being raised by an uncle or aunt) subvert each others dreams to achieve some delusion of their own.

>205 cammykitty: I wish I could find books like that in Turkish, i.e. written by an important writer who used Turkish social history and folklore in their stories. But I don't know where to find such authors, everyone is always going on about Orhan Pamuk and it is almost as if he is the only Turkish writer that ever lived. (no offense to Orhan Pamuk but it would be nice to have more than one choice.)

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Yup, they do act as though Orhan Pamuk is all there is from Turkey. I used wikipedia to look for authors from certain countries, but then availability is a problem too. Especially if you want the work translated! It's frustrating to know an author exists, but you have no access!

Oh look, Di! http://www.tyb.org.tr/ Turkish Authors Union. They have enough of them to have a union with a nice website, all in Turkish, and as far as I can tell, Orhan Pamuk didn't make the home page but there are several other authors mentioned there, even some women.

Taking note of Bruna and Her Sisters in the Sleeping City for when I need an Ecuadorian read. I've just started a crime novel set in Chile, The Neruda Case.

Kerry, I've heard of The Neruda Case. I'm surprised it isn't on my short list. I'll be interested to see what you think of it. He is Chilean. I'm betting my library didn't have it and that's why it's not on the list. Bruna is good.

I got the FPS topic list! 1. treatment of animals 2. disappearing languages 3. recovering from natural disaster 4. global workplace

topic 4 makes me yawn, right now, but hopefully once I get the recommended research it will be more interesting. If we don't go to state, I guess I won't have to mess with it. I wish disappearing languages was #4. That could be super interesting. Ojibwe is on the list, and we've had some Ojibwe speakers in the school, but most of them only spoke a little bit of it. Which is of course why it is disappearing. Most of the children aren't learning it well and only hear it spoken on special occasions. Disappearing languages is a sub-problem of another problem. Each language represents a culture that is within a larger culture, and if the language is being lost it is safe to assume that much of the culture is being lost as well. Any suggestions for a YA reading list will of course be appreciated!

>208 cammykitty: thanks I look into it! I have been watching Ezel, a Turkish TV show from 2009-2010, with English subtitles. It is very good, if you don't mind reading subtitles. It is about love, betrayal and revenge (yes, basically a modern Count of Monte Cristo in Turkish).

>211 cammykitty: topic 4 sounds interesting!

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

I was thinking about you, Di, when I saw that one. I may ask you to come in and talk to them! One of my co-workers at Goodwill is a young Ojibwe woman. She says there are no more fluent speakers of Ojibwe left and I was thinking it might be interesting to get her in to talk to them too. Obviously the biggest problem with lost languages is the culture lost with it.

Turkish TV sounds perfect!!! & if anyone can do a modern Count, they could. After all, the count was quite "oriental" in his tastes.

Notice how badly I'm doing on the "Off the Shelf" piece of this challenge! Well at least book #59 has lingered on the Wishlist for a long, long time. One Crazy Summer belongs in Afrofuturism in that it is a look to the past that looks into the future. Three girls go to visit their mother (who doesn't really know how to be a mother) in Oakland, CA during the 60s. Bobby Kennedy is dead already and the Black Panthers are around - those crazy radicals, as they've learned in their east coast home. However, their mother sends them to a free breakfast program and school run by the Panthers. Yes, the experience changes them and it's well worth hanging out with them on their summer that won't make a good school essay. 5 star of course.

>211 cammykitty: You might want to check out the book The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, I know, not quite 'workplace' but...

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

>205 cammykitty:
Putting that one down as a potential for when I get to Ecuador as well. I do have lots of affection for magic realism.

Di, Thanks! Now that you mention it, I remember you reviewing that one. It does fit the subject pretty well though. Can't really understand the future of the "global workplace" without understanding how globalization works (or doesn't) now.

Eva, I think you'll like it!

Future Problem Solving recs for the kids???
1. Treatment of Animals:
Frankenstein's Cat
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

I have a friend who does parrot rescue. He's tentatively agreed to bring in his parrot and talk about it. Parrots live an especially long time, often outliving their owner and their aren't many rescues and what rescues there are have limited resources.

2. Disappearing Languages:
6th graders are required to read The Birchbark House which uses a lot of Ojibwe words.
Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language by Nora Ellen Groce about Martha's Vineyard

3. Recovering from Natural Disaster (Regionals)
This particular topic is probably the one I'll hit hardest. They need to be in the top 5 teams of their region to advance to State which is entirely possible. I'm inheriting half a team that went to Internationals last year, and my returning team went to State last year but they were the oldest in their category then. Now they are the youngest.

??? I've read some books on this, like Elena Pontiaska's book on the Mexico City Earthquake, but I can't think of one that would be particularly good for this age?? They can certainly handle adult books, but that one in particular is long and has many scattered viewpoints and threads. It also helps to have some personal knowledge of the city, like a map inside your head. Has anyone read anything particularly good about Katrina or Haiti or Japan's Tsunami? Or anything like that? Either fiction or non-fiction.

4. Global Workplace (State)
Even if we don't make it to state, we will do this topic. Good practice and I've got kids that want to be pushed to improve. They are competitive in a good way. Hopefully as I know more about this, I'll pick up more enthusiasm for it! The other topics sound super cool, where as this sounds to me like just what they would be expected to have as a topic! Every year. Over and over again. Di has agreed to come talk to my kids about the Turkish economy, right??? Pleeeeeze!!!

The Travels of the T-shirt in the Global Economy

About the global workplace thingy - not that I know of a book exactly, but what about something that deals with fair trade? I'm thinking of things like coffee or chocolate? There's a store near here ( not sure if you have one) called Ten Thousand Villages which carries products in fair trade from many non-US palces. maybe they would answer an email, or if you have one near, maybe someone would come and give a talk.

Betty, that's a good idea. We have one near here and I'll bet they could help. Now I'm remembering Nnedi Okafora had a short story about when oil was found in an African village. That might be good if I could find it.

Yeah!!! One of the shelf!!! #60 and in espanol, y no se lo trago la tierra by Tomas Rivera or in other words And the earth did not devour him was excellent, but I'm not sure how to tell you what it was. It was about Mexican-American immigrants based in a small town in Texas, which I believe is somewhat similar to Rivera's own personal background. Write what you know. The marketers describe the book as a novel, but it isn't. It isn't short stories either or vignettes. I'd like to call it an extended prose poem, one that spans a lifetime. It reminds me a little of the work of Tom McGrath who we read in poetry class when I was in college. It was Letter to an Imaginary Friend and the letter never did really end.

>218 cammykitty: sure.... as long as I get enough advance notice.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

218> Maybe not for the kids, but a good start for you to get ideas...

Joplin Pays It Forward - Community Leaders Share Our Recovery Lessons
I Survived the Joplin Tornado, 2011 (I Survived #12) (part of a Scholastic series)
Eighty-one Seconds: The Attack and Aftermath as Tornadoes Hit Pilger, Stanton, Wakefield and Wisner, Nebraska

This one might be good (I wonder if the MN Historical Society still have the recreation of a Fridley basement...): The Night The Sirens Blew: A historical account of the May 6, 1965 Twin Cities Tornado

The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

My FPSers from last year were in the basement for that tornado at the MN Historical Society last year! We didn't get much time in the exhibit though and since I've waited out many a storm in the basement, it wasn't that scary! Great suggestions! I like the I Survived series. I haven't read one, but I can usually get the kids to read one. One of my serious allergic to books readers is reading I survived the shark attacks. The book on Haiti sounds right to the point.

#61 Guys Read: Other Worlds is a collection of action/adventure/humorous science fiction short stories, mostly for reluctant readers. Good solid collection not just for boys really.

Just popping in to say howdy Katie. It's been ages. I hope all is well with you.

Hi Roberta! It has been. I've been tooooooo busy. Other than that though, life is good!

#62 The Good Fortunes Gang by Margaret Mahy was a disappointment. I love Mahy's writing and she's hard to find in the US, so I snap up every book of hers I can find. This one just didn't have her intellectual, playful word-geek touch. It's about an extended family that moves back to the ancestral homestead in New Zealand. Some of t he cousins haze the other cousins because they aren't "Fortune" enough, Fortune being their surname.

#63, 64, 65 All on audio! I haven't been feeling the greatest so have been chillin' in bed, too tired to hold a book. When I'm not working, that is, and sneaking off from the cash registers at Goodwill anytime I can to go organize the books. ;) That's job #2.

Wylding Hall is in the form of a folkrock documentary, except there's something off with the band's lead singer and that girl he likes? Weird! She looks like she's fourteen and in some sort of medieval see-through fairy nightgown for a dress... Oddly, it read a lot like a documentary, complete with that ooh this is getting boring feeling but there's a bit of juicy gossip in there as soon as this guy stops reminiscing about his days back when he had hair.

Then, back to my Lemony Snicket. The Hostile Hospital out of order and then The Vile Village. I thought I'd already read the village one, but was pretty sure from the set up of Hostile that I'd missed one. So now I'm back reading Hostile in it's proper order, and I can't help thinking Mr. Author who calls himself Snicket, why on earth would a hospital have a file library that included newspaper clippings on seltzer, lions, and all sorts of people who didn't even live in the vicinity the hospital served??? It's the coolest file room ever, but wouldn't the hospital's file library be about patients? I'll forgive him though because the series isn't exactly believable. I've even seen it filed as "fantasy" although it isn't really that either. It's more a spoof of those old orphan stories like A Little Princess which I love.

"a file library that included..."
Sounds exactly like a Snicket thing to do. :)

LOL Eva! And I can see him as the librarian to the file room. Wouldn't you love to see a pile of clippings he curated?

#66 Between Shades of Gray Fantastic book with an unfortunate title! It came out when the 50 Shades Cozy S&M series came out so I'm sure people passed over reviews of it and left it on the shelf because they thought it was something other than it is. It is the tale of Lina, a Lithuanian sent to the camps in Siberia because the Russians feel her family is "anti-communist." Her dad had helped her uncle escape to Germany. The book is well-done, gritty and realistic, yet there is enough feel of community united through hardship to keep the book bearable. Even at times enjoyable and funny. Most of the time, if a book jacket says a book is an "important book" I'm tempted to scoff at it, but this one is because it brings to life a part of history that has been well swept under the carpet.

Strange how coincidental titles crop up like that. It's like how movie studios sometimes end up releasing movies on two similar subjects at the same time.

Yes, Princess. Or worse coincidences, like the Lynard Skynard album that was released around the time a plane crash killed several band members. It showed them standing in flames. :( I understand what the marketers (face it, the author seldom names the book) were aiming at with it - gray Siberian snow and darkness with the sun coming up in the spring - but even without the 50 shades problem, it wasn't a very good title and from looking at the cover, you've got no idea what sort of book it is.

I think it may have beat the other books to publication but Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey did nothing to quiet the confusion.

That would be a shock - expecting Fforde's craziness and getting a serious piece of historical fiction instead.

...or S&M!

LOL! That too.

I just dragged two big bags of books I've acquired various places that I think haven't been logged into LT. Uh oh!!! These books are getting out of hand! Maybe I have to fill the living room with a maze of shelves. ;) I'll start entering them, and I think I better start paying attention to that books off the shelves part of my challenge.

Future Problem Solving news: I finally sent out my email to the parents (with a suggestion that they visit Birchbark Books) and found that one of the parents lived through a horrible flood in Des Moines Iowa. She's going to come in and talk to the kids when we get to the recovering from a natural disaster topic. Happy dance!!! Now, as far as speakers go, all I have to do is talk to my Ojibwe acquaintance and try to talk her into it. Of course, I don't have to get speakers, but I think it makes it more fun and the kids learn from it in a different way than they do looking at articles or surfing the net.

OMG! Sage just jumped on the back of my chair because the neighbor kids are making noise outside. Chicken dog! Now he's barking and trying to pretend he's brave.

As for books, audio again! I whip through those faster than the print ones - but then again, my print book at the moment is The Feast of the Goat and I've gotten to the chapters that involve a lot of torture. 60 pages left, I like it but the subject matter is so dark that I can only handle one or two chapters a day. It's a good companion piece to In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.

#67 A Plague of Bogles by Catherine Jinks is a fun piece where we follow a newly apprenticed street urchin as he risks his life killing Bogles before they can eat more children. When he isn't doing that, he's risking his life searching for Sarah Pickles, his thief mistress, who is believed dead but he knows in his heart she isn't, and she isn't retired either. I really enjoyed this one, but my favorite Jinks has still got to be The Reformed Vampire Support Group.

#68 The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket. Yup, bad things happen to the orphans. I'm finding these addictive. Tim Curry does the voices, so I'm not sure if I'm getting an orphan-hardship fix or a Tim Curry fix.

Okay, off to entering some of these wayward books that have found their way into my home.

In the Time of Butterflies was one of my favorite books of 2014. And I learned quite a lot at the same time.

Betty, I loved that book too. The Mirabal sisters are quite important in Feast of the Goat but they never actually show up as characters. They talk more about people's reaction to what happened to them. (see! I avoided a spoiler!) Oddly, when I think of In the Time of the Butterflies, I feel like I read a beautiful, tragic book with beautiful imagery. A story about oppression that is over. Feast of the Goat isn't that way at all! It drags you through the muck, and then you think where else in the world is stuff like that happening right now.

69, 70, 71 Really, I don't just lie around, sick, listening to audiobooks. This fall, it seems that way though! Intermittent sinus infections, I think! I'm half-way through Bringing our Languages Home which for a language geek is an awesome book! I've read about Mohawk, Irish, Maori and several other languages and cultures already. The book is a group of personal essays by people who have been involved in revitalizing their ethnic languages. It starts with languages that no longer have any living fluent speakers and then moves on to less endangered languages. Parts of the stories are similar, but there is enough variation to make them interesting and of course, there is a lot of cultural differences in each essay. Geek fact of the week, the Yuchi language uses a pair of suffixes, one refers to Yuchi speakers and the other refers to all animals and non-speakers. LOL, they say it shows respect for the animals but I also wonder what "otherness" it emphasizes in the human non-speakers.

Audio-books - The Slippery Slope by Dan Handler. I'm starting to feel guilty liking these. Apparently Dan Handler, oops Lemony Snicket, made a particularly insensitive joke at an award ceremony. I wasn't there, so I'll say he probably should have known better than to make a joke about a person who won an award for a book on a sensitive subject, but I'm not willing to judge him deficient human and therefore not worth reading. It brings to mind Harlan Ellison(TM) who has made several jokes that made people angry. Some were of course meant to do that. Some were just Harlan being a bit Harlanish. I still will read him, but I think of him more as the friend that you are afraid to take to a party because he's likely to embarrass you.

P.S. Be Eleven probably wouldn't do it for someone who hasn't read the previous book One Crazy Summer but if you already know the family, it's always nice to spend some time with them.

Terrible Two made me laugh a lot! It's about a prankster that moves into a school distract to find out that they already have a master prankster so he either has to develop a new identity or compete to be top prankster. & he finds out that the master prankster is better than he is, but a nerd! I won't tell you more, but I would totally shiver down to my toes if the two of them moved to my school district.

Eh, I'm willing to cut Handler slack for the comment. He apologized profusely and sincerely and has otherwise been relentless in championing those less fortunate than himself. I think we all make unwise comments in the heat of the moment, and if we don't double down and instead apologize, we all should do our best to accept the apology and move on. He is absolutely not like Harlan Ellison!

Yeah, I don't have a problem with Handler either - his apology was pretty instant and sounded sincere. As far as I know, his slip of the tongue is not in any way reflected in his actions.

I have the Unfortunate Events waiting for me on Mt. TBR (I think I read three, maybe four, a long time ago) - I may make them my bonus challenge (if I actually ever finish my main challenge....).

LOL, Kay. There isn't room in the world for two Harlan Ellisons.(TM) Can't forget that TM after his name. Has any other author trademarked their name?

Glad to know Handler was pretty cool with the apology. I can see that cynical sense of humor slipping out of him before he had time to think of all the ways the joke could be taken. Part of what I love about the Series of Unfortunate Events is the audio. Tim Curry. How can you do better? But in the Water Cycle's defense (when you get to reading the Grim Grotto, Eva, you'll understand) it isn't all that boring as long as you don't simplify it to utter boringness. Yes, I finished #71 The Grim Grotto in which the Orphans suffer many travails, but of course we know no one significant is going to die. Esme Squalor has quite a fashion piece in it. And there is lots of water. I'm also enjoying Sunny's growing vocabulary.

>218 cammykitty: A YA featuring the Haiti earthquake is Nick Lake's In darkness. Not sure if it's what you want but will suggest it anyway.
'Set in January 2010 in the days after the earthquake that ravaged Port-au-Prince, the novel begins and ends with Shorty, a 15-year-old gang member entombed in the rubble of a collapsed hospital. Surrounded by bodies, slowly dying of thirst, Shorty passes time by recalling his violent childhood in the slums, and shares a psychic (read: voodoo) connection with Toussaint L’Ouverture, the rebel slave leader and hero of the 18th-century Haitian revolution.' NYT review

I also liked Between Shades of Gray, a really good read.

I'm also with Handler on the apology thing.

Kerry! Thanks for the recommendation! It sounds perfect. I also found one called The Ninth Ward touchstone not working about Katrina. It won one of the ALA's awards so it should be good. Picked it up a Goodwill for 20 cents!

Wasn't Between Shades of Gray awesome!

Sigh, I think I just finished the last of the Al Capone books. It's the second one Al Capone Shines My Shoes. I read them out of order. It was wonderful, of course, and it was fun to see some realistic character growth in Nat and to see her particular talents make a difference. This one is less about Nat's autism, and that's nice to see too. It's good to have characters with a disability where the whole point of the book does not revolve around the disability.

#74 Bringing our Languages Home was an interesting book on revitalizing endangered languages. It had personal essays by people working to learn and pass on their heritage languages to their children. In some cases, the languages have no fluent speakers left. In some, only a few elders speak it. The book included languages from the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

I may be a little Future Problem Solved out though. Many of my kids didn't show up and they are rumored to have joined drama club and that's after last week where I had three "new"members show up all in one day. I'm supposed to have declared my teams by now. I've already paid for them. And I don't even know which kids I can count on and which are just along until it starts demanding something from them. I have two other language books, but I think I may save them for later when they won't be so "important" to read because of FPS, but I might be more in the mood for them. Right now, my group of indigenous comics sounds much more tempting.

>249 cammykitty: That sounds most interesting! Next year I'm hosting the month of the DeweyCAT that covers language books, so I'll be sure to highlight that one!

RP - Yes, it's one of the best language books I've read. Next year, I should check out the CATs!

Speaking of, I'm in the middle of watching The Rabbi's Cat which I'm sure I heard of here. What a delightful story!

http://forvo.com/word/sp%C3%A1inn%C3%A9ar_uisce/#ga
Check that website out for a language geek-out. You can find all sorts of Irish pronunciations there. This is how to say the breed of my dog, and if you are clever you can also figure out how to say spaniel, water and whiskey from it.

#75 Why is this night different from all other nights I enjoyed the end to Dan Handler's All the Wrong Questions series in the town of Stained-by-the-Sea (past economy based on octopus ink production) but can easily see why this didn't take off as well as The Series of Unfortunate Events. Yes, we get to see a young Lemony running around, which is great but the series ends without feeling like it reached an end. Huh? And poor Qwerty. That just wasn't right!

>252 cammykitty:
They made a movie? Putting that on my list right now - that cat is a riot!

Yes, Eva! They made a movie! I totally loved it. I wouldn't have watched it if I hadn't seen all the raves for the Graphic Novel here. I love the way his Meows sound. They are this pathetic, slow Meee uuuu that sound like he's saying you know I can talk but no one is listening to me now anyway...

#76 A little too Middle Grade for me. Aces Wild was a book with a dog and a grandfather, both named Ace, and you guessed it, the book dealt with grief. I really liked the characterization of the grandfather, but the plot... too much drama of the middle school kind.

>249 cammykitty: behind here....last weeks Economist has an interesting article about the Inuit and trying to formalize their written language so everyone is 'on the same page' so to speak.

DS
(Bruce's evil twin :-))

Oh!!! That is interesting! I wonder if I can find it online? I'll look.

#77 The case of the case of mistaken identity Gives a nod to Lemony Snicket with some really commando librarians, but it didn't quite do it for me.

#78 The Penultimate Peril brought all sorts of people from the Baudelaires' past together. Good humor.

#79 Bad Kitty Meets the Baby I picked this up for the kids in my ALD class, but of course I had to read it first! Good humor. And no babies were harmed in the writing of this book.

I have a new computer. Right now I think it is possessed, not possessed as in owned by me but possessed as in has demons controlling it. In a few days, I'll be squeeing over it but right now, forgive me if you can hear me swearing over the internet! It just got rid of my half-written entry and made me start over again!

I finished book #80 A Different Key which is one of my early review books. It's a history of Autism, which was quite interesting except it was looooong. It read more like a multi-person biography than a history. It discussed more of the social history of autism than the science of it, although they did include a bit of science too. I've worked as an educational paraprofessional with kids with autism for ten years now. Not the ones that are disabled to the point that they can't speak. I've worked with those a little bit, but that isn't for me. I get frustrated if I think collectively we can't reach my goal, which is for the kid to grow up to be able to live independently. So I came to it with a lot of background, but I don't think that was really necessary to understanding the book although at 500+ pages, you've got to have an interest in psychology or research or something to keep you going. I enjoyed it immensely, except the stuff about the vaccination theory of autism. I've known that was bogus for years and it just annoys me to hear about it. Yes, the authors know it is bogus too, but it has been a focus of many parents for years. Not so much now, but you still do hear about it sometimes. Glad the doctor who started it has banned from practicing. Seriously. He has. Worse than a snake oil salesperson. In a Different Key was well researched and well written. A few glitches that I'm sure will be fixed before final publication. Definitely worth reading if you have an interest in Autism, or the Spectrum as many of us call it now. Respectful, not sensationalized, thorough (perhaps too thorough) and has interesting anecdotes about people who have it and their parents. I won't do a spoiler, but will say the anecdote they end on is particularly satisfying.

Yay new computer but boo to it acting possessed!

It's probably operator error, but still. I think it needs an exorcism!

#81 Unstoppable by Bill Nye. I'll confess. I probably wouldn't have read this if it hadn't been by the Science Guy. I'm a total geek. He thinks like a future problem solver. See, there are solutions to global climate change. How about treadmill power? I'm doggysitting a puppy now and she could generate a lot of power if you put her on a treadmill. We could disguise a power plant as a dog & human gym. It would make a lot of power in the winter in Minnesota, but not so much in the summer.

I have nothing but love for Bill Nye - he's just all kinds of great!

Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill!

LOL all kinds of great just about says it. We geeks need our celebrities too!

Last night I finished reading Moonshot which is a book of comics written by Native Americans from the US and Canada. Most of the tales were variations of traditional tales, often set in the future sometimes with a return to Earth. This collection had great variety, and I'm really hoping that they are able to bring out volume 2.

Here's a sample of the artwork. They had many artists, and many of the pages were quite visually stunning.

Wow! That is some great artwork.

Betty, that's what I thought too! There aren't many good samples on-line, but the whole collection is very artistic.

nooks and crannies brings up the wrong touchstone! It's a cute psuedo-victorian orphan tale. A girl is invited to be one of six children to visit a philanthropic countess. When she gets to her manor, she finds the countess to be rather venal for a philanthropist and the kids are competing to become the countess's long lost grandchild. Then a mystery happens, and our girl gets to do what she has always wanted to do. Investigate a crime while using a series of secret passageways. Slightly predictable for an adult reader, but very entertaining.

#84? I'm doing great on the challenge numbers wise, but specific book wise? Not so much. Especially not the part where I was going to read books I already own. But here's one of those. The Man who Fell To Earth was a book I picked up at a library book sale because someone had read it recently on LT and written an interesting review. Of course, I'd already seen the movie but that wouldn't have made me pick up the book. The movie is a vehicle for David Bowie and doesn't make much sense except for that. The book actually makes sense. I mean, why did David Bowie start bleeding from the eyes when he goes up in an elevator? In the book, you know why, although the author had to do a little semi-convincing handwaving about the same character being able to fly on a specially designed airplane when he couldn't even handle the air pressure change on an elevator. The book is a bit dated - literally - there is a chapter entitled "1990" but it is s till an interesting book about alienation and failure. As for the movie, don't get me wrong. If you are into seeing David Bowie pretending to have weird sex, by all means watch it but don't think that is what the book is about.

>272 cammykitty: That one's on my tbr shelves waiting for me to get to at some point. Good to hear it's an interesting read.

>272 cammykitty: If you are into seeing David Bowie pretending to have weird sex...

Well you just talked me into seeing it.

Wolfy, it is good - and short - but sometimes it says a few weird things about astronomy. For example, there are no other solar systems. Just stars. Shows how much the man with 2 times the intelligence of a human knows. ;)

Jennifer - I'm thinking I've got to watch it again. I have a memory of David dragging some girl across the floor by her hair - consensual - and I have to think that must have been a wig.

#85 Phew! I finished the Spanish Language section. Now I don't have to feel guilty about being a slacker on my second language learning. And this year, I have a reason to work on my Spanish. One of the classes I assist is a Spanish Language immersion social studies class. I've already forgotten how to say beaver in Spanish, but it's Amik in Ojibwe.

So, book 85 is Nunca juegues con una bruja which is a little book of horror stories suitable for 8-12 year olds. One of them features a garbage truck prominently. Most was the standard fare of ghosts and witches, but it was definitely nice to see a scary garbage truck.

Beaver in German is Bieber. Make of that what you will.

Lol! I always knew it was really Justin Beaver. Thanks, Kay. It's castor in Spanish. I remembered that about two hours after I posted about my poor memory. I feel really inadequate in that class some days. And some days it goes to me head and I think I'm almost fluent.

#86 and 87: Neither from the books on shelf category. I am not going to make that goal.

#86 was in the much needed Spanish language section. Bone: La Carrera de Vacas ie the Cow Race. I read it because it was a graphic novel and I thought it would be easy. A lot of the words were apparently slang insults that I didn't know, but yes, it was pretty easy to understand. Not like I was reading Garcia Marquez or anything. Entertaining, but I'm no fan of Bone. Bone is okay enough as a character, but he's got awful cousins and I don't find them very amusing although I love the monstrotarrotamotowhatever they were calling them. They are so cute, and so bad at getting along with each other, just like a pair of middle schoolers. (oops, did I say that?) So in general, I'd say its okay but I don't see why it is so loved by the kids. In other words, it probably doesn't appeal so much to adults.

#87 perhaps the same issue. I'm not the right age group, I think. It was one of Jack Gantos's "biographies" which are marketed as fiction - so what is truth and what isn't, I wouldn't dare say. I listened to this on audio and Gantos himself read it. Frankly, it didn't have the charm of the Joey Pigza books. It's very gritty, filled with a self-loathing in hindsight. It was about his failing of being a follower, of wanting to become someone else and not picking the best someones to become. I love Joey, so I was curious and am not sorry I read it, but I can't say I liked it. The coup de grace for me is a big spoiler so don't read this if you think you might ever, and I mean ever read any of his "bios." The young man he decides to emulate is in and out of juvie for good reason and tries to force him to strangle a puppy. When Gantos refuses (not very well), the young man throws the puppy into a bonfire. Ick ick ick. Ick. It may be hard for me to read more Joey Pigza now.

Getting caught up with activities on your thread.

>262 cammykitty: - Ditto what >263 rabbitprincess: said!

Thanks Lori! Computer and I are getting along better now, but I still think it is possessed!

And still possessed...

So what am I going to listen too when I want to be entertained before I fall asleep at night? No more Tim Curry. No more Lemony Snicket. It is The End. Yes, book #88 was The End, the last book in The series of unfortunate Events. Quite a satisfying end but I've got to say I thought Dan Handler might decide to be a rat and kill them all off. And, this sympathy for Count Olaf - he shouldn't be left on a tidal shelf in a bird cage! - was a bit much for me. He's a murderer, after all. I won't miss the singing though. If you've read the books and haven't listened to the audio, you might want to listen to them for the Joy Division/New Order inspired little songs that happen between sections. They are perfectly awful, and if I had to listen to them all day, well, that would be a truly unfortunate event that would certainly lead to more unfortunate consequences.

And really, I'm not one of those people who uncorks a bottle of perfume, makes a face while smelling it and says "This is awful! Hey, here. You've got to smell this! It's perfectly wretched."

I am putting book #89 in Afrofuturism even though it has nothing to do with space. And After Many Days does, however, show a modern Nigeria struggling with the "Company," an oil company. It creates a violent rift between those who want the oil money and goods and those who want to live the way they have on land that hasn't been damaged.

We follow, through many flashbacks, a middle class family with ties to their tribal village as they deal with the loss of their eldest son who has disappeared, as many people in Nigeria at this time do.

I can't say I liked the book, though. It had interesting points and moments but was written in a style that made it difficult for me to bury myself in the characters, the setting or the situations.

Merry Christmas

Stopping by to wish you the very best this holiday season!

All the best for the Christmas season!

Merry Christmas Katie!

Merry Christmas!

Thanks for all the Christmas wishes! We've got just enough snow on the ground to call it white, but really it's more a salt n pepper Christmas. I can still see lots of frozen mud where the dogs have been running. Hope everyone is having a great day with food, friends and books!

#90 Training People Now I don't have to hang my head low because of my unfinished Dog/human behavior section. It's been light on the dog books because either they are review and I get bored of them, or they are good and I want to try all the exercises with my dogs but that takes lots of time and the book gets lost somewhere in my house while I'm doing it. Honestly.

Training People is kind of a cheat for the section though. It's a satire on all the basic "When you get your dog" books. It covers choosing a person If you strongly prefer the gender traits of either male or female humans, consider acquiring a same-sex couple. how to treat human pups, how to train humans about feeding and playing, and what to do when your human gets old. Yup, all the stuff in a basic dog book. This one has cute photos of dog manipulation though

I did find When Pigs Fly today while cleaning my house, so perhaps I'll get through a real training book before 2016. Not likely though, because it is one of the good ones that go missing while you are practicing all the exercises. Hmmm, could there be something to Training People? Are the dogs hiding it?

I'll be taking a bookbullet for Moonshot - it looks beautiful!

Moonshot is gorgeous! Hope you can find a copy, Eva. I think it's a rare book.

>292 cammykitty:
I noticed that - they have a few copies on Amazon Marketplace.

Yeah! Amazon seems to be able to get everything that is in print.

I love the marketplace portion and it's where I do most of my shopping - access to second hand booksellers all over the US (and other countries) is just a dream. If that had been around all my life, my personal economy had been in a pretty bad place today, I think. :)