The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Mortal Word is the fifth book in the Invisible Library Series. It picks up soon after the somewhat disastrous events in the fourth book where Kai had to retire from the Library and return to dragon society. Peregrine Vale is urgently summoned to investigate the murder of a dragon diplomat during a peace talk between the dragons and the fae. Irene is asked along as representative of the Library on the investigative team. The plot is high stakes political intrigue with dragon kings and high powered fae.

In some ways I think this is the best book of the series. Lord Silver, Kai, Irene, and Vale are all reunited in investigating the crime. On the face of it there are motives for all three of the groups to have done it: The Library, Fae, and Dragons. This introduces tension back into the group. No one wants to believe their own side culpable. The new relationship between Kai and Irene (now that he’s no longer his apprentice) sees some development too. I guess it’s the end that’s got me all fan girl squee about this. I won’t ruin it for you, but it really is excellent.

I really hope there is another book coming in the series.


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Zahrah the Windseeker by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zahara was born dada which means with a full head of hair that has little green vines growing in it. Being dada is to be suspect, kind of like a bad talisman. Her best friend Dari doesn’t think that though and constantly encourages her to explore the gifts that come with being dada, namely the ability to fly. Trouble comes when they step foot in the mysterious (and forbidden) greeny jungle. Dari is bitten by a snake and Zahara must search the jungle for the antidote.

This is the very definition of a coming of age story. Zahara starts out shy, unsure, and almost self-loathing. Through trial she discovers who she is and the value of what she is. She builds confidence by surviving the dangers of the mysterious greeny jungle. Her character development is masterful. The setting, however, almost overshadows Zahara’s story. The Ooni Kingdom and the Mysterious Greeny Jungle are so richly described that it sticks in the imagination. The whole Ooni culture is fascinating. Okorafor, through her narrator, describes a people who are inherently vain, but also invested in living in harmony with their environment. All their technology is plant based. They grow their buildings from specially bred plants, their lights come from a bioluminescent pod, and they even grow a plant version of a computer.

It’s a very fun, well written story aimed at high schoolers.


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Week 4 Review

Page Numbers for the Week: 398. Total Pages for 2019 so far: 3,029. Page Average Per Day: 117. Total Number of Books: 10.

Last week was an off week for reading. Everyone has to rest from time to time, I guess. However, I'm swamped by library books so I'm dispensing with other considerations to sweep the deck. All my library books go on the list this week in preparation for February.  I have arbitrarily declared February Tsundoku month. All February, I'm clearing my stacks of owned and unread books.

A Very Long Short List for the Week:

1. Odd One Out by Nic Stone (Dekalb Library) - Finished 1/28/2019
2. War Cross by Marie Lu (Dekalb Library)
3. Elevation by Stephen King (Dekalb Library) - Finished 1/30/2019
4. What If It's Us by Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera (E Loan - Dekalb Library)
5. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertali (Dekalb Library)
6. Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi (School Library)
7. Lu by Jason Reynolds (School Library) - Finished 2/2/2019
8. Grammar to Get Things Done by Darren Crovitz and Michelle Deveraux (Pedagogy Book for January - also School Library book)

At the end of the week, I'm taking all my library books back to their respective libraries so that I can focus on evening up my ratios.

Week 3 Review

Page Numbers for the Week Jan 13-19: 692. Total Pages for 2019 so far: 2,631. Page Average Per Day: 139. Total Books: 9.

I hate doing it, but I'm abandoning Michael Donkor's Housegirl. I kept trying to pick it up, but I guess I'm just not in the right place for it. I can tell that it's probably excellent so I'll try again at some point. I'm continuing to struggle with page count. I'll give it another week, but I think I might need to set a different goal. I'm generally coming in at around 100 pages

Short List for the Week:

1. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (Ryan's Recommendation)
2. The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (Tsundoku Stack - Classroom Library)
3. The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman (Dekalb Library) - Finished 1/23/2019
4. Odd One Out by Nic Stone (Dekalb Library)
5. War Cross by Marie Lu (Dekalb Library)
6. Elevation by Stephen King (Dekalb Library)
7. Grammar to Get Things Done by Darren Crovitz and Michelle Deveraux (Pedagogy Book for January)

I've been library heavy for a couple of weeks now. I tend to run through phases and right now I'm loving the library. However, I'm only slated for 50 library books. . . I'm already at six which means if I stick to this pace I'll read 144 library books -- big win for the library system, but it's not the goal.  Maybe I'll declare a week of Tsundoku love for February... although it occurs to me that the nebulous other category is going to be the real problem.

In other words...it's time to diversify posts.

Binti - Home and Night Masquerade

Sometimes when I'm working on a series, it feels a little silly to make separate posts for each book. I think this is my solution. Here are my goodreads reviews for the last two books in the Binti Series. This is a excellent introduction to the author. All three book come in right at 200 or few pages, so in many ways reading all three in quick succession feels like reading a single more sizable book.



Home by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Home is very much a story about the price of change. It picks up about a year after the first story of Binti. Binti and the Meduse, Okwu, are enrolled at the Oomza University, but Binti is struggling. In the previous story Binti is physically changed by the Meduse and that change has consequences especially for a girl from a very insular people. Binti feels the need to return home and Okwu goes with her as friend and Meduse ambassador.

It’s very clear that this is a bridge book, or the central story, in a series. As such, it opens more conflicts than it resolves. The relationship between the Meduse and Khoush is developed. More problematically, Binti is shoved into more change as she discovers a previously unclaimed heritage from her father’s side that pulls her away from her home just as crises strikes and the book ends. It’s all rather abrupt.

It’s an excellent story but it cannot stand on it’s own the way either Binti or the next book, The Night Masquerade, can.

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and...

The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There’s a piece of advice often give to creative writing students to start their stories in the middle of the action. This avoids the common problem of getting lost in exposition. Okorafor is a master of this. Night Masquerade starts with a nightmare that might be more than just a dream. Binti’s family is trapped in a burning cellar. This opening passage establishes a dark tense mood that pervades the first half of the text. It also introduces a sense of Binti’s state which is full of insecurity and fear not only for herself but for her family.

I have to say that I rarely get surprised by a story these days. I read a lot and narrative structure tends to follow certain patterns, so when an author succeeds in surprising me, I take note. Okorafor, pulled it off. Without saying too much and ruining the surprise, in a series about transformation, Binti undergoes the ultimate in transformation stories. I sat there around page 120 or so going….surely not, there’s still 80 pages to go. It’s excellent. It is worth reading the rest of the series (which is very good and worth reading anyway) just to get to this book.

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The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The 57 Bus is an excellent piece of YA nonfiction that follows what happened one day on the 57 bus in Oakland when Richard, a young African American man, impulsively pranks Sasha, a young biologically male agender person. This prank took the form taking a lighter to Sasha’s skirt. Richard’s expectation was that it light, flicker, and go out very quickly and give Sasha a start. Unfortunately Sasha’s skirt was made of a highly flammable material and instead resulted in a fireball and deep burns all across Sasha’s legs.

Slater tells the story of both youths, both members of minorities that face prejudice as a part of daily life. She presents Sasha’s gender identity and world views well and Richard’s situation with compassion. The crime, and no one argues that it wasn’t a crime, was termed a hate crime even though there was evidence that it wasn’t motivated by hate but rather an extremely bad choice made by a very impulsive young man. The legal system failed here. It could have been worse, of course, and if Sasha’s parents hadn’t stepped in, it probably would have been worse for Richard. Slater could have presented this as a story of hate, but instead she puts the situation under the microscope to illuminate the genderqueer community and illustrate the inequalities embedded in the legal system. Her text poses a question as to how justice is served and what justice means in a situation like this.


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Week Two Review

Page Numbers for the Week Jan 6-12: 834. Total Pages for 2019 so far: 1,939. Average Per Day: 162. Total Books: 6.

As predicted, school started back and that 200 page a day reading goal got hard. I slipped behind some. I got serious stuck on Bridge to Terabithia. For a 120 page book, it really took me a long time to get through. It's always weird how that goes. Who Fears Death was every bit as good as I hoped and I'm going to try and finish up reading all of Okorafor's work over the next couple weeks. Maybe I'll put together an Author Review post.

Short List for the Week:

1. Housegirl by Michael Donkor (Dekalb Library) - abandoned 1/18/2019
2. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (Ryan's Recommendation)
3. Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor (Dekalb Library) - (Finished 1/13/2019)
4. Binti: the Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor (Dekalb Library)- (Finished 1/18/2019)
5. Zahrah the Windseeker by Nedi Okorafor (Dekalb Library) - (Finished 1/17/2019)
6. The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman (Dekalb Library) 
7. Grammar to Get Things Done by Darren Crovitz and Michelle Deveraux (Pedagogy Book for January)

There is an extra book on there this week because two of them, the Binti books, are very short. Generally, I want to keep the lists around five with an additional pedagogy book for a total of six. I have a bad tendency to get over ambitious with my lists. Five feels about right. To stay on track in terms of number of books I need to read about three books a week. However, being human and all I tend to go in streaks. I'll read obsessively, four or five books a week, for weeks and then read nothing at all for a couple weeks. I'd like to make sure that I read at least one book a week for the year and even things out some. In any case, a five book list means there's some variety in there but that it is feasible for me to complete it if I'm on a reading jag.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into with this one. I hadn’t seen the movie and no one had ever described much of the plot. With a title like “Bridge to Terabithia” I was expecting something like a YA fantasy novel. My first hint that something was up was when people, seeing me carrying it around, started gushing about how much they always cried at the end of the book. Despite my mistaken expectations, I can see why this is considered a classic of children’s literature.

This is a nice story about a friendship between two very different kids. Jesse’s family are poor farmers struggling to make ends meet and Leslie’s are well-off authors who are trying to get closer to the land. Leslie’s a bit of a free spirit and Jesse is just trying to fit in. It’s a sweet story that ends in tragedy. It’s a good book, but a bit one-note for me. The tragic elements seem out of place to me and unnecessary because in a story about an unusual friendship, the death adds nothing. I would have rather seen more development between the two characters even if that meant the friendship fracturing under their dissimilar world views. Leslie’s death just seemed to chop the narrative off at the knees. Still, I wouldn’t argue with anyone who tells me they love it.


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Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Okorafor has a talent for mixing science fiction and fantasy. Who Fears Death is set in a post-apocalyptic future so distant that apocalypse itself has become mythologized in the “Great Book” which is something very like the Bible. In this book, the people are split into two people: the dark skinned Okeke who pay for causing the apocalypse by being willing slaves to the lighter skinned Nuru. Over time, things become violent and the novel commences during a time of violence when the Nuru believe that the Great Book wishes the Okeke to be exterminated. The main character, Onyesonwu, is born out of the violence and conflict and is lighter-skinned like her mother’s Nuru rapist. Children liker her are called Ewu and are reviled. She quickly discovers that she has mystical talents and she struggles against convention and tradition to train her gift.

I opened with a short summary because it illustrates the many themes running through this novel. There are many difficult things to this book such as rape and violent prejudice, but it was not a difficult read. Onyesonwu is a fighter and I found myself cheering for her even when she was childish and temperamental. There is an aspect to this that is a messiah story. It is not over-blown and it adds a layer to the read that made me very thoughtful. There is so much violence in religious texts, is that because we a violent species? Or is it because we so desperately need saving?


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The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a “what if” story, by which I mean that it easily flows from the statement “what if there was a kid who was so boring he seemed to disappear?” I like what if stories. They are accessible and have a purity of of focus to them. I admit when I picked this up I knew nothing about it other than that it won some ALA designations and was by an author I generally respect. However, once I started into it, I had a hard time putting it down. The Schwa is a kid named Calvin who somehow is completely ignorable - to the point of being practically invisible. This is discovered by the stories narrator, Antsy Bonano. The two of them team up and for the first time in his life, The Schwa has a friend. However, what must that be like for an invisible kid to finally be noticed? What is it like if he and his friend are both vying for the attentions of the same girl? And what is it like for Antsy who is just a kid but now finds himself the emotional touch point for this fantastically broken kid? The story is fast-paced and the voice is delightfully flippant.

What I really love about this book though is how Shusterman writes a story for middle school kids that is utterly non-condescending. He tackles some really tough issues too. I think most kids, of both genders, experience falling for the same person as their friend. It's not an easy thing, at any age. I also think most kids feel invisible at some point. What kid hasn't felt alone? Shusterman is speaking to some very fundamental issues here and he does a good job with it.This is a great read for the middle school set.

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Week One Review

Page Numbers for the "Week" Jan 1-5: 1,105 pages.  Average Per Day: 221 pages per day. Total Books: 3

So far I'm on track reading 200 pages a day on average, but it is becoming clear that once school starts back that finding the time to squeeze in 200 pages is going to be a challenge. I suppose it'll depend greatly on what I'm trying read.

I'm currently reading Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death which won a World Fantasy Award in 2011 and has been optioned as an HBO TV series. Between this, the Akata Witch series, and the Binti Series, I am becoming quite an Okorafor fan. She writes African-based science fiction and fantasy for a broad range of audiences. Everything of hers that I've read, I've loved. In fact, I should track down all the rest of her works to read. Her website is here if you are interested.

On the short list for next weeks reading:

1. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (Dekalb Library) - Finished 1/7/2019
2. Housegirl by Michael Donkor (Dekalb Library)
3. The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater (School Library) - Finished 1/12/2019
4. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (Ryan's Recommendation)
5. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Tsundoku Pile) - Finished 1/10/2019
6. Grammar to Get Things Done by Darren Crovitz and Michelle Devereaux (Pedagogy Book for January)

In terms of my reviews, I've noticed a problem. I feel constrained in my reviewing on Goodreads. Because of the format and the very public-ness of it, I am sometimes finding that I have more to say about a book than I feel comfortable sharing there. I guess it is the difference between reviewing on a blog and reviewing on a public website. Since I'm cross posting my reviews to the blog I'll have to think about how to address that in this format.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been waiting to read this for about six months. I have a friend who’s been raving about it and we kept missing each other in my attempts to borrow her copy. Now that I’ve read it, I understand why she was so excited. Adeyemi describes a rich world with a strong well-developed conflict and vivid characters. The system of maji is internally consistent and the main character, Zelie, is an excellent champion, if somewhat aggressively tortured as a heroine. In fact, if I have a criticism it is that all of the characters are carrying around enough damage to destroy a city and very little of it gets resolved by the end of the novel. While it is clear that this is the opening to a series and that these things will likely eventually resolve, the sheer amount of pain these characters carry around is both engaging and overwhelming. As a result, several sections of the narrative slow to a snails crawl as the narrator explores and mulls over their pain. This is all appropriate to the narrative and the world, but the story could have used some more moments of levity to give the reader a break. All in all, a good read and I’m looking forward to the next book coming out sometime this year: Children of Virtue and Vengeance

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Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m probably about to start “a thing” but I think Many Waters might be better than A Wrinkle In Time and is definitely a stronger book than either A Wind in the Door or A Swiftly Tilting Planet. Don’t get me wrong, I am very fond of A Wrinkle In Time but L’Engle’s tendency to mesh theoretical physics, fantasy, and Christian allegory yields inconsistent results. In the case of Many Waters, the theoretical physics gets shoved into the periphery leaving the narrative to focus on the allegory and the fantasy.

Many Waters focus on the twins: Sandy and Denny. They accidentally mess with one of their father’s experiments and get zapped back in time. They find themselves caught up in the story of Noah and the flood. L’Engle’s retelling of this bible story adds many elements and explores a variety of interesting themes. My favorites involve the potential conflict between love and pleasure, the paucity of information on the women in the story, and the idea of faith in a world where seraphim and nephilim walk around and interact with humans. Strangely, this is one of her more overtly religious books, yet it’s definitely one of my favorites - which is odd for me.


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*Imagine a Champagne Bottle Smashing on the Hull of a Truly Impressive Ship*

It is always awkward starting things off. Always. So, let me start by making two things very clear. 1. Everything on this blog will have something to do with books. Some posts will be crosspostings of my goodreads reviews. Some posts will have to do with authors, or with the reading life in general. Some will be flat out fan girl gush...not much of that though (it's not my way). 2. This is a personal blog. I make no apologies for irregularity of posting schedule and I will be operating off of my personal reading goals which I decide on at the beginning of every calendar year.  As long as that's clear, I'm sure we will all be friends.

Reading goals 2019

bwahahaha Happy New Year y'all! I've actually simplified things for my year. My goal is to read 200 pages a day, every day for the year. That's the main thing, as long as I do that, I'm happy.

Really.

That's it.

Seriously, stop looking at me.

...

Ok, fine. I can't resist a complicated system. Secondary goals:

• Read 150 books (100 YA and 50 other) - same as 2018, which I was only 9 books short of...so frustrating.
• Read 12 pedagogy books. One for each month. It's like fiber. It's good for you, and I'm a teacher. So I will just hold my nose and bite...right?
• Here's where things get funky. I own a ridiculous number of books, most of which I haven't read (hence the title of the blog). In my defense, many of them were donations and gifts or just things I picked up on clearance or saved from the dumpster. There are over 200 unread (by me) titles in my classroom library alone. My personal collection is even more daunting. So, one out of every three books I read need to come from my owned but unread collection.
• Additionally, as a teacher I need to keep current and variety is the spice of life. I have access to three different library systems and that's a beautiful resource. So, one out three books must be library borrows.
• The final third can come from anywhere, friends, give-aways, or new buys.

So, yay! New Year. Let's do this rawr!!