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Uh-oh! It's getting down to the wire and I have two and a half books to go. Yipe! I'm really struggling with Ninefox Gambit, my loves. It's so intense and it's so hard to read something to read text that is a block of words you recognize, but some of those words do not mean what you think they mean. Really, all of scifi has bits like that. It's just that after awhile, the reader adjusts and it lets up. This one is NOT letting up. Novellas Confession, this section was completely rigged because Every Heart a Doorway was one of my favorite books from last year. I did not know then that it was a novella, nor did I care. To be fair, I read all of the nominees and, I could cry, because some of them are SO GOOD. Runtime was everything for me. If you say science fiction story, Runtime is exactly what I think of. It's perfect. It's awesome, it  was soooooo good. I loved The Dream-Quest of Villett Boe because it featured a middle-aged woman on a quest wi...

The Nebula nominees keep coming and I keep knocking them down! So far, I haven't really run into anything I have found so undesireable that I have been unable to finish it. I realize that some things are not going to be to my taste, and I am not going to beat myself up for not finishing them. The novellettes were not a problem. Also, how cute is the word "novellette"? I read some really great stories in this category. "The Long Fall Up" is simply mind-blowing with the idea that a woman so wants to give birth under her own terms that should would steal a spaceship and take off-knowing that she would be alone for delivery. Wow. "Sooner or Later Everything Falls into the Sea" is another modern fairy tale that I just loved. Seriously, Sarah Pinsker just made the LIST (the list of new authors I have discovered while doing this project). "Blood Grains Speak Through Memories" is unlike anything I have every read in my entire life, it freaked m...

This post is my progress report on my self-challenge to read all of the 2017  Nebula nominees! So far, I have completed the short story category and most of the the novelettes. I have 3 novellas and 3 novels to go. Nebula Award Nominees 2017- Short Stories What fun! I would never have read any of these stories on my own, although I expect some of these will show up in some future anthologies. I have one personal gripe, and this will come up again in another category, and that is the death of the horror genre. Because they have just killed "horror" and lumped scary stories in with science fiction and fantasy, we get stories like Sabbath Wine trying to compete with Our Talons Can Crush Galaxies and it's not fair. It really is apples and oranges. Don't believe me about horror? Go find the horror section in the Barnes and Noble. Go ahead, I'll wait.       Griping over, this selection of stories was AWESOME and heavy on the fantasy stories. Seasons a...

I am on a mission to read all of the Nebula Award Nominees before the awards are presented on May 20th. This was prompted by the fact that I see these awards all of the time and I have only recently gotten hooked on science fiction so I think it is important to understand what the community thinks is the best of the best. I plan to do the exact same thing for the Hugos, but I have time. Unlike childrens' book awards, in which awards do not in any way equal popularity, readers seem to like to award favorites. It's no secret I am just crazy about N.K. Jemisin and her writing. Honestly it is because of she and Kameron Hurley and Becky Chambers and Jacqueline Koyanagi and Charlie Jane Anders and John Scalzi and James S.A. Corey (both of them) that I find myself absolutely loving this genre. I have NO desire to go back and read early science fiction with dorky cartoon covers featuring sexy aliens and white dudes holding Jetson-esque blasters. I want to read forward. I like wher...

I think my first readathon went very, very well. I'm not just thinking about what I read or how much I read but about the day in general. It was gorgeous weather, I had very few distractions, and I was able to stay on track with only two breaks. The first was to go food shopping (it had to be done, People!) and then second to attend an event at the local B&N where they were introducing new tabletop games. I only stayed for one round of Kodama, but it was soooo much fun. The readathon was already a success because I didn't set a book limit or minimum page count restriction on myself. I had a stack to choose from and read what I wanted when I wanted to. All day! Success! I think I also managed to post about 7 readathon themed posts on IG and this will be the 3rd blog post. There was also a donation made to Room to Read, and I honestly didn't know about  that until the last minute so I gave what I thought was fair. I'll be better prepared in October! The Stuff ...

I woke up at 7:55 this morning and JUMPED into the readathon. I have faced several setbacks such as trying to read before the morning coffee had kicked in (words? What are words?), a storm blew through last night that left debris all over my outdoor reading"lounge" and that all had to be cleaned, and my Kindle is currently on "gasping for life" battery-wise. I'm taking a break to recharge the device and myself mentally as I meditate mostly every day and I skipped it this morning. So far I have finished 2 graphic novels, one novel, a short story, and am about 25% in on a Kij Johnson novella. After a break, and some lunch, I will get back up to speed. That is my reading level check in but what I am REALLY accomplishing is spending a whole day reading! I have found my new favorite short story of 2017- The City Born Great by NK Jemisin. Can I just take a minute here and say how grateful I am to live in a world (and a dimension) in which N.K. Jemisin not only ...

Reading | by Moyan_Brenn Reading | by Moyan_Brenn via Flickr This being my first readathon, I thought perhaps I should list my goals because I tend to forget what the big picture is. I can just imagine me  around 2pm on Saturday, running up and down my street sceaming "Read ALL the books!" In order to keep things sane, I want to set some goals for myself. I began preparing by watching a lot of vloggers on Youtube lay out their TBR's. This was awesome because I realize now that the readathon is a lot looser in structure then I originally thought. For example, I see a lot of readers who are working on finishing a novel but stopping with a 100 pages or more to go with the goal of finishing during the Readathon. Okay! That works for me. The bad side effect of watching the videos is that I keep adding up more and more titles to my own TBR. Sigh. The Goals I can read as much or as little as I want. The point here, for me, is to actually enjoy a full 24 hours of doi...

Read about the Readathon here . I have actually never done one before and am super excited to use this as an opportunity to get my TBR stack down AND to use the patio furniture I just drug out of storage and hosed off. Double win! I had dedicated April to reading middle grade chapter books, and poetry BUT I started reading other things instead. I have to admit my library system does the WORST job of buying poetry, so I'm out of luck there unless I buy some and .......meh. I'm going to throw together a nice stack to read. Oh, and I'm super excited about Fig and Thistle's Instagram Challenge ! Here it is: I'll be back with a TBR post later, also I will be all over IG with this.

I know, I know, 2016 is not exactly over just yet but I feel pretty confident that the short story collection I'm reading right now will hold me until the 1st. 2016 was a terrible year in many respects, but it was pretty great for reading. In 2016 I discovered the Awkward Yeti, Sarah Anderson, and Bitch Planet. I also found a ton of Booktubers I just love to follow. My TBR list has grown to astronomical levels. I also read 101 books. I made it about 80% on the PopSugar Challenge and about 90% on the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. I will try harder next year on those. I am also going to read a lot more nonfiction....more on this later on my planning for 2017 post. If you would like to see what I read this year, follow me on Goodreads! Or check this out. When choosing my top 10, I hold them up to a harsh criteria. I had to rate them really high right after reading them, they had to make the world disappear while I was reading them, and I still have to remember them months l...

I'm not what you would call a structured reader. I had complete freedom to read whatever I wanted as a child and to read whenever I wanted. No one had to force me to read or to build time into my day just for reading. Maybe this is why I have such a hard time completing challenges. I just can't read something if I feel like "they" are making me read it. Screw the man! So, to build up my muscle, I'm going to try a couple of the bookstagram mini-challenges. I love Halloween most of all, so it makes sense to start in October. Day One of #hauntedbooktober (instagram) was easy- ghost stories, but Day Two required a shot of my TBR list and well, grr..... So, here is a pic of what is on my radar to read in October. I just want to point out that I did absolutely want to read some scary stories this fall, so some of those have come in and they are pictured. There are more that I am considering reading. Also, I have to mention that I am working on creating a Tween S...

I don't know what it is lately, but I am just filled with the urge to READ ALL THE BOOKS! via GIPHY I suspect it is because I have stumbled upon the world of  Booktube and all of the magical creatures that live there. Add in the fact that I have found it IS possible to be on the treadmill and not listen to music but watch videos instead opens up this whole world of watching people talk about what they are reading and why. The hardest part was finding readers who have similar reading interests as me and who live in my country (although, that is not super important). So far I have only gone crazy trying to find a book that isn't yet published in the US once. But I've been burned and am now wiser. So, who to watch? Well, like choosing underwear, that's deeply personal for all viewers/readers but I will share a few of my favorites and the number one type of book vlogger I avoid. Several blog posts just like this one introduced me to the world of booktube, so I am hap...

I had originally planned to make September all about women who write SciFi and Fantasy, or a blending of both a la N.K. Jemisin, who I believe is a goddess. Except, you know, life happened. I did manage to read this and I have to tell you, it's frakking awesome with a capital A. It helps that I was in the middle of a big life change and needed something light and engaging. The crew of the Wayfarer are basically the construction workers of the universe. They create wormholes that will be used as shortcuts on the highways of space travel. We begin with the addition of Rosemary, a human, to the crew in the position of clerk. The crew is an stew of different species, all of whom have interesting back stories and multilayered personalities. The plot moves along really quickly, even the overarching plot of traveling across the universe to a newly recognized alien government to create a wormhole happens in a timely manner. Nothing is drug out here, and while I normally do not mind a...

After taking quite a bit of time off, I have decided I miss blogging terribly and shall return with: NEW FEATURES! PROGRAM IDEAS! REVIEWS! CHALLENGES! I am also toying around with the idea of starting a book vlog. Do you have a favorite one I should check out?

  I've been slacking in the old decorating department (never my strong suit). I think I had my Historical Reads display up for  *hides face in shame* a few months.  So, in honor of National Poetry Month, my BFF came up with this great idea, which I promptly "stole with permission". The banner reads "April is National Poetry Month" and it was a pain to make. I used the Ellison to cut letters and Publisher to create patterned triangles. Unfortunately, the backs of the triangles are book pages ripped from a book that happened to feature at least one curse work per page. Not that I think anyone is going to read the back of my banner-but just in case, I sat with a pencil and scribbled out the dirty words like a boss. The books on display are flagged with charming bookmarks I whipped up. The Insta-Poem is a pizza pan (the only magnetic sheet we had at home), some magnetic poetry printed on magnetic paper and cut out, and the bottom of...

We All Looked Up By Tommy Wallach 3 out of 5 stars This one has been on the To-read list for a long time, and it finally came into the library and I was the first to check it out. I wanted to love it. I liked it, but I didn't love it. It could be that I am just so OVER end of the world stuff, but read this anyway. I have this classification system in my mind for dystopian books: before the event, during the event, immediately after the event (up to two generations), and way after the event (three generations and more removed). Sometime a book straddles the line, like The Stand. We All Looked Up is in the "before the event" category. The first half of the book had me really interested. I was invested in the characters, I was on board with the coming event (although I would have liked to have seen more about how the government was handling it), and I liked the set time frame....

Shutter By: Courtney Alamdea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Challenge: DAC 2015 YA horror is tricky. Actually, the horror genre is tricky. What is truly scary to one person is laughable to another. Shutter is different. It's actually good, but in addition to that it's exciting. Shutter reminded me of Vampire Academy (hunting in teams), Rot and Ruin (excellent world building), and Die Hard (a little bit). Here's the thing, just read it and ride the adventure out. The plot twist is visible from miles away, Micheline presses her fingernails into her palms way too many times, and there's a priest out there with a prayer that was only important in one chapter...but hey. These are little things. Overall, its a thrilling read with lots and lots of spooky imagery. It's a good read and you don't have to wait to October to read it.

I'm about to hit you with a group game that 1. costs very little money to make 2. sounds a lot harder than it actually is. Ready? Okay! This summer we will be playing Seize the City. It's modeled after my game Seize the Castle. The only thing changing here are the trivia questions will now be super hero themed and instead of a castle in the center, there will be a "city". Something akin to this: Image borrowed from Etsy for visual aid purpose only. My teen volunteers will actually be making the city from scratch and it will look however they want it to :)  Because this game already exists in castle form, you will just have to use your imagination. And because NO Thing is really original here is what started me on the path to Seize the Castle greatness: http://www.ellenjmchenry.com/homeschool-freedownloads/math-games/stormthecastle.php The Game: You will need: Up to 20 players 2 mats with grids taped out on them 1 cardboard/foam core castle (or city, fo...

This afternoon we met for our Pete the Cat Party!  I read Pete the Cat's 4 Groovy Buttons and Pete the Cat and the Bad Banana. Then we played a game. On the recording The Big Silly with Mr. Eric (Litwin), Eric reads Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes. I grabbed construction paper in white, red, blue, and brown and just threw them willy nilly on the floor. I had everyone start on a white paper. Honestly, the kids know this story by heart, so it was super fun. I told them that silly things were about to happen to Pete's shoes, and they had only a few seconds to jump to the correct color or they would have to come up front and sing the song with Miss Kristie.  After the game we did a guided Pete the Cat drawing exercise . They enjoyed that way more than I thought they would and spent 20 minutes coloring in their pictures and/or adding items to the picture. Crafts are kind of beat lately. I'm not sure why, but I'm not going to kill myself making a craft no one wants to m...

Our first Toddler Dance Party was this morning and it WAS AWESOME! Everything I read before doing this program seemed as though the party should not last longer than 25 minutes. I think the kids could have danced for waaaaay longer than that. Altogether, with book and music it was 35 minutes long, but I will shoot for 45 next time. How it went: Set up- I created the playlist days ahead of time. Narrowing down the songs was easy, pacing them (fast, medium, slow) was MUCH harder. I didn't want to tire everyone out or make them bored. I went for balance.  We began with rules and a book. Now, I hate rules, but I wanted to stress that this was a party and not a class- so if Little Suzie wandered out of the rectangle, no big deal. If Little Steve refused to hand in his egg shaker-no problem. Also, I expected the parents to help collect and distribute props (and they did!) and participate (about half did, some were too busy filming). The book I read was Hop, Hop, Jump by...

It's too soon to tell, but I can't help but wanting to do the happy dance over the idea of dropping themes for my storytimes. It occurred to me this fall, while I was writing up the winter storytime themes for our little in-system publicity newsletter thingy that I spend a great deal of time coming up with themes. I worry: That I do the themes too often (bears again?) That the themes are offensive or hurtful to feelings in any way (holidays? too gender biased?) That, by the time the program rolls around that I  NO LONGER want to do that theme. Maybe I found an awesome new book I can't share because it doesn't fit the theme, or maybe I'm just tired of it (I have been at this quite some time). That the kids rarely CARE what the theme is. Yes, Captain America storytime sounds awesome. Enter the pressure to make that storytime just that: awesome. I can tell you that sometimes parents (and kids) confuse "awesome" program themes with paid events. For e...