Today I had the luxury of spending as much time as I wanted shopping without having to hurry back home to cook supper or do some other chore. However, there is danger in having the time to thoroughly examine everything at The Bookworm and my favorite thrift store. I ended up buying 15 books.

My haul today:

• The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun, by N.K. Jemisin – Ms. Jemisin is an amazing writer. I’ve been meaning to acquire the two books in the Dreamblood series for quite a while but my expenditure allocation has been a bit pinched after my piano required a major tune-up. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find her books at The Bookworm.
• The View from Saturday, by E.L. Konigsburg – This book won the 1997 Newbery Medal. Calvin and I just finished listening to this as an audiobook. It seems a little old for him but he claimed to enjoy it¹.
• From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsburg – This book also won a Newbery, in 1968. I remember reading this when I was elementary school and loving it. Unfortunately, I don’t remember a thing about it now. However, I’ll probably read it again and count it toward my Juvenile Fiction goal.
• Heart of Gold, by Sharon Shinn – I don’t think I’ve read this one before but I’ve enjoyed most of Ms. Shinn’s books so I decided to go ahead and buy it.
• Summers at Castle Auburn, by Sharon Shinn – I have read this one before, I think right after I first moved to Boulder. However, I don’t remember anything about it. I vaguely recall that I enjoyed the book but it was a quick read, not very deep. Sometimes a fluffy comfort book is just what I need so I went ahead and bought it. Hopefully I wasn’t horribly mistaken. :)
• Heartless, by Gail Carriger – So, it turns out I already had this book . . . I try to keep track of all of my books in my LibraryThing catalog but apparently made a mistake. I’m not sure how as Jaeger and I just did an inventory back in October and caught a huge number of books that had never been entered. However, apparently I missed this one.
• Iron Kissed, by Patricia Briggs – It gets better. I bought a copy at The Bookworm and then went to the thrift store and completely spaced and bought it again. On the upside, the thrift store copy is in slightly better shape². This is one of the few paranormal series I like. Patricia Briggs writes very engrossing books.
• The Sugar Queen, by Sarah Addison Allen – Sarah Addison Allen writes lovely books. I read this one a couple of years ago but remember it as a sweet book with a startling end.
• What Angels Fear, by C.S. Harris – This is the first book in one of the few mystery series I really like. The series is set during the regency period in England but has a much different feel than a romance novel set in the regency period.
• A Civil Campaign, by Lois McMaster Bujold – This is one of my favorite Miles Vorkosigan books. Miles picks out his wife but decides to woo her covertly, not even telling his prospective bride he’s interested. This results in a lot of confusion for everyone.
• The BFG, by Roald Dahl – Calvin loves Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I’ve been thinking of trying some other Dahl books but it’s hard to figure out which ones are suitible for a preschooler. A teacher at Calvin’s preschool suggested I should try The BFG so I’m going to read it and then decide whether or not I should introduce it to Calvin.
• Mirror Mirror, by Marilyn Singer and Josee Masse – I don’t appreciate poetry but I feel this is a flaw so I keep trying to introduce Calvin to poetry in hopes he’ll end up more cultured than I am. This poetry picture books is very clever. On each page is one poem and then the poem lines are reversed. That is, the first line becomes the last line, the 2nd line becomes the 2nd to last line and so on. With some punctuation modification, you can end up with two entirely different poems.
• Chinese-English Frequency Dictionary, by Yong Ho – I’ve been dabbling in learning Chinese characters. So far I’ve only learned 70 of the thousands so I have a long, long way to go. I picked this book up because it contains a lot more explanations about how to properly use a word than we have in the other resources we own.

Whew, on to my reading goals.

Books I gave up on (at least for now):

• Realistic Fiction: The Expats, by Chris Pavone – This was an ebook and my loan ran out. I wasn’t motivated enough to check it out again³. Maybe later.
• Juvenile Fiction: Into the Wild, by Erin Hunter – Another ebook I’ve given up on for now because my loan ran out.
• Realistic Fiction: Sushi for Beginners, by Marian Keyes – I don’t have anything against the book, I just got distracted by other audiobooks. Maybe I’ll come back if I get desperate.

Books I’ve finished recently:

• Short stories: Epic – I finished a short story anthology! I’m still not a huge fan of them but this one did have some interesting stories in it.
• Juvenile Fiction: A Confusion of Princes, by Garth Nix – I loved this book. It feels a lot like a juvenile Heinlein novel⁴. I think I’m going to buy it because I think it’ll be a great book for Calvin when he gets a bit older. The protagonist starts as a prince who knows he’s special and better than everyone. The book is a coming of age story when the prince learns how to be a better human.
• Informational: Not My Kid, by Sinikka Elliott – This was a fascinating book. It’s not a book about sex ed or the best way to talk to teens about sex. Instead, the author focuses on the parents’ perceptions of teens and sex. For the most part, the author just interviewed parents. However, there was one amusing case where she talked to a teenager with his mother. The teenager is relating the experience one of his friends had when his mother tried to broach the subject of sex, “He [the friend] was in a moving car with his mom when she asked him — she’s like, ‘I think it’s time to talk to you about sex.’ And he just unbuckled, opened, and tucked, and rolled out of the car . . . ‘”
• Informational⁵: Let Them Be Eaten by Bears, by Peter Brown Hoffmeister – I really enjoyed this book. The book strongly encourages parents to provide many outdoor experiences for their children. I particularly liked the chapter of safety tips. He even provides a suggested adult to child ratio for excursions.

Currently Reading:

• Juvenile Fiction: Crispin: The Cross of Lead, by Avi – I’m on vacation at the moment so I’m mostly reading fluffy stuff. However, I’ve read the first chapter or so of this book and think I’ll probably continue it. It won the 2003 Newbery Medal.

Current Goal Counts: