Day: November 30, 2024

Books Read in November 2024

* book group selection | bolded means favorite

Picture Books

*Noodles on a Bicycle by Kyo Maclear and Gracey Zhang
*We Who Produce Pearls: An Anthem for Asian America by Joanna Ho and Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya
*Built to Last by Minh Lê and Dan Santat
*Mama in the Moon by Doreen Cronin and Brian Cronin
*My Daddy Is a Cowboy: A Picture Book by Stephanie Seales and C. G. Esperanza

*The First Week of School by Drew Beckmeyer

To me, this felt like a subpar self-published Kindle book. But the rest of book group really enjoyed it.

Middle Grade

*How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger
*Island of Whispers by Frances Hardinge and Emily Gravett
*Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better by Mylisa Larsen
*Tree. Table. Book. by Lois Lowry
*Puzzled: A Memoir about Growing Up with OCD by Pan Cooke

*The Secret Library by Kekla Magoon

This was great escapist reading after November 5. It’s also a sneaky historical fiction.

Young Adult

*Pearl by Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie
*Libertad by Bessie Flores Zaldivar
*The Forbidden Book by Sacha Lamb

*When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson

Alas, slog city. And I was looking forward to it.

Young Nonfiction

*Thomas Jefferson’s Battle for Science: Bias, Truth, and a Mighty Moose! by Beth Anderson and Jeremy Holmes
*Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games by Samuel Sattin and Steenz
*Narwhal: Unicorn of the Arctic by Candace Fleming and Deena So’Oteh

Grownup Fiction

The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
The Girl On Legare Street by Karen White

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim

The thing I want to gush about is a spoiler, so I won’t. But know that I am gushing!

Hiroshima in the Morning by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto

I found this through Pearl, by Sherri L. Smith and Christine Norrie. It’s an engrossing memoir of time spent in a foreign environment, strain on a marriage, and choices the USA made in the early 2000s.

Skin & Bones by Renée Watson

Watson crams so much into this novel. And yet it never feels crammed.

Grownup Nonfiction

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

One Week in January: New Paintings for an Old Diary by Carson Ellis

This is a very niche book, but I’m the niche, so I loved it. Like Ellis, I also moved to Portland in the early 2000s. Like Ellis, I made friends, ate bagels, and did things. It was fun to notice the subtle nuances that her eight days of journal entries caught, like checking your email and being disappointed when there wasn’t any.

This is a great time capsule view of being mostly unencumbered, creative, and looking for a place in the world.

Central Library Visit

I had a bit of time on a Saturday afternoon (thank you, 9/80 day off) so I stopped by the Central Library to check out how it looked after the renovation. It’s very beautiful and quite different, while retaining the flavor of the previous incarnation.

For one thing: soft seating. This was something I’ve wished the library had ever since I visited the big Seattle Public Library and enjoyed comfy chairs. All the renovated and refreshed libraries will have soft seating. There’s a general feeling that people are less agitated when soft seating appears. They aren’t uncomfortable while sitting on top of the other problems they may have.

Sightlines are very different. In the picture above most of the floor area had stacks that were taller than me. There are a few places where I did find traditional-height stacks in the building, but most of the books on the floor area are housed in bookshelves no taller than 4 feet high. This improves sightlines for all.

Bathrooms. I didn’t take a picture, but the bathroom renovations are top-notch. There are many toilets, each has its own floor-to-ceiling door. The sink area is shared by all. There is no door to the bathroom, so it’s easy to see what’s going on in the bathroom (outside of the toilet cubicles). For people who like a gender-specific experience, there are men’s and women’s restrooms on an upper floor.

Overall, this feels very much like a library that is primed for the future. Nicely done!

I also looked up my family in this 1955 city directory. For some weird reason, my grandparents weren’t listed, but my great great uncle was.

There he is: Anastas, Tom 7505 SW 64th. I looked up “clk” and it means “clerk.”

I find it weird that there are places of employment listed in the city directory (Adriano Ancheta was a baker at the Bohemian Bakery) and home addresses, but no phone numbers.

I also love the name Aloysius Amzurfluh. Do you suppose he had a nickname? Aloysius is Antares’s middle name.