Books and stuff.

I am going to get this post done today no matter what! (I've been working on it for a week.)

Between XX and XY: Intersexuality and the Myth of Two Sexes, by Gerald N. Callahan.    It wouldn't be doing a disservice to readers had this book been longer.  It was mostly science (hurrah, science!), but it could have gone into more depth.  I was really hoping for more discussion on the historical interpretations of sex and gender roles, but that was a pretty small part of the book.  This is a great introduction to the topic, but not a definitive work. 

Big League Sports, by Activision.   We played this at last week's Library Arcade.  This has lacrosse, soccer, football, and a couple other games on it, so it's good because you are getting multiple games on one disc.  It works for 4 players as well.  The kids seemed to be struggling with some of the controls, though.  That may have been a fluke, but they are usually pretty adept at mastering the moves for each game.

The Wish List, by Eoin Colfer.   I love Eoin Colfer.  It doesn't matter to me that I don't know how to say his name.  I love him.  This is a good story that has the potential to raise some good questions for readers, but isn't too heavy-- definitely for an early teen/tween audience.
Having said that, this feels like pretty early work, before he really developed his storytelling style.  It's a good story, but not the super spectacular that readers have come to associate with his name. 

Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers: Food for Thought: The Complete Book of Concepts for Growing Minds, Gus and Button, One Lonely Sea Horse, Fast Food, and How Are You Peeling?: Food with Moods.    I read all these again looking for an idea for International Edible Book Day, which was April 1.  I had a great idea (not related, actually, to anything in these books), but I had a technical problem with the main part of the cake, so we just ended up with cupcakes.  Still, cake is cake.

Moving Pictures, by Terry Pratchett.  Meh.  I'm not feeling the love.  We're in a section here where the world is still developing, but the books are too heavy on the parody, with not enough original content.  We'll get there.
Side note: this is one of those (p)rebind copies from Paw Prints, and it did that thing again where the middle bit used for binding eats up too much of the paper and you have to flay the book open to get at the words.

Finally, last week Friday marked one year since when I started counting down my estimated lifetime reading.  Instead of the 104 books a year (2 books a week) I had hoped for, I was able to power through 142. (!!!)  That's an extra 38 books, or 36% more.  I also read ("read") 48 picture books.  I'm doing quite well.  This does not count the books I didn't finish-- even those books that I read more than half of.  Two chapters here, 50 pages there; they add up, too, but aren't getting counted toward my total.

So hurrah! 9,278 to go!