I recently went off my headaches meds to see if my daily pill was causing another problem, and I had a week of feeling like my head was caving in. I had to call in sick one day, and I watched 3 movies. I was lying on the couch, thinking, all this free time, and I'm watching TV like a dummy. And I had a copy of The Bright Sword, which I've so been looking forward to! I just can't read much when my head aches, and it was kind of a bad month for it, even before messing with my medicine.
I'm running late on two books that I checked out TWO MONTHS AGO and the headaches didn't help. I checked out Sharks in the Time of Saviors (Kawai Strong Washburn) and Hula (Jasmin Iolani Hakes) for AAPI (or I've seen it called Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander) month. That's in May! I didn't expect to finish them both bc I had other things checked out, but I thought I'd have them done by the end of June. Now, I think I'm going into the first week of August. Sharks is about a family whose little boy was saved from drowning when a shark carries him back to the boat in its mouth. Later, he shows signs of having healing powers. His parents have to try to figure out what it means, his siblings are growing up in his shadow, and when he grows up, he has to try to figure out what he can do.
Hula is the story of another Hawaiian family, focusing on a girl named Hi'i. She's Hawaiian but has red hair and green eyes. I figured for a long time that she must look like her absent father but.... it's more complicated than that. She wants to dance hula, but there are questions about what it means to be Hawaiian, or Hawaiian enough. Colonialism messed everything up. It's explaining alot of Hawaiian history along the way too. I knew that hula was more than a dance, that it tells stories, but there's traditions, and, apparently, lots of rules too. I'm looking forward to finishing it. SOON.
Both are good books, but they aren't easy or short. I liked Sharks in the Time of Saviors and now I'm more than half through Hula and it's really interesting too, but it's going slow. Fingers crossed I'm almost done. I've got The Bright Sword and The Sicilian Inheritance waiting.
I have read other things since May. I recently, finally read All Systems Red (Martha Wells) on a friend's recommendation/insistence, and I really liked it. And it was short and easy, so just what I needed. I also listened to A Wizard of Earthsea, my first Ursula K Le Guin. I've been meaning to read her for forever. I wasn't as blown away by it as I expected to be, but I'll try another title. I think that, like with many classics, I've read echoes of it in many other books.
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