The Slice of Life Story Challenge Begins Today!

I almost missed the fact the SOLSC started today. I can’t believe that March 1st has arrived. It has felt like Spring for weeks now. It shouldn’t, but it has. It is a little worrisome.

As I drive home in the afternoon, I head due East. As I come out of the tunnel between Beaverton and Portland, I see Mount Hood. Mount Hood has snow on the peak all year. At this point in the year it should be completely snow-covered and the lower mountains of the Cascades should also be white, but only the  peak of Mount Hood is white and it’s base and the surrounding Cascades are black. While the East is being inundated with snowstorm after snowstorm, we are having a dry, sunny winter. It has been bad for the snow tourism industry, but great for those of us who walk our dogs daily.

As I come out of the tunnel, I also experience an optical illusion. Mount Hood appears huge. As I drive further along and begin crossing the Willamette River on the Marquam Bridge, Mount Hood gets smaller. I think it has to do with my elevation and the curvature of the earth, but I don’t really understand why this occurs.

In any case, I wonder if this will be the first year in my 21 years in Portland that Mount Hood will be snow free in summer. I sure hope not.

2015 Hub Reading Challenge Check-in #3

Although I had a very busy week, I managed to finish three Alex Award winners. I didn’t love them all.

My least favorite was Wolf in White Van  by John Darnielle.

This sad and dark novel tells the story of Sean Phillips who lives in isolation due to a disfiguring injury He runs a role plying game from his small apartment in Southern California. As the story unfolds we find out about the trial Sean faces following the death and serious injury of two player. This pulls us back to the moment of his own self-inflicted injury.

Yesterday, I finished Bingo’s Run by James A. Levine.

Bingo Mwolo is small for his age and the greatest drug runner in the slums of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. When he witnesses a murder, he is hidden in an orphanage, where he discovers that life after drug running has just as many scams and tricksters as life in the slums.

My favorite Challenge book this week was  Define “Normal”  by Julie Anne Peters. about two girls–a “punk” and a “priss”–who find themselves facing each other in a peer-counseling program and discover that they have some surprising things in common.

 All three of these had contemporary settings. I think my next read needs to be historical or fantastic.