Social Distancing Readathon #216 - May 3 - 5

Welcome to another readathon!

We generally run from Friday at 5 p.m. to Sunday at midnight in whatever time zone you choose, but feel free to start earlier on Friday and wrap up overnight Sunday/Monday, if that's what you want to do.

Here are some things to track throughout the weekend, if you choose:

Books read from:
Books finished:
Time reading:
Time posting:
Snacks:
Thoughts:
Non-book activities:

Total books finished:
Total read from:
Total time reading:

Who is participating -

1. SilverWolf (SilverWolf28) -- Tennessee, USA

Mom's finally home!!!! 🎉 She's so happy to be back and we're so glad she is!!!

>2 SilverWolf28:
Wow, that was a long haul. You both have reason to celebrate! Best wishes to your mom.

I’m on for the weekend read-in.
Back home again and just started
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.

I'm in, it's already 5.30pm Friday here and after I sort out dinner I'll be reading from 3 or 4 books including The Running Grave.

>2 SilverWolf28: Oh, that is wonderful!

I am in again, as much as I can be.

>2 SilverWolf28: yippee! Happy for both of you.

>2 SilverWolf28: Wonderful news! Home is the best place to be!

I’m in too. I’ve worked in the yard all week and my body needs the break. I’ll be reading from Florence Adler Swims Forever, and Assistant to the Villain

I'm in - currently reading The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard. I'm still in "rehabbing from knee replacement surgery" mode, so plenty of time to read.

>7 Carmenere: I liked Florence Adler, Lynda. I hope you do too!

Looking forward to 5 o'clock!
I have a LOT to read with two bookgroups meeting next week and I'm now in heads-down prep for a trip to France (reading-wise):
- Sapphira and the Slave Girl didn't start out with my favorite words, but it's not long and apparently an essay by Toni Morrison called Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination may help balance out the experience.
- Will also be reading Walter Mosley's Touched for a local SciFi bookgroup.
And then expect to listen to and read physical books I picked up about the Normandy D-day landings. I'm way behind the LT challenges I enjoy following, so ... yes, count me in!!

I'm in for the weekend. I plan on spending a great deal of it reading.

Friday start-up
Books read from: Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability by Amy Chua. I am close to finishing a reread of Witchshadow by Susan Dennard and I started Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan Mcguire. I am listening to, and about to finish She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper.

Books finished: None so far, but I am close on two.

Book Thoughts: I picked up Witchshadow at the library last weekend. I didn't think I had read it but LT says I read it back in early September of 2021. I rarely reread books and I almost always remember books I have read. I don't remember reading this one, but at the time I was so busy I might not have remembered anything I read. Anyway, I am enjoying this reread. I had lots of errands to do today and the traffic around town is horrible. It is graduation weekend at UA and they claim that there are going to be 5,000 graduates. Combine that number with all the parents, grandparents, and other family members and that makes for a very profitable weekend for many of the businesses around town. It makes driving and eating out miserable for the residents. Almost as bad as a football weekend.

Non-Book activities: I mailed off my graduation present to one of my young cousins who is graduating from high school. I told her that since was a high school graduate she was ready for adult romances. I gave her a copy of Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye and recommended that she read the Wikipedia biography of Kaye. Then when she was done reading Far Pavilions she should start on the Raj Quartet by Paul Scott and read the Ibis Trilogy by Amitav Ghosh. I figured that these books would open a whole new world for her. At the very least, she will know more about the wars in Afghanistan than most people.

Time reading today: 1 hour
Time reading this weekend -
Time listening: 1 hour while doing errands around town.
Time posting:

Food: my usual breakfast today. yogurt and fruit. tomorrow I will be cooking a carrot and millet salad for the Wine Club meeting.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 416
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1178 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon in April of 2020.

11am Sat morn in Auckland, New Zealand

Books read from: Memory by Philippe Grimbert, Bullseye Bella by James T. Guthrie, Bookshop Dogs by Ruth Shaw
Books finished: 1 Memory
Time reading: 3hrs

Snacks: latte & date scone
Thoughts: Stuck on Grimbert's book and the family secret
Non-book activities: Quick trip out this morning with my son to find sauerkraut & zaatar for a couple of recipes he wants to make.

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 3hrs

Friday Night Update:

Books read from: Night Train to Memphis by Elizabeth Peters (audiobook), Jewish Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt, The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham, Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley, and Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3.95 hours + listening to audiobook

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 7
Total time reading: 3.95 hours + listening to audiobook

>9 alcottacre: So far, so good, Stasia!

Friday night update:
Books read from: Florence Adler Swims Forever
Books finished:
Time reading: 2 hours off and on

Snacks: Rigatoni with mushroom Garlic Marinara - No snacks
Thoughts: The Cavs are intimidated by the Orlando home crowd. And Mitchell is the new LeBron, seems no one else scores but him.
Non-book activities: Watched the Cavs game

Total books finished:
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 2 hrs

Sat. Morning

Books:
Just finished the amusing Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.
Now starting The Chaos Agent in the Gray Man series.

I need a new audio book.

Gray and raining here in North Carolina, even some thunder. I plan to read all day and maybe catch up with postcrossing. Good leftovers for dinner so no one has to cook. Dishwasher broke down, however, so we’ll be washing dishes till Monday when it’s due to be repaired.

>2 SilverWolf28: That's fantastic news! So happy for you all.

Friday Evening

Books read from: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 50 minutes
Snacks: cashews, banana
Non-book activities: attended an orchestra concert

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 50 minutes

>15 Carmenere:
I have Florence Adler Swims Forever on my TBR list. I can't wait to see what you think of it when you finish.

>16 nrmay:
The Vera Wong books are getting lots of good buzz here on LT. I need to check and see if the public library has them.

>18 lottpoet:
I have that book Black Sun and its sequel on my TBR list. I will be interested to see what you have to say about it.

Saturday evening round-up
Books read from: Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability by Amy Chua. Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan Mcguire. Rose For Winter by Laurie Lee. I finished listening to She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper and started listening to Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.

Books finished: Witchshadow by Susan Dennard. She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper

Book Thoughts: I finished rereading Witchshadow last night and it truly was like reading a book for the first time. I didn't remember anything from the book. That is sad because it was a very good YA fantasy. I finished listening to She Rides Shotgun and it was a very good mystery/suspense thriller. It is the authors debut novel and it was good. This book was an Alex Award winner in 2018 and I think that award for this title is problematic. There is no doubt that this is a good novel and it is one that I will encourage people to read. However, given the climate in today's schools I don't think I would put this book on a high school library shelf. The reason is that there is lots of violence in it. The violence is realistic but I am sure that there is a group of people out there who would not like to see high school student reading this book. The Alex Award is a list of 12 adult books published each year that would be suitable for High School students to read. I think that this title is suitable for High School students to read, but it might not be suitable to place in High School libraries. (Isn't that a weird stance to take?) Instead of having the book on the shelves I would not hesitate to give the Alex list to students and tell them to visit the public library to get the book. That feels like shoving the censorship problem off onto the public librarians, but I also feel strongly that parents have the rights to question what their children are reading. People under 18 are children. Public Libraries have to supply books for all ages so their mandate for service to all groups would make it easier for them to allow High School students to read this book.

Non-Book activities: I went to a Mexican supermarket with a friend. It is in Birmingham and I loved it! It was crowded. I suspect that was because people were shopping and making party preparations. I haven't seen so many fresh or dried peppers since I moved from Dodge City, Kansas. I ate lunch at the buffet counter inside the store and finished with a coconut popsicle. It was a delicious time.

Time reading today: 1 hour
Time reading this weekend - 2 hours
Time listening: 1 hour
Time posting:

Food: I had pozole and Mexican spaghetti. I also had a green sauced casserole. The tamales were gone by the time I got ready to eat them. I also purchased some baked goods for tomorrow morning.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 418
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1180 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon in April of 2020.

Saturday Night Update:

Books read from: Night Train to Memphis by Elizabeth Peters (audiobook), Jewish Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt, and The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Books finished: 1, The Librarianist
Time reading: 2.65 hours + listening to audiobook

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 7
Total time reading: 6.9 hours + listening to audiobook

Saturday

Books read from: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, Black Butler I by Yana Toboso
Books finished: Black Butler I by Yana Toboso
Time reading: 50 minutes + ?
Snacks: cashews, banana, turkey wings from the crockpot
Non-book activities: wrote more of my novel, watched Steven Universe, did some stretching exercises in the morning, played Knitten on my phone

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 50 minutes + ?

Saturday update:

Books read from: Listened to North Woods, read Florence Adler, Assistant to the Villain
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 1 hr

Snacks: popcorn at the movies
Thoughts: I'm sad, not much reading done today
Non-book activities: Saw The Fall Guy at the theater

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 3 hrs

Sunday evening round-up
Books read from: Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability by Amy Chua. Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan Mcguire. Rose For Winter by Laurie Lee. I am listening to Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.

Books finished: Witchshadow by Susan Dennard. She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper

Book Thoughts: I read about 40 pages in World on Fire today and find the author making a very good case for her thesis. This book is proving to be the opposite of what Friedman said in Lexus and the Olive Tree. I am also reading in Lost in the Moment and Found and think this is an important book for school libraries to have. This series, Wayward Children, of twisted fairytales by Seanan McGuire is an important one for middle school and high school libraries to have on the shelves. However, I am sure it will be a controversial choice for a librarian to put on the shelves for students. I sincerely hope that school librarians find the courage to add this series to their collections.

Non-Book activities: Visited with a friend about her decision to move closer to her children. I am concerned that she has unrealistic expectations about their abilities to come and visit with her and to possible take care of her as she ages. She assured me that she is going into this with eyes wide open. I also am grappling with this kind of decision and hope that I am making the right one.

Time reading today: 2 hours
Time reading this weekend - 4 hours
Time listening: 1 hour
Time posting:

Food: I had my usual Sunday Fare - a Starbucks hazelnut cappuccino and one of the baked pastries from my Mexican bakery expedition of yesterday.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 418
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1182 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon in April of 2020.

Sunday Night Update:

Books read from: Jewish Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard, Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley, Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare by James Shapiro, Absolution by Alice McDermott, and The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 4.35 hours

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 8
Total time reading: 11.25 hours + listening to audiobook

Monday postreadthon update:

Books read from: Bullseye Bella by James T. Guthrie, The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith, The Hebrew Teacher by Maya Arad
Books finished: 2 Bullseye Bella , The Running Grave
Time reading: 6 hrs

Snacks: Mongolian Beef with rice
Thoughts: Tired after staying up late reading
Non-book activities: Food prep, watching tv, visit to library

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: 9 hrs

I managed to race through most of The Running Grave yesterday by staying up late. I really enjoy this series still.
Bullseye Bella was a really fun children's book set in the world of competition darts.

>23 Carmenere: what movie did you watch?

I'm working on The Last Plantagenets by Thomas B. Costain. I'd read the first three books in the series but never got to this one. It was one of my mom's favorites, I recall her having a battered paperback edition by her wing-chair. Anyway, I'm thoroughly enjoying it though it is going to be a slow read...there's so much to absorb.

>27 fuzzi: I still have my old book club editions of the Costain books around here somewhere. I probably should re-read them at some point since the last time I read them has to be close to 40 years ago now.

Weekend summary:

Books read from: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian by Robert E. Howard, The Way of the Coyote by Elmer Kelton
Books finished: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
Pages read: 330-ish

Non-reading activities: Doing my knee surgery related PT exercises, lots of icing of said knee. Watched my Detroit Tigers getting swept by the hated Yankees.

Sunday

Books read from: Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse, How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, Our Life Grows by Ryszard Krynicki
Books finished: How High We Go in the Dark & Our Life Grows
Time reading: 50 minutes + ?
Snacks: chocolate covered cashews, vegan black ice cream, turkey wing
Non-book activities: wrote more of my novel, went for a morning walk, played Knitten on my phone, went for ice cream and a long walk with a friend

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 50 minutes + ?

Finished a few this weekend, squeaking in just before the stroke of midnight last night, making for a rougher morning but worth it. Of course! I was reading!!

Books read from: Sapphira and the Slave Girl, Willa Cather (Hardbound); So Late in the Day, Claire Keegan (Libby-Kindle);
D-Day with the Screaming Eagles, George Koskimaki (Audible); The Conquering Tide, Ian W. Toll (Audible).

Time reading:
Fri: oops! I was all set to go then the spousal unit suggested a long movie.
Sat: 7.75h
Sun: 7h

Snacks: Dates. Found some uneaten and had forgotten how yummy they can be. Yes, two days later and I'm trying to make the few remaining ones last!
Thoughts: It's green out the window but the weather isn't making it inviting.
Non-book activities: WWII documentaries and films

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: 14.75h

Weekend round-up
Books read from: Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki. World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability by Amy Chua. I finished reading Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan Mcguire late last night. Rose For Winter by Laurie Lee. I am listening to Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.

Books finished: Witchshadow by Susan Dennard. She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper. Lost in the Moment and Found by Seanan McGuire

Book Thoughts: I finished reading in Lost in the Moment and Found and think this is the best written of the eight books in the Wayward Children series that I have read. This one was gently insistent with a good plot and very identifiable characters. I had previously been interested enough in the series to keep reading the books, but this one was exceptionally well done. I think this is an important book for school libraries to have. I am getting aggravated by my recorded copy of Life After Life because there is something wrong with the CD's. It skips on each disc in the same place and it makes it very hard to figure out the story. It is clear that I am going to have to read most of the book in order to figure it out. Listening to the parts I can listen to will speed up finishing the book, so I will continue to listen, but I am not liking that.

Non-Book activities: I spent longer reading in bed last night so was later getting up this morning. Didn't do much of anything so far today.

Time reading today: 1.5
Time reading this weekend - 5.5 hours
Time listening:
Time posting:

Food: part of one of my Mexican pastries for breakfast and left over coffee from yesterday.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 419
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1183.5 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon in April of 2020.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/360644