Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon

 

Well it's a lovely gray and chilly day here in Iowa so pretty much perfect for a Read-a-Thon!  I have a good plan for the day and you can see my stack of books anxiously waiting to be read in my sign up post.   I also scored big time and saw that Alyxandra Harvey's just released book was available at my library!  That one will definitely be devoured today.  She is a serious guilty pleasure.

I'll be checking in on this post every few hours or so and updating. Thus far I was late getting started after a poor night's sleep so not a great beginning but there are no real rules besides have fun. I think I will also keep an eye on the new Goodreads group and see what other things are going on with the other participants.   Now for some coffee and a start to the Little House in the Big Woods!

Man time flies!  It's already past 1:00 in the middle of the U.S. and I feel like the read-a-thon just started.  As such here is my Opening Meme in Hour 7:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Smack dab in the middle of Iowa in the United States.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
This is a tough one.  I am excited to be reading the Little House on the Prairie series for the first time at the age of....old.  BUT I was pretty psyched that Alyxandra Harvey's new release was just sitting at the library waiting for a read-a-thon: Whisper the Dead. It even has a nice Halloweeny ring to it.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I have homemade chocolate chip cookies and Mac and Cheese - it's all comfort food all the time here. 
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
Umm... I grew up in Virginia and never imagined that I would end up living in Iowa.  I'm not sure I could have even pointed it out on the map (it's the one with the boob right in the middle of the U.S.).  

A shirt from the very funny folks at Raygun: http://raygunsite.com/

Top of my list of ways I would not like to die is to be dinner for a predator particularly crocodiles or sharks.  Good thing I live in Iowa, eh?

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
Last read-a-thon I found out that I am an exceptionally slow reader (I think I have trouble focusing maybe) and only got through one book despite many hours of reading.  I've picked some shorter and "easier" books to read this time around.

FIRST UPDATE - 1:30 pm (Hour 7)
I started an hour late at 8:00 am and began with a walk through the woods with the dogs and a non-fiction Audio book - Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan.  Nothing like a story about someone's journey into madness to get the day off to a great start.

I followed that up with and  just finished the first of the Little House Books:  Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  It basically covers a year in the life of the Ingalls family during the year Laura turns 6 years old.  It was lovely and simple and as a bonus gave me some tips for organizing my weeks:

"Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Mend on Wednesday
Churn on Thursday
Clean on Friday
Bake on Saturday
Rest on Sunday"

Time Spent Reading: 4.5 hours
Pages Read: 238
Audio Listened to: 1.25 hours
Books Finished:1
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

SECOND UPDATE - 4:00 pm (Hour 10)

Where is the day going!  I honestly am a little stunned its 4:00 already.  Since the last update, I goofed around online for a bit, ate some lunch and started a new book - Whisper the Dead by Alyxandra Harvey.  It's much fun thus far.

My butt is starting to get a little numb so after a little more goofing off on the web I think I will put in my ear phones and head outside for a little yard work.  It's gotten sunny here, stupid traitorous weather.  It's supposed to be unpleasant outside for all read-a-thons!

Time Spent Reading: 1.5 hours
Pages Read: 87
Audio Listened to: 0 Hours
Books Finished: 0

THIRD UPDATE - 6:45 pm (Hour 12 - Halfway!)
Time Spent Reading: 1.75 hours
Pages Read: 36
Audio Listened to: 1 hour 10  minutes
Books Finished: 0

Mid-Event Survey
1. What are you reading right now?
Whisper the Dead by Alyxandra Harvey and Brain of Fire by Susannah Cahalan
2. How many books have you read so far?
1 finished, 3 total read
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon?
I hope to finish Whisper the Dead  - its a ton of fun!
4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those?
All interruptions have been self caused and haven't really had too many. 
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far?
How fast the day has gone!!

FOURTH UPDATE -  10:30 pm (Hour 16)

I think I did this last time too but I can't resist 'cause they are just so darned cute.  Here are my reading companions as of the 15 hour mark:

They are not doing a lot to encourage wakefulness but are good company nonetheless.  I've had dinner, a little booze, some coffee to counteract the booze and some more good reading.

Time Spent Reading: 2.5 hours
Pages Read: 123
Audio Listened to: 0
Currently Reading: Whisper the Dead by Alyxandra Harvey
Books Finished: 0

FIFTH (and final) UPDATE - 1:30 am (Hour 19)
I took a couple hours off to goof around on line and that got back down to business.  Though I really really want to finish the book I'm reading I have hit that wall.  The wall beyond which no more comprehension happens.  So blech.  I am once again only going to finish one book but it is what it is.  I did up my page count a little.

Time Spent Reading: 1.5 hours
Pages Read: 82
Audio Listened to: 0
Currently Reading: Whisper the Dead by Alyxandra Harvey
Books Finished:0

It's been a lovely night of reading.  Good night all!

TOTALS

Time Spent Reading: 11 hours 45 Minutes

Pages Read: 566

Listening Time: 2 hours 25 minutes

Books Finished:1

Books Read but Not Finished: 2

Read-A-Thon! Read-A-Thon! Read-A-Thon!

 

I was excited to discover that this Fall's Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon concides with my longed for and rather lengthy staycation.  In fact, it is perfectly placed, this Saturday, in the middle of my vacation.  As the time grows closer however, I am a little worried as I seem to be in a bit of a reading slump.  I read so much last month that now I seem to be wanting to do anything besides reading. I've also got a huge stack of books that I want to but haven't gotten around to reviewing.  Adding more to that pile makes me a little anxious. So the overly enthusiastic title of this post is meant to pump me up!  Yay, Read-a thon!...?

To overcome these read-a-thon jitters, I've gathered up a tall stack of books that will hopefully be motivating. I don't really have a theme exactly but I'd like to a) catch up on a series that I missed as a kid (at least in book form) and wish I hadn't and b) indulge in a little re-reading which I don't seem to make time for anymore.  

The series if you can't tell is the Little House series which I'm not sure why I didn't read when I was younger. I'd like to re-read the Narnia series (in chronological vs. publication order) and Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, two of my all time favorites.  Also on the pile is my current read The Pursuit of Mary Bennett by Pamela Mingle.  I am a sucker for Jane Austen Fan Fiction which varies wildly in quality but there are the occasional winners.  I've always felt rather sorry for and interested in Mary Bennett, the least charming and attractive of the Bennett sisters so I snatched this book up as soon as I saw it. Also, to mix things up I threw in the second volume of Y: The Last Man, a graphic novel by Brian K. Vaughan.  I also have a number of books on my i-pod in case I need to get up and move around, as well as a stack on my kindle if everything goes horribly wrong with my current plan.

My strategy here is to focus on (mostly) easy comfort reads.  I'm a slow reader and last read-a-thon, despite a prodigious amount of time spent reading, I finished only one book.  With the stack of shorter, easy reads I hope I can give myself a greater feeling of accomplishment by actually finishing two books!  I will obviously not get through even half this stack but it will be fun trying.

Anybody else participating in the read-a-thon?  What's your strategy?

Top Ten Tuesday - Ten Places Books have Made Me Want to Visit

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish for folks who like books and lists both of which are obviously awesome.  This week's topic is the ten places books have made me want to go. I like to travel and here are a few places that books have played an instrumental role in developing my interest in them. 

1)  Narnia:  This was the very first thing that popped into my head because ever since reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I have always had a tiny little hope that any door that I open will be the door to Narnia.  Someday. 

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”- C.S. Lewis

Bulgarian Mountains

2) Eastern Europe (particularly Bulgaria) and Turkey: This desire was sparked by The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I honestly don't remember about this book and liked it a solid 3 out of 5 stars - nothing spectacular.  It's sort of a DaVinci code like quest involving vampires and such.   Despite my relatively blah feelings about the book over all,  it really made me wish to visit Eastern Europe and Istanbul which I can't say I had much interest in previously.

3) Greece: I was obsessed with Greek Mythology as a kid, especially with the book above.  I have always wanted to visit Greece as a result.

4) Camelot:  In a similar vein as the above, I have always loved the Arthurian Legends probably starting with The Once and Future King by T.H. White followed by everything about Arthur that I could get my hands on.  I have been lucky enough to have fulfilled this desire and have visited the place that is claimed to be "Camelot" (an old wall in the middle of a cow pasture) and I believe all of the sites in England associated with the legends.

5) A Napoleonic War Era British Sailing ship:  This rather odd one is inspired by the Aubrey and Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.  I know that the ships would be crowded, stinking and incredibly dangerous but these books made me wish so badly to be a part of Jack Aubrey's crew.  Even though I am a woman and that would have been weird at the time. 

6) Australia:  I can't say this book was the sole reason for me wishing to visit Australia but it sure made my desire keener AND it's actually a travelogue.  Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country. This is another place that I have actually had the opportunity to visit. Blue Latitudes by Tony Horowitz is also a great non-fiction book that touches on Australia through a focus on Captain James Cook's adventures. 

7) The Outer Hebrides, Shetland and Orkney Islands:  This is a recent place added to the list after I read The Blackhouse by Peter May earlier this year.  This book was set on the Outer Hebrides and didn't exactly paint them as a barrel of fun but nevertheless I was intrigued and when looking them up on a map, I also started exploring the other islands off of Scotland's north coast.  

There are a lot of other places I'd like to go but I think that's all the book inspired places I can think of for now.  What about you?

MINI-REVIEWS: The Case of the Missing Marquess, Cybele’s Secret, and The City of Ember

All three of these books are middle-grade to YA novels, each in a different genre: mystery, fantasy, and science fiction respectively.  I’m reviewing them together because while I liked them all in different degrees, I don’t have much to say about each.  They were all good but didn’t stand out.  In the order I liked them:

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

Original Publication Year: 2006

Genre: Middle-grade, Mystery

Series: Enola Holmes #1

Format: Audio (Audible)

Narrator: Katherine Kellgren

Awards: Edgar Award nominee for Best Juvenile (2007)

Enola Holmes is the younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft.  Enola was a late in life baby for their mother and on her 14th birthday her mother (the Marquess of the title) disappears without a trace.  Calling on her older brothers for help turns out to be a mistake, as they see her as nothing more than an ill-mannered burden and prepare to ship her off to a horrid girl’s boarding school.  Enola is cannot bear to be shipped off and is desperate to know what has happened to her mother so she makes her escape, using a number of disguises to get to London. She then sets out to discover what has happened to her mother (and a young missing duke to boot). 

If I was 10-14 years old I would have eaten this book up and asked for seconds.  As an adult, it definitely felt young and that is what in the end really stopped this from being a great read.  It suffers a little from the problem of Enola being way too young for almost everything that happens in the book, including the circumstances surrounding her mother’s disappearances.  Despite all that fussing, I did find the book charming and the puzzle is intriguing.  I liked it enough that I will definitely be continuing with the series which promises to develop interestingly. 

Final Verdict: An engaging historical mystery series that seems perfectly suited for middle grade readers and only slightly less so for adult readers.    3.4 out of 5 stars.

Cybele's Secret by Juliet Marillier

Original Publication Year: 2008

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Series: Wildwood #2

Format: Audio (library - digital)

Narrator: Justine Eyre

Awards: None

Marillier is known for her retellings of fairy tales and even her original stories have a very folk tale-esque quality to them.  This book was no exception.   In full disclosure I have not read the first in the Wildwood series so this was my introduction to the Transylvanian merchant family with connections to a magical world.  While I do wish I had read book one first I had no trouble keeping up with things - Marillier does a good job throwing in summaries to catch up new readers.  

Much of the action in this book takes place in a historical Istanbul and is focused on an artifact sacred to the ancient Goddess Cybele.  Interest in such an artifact is dangerous in the highly religious Muslim community on Istanbul.  The main character, Paula, is 18 and a scholar and she struggles with a lot of the restrictions placed on women in the Turkish culture.  She is a relatively likeable and strong female lead but I didn’t find her particularly interesting and she does a lot of stupid and naïve things because she’s young and thinks she knows best.  I found none of the characters all that interesting though there is some pretty transparent bait and switch things going on with a couple characters – i.e. they seem stereotypically good or bad but are not what they seem.  The setting is interesting however and there is a really fun obstacle course, Indiana Jones- style contest to wrap up the quest to return the artifact to where it belongs. 

Final Verdict: A perfectly readable, though not terribly remarkable YA book that is part fantasy and a little bit historical fiction.  3 out of 5 Stars.

The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

Original Publication Year: 2004

Genre: Middle Grade, Science Fiction

Series: Book of Ember #1

Format: Audio (library – cds)

Narrator: Wendy Dillon

Awards: A bunch of children’s literary award

This one is a little bit of a challenge to judge.  I didn’t love it but that is because: a) I am not the intended audience and b) part of my dislike was for the narrator who is actually probably fine but her performance was pitched towards 9 year olds.  So for 9 year olds, I think this book has a lot of promise - an interesting premise and mystery. 

Unfortunately for adult readers there are some fatal flaws mostly to do with plausibility.  Many a great book has been built on completely implausible ideas but the internal logic must work and the story has to crack on and be completely absorbing to work.  I think this book lacks both of those.  One flaw,  that is a frequent pitfall for an adult reading children’s or YA literature, is that there is too much agency and authority given to its young main characters (in this book 12 year olds) and adults are marginalized and given no real role.  In The Case of the Missing Marquess this was less annoying because Enola truly has no trustworthy adults to turn to, but in this book there is no good reason for the children not to have enlisted the help of some trusted adult relatives.   The second big issue is the premise itself which upon any kind of reflection reveals itself to just be a spectacularly dumb, flimsy, or at the very least a poorly executed idea.  It is also hard to believe that a society would not have innovated or at least shown the tiniest bit of curiosity in 250 years. 

Final Verdict:  I think this is a pretty good children’s that really doesn’t translate well for adult readers.  I wanted to see what happened enough that I have started book 2 in the series but the problems from book one are just exacerbated.  2.75 out of 5 Stars.

Saturdays in the Garden - Cranes and a Shack in the Woods

LIFE

This week has been crazy but pretty amazing.  I began a lengthy vacation on Wednesday so the early part of the week was all scrambly trying to wrap things up at the office.  Wednesday morning I gave a talk on frogs and toads in northern Iowa and then headed east to Madison, WI where a couple of my friends were visiting because of a conference.  I was feeling a little stressed when I got there but the trip ended up being the perfect way to start the vacation.

Madison, WI is in some ways the epicenter of the origin of modern ecological thought because UW-Madison was where Aldo Leopold spent much of his career and where he wrote his most famous work A Sand County Almanac.  I have spoken of him and this book many times on this blog and it should be apparent that I hold him, and the philosophies of wildlife ecology he developed, in great reverence.  So my friend and I sallied forth, into some of the most gorgeous fall weather, to Baraboo, WI to the Leopold Center and to the shack by the Wisconsin river which features very heavily in A Sand County Almanac. Also in Baraboo is the International Crane Foundation, a non-profit group doing amazing conservation work around the world for cranes including Whooping cranes here in the U.S.  I went into this vacation feeling worn down by the demands of my job and the often felt feeling of fighting a losing battle, so I can't overstate how perfect this trip was.  We ended the trip with a hike around UW-Madison's Arboretum, through the first reconstructed prairie in the world, initiated, of course, by Aldo Leopold.  Here's some pictures,(taken with my phone so pardon the quality):

The Autumn Prairie



Leopold Shack - a converted chicken coop where he and his family spent much time 

The Wisconsin River

Leopold's Pines - they planted many thousands of trees on the farm

Siberian Crane

Brolga - an Australian CRane

Whooping Cranes

Whooping Cranes



Golden-Crowned Crane


GARDEN

We've been getting some cold nights with frost warnings which signals that the peak of the growing season is past for most and my growing season is pretty much over.  I haven't spent much time in the garden the last couple weeks but I do have big plans for it in the next couple weeks - cleaning up beds, harvesting anything that's left (including some horseradish(!), planting garlic and transitioning some of the more delicate potted plants indoors.  If the weather stays as it is now it should be a delight!

BOOKS and the BLOG

My reading has slowed down the last couple weeks but I did just finish and thoroughly enjoyed Bill Bryson's At Home though perhaps not as much as A Short History of Nearly Everything (not surprising since science is my jam:0). I am currently reading Murder in Grub Street by Bruce Alexander which is the second in a mystery series featuring Sir John Fielding and the Bow Street Runners, The Martian by Andy Weir which so far is excellent and should be giving lectures on how to perfectly pace a book, and I just started the second in the middle-grade City of Ember series The People of Sparks which reads very young but is developing some interesting themes.  I've also just begun reading Howard's End by E. M. Forster and hope to spend a little more time with it soon.  Of course some of these may be put on hold (or not) for Dewey's Read-a-thon next Saturday!!  One thing I know I want to tackle during the ReadaThon is the Little House on the Prairie books; I've never read them which is a travesty and a shame.  I'd also like to maybe do a little re-reading which I used to do all the time but don't now for some reason. 

Because of the work craziness and travel and a seriously wounded computer, the blog was kind of non-existent this past week though I did manage one real post:

TUESDAY:  Top Ten Tuesday - Books for People Who Need People.  A list of character driven novels. 

I do also hope to get back on track in the next couple and maybe even ahead. 

SUNDAY October 12: A review post of three young adult/middle grade books.
TUESDAY October 14: Top Ten Tuesday  - Ten Places books have made me want to visit.
THURSDAY October 16:  Dewey's Read-a-Thon sign on and goals post!!
SATURDAY October 18:  Saturday in the Garden AND Dewey's read-a thon progress posts. 

That's it for this week.  I am SO looking forward to having some time off to putter around the house and read.  How was your week?  Anybody else planning on participating in the read-a-thon?  Where is your favorite place to go to be inspired and to rejuvenate the spirits?




Top Ten Tuesday - Books for People who Need People

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. If you like lists and books this is the meme for you!  I really like this week's topic which is all about books with great characters, officially stated as:  "Ten Books For Readers Who Like Character Driven Novels."  Of the three major elements important in fiction, character, story and writing, I definitely rank characters as the element I most want to shine.  All three are really important but I can forgive some weakness in the other two if I am happily spending time with some characters I find interesting.

In consequence, I feel a lot of pressure to choose books for this list that are truly amazing.  Let's see how I'll bear up.... (in no particular order):

1) George R.R. Martin - The Song of Ice and Fire Series

I'm under the impression that there is now a backlash against the idea that Martin is brilliant at writing characters and you know what?  I don't care.  I still think he's brilliant.  By pure dumb luck I picked up A Game of Thrones really early, like before there was a bandwagon, like 1996/1997 early. And that book BLEW MY MIND.  After consuming, and loving, standard epic fantasy for fifteen years A Game of Thrones was a revelation and not just because no character was safe from the ax.  Characters were gray.  We got to see the world from the "bad guys" perspective.  And that perspective was often sympathetic.  Some of his characters I love so much that I have crazy anxiety about their fates (Arya, Tyrion).  Sure he wasn't the first (thinking of Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series for one) and it's become a normal thing now but George R.R. does it really really well. 

2. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The characters and their relationships will delight you and stick with you.  It's one of the strongest elements of an all around strong book that combines mystery, romance, history.

3. Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Bujold is one of the very best at writing realistic and complex characters, especially in the Fantasy and Science fiction realm.  Paladin of Souls is my favorite of hers and it is a fantasy novel but she is probably most famous for her science fiction series, the Vorkosigan Saga and those book's diminutive-in-stature-but-not-at-all-in-spirit hero Miles Vorkosigan.

4. Doc or The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

I'm finding that I want to put authors rather than books on the list.  I feel like some authors are just really talented at writing characters and so all their books tend to have strong characters.  These two books are both excellent and both very different.  In Doc she tackles the iconic figure of Doc Holliday and makes him come to life.  In The Sparrow she creates a group of characters that are unique and always interesting and puts them in extraordinary circumstances. 

5. In the Woods by Tana French 

This is the second time that this book has made an appearance on a Top Ten Tuesday in the last 3 weeks.  I list it here because while it is a fascinating murder mystery it is really all about it's narrator Rob and his partner on the Dublin Murder Squad, Cassie.  As I mentioned before, Rob who has been very likeable for the first 3/4 of the book turns into a complete asshat to a degree that I almost put the book down.  I was flummoxed by why an author would crucify one of her main characters, the narrator no less.  But after finishing the book and reflecting I realized that French had laid the seeds of Rob's asshattery with great subtlety throughout the book.  It was masterfully done and AWESOME. 

6. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

While my experience with YA literature is limited to the last couple years and to books in the fantasy genre, Seraphina has become my gold standard for richly drawn, realistic and interesting characters.  I compare all other YA books to.  It remains my favorite, at least of more modernly produced YA literature.  Except for Harry Potter though I get confused how to classify those - are they YA?  Moving on and speaking of which...

7. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

The thing that Rowling did so well was not just creating a trio of main characters that you love and root for but a whole huge rich cast of characters that are at the heart of the world of Harry Potter.  She also did not shy away from creating some gray characters like Snape who kept you guessing through almost all 7 books.  Honestly the feat of managing them all and never really missing a beat, is impressive.

8. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Ann Patchett is another author who is very good at and somewhat specializes in writing really interesting characters.  I've read two of her books and I like this one best though State of Wonder is also good reading for characters.  Bel Canto has the advantage of putting captors and captives from very different backgrounds together in a house for many weeks.  The reader gets to know many of the characters on both sides and the ending is devastating.

9. Fables by Bill Willingham and many artists

I thought I'd mix things up a bit with a series of graphic novels.  I am pretty new to graphic novels and was super impressed by how vividly and well each of the fairy tale characters is given life.  I was truly wrecked by the last two volumes I've read, the one pictured above and volume 19 Snow White mostly because of how attached to the characters I have become. 

10. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

So many books could go in this last spot but Gone with the Wind is one of my favorite books of all time and it is because of the characters.  Interestingly I read it when I was 15 or 16 and I'm not sure if I would be as fascinated by the characters now which makes me not want to read it ever again.  I just want to hold on to my fond feelings for Scarlett and Rhett and their doomed marriage.  Scarlett is so easy to hate that it always surprises how much I love and admire her.  That takes some serious character writing chops to pull that off. 

That's it for me.  I am REALLY excited to see everyone else's list and am ready to add all sorts of books to me TBR. Bring it on!

Technical Difficulties

My 4 month old computer is in for repairs that will take 2-4 weeks.  *sob*  I am quickly learning just how much I rely on my computer for..well..everything.  I may need to seek treatment myself for computer addiction.  The up shot of this is that the blog will be on hiatus AGAIN for an indeterminate amount of time.  I'm going to go stare at a wall now because I don't know what to do with myself.  Carry on.