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 Progress:
| Number of Books |
4 |
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Books Read |
| Pages Read |
1236 |
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Hunting Ground |
| Time Spent Reading |
8:59 |
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The Lightning Thief |
| Time Spent Blogging |
1:53 |
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Dead as a Doornail |
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The Thief |
I just sped through The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner in less than two hours. If that’s the worst book in the series, as I’ve heard, than I am incredibly excited for the next two, which are conveniently right here beside me. It’s after midnight now but I’m going to start The Queen of Attolia anyway. It’s a little longer, but we’ll see how it goes. That one is possibly my favorite so far, it’s between that and Dead as a Doornail.
I haven’t been participating in too many mini-challenges this time around, but now that I’m making solid progress on my little pile I hope to do so in the next few hours if I can stay awake. I’m beginning to feel a little more alert now, who knows why. Keith is also plugging away at his Tomb Raider game, although we’re not sure what level he’s on. Maybe 13.
Anyway, I also wanted to quickly thank everyone for their kind comments about my great-uncle and for cheering in general. You are all awesome. =)
My progress so far:
| Number of Books |
3 |
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Books Read |
| Pages Read |
956 |
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Hunting Ground |
| Time Spent Reading |
7:10 |
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The Lightning Thief |
| Time Spent Blogging |
######### |
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Dead as a Doornail |
And Keith has hit level 12 of 15 in Tomb Raider.
Of the 3 books I’ve read, I definitely preferred the two urban fantasies. The Lightning Thief was good and fast, but it felt a little empty, if that makes sense. It was humorous, but perhaps too childish for me. Haven’t eaten anything since my last update, either. It’s now a little after 10 pm for us and we’re both getting tired; we normally head to bed around now, so it’s just a matter of pushing through until we get a second wind.
I had an unhappy phone call this hour; my great-uncle passed away today. I didn’t know him very well – in fact I hadn’t seen him since I was a little girl – and his death was not unexpected as he had terminal cancer, but it has definitely put a damper on the evening. I’m hoping to read something fun and start feeling better about life.
I’m getting tired already, so I’m having another break with a cup of tea and an answer to the mini-challenge hosted over at Beth Fish Reads! I’d just love one of her gorgeous lace bookmarks. I just wrote about what I ate – a rice krispie treat, a hamburger, and some Doritos – but I also have some more treats. Crackers and cheese, tortilla chips and salsa, and kiwi are all awaiting me later on. I also have some Reese’s peanut butter cups, but they’re special so I’m not sure I’m going to eat them yet. I’ve been drinking Coke and now am having some tea. I do wish I had some popcorn, but I haven’t found a kind I like here yet.
What foods are giving you energy as the Read-a-Thon continues?
Just spent half an hour checking out how everyone else is doing. It looks like we’re doing well! I think I’ve actually missed the cut-off for Darren’s mini-challenge, but it sounded like fun, so I’m attaching my picture anyway. [A] Scandal in spring compromised the King of Attolia
And here is my progress:
| Number of Books |
2 |
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Books Read |
| Pages Read |
661 |
|
Hunting Ground |
| Time Spent Reading |
4:42 |
|
The Lightning Thief |
| Time Spent Blogging |
######### |
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So far I’ve consumed a rice krispie treat, some Doritos, and a burger! I didn’t manage to eat breakfast this morning, although I did eat lunch, so I got hungry early. Things are going well, I’ve completed two books, and have no idea which of my stack I want to read next. My eyes are already tired, though, so I don’t want to take too long to decide. Keith is stressing me out a little every time he dies in his game (sudden ARGHS!), which has really only started this hour, but overall we are progressing well! I hope everyone else is too.
I didn’t do the intro meme yet! Not so good. Anyway, I have finished my first book, Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs, and I have read so far for 2 hours and 31 minutes. Here’s my neat little graph:
| Number of Books |
1 |
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Books Read |
| Pages Read |
286 |
|
Hunting Ground |
| Time Spent Reading |
2:31 |
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| Time Spent Blogging |
######### |
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Keith is on level six of the first Tomb Raider and has been playing for the same amount of time as I’ve been reading.
And for the intro meme …
Where are you reading from today?
I’m currently at home in Wolverhampton, England.
3 facts about me …
1. I have been married exactly one week today!
2. I wrote a dissertation about Anthony Woodville this summer for an MA in Medieval Studies.
3. I like baking and I wish I’d thought to bake some delicious treats for today!
How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
I have fifteen left. I know I’m not going to read them all, though.
Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
I’d like to read more than 6 books and stay up later than 3 am (a tough one for me).
If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, Any advice for people doing this for the first time?
This is only my second read-a-thon, but so far the advice others have given me has been great: read short, fun books and make sure you have food nearby. And don’t get too distracted by the internet!
I’m off to see how everyone else is doing briefly before I continue with book 2. I think that will actually be The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. The words are huge, so I’m hoping to get through it very quickly.
Final update before I begin! Here is the final stack, plus some snacks.
 And the titles:
- Carry On, Jeeves, P.J. Wodehouse – Always wanted to try one of these and I just got it from the library this morning, so I figured I’d toss it in!
- Smoke and Mirrors, Neil Gaiman – I like Neil Gaiman and I didn’t have any short stories, so this is another library pick.
- Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews – This is supposed to be great urban fantasy, never enough of that.
- Scandal in Spring, Lisa Kleypas – Last in the Wallflower quartet – not the best, but entertaining enough.
- Hunting Ground, Patricia Briggs – Next in the Alpha and Omega series, I believe I am starting with this!
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The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, & The Titan’s Curse, all by Rick Riordan, light YA that I’m hoping will speed by.
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The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, & The King of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner – I am so excited for these YA fantasies and I know I’d like to read them all in a row, so we’ll see if I fit them in.
- Heart’s Blood, Juliet Marillier – adult fantasy that I know will completely absorb me, essential in the read-a-thon.
- Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris – humor. I think I’m saving this for the early hours, if I read it.
- Compromised, Kate Noble – Another romance, something I know will absorb me and help me stay up later.
- Much Ado About You, Eloisa James – see above.
- Dead as a Doornail, Charlaine Harris – this might be number two, if I think I can switch urban fantasy worlds.
And that’s a grand total of 16 books! No way I can read all of them, but I’ll have plenty of choice. Keith is starting his game-a-thon with Tomb Raider, in case anyone is interested, and he wants to get all the way through TRI and start II. I don’t know if we’re going to stay up 24 hours. We’re going to try though! We have all our snacks ready and have had lunch, so we are all set to go.
Good luck everyone!!
 Everything is getting harder for Aislinn, the Summer Queen. She’s finding it harder and harder to resist Keenan, her king, who it seems she is naturally inclined to lust after. Keenan loves Donia, the Winter Queen, and vice versa, but with such opposing natures, these two struggle to make any kind of relationship work. Aislinn still loves Seth and wants to be with him, but he is a human in a faery world and it’s hard on both of them. Aislinn has lost most of her human friends and finds it hard to separate herself from the faery world, making everything more awkward for Seth, who can feel her separation from him. He determines to take drastic measures in an attempt to be with Aislinn forever, not realizing the potential consequences of his choice.
Much of Fragile Eternity is spent on the characters agonizing over one another. A natural, and easy, pairing would have been Aislinn and Keenan, the Summer royalty, who are almost doomed to love one another given the eternity that they are forced to have. Yet both Aislinn and Keenan love elsewhere, hurting both each other and their lovers equally. They can’t stop being drawn together even though they don’t love one another. It is a difficult time for all four people, and Marr explores the tough choices that they have to make with some finesse, even if it feels frustrating. I know I had trouble returning to this book because the relationships were so well drawn and so painful. It was hard to know where the book was going to end up.
Seth’s choice, about halfway through the book, made sense even though I wished it hadn’t come to that. His journey into the world of Faerie was the best part for me. He was finally at peace with his choice, becoming more than frustrated ball of love for Aislinn, and Sorcha is a great addition to the cast of characters. She’s strong, interesting, and simply feels mythical. She adds immeasurably to a book that is largely about tortured lovers by giving the story another outlet. Besides, I always love great worldbuilding and Seth’s journey was a stellar opportunity for Marr to engage in it. I was really looking forward to learning more about the world and I wasn’t at all disappointed.
Overall, I’m not sure this one lives up to Wicked Lovely or Ink Exchange. I think it’s telling that I had to put it aside and take a break from all the angst, and then I dreaded going back to it because I didn’t want the characters to be so unhappy or tortured anymore. To some extent this has always been true of this series, but I really had a hard time here. It also ends in a cliffhanger and the next book isn’t out until 2010. So, I’ll be biting my nails until then! I do plan to continue but next time, I’m going to approach Marr’s books with a totally open and relaxed mind, rather than one which didn’t really need more stress.
This was my first book for Carl’s RIP IV Challenge! I’ve actually completed the challenge now.
 This haunting graphic novel depicts the Holocaust through the eyes of Art’s father, a Polish Jew called Vladek who suffered greatly but survived the concentration camps. Starting with the meeting of his father and his mother, The Complete Maus carries their story through to the end of the horrors, juxtaposed with Art’s present-day life and struggle to appease his elderly father while recording his history before it’s too late. By using animals to represent groups of people (Nazis are cats, Jews are mice, French are frogs, and so on), the author strengthens his allegory and makes this book into an unforgettable and horrifying piece of art.
I hesistated for a few weeks before writing this review. Another review is surely excessive because I’ve seen tons out there. Still, my thoughts wanted a place, and when it comes down to it, this graphic novel hasn’t left me alone yet.
Perhaps what’s most striking about this particular tale is that Vladek is an ordinary old man. In some way, Holocaust survivors are expected to be supernaturally brave, intelligent, and in essence heroes. They are that, but they are also normal people thrust into the worst situation imaginable and forced to cope or die or both. Vladek has undoubtedly been shaped by his experience but not in the best ways. He hoards food, he hoards money, because his world is still uncertain and he knows what deprivation is like. This irritates everyone around him but the saddest part is that he is so normal. It brings home to us the fact that ordinary people were suffered and died for no reason. Vladek is startlingly like my grandpa and that makes the real story even more horrifying than it would have been without the frame. It reminds us how lucky we are, as does Art’s constant struggle with his guilt over his role in his father’s life.
As I’m sure many others have, I have heard a lot of Holocaust stories over my lifetime. I was taught about it in school, given books about it, and chose on my own to read about it on numerous occasions. That doesn’t lessen the impact of this one. Since this one is set in Poland, and there is a lot of running around and hiding before Vladek and Anya are caught, I felt it was a little different than others. The fact that it’s a graphic novel also made a difference. Even in cartoon form, seeing the wasted bodies of the mice is upsetting. The few real pictures added just make a huge impact, reminding us that these were real people.
Overall, this graphic novel is carefully crafted and deeply moving. I don’t want to say something so horrifying is “good”, because that is impossible. Rather, its power and stunning capacity to portray humanity and inhumanity through selected text and drawings makes it worth noting, remembering, and reading.
The sole positive thing about not going on a honeymoon is that I still get to participate in the Read-a-thon! We have a variety of reasons for not going on one right now, but I’m very glad that the schedule coincides so we have something fun to do. We have a few errands to run on Saturday but since it all starts at 1 pm over here, I’m hopeful that we’ll be back in time for the beginning.
As expected, I have far more books in my pile than I could ever hope to read! Last time I read six. This time I have an ambitious 14 in my pile, so I have lots of choice:
 I have a variety of easy reads here. Plenty of YA, romance, and urban fantasy, my genres of choice for fast reading, with an adult fantasy and my first David Sedaris in case I need a change of pace. I meant to read more from the library, but due to a lack of time have decided to mostly stick with what I already have. I’m a bit amused that the only historical titles in the pile are the romances; clearly I require more concentration for regular historical fiction!
In general, our plan is to actually stay up for 24 hours. Since I only read for 12 hours in total last time, I’m hoping to get through more than six books. Keith will not be reading, he wants to take this opportunity to have a game-a-thon of his very own, but we’ll be mostly in it together. I’m hoping to put him in charge of food, but I suspect we will be microwaving. We have two computers, so I’ll still be updating, probably every 2 hours, and I’ll try to visit a few blogs along my way although I’m not signing up to be a cheerleader this time. Maybe next time.
I can’t wait for the fun to begin! Are you participating?
 When Molly Lane dies, two of her friends meet outside a crematorium to express both their remorse and their view of Molly’s last days. Clive Linley and Vernon Halliday are a pair of extremely successful men who at one point or another had an affair with Molly. Molly died in what they consider a horrible way; she just started to lose it suddenly, became ill, and required her long-suffering husband to nurse her. Clive, the most famous composer of his age, and Vernon, editor of a top newspaper, make a pact after Molly’s death that rebounds against them in a way they’d never expected.
On the back cover, this is described as “a sharp contemporary morality tale, cleverly disguised as a comic novel”, and I can’t say it better than that. The comedy to me appears to come from how ridiculous these men are, how they are so wrapped up in themselves that they can’t hear and don’t care about the outside world at all. By the end of the novel, they have each truly become like Molly, lost to the world without realizing what has happened to them. They’ve been overtaken by an illness, and that illness is, according to Ian McEwan, the ills of public society and the selfishness that it takes to ignore the needs and wellbeing of fellow humans while taking care of number one. The disturbing thing is that neither of them realize it; what they’re doing is so normal to them that they don’t understand what’s wrong. They think they’re adding to society when really they’re just adding to the problem.
Anyway, in that way, this novel is so deep in so few pages that it’s hard to say whether or not I liked it. This is one of those books that I want a class on. There’s a lot here to pick at and just writing that paragraph above has helped me clarify it in my mind. I think I could write a paper on it. It’s less than two hundred pages long, so it didn’t take me very long to read, but it packs in so much thought-provoking material in with the ridiculousness of the situation. The worst part is that, when dissected, the behavior of neither of the characters is ridiculous. They’re doing what has been done countless times before and that is eerie and worrying, especially given the extreme dislike I felt for both of them by the end of the novel. Really the problem with the novel is that it isn’t a very good story. The story and the characters exist only to prove McEwan’s point, which is a strong one, but it doesn’t work very well at a surface level.
In conclusion, there is a very good reason that Amsterdam won the Booker Prize. It’s a truly haunting commentary on society that still manages to be slightly ridiculous enough to make it interesting. I haven’t even touched on all the issues here, but I can tell I’m going to continue thinking about this for some time to come. It isn’t as good as a book as Atonement is, in my humble opinion, particularly because it is shallow in everything but its overall meaning. I still think it’s worth a read.
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