April 2014 Wrap-Up

Here's a summary of my book-related activity for April. There was a 24 Hour Read-a-Thon, which allowed me to finally make some progress! On the other hand, there was a Children's Hospital Book Market, which means I also bought more books than usual. I regret nothing.

Books I read (linked to the reviews)

Canadian Government in Transition by Robert J. Jackson and Doreen Jackson (textbook)
The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate (TBR pile)
Namesake by Sue MacLeod (new book)
Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison (re-read)
Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, et. al. (TBR pile)
Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews (TBR pile)
Blind Date by R.L. Stine (TBR pile)

Books I bought

Namesake by Sue MacLeod

Pink by Lili Wilkinson

Books I bought at the Children's Hospital Book Market (they deserve their own heading)

White Tiger
by Kylie Chan

Assassin's Apprentice
by Robin Hobb

WebMage by
Kelly McCullough

Abhorsen by Garth Nix

George's Marvelous Medicine
by Roald Dahl

Zapped in Space
by R.L. Stine

Lady of Avalon by
Marion Zimmer Bradley

Shelf Life by various

Books I won in the Goodreads First Reads program

The Confabulist by Steven Galloway

Progress on challenges

I didn't pick a Random Read this month since I still haven't read my March Random Read.

I read 4 books for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

I completed the following squares for the Book Bingo Challenge: 2 books from my TBR pile, 2 books that are part of a series, FREE SQUARE

I read 0 books for the Diversity on the Shelf Challenge.

I read 0 banned or challenged books.

I read 4 books written by women.

I read 2 books for the Seriously Series Challenge.

Progress on my TBR pile: I added 11 books to my to read list and removed 6, so my pile increased by 5 this month!

Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas by Louise Rennison

Title: Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #3)
Author: Louise Rennison
Publication Date: 2001
Length: 183 pages

Warning: This is a review of the third book in the series, and may therefore contain spoilers from the first two books.

So, Georgia is back with Robbie (sigh), but her new relationship is interrupted when she's forced to go on vacation to Scotland  (Och Aye land) with her family. While there, she meets another weird guy, this one a Scottish bloke she nicknames Jock McThick, and he touches her basooma in the dark. (Poor Georgia's basoomas can't catch a break from these weird guys!)

The ongoing issue in this book is Georgia's red-bottomosity, ie. having the general horn, ie. wanting all the boys. She's got the Sex God now, like she (misguidedly, I think) wanted, and now suddenly she has feelings for Dave the Laugh, who was just her Red Herring before. She didn't appreciate him when she had him, despite him being adorable, but now that he's dating her friend Ellen suddenly she sees his appeal. Good grief, Georgia.

So basically, more Georgia being ridiculous, and more of me laughing uncontrollably. I really love this series.

5 stars.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Title: Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury
Publication Date: 1953
Length: 184 pages

Guy Montag is a fireman, but in this dystopian future, that doesn't mean putting out fires. It means starting fires to burn illegal books. But this book is about more than just book-burning, because more than just books have been destroyed. Seemingly most intelligence and other interesting things have been eliminated. People entertain themselves with their TV walls all day. The idea is that people are "happier" because they only experience simple, happy media, rather than complicated things that make one think. This has made people horrifyingly mindless and complacent.

When Montag meets a girl who likes going for walks and chooses odd topics of conversation, his dissatisfaction with his life intensifies and he starts to question the way things are. Before you know it, he's defying the principles he has proudly helped enforce for his whole life, hiding books in his home and making contact with others who have kept intellectualism alive.

I feel like I had to read this book, as a fan of dystopians, but I don't really feel like I got anything out of it. It's an interesting premise, and the story was pretty good, but it didn't thrill me. And thinking back on it now, I find that it hasn't really stuck with me.

3 stars.

Mt. TBR, all in one place!

Inspired by the picture on Stacy's Books of her TBR pile, I decided to take one of my own. I had never before put all of my to-read books in one pile. They're normally somewhat split up by bookshelf, but not perfectly, since I like to keep all the books by one author together even if I've read only some of them. So this was a fun and surprising experience for me. I did not, for example, realise just how much of my TBR pile was made up of R.L. Stine books!

So here it is! Behold the great Mt. TBR:

And now, the same pile in panorama view (which was my attempt to get a closer shot without cutting off the edges, which I'm not sure really helped):

I counted the pile (yes, seriously) and got 744, which is a bit worrisome because according to Goodreads there are supposed to be 752 books there. So, an audit of my book collection may be in order!

Taltos by Anne Rice

Title: Taltos (Lives of the Mayfair Witches #3)
Author: Anne Rice
Publication Date: 1994
Length: 556 pages

Warning: This is a review of the third book in the series, and therefore contains spoilers of the first two books.

This book had so much going on, it's difficult to write a plot summary. (Admittedly, I'm writing this review many months after reading the book, so that doesn't help.) Along with continuing story lines from The Witching Hour and Lasher, new ones are introduced. A new major character is Ashlar, who is a Taltos (like Lasher) and has been living amongst humans. This is an interesting turn of events, because it shows that the Taltos are not all crazy adult-sized babies like Lasher. Ashlar, while still odd, is also kind, and perfectly capable of blending in with humans in spite of his strange appearance.

In this book, we also get the history of the Taltos as told by Ashlar, which was really interesting, as well as the continuing antics of Mona, who I know is kinda messed up but I can't seem to help adoring her. There's also more about the Talamasca, which thrilled me. Honestly I'd love a whole series centred around the Talamasca!

Taltos had its ups and downs for me, mostly because it was pretty long (the number of pages is deceptive as Anne Rice books tend to have tiny type) and had so many plot lines going on at once, some more interesting than others. But enough of the story lines were interesting that I do recommend finishing off the trilogy if you've read and enjoyed the first two books.

As a sidenote, this series is great fun if, like me, you're a genealogist. I actually have the (incomplete) Mayfair family tree on my computer.

4 stars.

Read-a-Thon Hours 23 and 24: 5:00 - 7:00

What are you reading right now? Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews

How's that going? I only have 5 pages left! But I'm going to bed and finishing it later in the day.

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate, Namesake by Sue MacLeod, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison, Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, et. al.

Pages read these hours: 65

Total pages read so far: 970

Food consumed this hour: None.

Aaaand, I'm too sleepy to even create another post, so here's the End of Event Meme tacked onto this one:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? The earliest ones, for sure. Maybe 1 through 4.
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? My usual suggestions: Animorphs books and the Confessions of Georgia Nicolson.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope, I'm quite happy with it!
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I love the new site design and all the hype before the event!
5. How many books did you read? I was just 5 pages away from finishing my 5th book.
6. What were the names of the books you read?
1. The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate
2. Namesake by Sue MacLeod
3. Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison
4. Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, et. al.
5. Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews (minus 5 pages)
7. Which book did you enjoy most? Honestly, they were all great! I couldn't pick a favourite.
8. Which did you enjoy least? See previous answer.
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I wasn't a Cheerleader. I appreciated the cheers, though!
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? As always, I'll be a reader.

Read-a-Thon Hours 21 and 22: 3:00 - 5:00

What are you reading right now? Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews

How's that going? Still really good!

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate, Namesake by Sue MacLeod, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison, Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, et. al.

Pages read these hours: 58

Total pages read so far: 905

Food consumed this hour: None.

Uh oh, finishing this book in the last two hours is gonna be tight! The countdown is on!

Read-a-Thon Hours 19 and 20: 1:00 - 3:00

What are you reading right now? Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews

How's that going? I'm really enjoying this one!

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate, Namesake by Sue MacLeod, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison, Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, et. al.

Pages read these hours: 64

Total pages read so far: 847

Food consumed this hour: None.

My page counts are a bit lower with this book, but as I keep reminding myself, I normally read kids' and YA books during the read-a-thon, so naturally the pages take a bit longer to get through in an adult novel. But I'm still confident I'll finish this book, and maybe even get a start on the last book in my pile, Blind Date by R.L. Stine.

Read-a-Thon Hours 17 and 18: 23:00 - 1:00

What are you reading right now? Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews

How's that going? I'm only 28 pages in, but definitely liking it so far. I should really seek out more books set in Winnipeg; the local references always give me a little thrill.

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate, Namesake by Sue MacLeod, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison, Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, et. al.

Pages read these hours: 55

Total pages read so far: 783

Food consumed this hour: Rockstar energy drink.

So, my energetic phase didn't last as long as I'd hoped. There was definitely some eyelid drooping and reading the same page 10 times happening during these hours. But, I've cracked open the energy drink, so hopefully that'll help! Only 6 hours to go, and I'm on the second last book in my pile, so I gotta keep on keepin' on!

Read-a-Thon Hours 15 and 16: 21:00 - 23:00

What are you reading right now? Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon, et. al.

How's that going? Awesome! The characters actually look like themselves! And talk like themselves! It makes me feel like watching Firefly again.

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate, Namesake by Sue MacLeod, Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison

Pages read these hours: 122

Total pages read so far: 728

Food consumed this hour: None.

This is the time in the read-a-thon when my apparent weirdness presents itself. When lots of people are saying that "everyone" is getting tired and cranky now, I'm finally feeling good. I despise mornings, and the read-a-thon starts at 7:00 am here. So it's not too bad (later than when I work at 6:00), but still rough. I feel better and better throughout the day, and late evening is when I feel great! So I'm in the zone now, and will be for quite a while yet!

Read-a-Thon Hours 13 and 14: 19:00 - 21:00

What are you reading right now? Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison

How's that going? Hilarious.

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate, Namesake by Sue MacLeod

Pages read these hours: 105

Total pages read so far: 606

Food consumed this hour: Pizza! With pineapple and mushrooms! Yummy.

We have now entered the time of day in which I feel alert! I'm a night owl. So I'm feelin' awesome now.

Read-a-Thon Hours 11 and 12: 17:00 - 19:00

What are you reading right now? Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison

How's that going? Really good, of course! These books are hilarious. But I just reached the part where Mark Big Gob is a total douchebag, so there's also some rage happening. Poor Georgia is like a magnet for bad guys.

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate, Namesake by Sue MacLeod

Pages read these hours: 108

Total pages read so far: 501

Food consumed this hour: A banana and some chips. I've been getting quite hungry, and realising that I didn't buy nearly enough snacks. But my husband ordered pizza and that should be here any minute! Yay!

I also did a mini-challenge! I did the Shelfie mini-challenge. My entry is over on Instagram.

Read-a-Thon Hours 9 and 10: 15:00 - 17:00

What are you reading right now? I just finished Namesake, and now I'm going to start Away Laughing on a Fast Camel by Louise Rennison.

How's that going? Namesake was really good! It didn't end the way I wanted it to, but that's personal preference, I suppose. And I'm really excited to start Away Laughing on a Fast Camel. With how drowsy I've been feeling today, some giggling is sure to help.

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate, Namesake by Sue MacLeod

Pages read these hours: 70

Total pages read so far: 393

Food consumed this hour: None.

I feel so much better after some dancing! Still tired for sure, but I was nice and alert for the last two hours. Also, I can't believe how time flies during the read-a-thon! I got up early for this, and yet it's now 5:00 pm. Crazy! I think the time usually goes a bit slower for me in during the night.

Read-a-Thon Hours 7 and 8: 13:00 - 15:00

What are you reading right now? Namesake by Sue MacLeod

How's that going? Nearing the end now. I'm eager to see how it ends!

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate

Pages read these hours: 57

Total pages read so far: 323

Food consumed this hour: Some strawberries.

My page count these last two hours tells me my eyelids were drooping more than I realised! I really need to do something to wake myself up. Definitely time for some mad dancing! Won't you join me?

Read-a-Thon Hours 5 and 6: 11:00 - 13:00

What are you reading right now? Namesake

How's that going? Really good. Jane (the one from the present) has just started thinking about how she could save Jane (from the past) from her execution. Meanwhile, in the present, teen drama!

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate

Pages read these hours: 63

Total pages read so far: 266

Food consumed this hour: A tray of bread and spinach dip.

Still exhausted! I managed to keep from passing out by moving to a more upright reading position (moved from the beanbag chair to the armchair) and having a snack. But I still feel like crawling back into bed!

Read-a-Thon Hours 3 and 4: 9:00 - 11:00

What are you reading right now? Namesake by Sue MacLeod

How's that going? Good so far. Definitely an interesting story.

Books finished so far: The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate

Pages read these hours: 100

Total pages read so far: 203

Food consumed this hour: Oatmeal. Haha, because the Animorphs were fighting the Yeerks with oatmeal... Well, I thought it was funny.

Read-a-Thon Hours 1 and 2: 7:00 - 9:00

What are you reading right now? The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate

How's that going? Apparently, instant oatmeal is the latest secret weapon against the Yeerks. This series is so delightful.

Books finished so far: None yet.

Pages read these hours: 103

Total pages read so far: 103

Food consumed this hour: Just orange juice so far. Probably I'll look for some breakfast soon.

Ugh, so sleepy! Getting up was not easy. And my apartment is freezing for some reason. But gradually I'm starting to feel a bit less groggy.

Read-a-Thon: Kick-Off Meme

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? I'm reading, as always, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? That would probably be Serenity: Those Left Behind.
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I picked up a huge container of strawberries that look delicious!
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I'm going to be an auntie for the first time in just over a month! :-)
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? This is my sixth read-a-thon, so I think I've got my routine pretty down by now! I might drink more water, though, since I tend to neglect that.

For more Kick-Off Memes, see the read-a-thon blog.

The time has come! 24 hours of non-stop reading!

Good morning read-a-thoners! Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon is starting now! I've got the weekend booked off at work, and nothing is gonna disrupt my reading time!

In no particular order, here are the books I've got picked out for today:

• Serenity: Those Left Behind by Joss Whedon et. al. (96 pages, graphic novel)
• Away Laughing on a Fast Camel (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #5) by Louise Rennison (276 pages)
• The Underground (Animorphs #17) by K.A. Applegate (164 pages)
• Namesake by Sue MacLeod (230 pages)
• Summer of My Amazing Luck by Miriam Toews (220 pages)
• Blind Date by R.L. Stine (200 pages)

That gives me a total of 1186 pages. That's about how much I usually read when I have the full 24 hours to participate. I wonder if I'll get through the whole pile! I've never finished my pile and had to add to it mid-read-a-thon before!

Enjoy the day, everyone! Leave a comment below if you're reading today, too!

My Read-a-Thon Reading Pile

I decided to try something a little different to share my read-a-thon picks this time. I made a YouTube video! It was hard, and it took forever, and if you pause it at any point my face looks ridiculous. So, I don't know how many more of those I'll be doing, but who knows! Maybe I'll get the hang of it!

Anywho, here's the video about my read-a-thon reading plans:

Only 11 more hours! Yay!

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

Title: This is Not a Test
Author: Courtney Summers
Publication Date: June 19, 2012
Length: 322 pages

The zombie apocalypse comes on quickly in this story. Sloane is at the breakfast table with her abusive father, contemplating suicide after her sister ran away without her, when a screaming woman bangs on their front door. Suddenly, there's chaos everywhere, with people eating each other in the streets. Sloane, along with five other teenagers, eventually manages to make it to the high school, where they hole up and hope that help will come.

This book, despite the premise, isn't really a zombie story. Zombies aren't what I would consider a primary part of the plot. It's all about the kids in the school. It's about what happens when you take six teenagers, who are very different, and lock them in a building together with death literally banging on the doors. And it's about the one who actually wants death to get in.

Obviously, character development is a big thing in this novel. Especially Sloane's development, but also the other characters, and the relationships between them. The author does a great job with that, and I really felt attached to some of them.

4 stars.

The Read-a-Thon Approacheth!

It's almost heeeeere!

That's right, it's just about time for Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon! This season's read-a-thon takes place (in my time zone, CST, ie. Winnipeg, Chicago, Mexico City, etc.) from 7:00 am on April 26 to 7:00 am on April 27.

I've done every 24 Hour Read-a-Thon since October 2011, which was before I even had a book blog, so I participated on my genealogy blog. It's actually part of what inspired me to become a book blogger! Amazingly, this means this will be my 6th read-a-thon! Crazy! Some years have been more successful than others, but I always participate through the whole day and night, and I always have a great time!

I haven't put together a reading pile yet. I'm having trouble deciding! I'm way behind on the Canadian Book Challenge, so I'm trying to squeeze in as many of those as possible, but all my Canadian books seem to be quite long! But I'm sure I'll have a good pile ready by Saturday.

Let me know in the comments in you're participating so I can follow your progress!

The Queen's Army by Marissa Meyer

Title: The Queen's Army (Lunar Chronicles #1.5)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Publication Date: November 23, 2012
Length: about 18 pages (ebook)

The Queen's Army is a short story in the Lunar Chronicles series, giving some backstory for one of the major characters in the second novel, Scarlet. I read this story in between Cinder and Scarlet, which I think is the intended reading order.

Ze'ev recently turned 12 years old, and he's top of his class, and strong, so he knew to expect a visit from the queen's thaumaturges. Not given a choice, he is taken away from his family to be genetically modified and trained as part of the queen's army. His modifications give him the improved strength, agility, and reflexes of a wolf. Since he knows that those who don't perform well are modified further, so that they are barely human, he does all he can to succeed in his new pack.

This is a great story. I loved watching how Z changes in order to survive. It's sad that he couldn't just be a kid and had to be put into such a terrible situation, but I like how he gets stronger and learns what he has to do to survive. Whether you read this one before or after Scarlet, you'll appreciate the backstory!

5 stars.

March 2014 Wrap-Up

Quite a few days late, here's a summary of my book-related activity for March. Basically, not a lot of activity. My schedule is crammed full of studying, finishing all my assignments before my winter courses end, and working. Very little reading time, and what reading time I do have has all been on one book, on account of how Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is hella long! I mean it. It is SO LONG. I am enjoying it, though.

Books I read (linked to the reviews)

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (TBR pile) (in progress)

Books I bought

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Arriving: 1909-1919 by Corinne Jeffery

Progress on challenges

Argument: Critical Thinking, Logic and the Fallacies by John Woods was my March Random Read. I haven't gotten to it yet, but it's now sitting on top of my to-read pile.

I read 1 book for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge.

I completed the following squares for the Book Bingo Challenge: none

I read 0 books for the Diversity on the Shelf Challenge.

I read 0 banned or challenged books.

I read 1 book written by women.

I read 0 books for the Seriously Series Challenge.

Progress on my TBR pile: I added 2 books to my to read list and removed 1, so my pile increased by 1 this month!