STACKED

books

48 Hour Book Challenge Update 2

|

Hours read: 12 hours
Hours spent social networking with other participants: 1 hour — I’m planning on taking a small break from reading to do this for a while.
Books finished since last update: 

Books read total: 6
Book breakdown: 4 adult books (one being a graphic novel), 1 YA book, 1 middle grade book
Cups of tea consumed: 7 (yes, I’ve had 4 since the last update)
Distractions: cheese-filled soft pretzels and the view of the other side of the couch I’m reading on, which is this

All three of my cats are sound asleep. The house is almost peaceful, if you ignore the fact all three of them snore.
Current embarrassment: I misspelled “challenge” in the title of my last update post, and it took me until now to realize that. I changed it, but it will forever be in the web address of that post. Sigh.
Biggest laughs: The book Idaho Winter had me laughing like crazy. The book doesn’t just reference Jurassic Park and Green Day — those things/people actually happen in the story. 
You should know: I am not going to review every book I read this weekend on STACKED. It’d kill me. But I am writing reviews — short ones — over at Goodreads. Let’s be friends there if we are not already. 
Up next: I am going to paint my nails a sort of blood red color and figure out which YA I should read next. I’m debating between Lost Girls or something straight contemporary. Or maybe not. I just know I need a reading break for a bit.

 

48 Hour Book Challenge Update

|

And so I’m rounding the corner on the first half of the 48 hour book challenge. Here are my stats so far:

Hours read: 7
Hours spent social networking with other participants: 1/2 hour
Books finished: 4

Favorite read so far: Come See About Me — I wrote up a bit of a review on Goodreads, but I took about 6 pages of notes for a formal review. This book was so, so good.
Cups of tea consumed: 3 (I just realized I haven’t had any yet this morning, so I’m fixing that now)
Distractions: Sleep, going to the library, checking out the new self-swipe card reader at the post office, thinking about what sort of food to pick up at the grocery store
Things I hate about ereading: I can’t take my nook outside in the sun
Things I love about ereading: I can take my nook on the treadmill
Up next:

My husband is going out today, which means I have a solid 10+ hours of no distractions. So looking forward to them.

Ray Bradbury at YALSA’s The Hub

|

In theory, I’m reading for the 48 Hour Book Challenge — about two and a half hours of complete reading so far. Most of the way finished with my first book, too.

But I wanted to share a post I wrote over at YALSA’s The Hub. I was asked to write about Ray Bradbury and what his loss means. I’d love if it you checked it out and maybe shared your favorite Bradbury reading experience.

48 Hour Book Challenge

|

I’m taking part in MotherReader’s 48 Hour Book Challenge this weekend. I have been looking forward to this since last year’s challenge, where I read a crazy 10 books and 26 hours total. I’m pretty sure I won’t get to that much reading this year for a number of reasons, but I’m still eager to spend long chunks of time reading. I’m also going to follow the same protocol I did last year and take notes on what I’ll include in future reviews, rather than writing the review immediately upon finishing the book (which I never do anyway). This method saved me an incredible amount of time last year and helped me remember some of the thoughts that could have easily gotten lost by book 7 or 8.

My goal is to put in 15 hours of reading, with a secret goal of making it to 20 hours.

I wanted to take a picture of my pile of books, but because a number of them are ebooks, I can’t (yet another reason I’m not crazy about ebooks). But here’s what is on my to-read pile for the weekend:

Come See About Me by CK Kelly Martin: I am so excited to read Martin’s forthcoming ebook that follows 20-year-old Leah through a number of tough early-adult life events. It’s described as a “new adult” title. After reading the first two chapters here and knowing how good Martin’s writing is, I’m sold. 

Address Unknown by Kressmann Taylor: I’ve never heard of this book but when Flannery mentioned it the other day after seeing a rave review then giving it a rave review herself, I wanted to check it out. It’s a short read and will be a really nice break between longer titles.

Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan: One of the things I’ve learned about myself in the last year is that I love reading about astral projection. This title was recommended to me by an editor who said it is her standard of judging books on the topic. Sold.

Idaho Winter by Tony Burgess: This book looks so bizarre and in the right kind of way. The main character has a hard life then seeks revenge on the author for doing it.

Narc by Crissa-Jean Chappell: Drug trafficking in a high school. Count me in. I mean, not like that.

Never Enough by Denise Jaden: This is a sister story, where the older one is hiding a dangerous secret about her eating disorder. It’s set in Wisconsin, which is a bonus in my book.

I’m a big believer when reading for long stretches you have a pile way, way bigger than you could possibly read. That way, when you find yourself looking for a certain type of book, you have it at hand quickly. And that would explain this pile of other titles I’ve got on hand for the readathon.

If I can finish four books this weekend, I will be thrilled. If I can force myself to start the final installment of the Millennium trilogy, I will be satisfied, too. And I’m going to be honest: I’ve already got my eye on a few other books not even mentioned in this post, too, including See You At Harry’s, Tina’s Mouth, and more. My mood dictates my choices. And my eyes. But I have choices.

I’ll likely update once or twice during the weekend with quick reactions about what I’m reading. If I can put a book down, that is.

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

|

Sunday Woodcutter is the youngest of seven daughters, all named for days of the week. She is supposed to be “blithe and bonny and good and gay,” but what she really wants is to be interesting. She enjoys writing, but her stories have a nasty habit of coming true in the worst ways, so she writes only about things that have already happened. She’s busily scribbling in her journal in the forest when she encounters a frog. The frog, naturally, can speak. Sunday knows she lives in a magical world, so at the conclusion of their first conversation, she gives him a kiss as a courtesy to try and break the spell. Nothing happens.
Despite this initial disappointment, the two continue to meet each other and a friendship grows. It should come as no surprise to you that the frog does eventually turn back into a man – and it happens rather early on in the story. The rest of the book is concerned with the man-turned-frog-turned-man-again wooing Sunday on his own terms while trying to prevent her from finding out just what happened between him and Sunday’s (now dead) older brother, which could doom their relationship. There’s also a bit of political maneuvering with the king and a couple of fairy godmothers plus some interesting back story about Sunday’s very odd, very magical family.
Enchanted is a strange little book. While it’s predominantly inspired by The Frog Prince, it’s got elements of almost all major Western European fairy tales, including Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty, and more. It became a fun sort of game to spot as many as I could. Kontis juggles it all well: it could have seemed like a hodgepodge without any real cohesion, but she neatly avoids that pitfall. Mostly it just seems clever.
I liked that Kontis used The Frog Prince as her springboard but did not limit herself to a mere re-telling. By that I mean she created a new mythology with new magic, injecting some originality into these very old stories. Unfortunately, this is also the story’s weakness. The fairy tale aspects were so easy to understand, but the new elements were often confusing. I suspect that I needed a bit more explanation of the magic as well as Sunday’s family history for it all to really crystallize in my mind.
Still, Kontis’ novel is an overall winner. It’s got some lovely writing, a fun mix of new and old, and an interesting protagonist in Sunday (and her sisters are equally interesting – I particularly liked the one that eloped with a pirate, even though I think she actually gets no physical page time). Hand this to readers who like their retold fairy tales to remain plainly in the fairy tale realm – no modernization required. I suspect it would go over well with fans of Ella Enchanted, but as always, it nowhere approaches that book’s greatness (in fairness to Enchanted, nothing ever does).
Review copy provided by the publisher. Enchanted is available now.