Sunday Summary: 19 October 2014

At the beginning of the week, I wasn't reading very much, but then we headed out on a road trip on Thursday afternoon, and the Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-Thon and Dewey's 24-hour Read-a-Thon fell at the end of the week and I was reading like a fiend. I'm linking up with The Sunday Post, hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Where I've been reading

I took the entire week in vacation time and have really enjoyed having a very relaxed schedule. I was at home during the first part of the week, enjoying a visit from my sister and brother-in-law. We were sad to see them leave, but shortly after taking them to the airport, we picked up our granddaughter and started on a road trip to Las Vegas. Thursday afternoon, we drove from Grapevine, TX, to Amarillo, TX, and on Friday, we drove to Kingman, AZ. We got up early Saturday morning (I was trying to start out Dewey's as close to the official start time as possible), had breakfast, and drove to Las Vegas, where we returned our granddaughter to her mother. We decided to take a different route home, so we drove north from Las Vegas, passing through St. George, Utah, eventually winding up in Flagstaff, Arizona, for Saturday night.

Highlights of the week's reading were the two read-a-thons: Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-Thon and Dewey's 24-hour read-a-thon. Dewey's ended at 5 am Pacific time and although I didn't stay awake the entire 24 hours, I did stretch by reading for over 8 hours during the day.

What I've been reading

Format: Kindle
Source: freebie September 2014

I had started reading The Gauguin Connection last week, finishing it on Wednesday evening.. As I mentioned last week, my best friend recommended the entire Genevieve Lenard mystery seies by Estelle Ryan. I have to admit that I'm totally hooked. I've put the next book, The Dante Connection on my wishlist at Amazon. Here's hoping the family will buy it for me for Christmas.

Format: Hardback
Source: Sanger Public Library

I think that this 22nd book in Sue Grafton's mystery series starring Kinsey Millhone, V is for Vengeance, is one of the best. The action starts just a couple of weeks after the events in U is for Undertow and news reporter Diana Alvarez pops up sticking her nose into Kinsey's business all over again.

Format: Kindle
Source: Purchased from Amazon, June 2014

In June, I used a gift card to purchase all four books in Mercedes Lackey's paranormal mystery series starring Diana Tregard. I started with the short prequel, Magic 101 during Dewey's 24-hour read-a-thon and finished it in less than 6 hours. I immediately started reading the next book in the series.

I read part of both of these books during the week. I'm starting off this morning with Burning Water and then plan to return to POD. With at least one more day in the car to get back home, I'm sure I'll have time to do a lot more reading.

This Week on the Blog

With a week off of work and two read-a-thons, I posted to my blog almost every day.

1. Upcoming Read-a-thons
2. The Tuesday Memes
3. WWW Wednesday: 15 October 2014
4. Throwback Thursday: October 2004
5. #WWReadathon: 2014 Kickoff post
6. Stacking the Shelves (8)
7. Dewey: Opening Post
8. Dewey: An Update
9. Dewey: Reviewing the Event

Dewey: Reviewing the Event

Another Dewey's 24-hour read-a-thon has come to a close. I read for about one more hour after uploading the Update post, then went to bed. I woke up a couple of times in the night and read for about 10 minutes each time before falling back to sleep.

Summary

Total Pages read: 276 pages
Total Time spent reading: 493 minutes
Number of books read: 3
Finished Books: Only 1: Magic 101 by Mercedes Lackey

End of Event Meme:

1) Which hour was most daunting for you?

Immediately after our brunch I found it difficult to concentrate on reading. The car was cozy and I caught myself drifting off. I only slept for 2 or 3 minutes at a time, but found that I was fighting the urge to doze.

2) Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year?

Every year, I find this question difficult to answer. For me, the high-interest books were the paranormal mysteries by Mercedes Lackey. I finished one of them, Magic 101 and read over 20% of the second one, Burning Water

3) Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year?

I really don't have any suggestions for improvement. The event has matured over the years and I believe it is very well run.

4) What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon?

I really liked the Warm Up posts. They helped build up the anticipation for participants.

5) How many books did you read?

I read three different books, finishing one. I started out the day reading a science fiction novel, POD by Tobias Roote. After brunch, I swapped that out for Magic 101 by Mercedes Lackey which I finished in mid-afternoon. Next up was Burning Water, also by Mercedes Lackey.

6) Which book did you enjoy most?

It was definitely the Mercedes Lackey books.

7) Which did you enjoy least?

Well, that's like asking which of your 3 favorite desserts you like least. I definitely was enjoying all the books, I just decided to move to another one in mid-morning. I will return to POD as some time, but I was just tired of it when I switched out.

8) If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders?

Since I was in the car most of the hours that I was awake, I wasn't able to volunteer as a cheerleader. I know as a reader, receiving encouragement from cheerleaders—either as comments on my blog or through replies to my tweets—is a big part of the enjoyment of the read-a-thon.

9) How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time?

It depends on what I have scheduled against the read-a-thon. I find that I am not able to stay up all night, so somewhere around midnight I have to give up and go to bed. Therefore, my participation is necessarily limited to the waking hours. I may volunteer as a cheerleader next time—I've been a reader in every other Dewey's.

Dewey: An Update

Good evening. 14 hours have elapsed since the read-a-thon began—for me at 5:00 am! I've been reading all day and now it's time to take a short break and tell you all about it.

Yes, I was up and writing my kick-off post at 5 am. I was only able to read for a very short time before I had to pack our bags and tend to a very hungry 4-year-old. Shortly after the hotel's breakfast buffet opened at 6 am, we were downstairs eating eggs and waffles. We pulled out of the hotel's parking lot shortly before 7 and I settled down for some serious reading. Since I could not get online while we were traveling, I tweeted periodically with a status update.

We rolled into Las Vegas around 8:30 and by 9 am we were unloading the granddaughter at her mother's house. Hubby had made arrangements to meet with his brother and sister-in-law, so we drove across town and joined them for brunch. After a lovely visit around the restaurant table, we were back on the road, driving from Las Vegas to Flagstaff by way of St. George, Utah. We just finished supper and checked into a hotel in Flagstaff.

What I've been reading

I started off the morning reading POD by Tobias Roote, the second book in his Pattern Universe science fiction series. Mid-morning, I switched to Magic 101 by Mercedes Lackey, and finished it around 16:22. Rather than go back to POD, I decided to read another of Lackey's Diana Tregard paranormal mysteries, so I chose Burning Water. At this time, I'm 18% of the way into the book.

Summary

Total Pages read so far: 248 pages
Total Time spent reading so far: 412 minutes
Finished Books: 1: Magic 101 by Mercedes Lackey

Dewey: Opening Post

Good morning. It's time for another Dewey's 24-hour read-a-thon. I've lost count of how many I've participated in—suffice to say that this is not my first. Here's the opening meme to tell you a little bit about me and the reading I'll be doing today:

Introductory Questionnaire

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?

I'm on a road trip. We're starting out today in Kingman, Arizona, and will be driving to Las Vegas where we will drop off our granddaughter at her mother's house. Then we head to St. George, Utah, where I think we will be spending the night. Since we're out west, I'll be reading from 5am to 5am, Pacific Daylight Time.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?

I think this is probably Magic 101 by Mercedes Lackey.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?

We're at the mercy of whatever restaurants we locate. I'm tired of fast food and will probably refuse to set foot in another one during this trip.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!

I am an avid reader of various fiction genres. Since I've become a grandmother I've noticed that I have less stamina to stay awake for the entire 24 hours of the event, but that's OK, too. I'll still spend the entire day focusing mostly on reading.

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?

I was tickled pink to discover that Dewey's was taking place during our road trip. I get a lot of reading done in the car since there are no distractions from TV or the Internet. I plan to just go with the flow today.

Stacking the Shelves (8)

I had a wonderful week. My sister and brother-in-law came to visit. I didn't spend a lot of time reading until Thursday and I have only two new books this week. My library sent an e-mail to let me know that V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton was ready for me, so on Monday morning I drove by the library and picked it up. I started reading it as soon as I finished reading The Gauguin Connection and have already finished it. And, on Thursday morning, I received a package sent from my online reading pal Iliotropio in Belgium. She sent me a copy of Borrower of the Night, the first book in Elizabeth Peters's Vicky Bliss mystery series. We're both members of an online book swapping forum, BookObsessed, and this book is registered at BookCrossing. Once I've read it, I'll pass it along to another BookCrosser.

Did you get any new books this week? You're invited to join the fun at Stacking the Shelves. According to the reviewers at Tynga's Reviews who host the meme:

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

#WWReadathon: 2014 Kickoff post

The Wonderfully Wicked Read-a-thon begins today. Organized by April and Kat at My Shelf Confessions, “The Wonderfully Wicked Read-A-Thon is a time when we all get together to dedicate the days of October 17-27 to as much reading as possible.”

On this first day of the read-a-thon, I'm on the road. We're traveling from Texas to Las Vegas to take our granddaughter back to her mother's house, and then we'll turn right around and drive home to Texas. That's going to give me at least four days in the car, reading if I don't fall asleep. I hope this uninterrupted reading time will give me a chance to catch up with some of my TBR list. Setting out on the road trip, one hard-back book from the library and my Kindle. I am about 1/2 way through the library book and I have a couple of started but unfinished books on my Kindle that I want to finish during the read-a-thon. There are also a couple of audio books on my smartphone, but I don't anticipate listening to one.

Starting Position

Right now, I'm reading V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton. It's the library book I checked out on Monday morning, but didn't start reading right away. It's part of my annual Series Challenge wherein I try to “finish” as many series as I can. With Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series, finishing will simply be catching up, since there will be more in the series as soon as she finishes writing them. Starting position is page 224.

In Entwined Realms, Volume One, I've started reading the first of four stories, the novel Stone Guardian. I'm at Kindle location 1225—would be page 97 in the print edition. This is a review book received from the publisher via NetGalley. Since its publication date was 2 October, I want to read it as quickly as possible and get my review posted to the blog, Goodreads, and Amazon.

The Oblate's Confession by William Peak is also a review book downloaded from NetGalley. I have a little bit more time to finish reading it and post a review since it's due to be published at the beginning of December. In 7th century England, a young boy is taken to a monastery by his father and given to the monks to raise. He will grow up in the monastery, become a monk, and never know any other home. Years later, the monk is commanded by his Abbot to write an account of his life—the “confession” of the title. I've only read the first chapter or so, but found it quite interesting so far. I'm starting at roughly page 28.

Goals

I'd like to finish the following books during the 11 days of this read-a-thon:

V is for Vengeance by Sue Grafton

Entwined Realms, Volume One by Dannielle Monsch—and post review

The Oblate's Confession by William Peak—and write review

Murder 101 by Mercedes Lackey

POD by Tobias Roote

... and any other book that strikes my mood

Throwback Thursday: October 2004

As I'm sitting here with some spare time on my hands, I thought that it would be fun to go back in time and look at what I was reading several years ago. I've kept lists of the books that I read since 2004 so it seemed appropriate to look back to October of 2004, ten years ago, and report on a couple of books from my past.

When I visited my best friend in Auburn for the annual Auburn University Homecoming game, she was raving about a mystery series that she had been reading. I immediately ordered a copy of One for the Money by Janet Evanovich, and thus set off ten years (so far) of reading enjoyment. I read the most recent book in the series, Top Secret Twenty-One in July of this year, and I'm looking forward to many more episodes in the saga of Stephanie Plum.

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

My Review from 2004

At the recommendation of a friend, I picked up this book, the first in Evanovich's series starring Stephanie Plum. With no training at all, Stephanie takes on a job as a skip-tracer—a bounty hunter of sorts who brings in those who have failed to appear in court at the appointed time and thus skipped out on their bail. This seemed like a very good way to solve her financial problems since she gets paid 10 per cent of the bail for delivering the person to the police.

The story in this first novel is full of humorous situations which play up Stephanie's total lack of skill or knowledge for her new career. I've already purchased Two for the Dough and started reading it. So far, the stories have just enough threat and thrill to be exciting without crossing over to gory and explicit. And the balance between serious and comic is extremely well done. I recommend this book to those who enjoy murder mysteries, particularly those with a female protagonist.

Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich

My Review from 2004

As its title proclaims, this is the second book in Janet Evanovich's series starring Stephanie Plum. Two for the Dough starts just a couple of months after One for the Money, and Stephanie is still trying to learn the ropes in her new job as a bounty hunter. It's all on-the-job training with fellow bounty hunter Ranger coaching her and vice cop Joe Morelli attempting to keep her out of trouble. Follow the links to detailed reviews at Amazon.com.