Dewey's Readathon: October 2015

Dewey's 24 hour Readathon
October 17, 2015 (details)
Pre-Dewey post with reading list (here)
Dewey post pt 2: Hours 13-24 and Wrap-Up (here)

HOUR 1: 5am PDT (start time)
Got up 5 minutes before the alarm and read in bed for about 20 minutes. Then finished up a solo game of Words with Friends that I started last night.

HOUR 2: 6am

Made breakfast and went to check out the Dewey site.

Read some history about Dewey (The Hidden Side of the Leaf – Dewey’s archived blog).

INTRO SURVEY says:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? --> California
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? --> Illuminae
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? --> chips
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! --> Recently became an empty nest-er, as my daughter went off to college last month. So, immersing myself in books and movies these days.
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 participated back in 2009 and found that I really like the interaction bit with the read-a-thon. So, I will not push to hard on getting a high reading page count.

Started reading...

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Amazon | Goodreads

Mini Challenge: Cover Escape! (here)

Doon (book 1) by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon
Amazon | Goodreads
HOUR 3: 7am
Updated blog. Checked email. Worked on mini-challenges. Read.

Mini Challenge: Diversity Shelfie (here)

The Red Sheet by Mia Kerick
Amazon | Goodreads | my review=====> Loved the superhero theme used to drive the main character throughout this coming of age (closet) story.

HOUR 4: 8am
Caught up on mini-challenges. Read.

Mini Challenge: Kids Challenge (here)

Little Miss Austen: Pride & Prejudice by Jennifer Adams
Amazon | Goodreads
Little Miss Austen: Sense & Sensibility by Jennifer Adams
Amazon | Goodreads=====> Never too early to introduce the amazing Jane Austen!

HOUR 5: 9am
Visit fellow read-a-thon-ers. Read.

Mini Challenge: Goodreads Road Trip (here)

=====> My postcard entry:
Hey Sweetie,
I am currently on a wild truck ride with Kady and Ezra (of Illuminae). They just broke up so tensions are strained and it feels awkward. But, I am having a great time getting to know these two and look forward to where they take me in the next 24 hours. I might be going into outer space.
See you soon.
--vvb

HOUR 6: 10am
Went to the gym and read while cycling. Picked up a sandwich, chips, slice of cheesecake and small mocha at the deli.

Mini Challenge: Power of Love (here)

Describe how a book (or books) have made you fall in love with them.

Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger series) by V.C. Andrews
Amazon | Goodreads | my review=====> This is the ONE that hooked me to reading. It was a book I found in the library in the adult section of the library. At the time I was a tween. What got me first was the super cool keyhole cover on the paperback version. And then, the story about the forbidden.

Funny thing to note: my blog started because of a V.C. Andrews reading challenge post I came across.

Mini-Challenge: Top 10 list of something that has to do with the read-a-thon (here)

1. READ
2. Change reading seat location
3. Do mini challenges
4. Visit fellow read-a-thon-ers
5. Eat and drink favorites
6. Take a short walk outside
7. Watch/listen to a couple of the Dewey youtube videos shared
8. Take a quick nap
9. Take a shower or freshen up
10. Continue to READ

HOUR 7: 11am
Back home and lunching while catching up on reading fellow read-a-thon-er posts. And then, back to reading.

Mini Challenge: Halloween Prepartion (here)

Night Film
by Marisha Pessl
-Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Amazon | Goodreads=====> I plan to crack this one open this Halloween season. Been wanting to read it since last year.

HOUR 8: 12pm
Worked on tweaking this post.
Still reading Illuminae and loving it.

Mini Challenge: Armchair Traveling (here)

I would like to travel to Paris of this book and definitely visit book and chocolate shops.

The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
Amazon | Goodreads
HOUR 9: 1pm
Seems like the time is flying by.
Working on more mini-challenges and then back to reading.

Mini Challenge: Book Scavenger Hunt List (here)

from: Illuminae by Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
1. Something hard - Battlecarrier Alexander - 78V
2. Something fast - Kady Grant and her mad survival skills
3. Something sweet - Ezra Mason and his soft spot for Kady
4. Something high - Hypatia -a long range scientific exploration vessel, ideally suited for deep space recon/assessment
5. Something funny - verbal exchanges between Ezra and Sgt. J. McNulty

HOUR 10: 2pm
Spent the hour on the couch reading Illuminae. Almost halfway through the book out of 600 pages - a chunkster. Couple cat naps snuck in.

I should mention the morning was cold with spitting rain now and then. Now, the sun is shining and the sky is a beautiful blue.

Mini Challenge: Classics and Comics (here)

In Search of Lost Time: Swann's Way: A Graphic Novel by Marcel Proust
Amazon | Goodreads=====>Would like to read this as an introduction to Proust works.

HOUR 11: 3pm
Changed the reading venue to a local cafe. People and background music help keep the eyes from drooping. And, got a Pumpkin Spice Latte inspired by the hour's mini challenge.

Mini Challenge: Pumpkin Spice or Naw (here)

Thumbs up for a Pumpkin Spice Latte with book ;-)

HOUR 12: 4pm -half way mark! woo hoo!

Mid-Event Survey: (here)

1. What are you reading right now? --> Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (past the half-way point)
2. How many books have you read so far? --> working on one chunkster
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? --> A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
4. Have you had many interruptions? --> just one phone call which was a quickie
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? --> how fast time flies when doing mini challenges along with reading

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* created a part 2 Dewey post (here) - for Hours 13-24 and Wrap-Up

The Red Sheet by Mia Kerick (with giveaway)

The Red Sheet
by Mia Kerick

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Dreamspinner Press
All Romance
Website
Blog
Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter @MiaKerick

Published: February 2014
Publisher: Harmony Ink Press
Genre: Coming of Age, LGBTQ, YA
Paperback: 190 pages
Rating: 5

One October morning, high school junior Bryan Dennison wakes up a different person—helpful, generous, and chivalrous—a person whose new admirable qualities he doesn’t recognize. Stranger still is the urge to tie a red sheet around his neck like a cape. Bryan soon realizes this compulsion to wear a red cape is accompanied by more unusual behavior. He can’t hold back from retrieving kittens from tall trees, helping little old ladies cross busy streets, and defending innocence anywhere he finds it.

Shockingly, at school, he realizes he used to be a bully. He’s attracted to the former victim of his bullying, Scott Beckett, though he has no memory of Scott from before “the change.” Where he’d been lazy in academics, overly aggressive in sports, and socially insecure, he’s a new person. And although he can recall behaving egotistically, he cannot remember his motivations.

Everyone, from his mother to his teachers to his “superjock” former pals, is shocked by his dramatic transformation. However, Scott Beckett is not impressed by Bryan’s newfound virtue. And convincing Scott he’s genuinely changed and improved, hopefully gaining Scott’s trust and maybe even his love, becomes Bryan’s obsession.

With a foreword by Cody Kennedy

PeekAbook:



Zombie sighting:

And as he sat there eating, he sort of resembled a pizza-eathing zombie — you know, eyes glazed over, hand-to-mouth action almost automatic.
-chapter 15, page 85

My two-bits:

I found this to be a coming of age, coming to terms and coming out story with heartfelt scenes as well as downright ugly ones. But sweet romance comes through as well.

Loved how the main character, Bryan, unravels the mystery within himself in a positive way.

Also loved the superhero theme used to drive the main character throughout.

About the author:

Mia Kerick is the mother of four exceptional children—all named after saints—and five nonpedigreed cats—all named after the next best thing to saints, Boston Red Sox players. Her husband of twenty years has been told by many that he has the patience of Job, but don’t ask Mia about that, as it is a sensitive subject.

Mia focuses her stories on the emotional growth of troubled young men and their relationships, and she believes that sex has a place in a love story, but not until it is firmly established as a love story. As a teen, Mia filled spiral-bound notebooks with romantic tales of tortured heroes (most of whom happened to strongly resemble lead vocalists of 1980s big-hair bands) and stuffed them under her mattress for safekeeping. She is thankful to Dreamspinner Press for providing her with an alternate place to stash her stories.

Mia is proud of her involvement with the Human Rights Campaign and cheers for each and every victory made in the name of marital equality. Her only major regret: never having taken typing or computer class in school, destining her to a life consumed with two-fingered pecking and constant prayer to the Gods of Technology.

My themes I always write about:
Sweetness. Unconventional love, tortured/damaged heroes- only love can save them.

--~ Blog Tour Giveaway ~--

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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* added this to my Bookish Bingo challenge - square: MC is LGBTIA

* review copy and giveaway courtesy of book tour - check out the other stops here for more details on this book and goodies sponsored by Tribute Books Blog Tours.

Stacking the Shelves - 7.26.14

Stacking the Shelves
hosted by Tynga's Reviews (details)
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!

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Bought:

The Fever
by Megan Abbott
-Horror, Mystery, YA
add-on book for BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge 2014
Amazon | Goodreads

Landline
by Rainbow Rowell
-chick-lit, romance
add-on book for BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge 2014
Amazon | Goodreads

The Vacationers: A Novel
by Emma Straub
-chick-lit, contemporary fiction
add-on book for BookSparks Summer Reading Challenge 2014
WIN a copy from BookSparks here
Amazon | Goodreads
For Review:

Ascension of the Whyte
by Karen Wrighton
-fantasy
courtesy of A Daydreamer's Thoughts Book Tour
Thanks Faye!
Amazon | Goodreads

The Red Sheet
by Mia Kerick
-LGBTQ, YA
courtesy of Tribute Books Tour
Thanks Beckey and Nicole!
Amazon | Goodreads
Library:

Feed
by M.T. Anderson
-dystopia, YA
Amazon | Goodreads
Identity crises, consumerism, and star-crossed teenage love in a futuristic society where people connect to the Internet via feeds implanted in their brains.

For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon - a chance to party during spring break and play with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., M. T. Anderson has created a not-so-brave new world — and a smart, savage satire that has captivated readers with its view of an imagined future that veers unnervingly close to the here and now.

Listening of the audio version which I highly recommend as you will get a good feel for the advert feeds presented.

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* some of these may be offered as giveaways within the next two months

* comment and TELL me what you have acquired for your shelves recently

* per usual, check out the sidebar for my current giveaways offers