Social Distancing Readathon #35 - November 13 - 15

Welcome to another readathon!

We generally run from Friday at 5 p.m. to Sunday at midnight in whatever time zone you choose, but feel free to start earlier on Friday and wrap up overnight Sunday/Monday, if that's what you want to do.

Here are some things to track throughout the weekend, if you choose:

Books read from:
Books finished:
Time reading:
Time posting:
Snacks:
Thoughts:
Non-book activities:

Total books finished:
Total read from:
Total time reading:

Who is participating -

1. SilverWolf (SilverWolf28) -- Tennessee, USA
2. Nancy (nrmay) -- North Carolina, USA
3. Cyrel (torontoc) -- Toronto, Canada
4. Kerry (avatiakh) -- Auckland, New Zealand
5. Lynda (Carmenere) -- Cleveland, Ohio, USA
6. Jeff (mahsdad) -- San Pedro, California, USA
7. Benita (benitastrnad) -- Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA

I'm in.
I'll be reading the hummingbird dagger by Cindy Anstey, a YA historical mystery.

I'll be reading the second of the Giller Prize finalists (and the winner)

In again.
I'll be reading The story of the last thought by Edgar Hilsenrath.

I'm in. I'll be reading from a couple of NetGalley's I need to review.
When the Stars Go Dark
Against the Loveless World

Hi All, in case you have seen my posts elsewhere around the Group, Silver suggested I share here that the thread for the 75'r Christmas Swap is open for business.

If you're interested, stop on by.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/326191#unread

I will be joining in again this weekend, but will have less time to read. I am still working on Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart and am about halfway through it.

Update #1 - Friday - 3:40pm - Cleveland, Ohio

Books read from: I'll be starting with a NetGalley When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain - one of my favorite authors
Books finished:
Time reading:
Time posting: a few minutes
Snacks: I'm having a cup of Irish Breakfast Tea right now to get in that relaxing reading zone
Thoughts: Waiting and hoping for a windy rainy weekend. :0)
Non-book activities: Checking facebook, answering texts

Total books finished:
Total read from:
Total time reading:

First checkin - Saturday 1pm

Books read from: Trust by Chris Hammer, A good girl's guide to murder by Holly Jackson, Jerusalem by Alan Moore
Books finished: 0
Time reading: 3hrs

Snacks: avocado on crackers, latte
Thoughts: getting hot, so summer is on the way
Non-book activities: early morning trip to stand in queue at Black Saturday sale at tech shop, worth it, we saved heaps on 2 headsets. Visit to Pasifika food market on way home, then a second outing for coffee.

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 3hrs

Read A good girl's guide to murder for 90mins while waiting in queue for shop to open. Got there early (7.30am) so was in initial number allowed in first at 9am. They gave out masks, sanitiser, bottled water & offered sunscreen while we waited. Not my usual thing to do.

Friday night check-in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Books read from: Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart. Shocking Paris: Soutine, Chagall and the Outsiders of Montparnasse by Stanley Meisler. My recorded book is These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly.

Books finished this weekend: 1 Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal which turned out to be a really good listen. I really recommend this book as a very pleasant read. 2. Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. This book reminded me of the work of Bernice L. McFadden and I ended up giving it 5 stars. I read it for my travel Book Club. I don't get how it is a travel book, but it is set in Los Angeles, Louisiana. I don't usually read books that have just been published because it is too hard to get cheap copies or to get easy check out from the library. This book was published in June and I was on a waiting list for this book, that meant I had to read it in a rush.

Time reading: 1.5 hours before bed

Thoughts: I have a busy day tomorrow so probably won't get much read. The university is like an island here in Tuscaloosa. We don't have many new cases of Covid, but the rest of Tuscaloosa has a huge rise in the numbers of cases in the High Schools and in the town, but not at the university. That is because the university clamped down on the students really hard back in September. Apparently, that policy has worked. We have one more week in the semester and we will make it to the end. I am getting ready to go home for the Christmas break. It will be nice to go home.

Non-book activities: stopped at Whataburger for supper and then went to Starbucks for coffee. Now I am off to bed.

Total books finished this week: 2
Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 81
Total read from: 82
Total time reading since the read-a-thon began: 185.5 hours

Update #2 - Saturday 11:25am - Cleveland, Ohio

Books read from: 11% of When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain
Books finished:
Time reading: around 2 hours
Time posting: a few minutes
Snacks: Friday dinner : mushroom and onion pizza and a Coors Light
Saturday breakfast: a bowl of Life cereal with raspberries. Coffee
Thoughts: Still Waiting and hoping for a windy rainy weekend. :0)
Non-book activities: watched The Mandalorian.

>9 avatiakh: “while waiting in queue for shop to open. Got there early (7.30am) so was in initial number allowed in first at 9am. They gave out masks, sanitiser, bottled water & offered sunscreen while we waited. Not my usual thing to do.”

Wow, I love this. Maybe if they did this at stores in the US people would take it more seriously and numbers wouldn’t be spiking. Of course, in Ohio, we’re approaching winter so standing outside for an hour and a half isn’t advisable, sunscreen isn’t needed. But, the rest is good and it’s all good for warmer states.

Saturday morning

Books: Finished the hummingbird dagger a YA historic mystery. :)
Next? Still have a few library books but feel I haven't read any off my TBR shelves in a while. Goal WAS for half my books read to be from my own . . Finished 117 books so far this year.
Today I want to finish my audio book - the beast player - that I've been listening to for weeks. Good day for a nice long walk.

>10 benitastrnad:
I have vanishing half on my library list. I also liked the McFadden books.

Breakfast: just coffee so far; probably I'll have a banana/berry smoothie. I have ripe bananas!

My son & family are arriving this week. A new baby cousin is expected this month and we are self-isolating now to protect new mom and baby. So back to staying in and ordering everything from Amazon Fresh. We are going to my niece's today for a very careful, social-distanced happy hour outside. Wish our nice mild weather would last through the holidays!

I read and finished my ER book-The Nature of Things Essays of a Tapestry Weaver by Tommye McClure Scanlin
I also am attending a Virtual Art Education conference- so far so good.

Sunday morning

Books: Started Lily by Cindy Bonner. Been on my shelf forever; an Algonquin book. I love this Chapel Hill publisher of literary works by unknown, mostly southern authors.

breakfast: coffee, toast.

Other activity: Sunday papers; online grocery order.

Last relaxed day before we start getting ready for extended family visit
We are all getting covid tests on Monday and our son and family plan to arrive Wed if no one tests positive. All have been self-isolating for 5 days up till now.

Checkin - Monday 7.30am

Books read from: A good girl's guide to murder by Holly Jackson, Jerusalem by Alan Moore, The story of the last thought by Edgar Hilsenrath, Milwaukee by Bernice Rubens
Books finished: 1
Time reading: 4hrs

Snacks: shakshuka
Thoughts: Rubens is an excellent writer
Non-book activities: watching 'W: two worlds' - another Korean tv series.

Total books finished: 1 A good girl's guide to murder by Holly Jackson
Total read from: 5
Total time reading: 7hrs

Got wrapped up in A good girl's guide to murder so the other books all ended up getting less attention.

Sunday noon check-in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Books read from: Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart. Shocking Paris: Soutine, Chagall and the Outsiders of Montparnasse by Stanley Meisler. My recorded book is These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly.

Books finished this weekend: 1 Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal 2. Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

Time reading: 2.5 hours yesterday and about 2 hours of listening time while driving up to B'ham to get my car serviced. I also spent an hour reading while eating lunch at the Indian restaurant today. That's lots of hours reading!

Thoughts: I took my car in to get it serviced in preparation for the trip back to Kansas for the Winter Break. I spent a great evening talking with one of my former student employees who is now a school librarian in Hoover, AL. We talked about all the problems that Covid has brought to the schools and how we as school teachers can deal with them. Our biggest problem is with the lack of consistency within school districts, within the state Board of Education, and then at the National level. it comes down to a basic lack of standards set by the CDC, endorsed by the federal government, and then state cooperation.

Non-book activities: very quiet day but a perfect one. I told my friend that due to spending the entire day with her and then with two of my book discussion groups meeting today, it was highly likely that I would make it through the weekend without purchasing a single book!

Total books finished this week: 2
Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 81
Total read from: 82
Total time reading since the read-a-thon began: 190 hours

I am half way through the book of short stories that won the Giller Prize-they are good.
How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
Dinner- leftovers- rice salad, and baked chicken. Grapes for dessert. I also watched an episode of The Great British Baking Show- the contestants made a lot of meringues and mousse.

Monday afternoon check-in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. ( I have been trying to find time all day to get on here and post my weekend totals, but it has turned out to be a busy day.)

Books read from: Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart. Shocking Paris: Soutine, Chagall and the Outsiders of Montparnasse by Stanley Meisler. My recorded book is These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly.

Books finished this weekend: 1 Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal 2. Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

Time reading: 2 hours yesterday while eating lunch and in the evening after both of my book discussion groups ended.

Thoughts: I made good progress on the Vanderbilt biography. It is a standard biography but those two women lead very interesting lives so it is a good thick biography. I am about 175 pages from finishing it. I am now 50 pages into the group biography Shocking Paris and am finding that title to be enlightening.

Both of the book discussions yesterday were good. We talked about Little Fires Everywhere in the first discussion and I was surprised at how good the discussion was about that book. Even the most conservative among our group contributed and talked about things like systemic racism.

The other group had a good discussion going about Vanishing Half and since it has a varied group it was also a good discussion. We got into things like the degrees of whiteness and the Creole culture of New Orleans. I got cut off at the end because my hotspot ran out of battery, but it was a productive time.

Non-book activities: Not much yesterday. Most of the day was book activities.

Total books finished this week: 2
Total books finished since the read-a-thon began: 81
Total read from: 82
Total time reading since the read-a-thon began: 190 hours

A little late as I was without electricity for 2 days.

Update #3- Tuesday 8:54am - Cleveland, Ohio

Books read from: additional 25% of When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain
Books finished:
Time reading: around 5 hours
Time posting: a few minutes
Snacks:
Saturday dinner: Homemade cream of potato soup
Thoughts: Well, the wind storm hit taking my electricity with it. Thankfully, my Kindle was fully charged.
Non-book activities: organized my intended reads for 2021

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/326458