Social Distancing Readathon #133 - September 30 - October 2

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

I missed the last couple weekends by being either sick or super busy, but I'm going to try to make this a fruitful reading weekend.

I am in again! I need to finish up September's TIOLI Challenges and get a good start on October's!

I am most definitely in! My calendar is completely empty.
I will be reading from: the sacred earth, the Windsor knot, the October Country, The Dutch House and The Turn of the Screw

I'm in- I am reading a good spy novel!

I'm in. I need to make a lot of progress on All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days for next weekend's book club meeting. I may have company next week so my reading time will be limited during the week. I'll also be starting Miss Marjoribanks for a group read.

I'm in. I still need to finish stuff! (Instead of adding more and more interesting looking books--ha!) I did finish one book last weekend in the spillover on the Monday I didn't work.

Friday Night update: 9:10pm Cleveland, Ohio

Books read from: The Sacred Earth, The Windsor Knot and The October Country
Books finished:
Time reading: 4 hours
Snacks: nut roll and peppermint tea
Thoughts: The October Country is too chilling to read at night
Non-book activities: watching the Cleveland Guardians

Friday Night Update:

Books read from: In the Midst of Civilized Europe by Jeffrey Veidlinger, The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews, Instant Lives and More by Howard Moss, pp 1-97, The World of Pooh by A.A. Milne, When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman, Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
Books finished: 4, In the Midst of Civilized Europe, The Flying Troutmans, Instant Lives and More, and The World of Pooh
Time reading: ~4.5 hours

Total books finished:4
Total read from: 6
Total time reading: ~4.5 hours

>9 alcottacre:
I really liked When Christ and His Saints Slept. I went on and read the next three and I want to finish the series. They are really good. So is her series on Wales.

Saturday morning update
Books read from: Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground by Peter Svenson. Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty for a LT group read. Deleuze Connections by John Rajchman for a book discussion in the College of Education that starts this week. Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. I am listening to Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon:

Book Thoughts: My main book this week has been Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. I have about 100 pages to read in it. However, my reading time has been slow as I continue to be very busy at work. I have made some progress in Deleuze Connection but this book demands more concentration than I have been able to give it this last week. I will be ready for the discussion on Monday but just barely. I am also reading a few pages at a time in Delta Wedding but at this rate it will take me weeks to finish it. I guess there is nothing wrong with that, but I feel like I should be reading faster to keep up with other readers here on LT.
Time reading: 1 hours.
Time posting:
Food: Today I will be cooking. My supper group is meeting tonight for the first time in 2 years. I hope that I can get them started with meeting regularly. It will be fun.
Nonbook activities: I talked on the phone a bit this morning and am getting ready to start cleaning a little in the kitchen so I can cook today.
Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 265
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 720.5 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020

>10 benitastrnad: Good to know! Thanks, Benita.

Saturday Night update: 8:00pm

Books read from: The Sacred Earth, The Windsor Knot and The October Country, The Dutch House
Listened to: The Night Hawks
Books finished:
Time reading: 5ish hours
Snacks: oatmeal raisin cookies with pumpkin spice coffee
Thoughts: Tomorrow would have been our 29th wedding anniversary
Non-book activities: watching the Cleveland Guardians, started first puzzle of fall

>10 benitastrnad: wonderful book, I think I cried.

I reread There's a Nightmare in My Closet (purchased for my granddaughters) and am almost finished with Pretender by CJ Cherryh.

We had lots of rain and wind yesterday as Hurricane Ian passed by to the south, but no real damage that I can see.

Friday Evening

Books read from: Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa, The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams, Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche
Books finished:
Time reading: 2 hrs., 19 min.
Snacks: gf dairy-free nacho chips, strawberry soda, disappointing knock-off Swedish fish
Non-book activities: played Free Cell & Two Dots on phone, talked to my sister on the phone

Saturday night:

Books read from: The Game of Silence
Books finished: The Game of Silence
Time reading: 4 hours
Time posting: 9:35 PM
Snacks: Jellybeans
Thoughts: This is such a lovely children's book series.
Non-book activities: Usual weekend stuff--laundry, farmer's market, altar guild prep, watched Auburn play football while hoping they'll fire the coach before the season ends because that game was a DISASTER

Total books finished: 1
Total read from: 1
Total time reading: 4 hours

Saturday Night Update

Books read from: When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman, Us Against You by Fredrik Backman, The October Country: Stories by Ray Bradbury, Watch Out for Clever Women! by Joe Hayes, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper, The Gathering Storm by Winston S. Churchill, and Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette
Books finished: 2, Us Against You and Watch Out for Clever Women!
Time reading: ~3.5 hours

Total books finished:6
Total read from: 12
Total time reading: ~8 hours

Saturday

Books read from: The Hour of Land by Terry Tempest Williams, Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche
Time reading: 2 hrs., 8 min.
Snacks: bad faux-Swedish fish, roasted cashews, gf dairy-free nacho chips, apple slices and peanut butter, breakfast oat smoothie
Thoughts: I dropped Love with a Chance of Drowning. I don't think the narrative structure (start at the beginning with the meet cute, tell the story straight through to the end) does the story any favors. Mainly, I just think I'd prefer it as a novel over non-fiction.
Non-book activities: I spent the day with my sister and nibling doing karaoke at their house.

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 4 hrs., 27 min.

Sunday afternoon update
Books read from: Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground by Peter Svenson. Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty for a LT group read. Deleuze Connections by John Rajchman for a book discussion in the College of Education that starts this week. Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill. I am listening to Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

Book Thoughts: I finished reading Woman in the Library but found that the ending let me down. I suspect that the literary format used in this book is what people in our English department would term meta-fiction, but to me it was just an innovative way to write a mystery. It was good up until the last 100 pages and then it let me down. I gave it 3.5 stars because in the end it was only a bit above average on my rating scale. Since it is Sunday I am devoting the entire day to reading the Deleuze book. I need to get it read so I can move on to other titles.
Time reading: 2.5 hours.
Time posting:
Food: Our supper group met for the first time in 2 years last night. One couple didn't show up and nobody heard from them that they weren't coming. Another couple canceled at the last minute because a guest staying with them tested positive for COVID. That meant that all of their household was exposed, so they opted to not attend. We had planned on 16 people but we ended up with a manageable 12.
Nonbook activities: I plan on taking a nap and doing more grocery shopping. Then tonight I will watch Vander Valk on PBS and cut up vegetables for my pasta dish for Tuesday night.
Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 266
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 723 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020

Sunday night update:

Books read from: Grimms' Tales for Young and Old, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, Madame Bovary, Miss Marjoribanks
Books finished:
Time reading: ?
Time posting: ?
Snacks: dinner was beef roast and roasted veggies (potatoes, carrots, celery, turnip, parsnips)
Thoughts: Why are weekends so short?
Non-book activities: spending time with friends, genealogy research, laundry, shopping, cleaning, church, cooking, hanging out with Adrian

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 4
Total time reading: ?

I got completely sidetracked yesterday with newspaper research for family history. I discovered that my great-grandmother's first cousin, Della May Garner Jones, became a business partner of Robert Stroud, better known as the Birdman of Alcatraz. She left her husband in Indiana and moved to Kansas City to be near Leavenworth. To try and prevent his transfer to Alcatraz, they drew up a marriage contract and claimed to be husband and wife. Strange story. I don't know that anyone in my branch of the family knew her. When my ggg-grandparents moved to a different part of the state with several of the children, including my gg-grandmother, Della May's mother was already married, and she and her husband didn't move with her parents and most of her siblings.

>20 cbl_tn: That sounds like a strange piece of family history. I'm now going to have to look up Robert Stroud - I take it that the attempt to prevent his transfer to Alcatraz didn't succeed?

A quick google - he became famous through a book and a film - Della Mae Jones was a friend and the marriage was because of a law that would mean he could stay in prison in Leavenworth, Kansas and not be transferred out of state to solitary confinement in Alcatraz, California. His apparent marriage, whether or not is was true, was accepted as a fact, and he was able to stay in Kansas and continue running the business that inspired the name Bird Man for 9 years, but later he was found to be using claimed business equipment to distil alcohol, so the transfer happened in 1942. He wasn't then allowed to keep birds in Alcatraz.

Clearly I've not seen the film. Had you seen it or heard of it before discovering this family connection?

>21 elkiedee: It did and it didn't. He was allowed to stay at Leavenworth with his birds for several more years, but they stopped allowing Della May to visit him. I don't know what happened to her after that. She just seems to disappear.

>21 elkiedee: I had heard of the film, but I haven't seen it. Clearly, I will have to watch it now.

Internet Archive has an FBI file on Stroud that includes a background check on Della May Jones. They met through canary breeding and started a correspondence.

Lots of papers carried the text of the marriage contract they drew up. I also found a personal add in a Kansas City newspaper that reads simply "Robert Stroud of Leavenworth, Kas. and Della May Jones of 1345 E. 10th St., Kansas City, Mo., wish it to be known that they are man and wife."

Sunday night:

Books read from: Yotsuba&! Vol. 2, The Legend of Auntie Po
Books finished: Yotsuba&! Vol. 2, The Legend of Auntie Po
Time reading: 2 hours
Time posting: 7:25 PM
Snacks: Burrito for dinner
Thoughts: I have a little bit of a sore throat and a sniffle. I took a covid test this morning to be on the safe side before going to church, where my altar guild work included setting out communion elements for the congregation, and it was negative. But I'm still playing that game of "Allergies? Cold? Or was that test a false negative?" which is NOT fun.
Non-book activities: Church, afternoon nap, writing

Total books finished: 3
Total read from: 3
Total time reading: 6 hours

Yes, as I posted above I found more information but Della May does seem to disappear. Maybe once she was prevented from correspondence, and her interest may well have been in studying birds and in the business, she went back to doing things with her life that weren't of interest to the media and weren't documented in correspondence, or letters that anyone wanted to keep. Apparently Stroud's mother was unhappy about his marriage. Have you found anything about reactions from your relatives to Della May's marriage, which might not have been welcomed, or is that just not of interest to newspapers? Which state are/were your family in?

I think I'm more intrigued in tonight's reading online by the ways the stories about the Birdman, about the book and the film and about views of the person from the prison system etc, all differ so much. A lot of it could be summed up as a view that actually Robert Stroud was just a very nasty psycho with the intelligence to present himself differently and get sympathies that way. But then the evidence is what happened after he was first in prison at 19, and facing either a death sentence or life there, and his sexuality (described as "aggressive" at a time when being homosexual was regarded as criminal and in itself a serious disorder/negative condition).

Sunday Night Update

Books read from: When Christ and His Saints Slept by Sharon Kay Penman, The October Country: Stories by Ray Bradbury, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper, The Gathering Storm by Winston S. Churchill, Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette, Fire Watch by Connie Willis, and Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Books finished: 0
Time reading: ~3.5 hours

Total books finished:6
Total read from: 14
Total time reading: ~11.5 hours

Sunday update (on Monday): 9:45 am

Books read from: The Sacred Earth, The Windsor Knot and The October Country, The Dutch House
Listened to: The Night Hawks
Books finished:
Time reading: about 5ish hours
Snacks: slice of nut roll and darjeeling tea
Thoughts: I like reading all these books for readathon. It certainly breaks up the monotony of 1 book
Non-book activities: watching the Cleveland Guardians, worked on puzzle, watched Cleveland Browns

>25 elkiedee: Della May was from Indiana. I have never heard anything about her from any of my older relatives, and I believe they would have told me if they had ever heard anything about her, given the nature of some of the other stories I heard from them. Della May's mother was the second oldest of her siblings, and she was already married when her parents decided to move to another part of the state. Her parents and younger siblings moved, while she and her husband stayed put. I recall seeing a letter from Della May's parents to my gg-grandparents, so they did keep in touch at least sporadically. However, both of Della May's parents had died before she picked up and moved to Kansas City, and I don't believe any of my branch of the family would have heard about these events since it seems like contact with Della May's branch of the family ended with the deaths of Della May's parents.

Sunday

Books read from: The Mask Falling by Samantha Shannon, The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty, No Way Home by Tyler Wetherall, Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant
Time reading: 4 hrs., 48 min.
Snacks: baked apple fritters, granola bars, Outshine popsicle
Non-book activities: baking (fritters and granola bars), watched Hannibal S1, played Two Dots on my phone, washing dishes from all the baking, 2 phone meetings (2.5 hrs. total)

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 6
Total time reading: 9 hrs., 15 min.

I'll continue to read Monday (I don't usually work, but I do have a class all morning) and Tuesday (PTO from work). Finishing The Cooking Gene right now.

Monday afternoon wrapup
Books read from: Battlefield: Farming a Civil War Battleground by Peter Svenson. Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty for a LT group read that is long over. Deleuze Connections by John Rajchman for a book discussion in the College of Education that starts this week. Good Lord Bird by James McBride for my real life book discussion group that meets next week. I am listening to Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Books finished in this weekend's Readathon: Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill

Book Thoughts: I started reading Good Lord Bird by James McBride last night. This one starts out with the right blend of humor and raunchiness that will catch the attention of many readers. It remains to be seen if it will hold my attention.
Time reading: 2 hours.
Time posting:
Food: had my usual Sunday dinner at the local Indian restaurant and buffet. The college students have finally discovered this local hangout and have come there in droves. Last Sunday so many people ate there that they ran out of plates. It wasn't quite that bad this week, but there were many people eating there. That is good for the owners of the place, but bad for me and the other loyalists who were not expecting that level of noise and the accompanying crowd.
Nonbook activities: Went grocery shopping and got things ready for cooking tonight and tomorrow. I Watched PBS for a couple of hours and am very much enjoying the Van Der Velk mysteries.
Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 266
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 724 hours since I started participating in the Read-A-Thon that started in April 2020

Monday

Books read from: The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty, Pass with Care by Cooper Lee Bombardier, Happily Ever Afters by Elise Bryant, Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Time reading: 1 hr., 13 min.
Snacks: baked apple fritters, granola bars, Outshine popsicles, ginger crisp bookies
Non-book activities: class all morning, baking cookies, watched Hannibal S1, played Two Dots on my phone, washing dishes from all the baking, phone meetings (2 hrs. total), applied for rental assistance, submitted an invoice for one of my jobs

Total books finished: 0
Total read from: 10
Total time reading: 10 hrs., 28 min.

Here's the next readathon: https://www.librarything.com/topic/345002