Social Distancing Readathon #281 - August 8 - 10

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'll have another go this weekend. Kerry from Auckland, NZ.

4pm Friday checkin.
Reading The Magician's Daughter by H.G. Parry, my first book by this writer and I'm enjoying it.
Hope to finish at least one book this weekend.

Hi from Nancy in North Carolina.

Currently reading
THE GIRLS WE SENT AWAY
and
DOWNBURST by L Ryan, in the
Rachel Hatch series.

I’m in!

This is the last weekend of my summer vacation - I go back to work on Wednesday. I have tons of planned summer reads left to read so would love to make a dent in that pile. However, I have family visiting so we’ll see how much reading time I actually get.

Can't wait to start! Leslie in the 'dirty Jerz' (NJ, USA)

Am listening to Alexander McCall Smith's The Talented Mr. Varg as I "garden" - also known as trying to wrest back control of my small square of this good earth from the weeds, invasive plants (ugh! Japanese stiltgrass!), and those darn pesky insect pests (probably should give up on the squash and burn the plants as recommended online - but they were doing Soooo well before the squash bugs, and I hate giving up, so I'm going to try Neem oil). I have become a big fan of Sweden from afar, so McCall Smith's gentle novel is thoroughly enjoyable and I expect to continue with it this weekend as I commit all manner of herbicides and insecticides. This dichotomy is definitely a paradox or some type of cognitive dissonance: let the good times roll!

Also hope to finish Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II and Putin's Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos this weekend - wayyyy behind my goal on this last one.

The only question I have is, will I have enough strength to hold up a book after battling the weeds in my yard?? Happy reading, everyone!

I'm in - currently reading Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary.

Friday Startup
Books read from: My continuous reading book is Miss Mapp by E. F. Benson. My computer book is Sage of Waterloo by Leona Francombe. I have several books started and am actively reading in all of them - not at the same time! Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano and I am now deep into Pictures At A Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris. I listening to We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie by Noah Isenberg.

Books finished: Eating My Way Through Italy by Elizabeth Minchilli.

Book Thoughts: I finished Eating my Way Through Italy and really enjoyed this book. It was a travel book with recipes. The author is a food writer who married and Italian and now lives in Rome. She travels around Italy and writes about the food, foodways, cooking, and cooks all over the country of Italy. There was lots of information in this book, and I have decided that I will keep this book and not give it away as I do with 97% of the books I read. Why is this one a keeper? It has so much information in it about what to eat, where to eat it - right down the phone numbers of the restaurants recommended, and places to stay. Italy has really good Agritourismo's and she isn't shy about making recommendations. This is a good reference book for when a person wants to make that trip to Italy.

Non-Book Activities: It is hot outside today, so it is another day of not getting anything moved. I am doing laundry and spending lots of time planning a Grandparents Tea for the church. It will be the weekend of Grandparents Day and one of the people who said they would help me won't be able to do so because of school commitments and the other wasn't much help last time and so I don't expect will be this time either. I ordered the tea today and will have to take some time to see what kinds of plates are at the church and start thinking about how to do the food. But, the first order of business is to figure out how to force people to RSVP. This should prove interesting.

Reading Time Today: 2 hours
Time Reading this weekend: 2 hours
Time listening:
Time posting:
Food: I have so much fresh food in the house that I am throwing it out because it is getting moldy. Moldy eggplants, because my porch decorations decided that they would bloom and produce a plethora of eggplants. Also lots of sweet corn right now, and to add to the pile, zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, and onions. It is hot enough that the tomatoes have slowed down, but the other veggies are making up for the slow tomatoes.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 520
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1610 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon starting in April of 2020.

9.30am Saturday Checkin
I'm reading The Magician's Daughter by H.G. Parry. Decided to settle in and finish this one.
Went out early to the local bakery for bagels this morning and listened to more of King of the Vagabonds by Neal Stephenson, an audiobook that I've been neglecting in favour of my Spotify playlists.

Saturday afternoon update:

Finished Permafrost by Alastair Reynolds, a short post-apoc. time travel novel. Interesting, if a bit confusing at times.
Still listening to The Talented Mr. Varg, by Alexander McCall Smith, and enjoying the wry humor. Gotta love a Department of Sensitive Crimes where everyone's feelings are so deeply considered.
Looking forward to some computer reading, but first I have to shake off some of this energy ... hard to sit long and make progress on Putin's Sledgehammer on this cloudless, beautiful day!

Sat afternoon

Books:
Finished THE GIRLS WE SENT AWAY.
Set in early 1960s, this was good but so sad and heart-wrenching. I did not know about the Baby Scoop Era before reading this book.
Now back to DOWNBURST by L Ryan.
Also starting new audio book -
THE LADIES ROAD GUIDE TO UTTER RUIN

Breakfast: coffee, milk, granola, V-8
Elevenses: cherry yogurt, toast
Lunch:
chocolate peanut butter ice cream cone.. well, why not?

Other book activity:
Packed up a set of MARY POPPINS books to send to granddaughters.
Packed small box of books for a soldier.
For anyone interested in FINDING FLORA, newly published historical fic, set on the Canadian plains, early 1900s - I finished it this week and loved the spirited heroine who shows great fortitude and perseverance in meeting formidable challenges, obstacles, and a few vicious villains. One of these was a real historical figure. And again I learned about interesting historical events l hadn’t known about.

Sunday 12noon checkin
Books read from: The Magician's Daughter by H.G. Parry, Swept Away by Beth O'Leary, The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa, Robinson Daniel Crusoe by Pudence Andrew & Dragonclaw by Kate Forsyth
Books finished: The Magician's Daughter

Snacks: about to heat the rice soup for lunch. It was also our dinner last night.
Been out for a coffee and pickup of library books.

I'm enjoying Swept Away, just don't like that it is a big read for just a romance story. The Feast of the Goat requires some concentration, it's a bit dark at present with impending violence.

>10 nrmay: I read The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. I like Alison Goodman's books.

A brief Monday morning wrap-up before the busy day ahead:

Non-book activities: Weeding and housework, dealing with some family matters

Total books finished: 3
- Permafrost
- The Talented Mr. Varg: A Detective Varg Novel, Book 2
Total read from: 3
- Putin's Sledgehammer
Total time reading: 10h

Weekend summary:

Books read from: Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary, The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Books finished: None
Pages read: 300-ish

Non-reading activities: Performed with my barbershop quartet at a picnic sponsored by a local barbershop chapter, along with other quartets and a chorus. Watched some Detroit Tigers baseball, and just generally recovered from a week supervising a cabin of middle school boys at a church youth camp.

I completely forgot to update during the weekend, but didn't end up reading all that much so I guess it doesn't really matter. Family stayed longer than I'd planned so less time for reading.

Books read from: Death in Venice and Other Stories; Pietr the Latvian; Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, part 2.
Books finished: Death in Venice and Other Stories

>13 ChrisG1:
WOW! being a cabin supervisor for middle school boys is quite an undertaking. Congraulations.

Weekend Wrapup
Books read from: My continuous reading book is still Miss Mapp by E. F. Benson. My computer book is Sage of Waterloo by Leona Francombe. I have several books started and am actively reading in all of them - not at the same time! Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano and I am almost done with Pictures At A Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris. I listening to We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie by Noah Isenberg.

Books finished: Eating My Way Through Italy by Elizabeth Minchilli.

Book Thoughts: I did not finish any books this weekend but it was a productive reading weekend. I am within 100 pages of finishing the 430 pages of reading material in Pictures At A Revolution and am deeply engrossed in it. I am now at the part where the spat about the violence in Bonnie and Clyde has become the topic of conversation among movie critics. I am going to highly recommend this book for people who want to know more about movie history. Great stuff in there about the movies and it doesn't get bogged down in who slept with who gossip.

I also had a great time in our Zoom book discussion group meeting. We discussed the book A God in Every Stone and it was a great discussion because there are so many topics to talk about. We spent a great deal of time talking about the structure of the novel, then moved on to the history of the time and place, and ended up talking about the role of teachers in the lives of people, which lead us to a great discussion about the importance of DEI in reading books and in publishing diverse books.

Non-Book Activities: It was a busy weekend. I spent Saturday afternoon baking a chocolate angel food cake and cutting corn off the cob. We are drowning in vegetables right now. My sister says that she is a temporary vegetarian due to the plethora of veggies at our houses. She and I joined a CSA and we are getting more from them than we can use. Add to that the abundance of eggplants that I am getting from just 2 plants and the amazing amount of sweet corn and green beans that we are getting because it continues to rain here about every-other day. On Saturday, my sister and I went to the appreciation supper put on by a local farmer and pigged out on homemade sausage and pork burgers. Apparently, we had some kind of thunderstorm that got a little windy during the night of Saturday/Sunday, but I slept right through it. I woke up heard the rain and then went right back to sleep. The parade of people hauling broken branches to the burn pile started going past my door about 8 AM Sunday morning, but that didn't bother me either. I had my coffee and a good book to read so ignored all those extremely noise making ATV's the people think they have to have these days. It was my day to play at church on Sunday, and that means Sunday morning and Sunday evening services that I managed to fit in between the Zoom book discussion meeting. So that was my weekend in a nutshell.

Reading Time Today: 1 hours
Time Reading this weekend: 5 hours
Time listening:
Time posting:
Food: I finally got around to baking a chocolate angel food cake with the leftover egg whites from kolache baking two weeks ago. It has been a long time since I baked an angel food cake, so I was pleased with the results. I need to practice more, but with the price of eggs what they have been I will only practice when I have accumulated enough egg whites. That means that it might be a long time before I bake one again. Tonight I am going to make a skillet ratatouille with zucchini, eggplant, and poached eggs because I have to do something with the eggplant, or they will be only useful to run down the garbage disposal.

Total books finished since the Read-A-Thon Began: 520
Total Time Reading since the Social Distancing read-a-thon began: 1614 hours since I started doing the weekend Read-A-Thon starting in April of 2020.

Tuesday 8.30am checkin
Books read from: Dragonclaw by Kate Forsyth
Books finished: Dragonclaw

Snacks: Potato and leek soup for lunch & homemade pizza for dinner

Total books finished: 2 The Magician's Daughter & Dragonclaw

Forgot to checkin yesterday as was busy finishing the last few pages of Dragonclaw. Read a few pages of Some Desperate Glory but fell asleep early.

Posting late...

I finished 40,000 in Gehenna which I recall reading many years ago, but of which I recalled virtually nothing.

Weekend summary - better late than never.

Books:
Finished THE SECRETS BETWEEN US.
I am always compelled to read fiction set in India and other exotic places
Next up A DOG’S PURPOSE that just showed up in my Libby e-account.
Also need to choose another off the TBR shelves. SO many books… you know how it goes. 🙂

Goals this week:
Get outside, go for a walk, engage in some “forest bathing.”
Cook/bake something.
Send postcards.
Empty some boxes from the garage. It would be nice to fit a car in there someday..

Cheerio till next time!

Here's the next readathon https://www.librarything.com/topic/373094