How It's Going

 I was planning to post more frequently today, but life happened. While I did get a fair amount of reading in, I just wasn't able to post until anything until now. Reading was a combination of print and audio. 

While running errands and doing some tasks around the house I finished off Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers. 

I did get to sit down and enjoy some reading time as well. A Universe of Wishes was my book of choice.

 I'm liking it so far. In addition to reading stories with diverse characters, I'm discovering some new authors whose writings I want to explore further. 

Here are my reading totals for last night and today:

A Universe of Wishes : 3 hours, 27 minutes

Whose Body? : 1 hour, 10 minutes

Since I need to be awake and alert for Church tomorrow, it's time to call it a night. 

Happy Reading, everyone!

It's Reading Time

 The 24 in 48 Read-a-thon is back! I'm so excited to be participating. There was 24 in 48 Read-a-thon held in July of last year, but I had a hard time concentrating on reading due to all the things going on in the world. So I didn't get very far. I'm hoping to get far more reading in this time around.

Since books that celebrate diversity is the theme of this challenge I'll be starting with A Universe of Wishes: A We Need Diverse Books Anthology edited by Dhonielle Clayton. I didn't used to like short story collections, but they've grown on me in the last few years. This sounded like an interesting collection and I look forward to diving in.

That said, let the reading commence!

Happy Reading, everyone!

Book #2

My next read for the 24 in 48 was Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 by Helaine Becker. Here's my review:

I picked this up after Katherine Johnson's recent death. I wanted to see if it would make a good Christmas gift for a young girl I know.

The author detailed the culture of the time and Johnson;s approach to math in a way that's easy to understand. I also appreciated the simple, clear illustrations. In the end, I decided this will make a good gift indeed.

Now to search for my next read.

Happy reading, all!

Social Distancing Readathon

The fine folks over at 24in48 are hosting an informal readathon this weekend. No prizes or time proofs, just a good old fashioned reading session.

I planned to read a lot more than I have so far and it's a good thing no time proofs are needed. I tripped and fell on Friday and broke a bone. Between that and the general weirdness of the days, I'm a bit out of it and haven't been keeping track of my reading time.

I did finish a book, though. Here's my review of The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe.

Why I picked it up: I like memoirs and books about books, so this one definitely caught my eye. 

Why I kept reading: Schwalbe quickly drew me into his mother's life and world. I enjoyed getting to her and "sharing in" their book discussions. 

In the end: I loved this book. I got to know a really interesting person and it made me recall memories of my own mother's last days and our last times together.

Highly recommend!

Now, on to the next read. It's going to be a picture book because A) that's what's next on my shelf and B) I want to finish at least one more book during this challenge!

Happy Reading, all.

Challenge Completed

And with that it's time to put my challenge to bed. Here's how today went:

Jackaby - 1 hour 22 minutes

The Mummy Case - 1 hour 58 minutes

That puts my reading at 3 hour 20 minutes for today. Also, I finished Jackaby, which was one of my goals for this challenge. Considering the unplanned circumstances that arose this weekend, I'm calling this a successful challenge. It's been super fun and I hope to participate again next January.

Total Reading Time for the challenge: 5 hours, 13 minutes. 

Not bad considering I didn't think this summer's challenge would happen for me. Thanks to the gang at 24 in 48 for all your hard work in hosting this event. You guys rock!

Here are my reading time proofs for today.

Time Tally So Far

As I suspected, not much reading got done today. Some of it was due to my choices of browsing Twitter and playing Candy Crush. Some of it was due to fun family outings that truly blessed our houseguest. It was a great day overall, even if too much time in the sun tired me out.

Oh, before I forget, I settled on an audiobook for this weekend's challenge. The "winner" was The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters.

Now...the tally. Here's how things are shaping up so far.

Friday July 20th
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - 30 minutes

Saturday July 21st
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - 11 minutes
Jackaby - 22 minutes
The Mummy Case - 50 minutes

Total time so far: 1 hour 53 minutes.

Here are my proof of time screen shots

         
  

Off to try and squeeze in a bit more reading before heading off to bed. It's been a great, but tiring day.

Happy Reading my friends!

24 in 48 Challenge #2

It's time for the second 24 in 48 book challenge of 2019. Well, almost. Still another 29 minutes until start time. Would you believe I'm still working out my strategy? Some of my reading plans got changed at the last minute, for good reasons, though. I think the strategy for this go 'round is "family first and go with the flow."

I'll be blogging here as time permits. Books will include Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, The Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Jackaby by William Ritter, and a yet to be determined audio book. I plan to count my time using both the Bookly app and the Beanstack Tracker app and will post screenshots through the weekend to confirm my times.

To all who are participating, happy reading!