I'm getting to that veiny point in the competition, where the veins on my feet, legs, hands, and arms make their appearance. Needless to say, this last 12 hours or so are my favorite. From what I can recall from last year. However, new plan for tomorrow morning is, despite how scummy I feel, I fully intend to read/walk my way over to the playground area that they have by the school/church right next to me and doing the last couple of hours over there. I did that tonight before it got too dark and it was quite lovely getting to see someplace that wasn't the living room in my apartment. And I can rest quite comfortably reading a book on the slide. I'll have to remember this for next year.
New reading updates:
9) Hilary McKay's Wishing For Tomorrow. So, no lie, I grew up loving Burnett's A Little Princess. One of my all-time favorites. So when I discovered that there was going to be a sequel of sorts, I had to jump all over that one. And I am quite pleased with the result. The first couple of chapters do have bits from the original novel (basically the banquet/Sara finding the "Indian Gentleman") but it mainly deals with life at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary after Sara leaves. The main thread throughout the story of the girls' left behind is Ermengarde and how she deals with losing her best friend. Or how she thinks she has lost her. But, McKay does a wonderful job of fleshing out Lotte, Lavinia, Jessica, the two Miss Minchins in addition to adding new characters like Alice (the new maid-love her!), Tristram (the boy next door), and Bosco (the cat). This is going to be a book that I buy to keep!
10) Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. I didn't mean to read two 12 Dancing Princesses books for the challenge, it just happened. Why I haven't read this one earlier, I don't know. My only defense is that once I own a book, it gets regulated to "read last" status because I always have a billion books checked out. I've loved Jessica Day George back when I read her first novel, Dragon Slippers, so I was happy to read these fairy tales retold she has been doing. This was is a lot more traditional retelling of the story (as opposed to The Thirteenth Princess) but still very well told. I love the knitting knight Galen. And, I think with all books based on this story, there is the lack of character development except for a few of the major princesses just because there are so many of them. These princesses all had flower names as their mom was big into flowers. She was also the cause of them being cursed to dance (and then marry) the half-demon princes because her mom made a deal with their dad. Good idea, right? So not. Very fun read.
11) Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George. I fought to get this book from the Bloomsbury Publishers at ALA Midwinter this year. I knew what I wanted, but it was at the bottom of their stack. After asking three times, however, someone was willing to go get it for me. And I loved it! This one is a sequel of sorts to Princess of the Midnight Ball and focuses on Poppy, one of the middle princesses (and a twin) who is sent to Breton as part of a new royal exchange program. Not that the king wants her there because his son happened to die attempting to break their curse back when they had to dance every night. So hostilities from that direction. And then she meets Prince Christian who just happens to be captivated by a former lady now servant Eleanora? Something is not quite right, and Poppy will need to use all of her wits and knitting power to set things on their correct course. A twist on the Cinderella story, but who is the real Cinderella? Needless to say, it was worth every moment spent annoying the publishers for my ARC of it.
12) Ouran High School Host Club Vol 1 by Bisco Harori. Jo seemed to very much like this series. I just didn't get into it. Maybe I need to read it when I'm not so tired? I'm not sure. Oh well.
Time spent reading/blogging: 38 hours, 20 minutes
Books read: 12
Pages: 3239
Money donated: $58.75
2 comments:
Reading on the slide! Excellent!! I remember that you felt like you were stalking Bloomsbury for that JDG arc. :)
Wow! Stay strong! I thought the last couple of hours of reading that I did were the toughest. Reading in the park sounds nice. I did some reading at the gym, just to mix things up a bit.
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