17 hours in...

Alas, poor Yorick, I sense no sleep for me tonight. No sleep, and no air conditioning. It was supposed to be fixed yesterday afternoon. No show. This afternoon. No show until almost 7. Then, apparently some other part was broke and since it was too late to buy the part (and are these places closed on Saturdays?) I was informed that I would have to wait until Monday. Vexed, you say? Vexed was way back there. It's been over a week now. ::grumblegrumble::

There are so many worse things out there. I shouldn't be complaining about a silly thing like that. Besides, just think of the savings on my electric bill!

I have now read three more books! So...

4) Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted. Any book in it that discusses musicals (even if it is Grease) is fine by me. And, there even was a mention of how the musical differed from the movie, that's a nice plug. Lucius managed to create a rather large explosion his freshman year of high school and blew off his arms. Now he has hooks. His scars are quite visible to the outside world, making him open to torment by fellow students. Aurora's mother recently died of cancer. Her scars are inward and I got the feeling she didn't talk much about her mother with her new friends. They are both new to the school, their respective parents having moved them to a new school district for a new beginning. I thought it was a good read. Plus, Aurora's father was the school librarian. The awesome one would could find you research. Gotta love that!

Took a break from reading books and switched on an audiobook of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games for dinnertime. We are doing this book for a summer book discussion shortly and I need a refresher. Somehow, though, listening to Katniss talk about the time she nearly starved and how Peeta saved her made me feel not so hungry anymore. It was like the time I was at Dachau Concentration Camp and we had just watched the introductory film filled with starving prisoners and some American stood up after the video was ended and loudly proclaimed, "Well, it's time to go get something to eat!". Tact much?

5) The Everafter by Amy Huntley. One of those books that I probably needed to read. Why? Because I form strange attachments to inanimate objects just like Madison Stanton, the protagonist, did. And now that she is dead, she has discovered that through the objects she's lost throughout her life, she can go back and revisit those moments. Until she finds the missing object and the experience of that memory is forever lost to her. It made me wonder just what sort of lost objects I would find in my own "Is", though I would go beyond year 17 now. I was surprised just how she died. I wasn't quite expecting that.

6) The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler. A fairy tale, retold. This one of the "Twelve Dancing Princesses". Jo recommended that I read it next. It was light and enjoyable, having the tale told with an extra princess. One who is, unfortunately, regulated to working as a servant because her father, the King, blamed her for causing her mother's death. And for not being a boy. Despite that, Zita (unlike her sisters who's names all start with "A's"), has turned out to be a well-adjusted girl who, during the course of the book, befriends a stablehand, a witch, and a soldier, all on her quest to help her sisters end their curse. I did figure out earlier on who the bad witch was. I'm not sure if I should be proud of myself, or not!

Currently reading: The Agency: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee - Fun!

Time spent reading/blogging: 17 hours, 15 minutes
Books read: 6
Pages: 1567
Money donated: $31.50

9 hours in...

And I feel like I'm moving at a snail's pace reading my books. All will be well, though, I am sure. As long as I have four total done by hour 12, I think I should reach my goal. Maybe? Goal being to at least match the amount I read last year.

So, what have I been reading so far?

First up was Castle Adamant by Sally Watson. She's an old favorite of mine who just recently started writing again. Or at least publishing her books again. The problem with her books that generally her characters are at least slightly related to characters from other books and it makes me want to go read the other ones again! Watson again wrote a fabulously eccentric female character from the time of the Civil War in England, Verity. She being a Roundhead "kidnapped" by Royalists and ending up at a Royalist stronghold Castle Corfe. Pretty much all of Watson's main female characters give me hope that maybe men out there really do prefer their women intelligent instead of just easy-going, as of course Verity was going to end up with the snappish Peregrine, as they battled out their feelings for God, country, and themselves with a dialogue peppered with Latin, Greek, and Bible scripture. A rewarding read.

Next we turned our thoughts to modern times with a paranormal twist. In other words, Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins. So I figured out some of the villainy ahead of time in this book, however, I wasn't quite prepared for all the treachery or the death. I can see why Jo would want me to read it as it is very entertaining and pulls you in. I'm looking forward to the next book.

Thirdly, was Julia Golding's Black Heat of Jamaica, the fifth book in the Cat Drury books. I had to order this one from the UK because it wasn't out yet and I can't say enough about the fun that is this series. Seriously. Not to mention we have Billy Shepherd actually acting, dare I say it, passably nice to Cat in this one. Actually, most of the major players from earlier books were gone in this volume and we were left with many a villain. Or at least scoundrels and one villain (Kingston Hawkins). And believe you me, he was up to great and terrible things. Looking forward to the next adventure with Cat (yes, I actually already have this one pre-ordered) but it is going to be a lengthy wait.

And now I'm reading Crazy Beautiful by Lauren Baratz-Logsted.

Hours: 9.5ish now
Books read: 3
Pages: 883
Money donated: $15.75

Ready, set, go!

"The moment we have all been waiting for," quote Jojo. And I'm ready to start this thing.

My charity of choice this year is a couple from my church who are in the midst of adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia. So, I am doing $5 per regular book read, $1 per graphic novel, and $.25 per valid comment on my blog. I can wait to meet their new son!

And now it starts with a Sally Watson book, as tradition dictates. Hopefully my air conditioning issue will be fixed today.

Everybody is playing the game.

Luckily the rules are the same. (Yes, I am misquoting a musical, and that musical is Chess).

I have most recently signed up to compete (yes, like an athletic event) in MotherReader's 48 Hour Book Challenge. I was in it for gold last year for my own mercenary reasons (ARC of Catching Fire much?), but this year, I want to go all the way for the charity of my choice. Which, I can't quite say yet because I have not gotten it approved by those who need to approve it, but it will be for a splendid cause if I have any say in the matter.

What I won't be doing is seeing a show after the event as I did last year (Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and I so wish I had seen it when I was more awake). Nor will I be celebrating barricade day with my friends who are stuck on this continent and can't celebrate it in Paris with all the other Les Miserables junkies. No exciting Paris trips for me this year. Instead, I'll be reading for a cause.

I have been reading Estelle Lazer's Resurrecting Pompeii the last few days, and I am quite enjoying myself. More for her humorous commentary on stories written by Theophile Gautier which feature heroes who have a tendency to form attachments with random body parts of long-dead women: in one instance a cast of a woman's bosom and hips, the other a woman's foot. Now I want to read these stories outright, despite the fact that the author gave a brief summary of them. The stories being Arria Marcella and The Mummy's Foot.

I love how reading one book can introduce you to another. I would have never heard about Gautier, I bet, except for this book. It is just like how one blog can inform another and link to something else and it continues forever. Sometimes I get lost in reading blog posts. Oh, technology, what a "time waster" you are to me. Or is it? Certainly I learn things when I hop from one blog to the next following a stream of information that interests me.

But now I am feeling woefully tired. Perhaps I am no longer young enough to stay up late and keep night hours. That bodes ill for the challenge...

Mayhem! Or, "to be continued..."

Growing up, I always enjoyed reading books by authors that were dead (though I did read those by authors living, of course). There was a finality to it that the authors would be unable to leave you hanging because the next book was already written. So even if they did leave you with a tantalizing "to be continued..." at the end of one book, there was always the immediate relief of the next. Unless they die before the series is complete. But new authors? You have to wait a while for the next book to come out. That sometimes takes a bit of patience!

And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman

Cordelia Truesdale (or Delia to her friends), a California girl living with her mom, T.K., goes surfing one day only to come home to the news that her mother has disappeared during an Antarctica expedition and is presumed dead by all. Everyone, that is, except for Delia herself. However, a reading of T.K.'s will sends Delia to live in NYC with her Aunt Charity (or Charley), with her other aunt, Patience, acting as her trustee; neither of which she had ever met before. As if starting her junior year in a new preppy private school isn't enough, Delia attempts to unravel the mystery of her mother's disappearance and along the way makes friends with a tech-saavy schoolmate, becomes attracted to a boy who might be dangerous, ask the assistance of a private detective, be told her future by a psychic, and attempt to avoid T.K.'s oily assistant, Thad.

I enjoyed reading this, but I do wish that it didn't leave me with a hanging ending. Though at least one thing was resolved by the end o the book. Of course, I'm not going to say what! I am looking forward to reading the sequel, And Then I Found Out the Truth.

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling by Maryrose Wood

The first book in a new series, Maryrose Wood quickly introduces the reader to the ever intrepet Miss. Penelope Lumley, who at fifteen years of age is a recent graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. Armed only with sayings of Agatha Swanburne (not all of them make sense), her favorite stories in the Giddy-Yap, Rainbow series, and her own personal convictions, Miss Lumley is still not quite prepared to face her newest challenge: being a governess to three children recently found running wild in the woods of Ashton Place. Named the Incorrigibles by Lord Frederick, the owner of Ashton Place, Alexander, Cassiopeia, and Beowulf face many challenges in becoming normal children as taught by Miss Lumley, not the least of which are the local squirrels. When the much anticipated ball (by Lady Charlotte, at least) devolves into "Mayhem!" as shouted by Cassiopeia, many questions are raised but none are answered by the end of the book.

In a way it reminding me in parts of Lois Lowry's The Willoughbys and Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. Perhaps the orphans, perhaps the mystery, or maybe just the sometimes ridiculousness of it demonstrated by the adults in the story. While I wish I knew more by the end of the story, I did find it a fun romp. I'm looking to reading more of the series!

Ruined (and the not so ruined Helen Hayes nominations)

Rebecca Brown, the fifteen-year-old protagonist of Ruined, a young adult novel by Paula Morris, finds herself at the beginning of the book shuttled off to live in the pre-Katerina city of New Orleans while her father is on an assignment in China. Her mother is dead, and there is only her Aunt Claudia, who isn't actually her aunt, to take care of her for an entire school year. Upon arriving in New Orleans, Rebecca learns she will be attending the prestigious Temple Mead School for girls, a school that has a rigid system of hierarchy that Rebecca, being an outsider, will never be able to crack.

The story really starts to move when Rebecca disobeys her aunt and sneaks into the cemetery (rule 1 - do not go into the cemetery) to spy on a group of "Them" girls from the Temple Mead School and their boy followers (rule 2 - do not associated at all with that group of kids). Of course, Rebecca makes a noise while spying on them, and has to flee through the cemetery. Except she gets lost. And meets a girl who points the way out. A girl who turns out to be a ghost.

Ruined took me back to the good old fashioned ghost stories of my own youth. A time where there were no zombies and vampires to interupt a good haunting. I could see the plot twists coming, but I still had fun getting there. Perhaps the most interesting aspects of the story for me was learning more about New Orleans historically and pre-Katrina. I think that the ghost, Lisette, had the most fleshed out character (yes, even as a ghost) of anyone in the book including Rebecca. I wish I could have learned more about Helena and what made her tick, though I guess every teen book needs that randomly awful for no apparent reason mean girl. And the romance aspect of it, I don't think it really needed it because to me it was more Lisette's story than Rebecca's.

Overall, while it had some weaknesses, I did enjoy Paula Morris's Ruined.

Next up: The dreaded "To Be Continued..." (a.k.a. two books I have recently read that featured those words at the end of the book)


And can I just get my theatre dorkiness squee out? I was so excited to see that both David Turner and Miriam Silverman were nominated for this year's Helen Hayes Awards (it is Washington, D.C.'s yearly theatre awards). And both for their performances as Tristan and Marcela in Shakespeare Theatre's Dog In the Manger, one of my favorite productions of last year (and currently in my top list of plays). Also Arcadia was nominated for several awards and other shows I liked. I can get more into the Helen Hayes Awards than the Tony Awards because I see a greater portion of the shows, so I do actually have my favorites!

And who could resist a play that has such lines as, "Late again, missing all the fun, like a virgin at an orgy." My friend actually made a t-shirt for me with that line on it as a birthday present. Though, however much fun Tristan was, my heart and sympathies went out to Marcela. "You don't throw stones at a window to test the quality of the glass."


However, I also have to love Arcadia just because of the archival dorkiness and Tom Stoppard love. I can't believe I went this long without knowing about the awesomeness of this play of his (though to be honest, the only other one I've seen by Stoppard is Rock 'n' Roll both in NYC and at Studio Theatre here in D.C.). I only wish that Thomasina (and Septimus) had a happier ending. Still, who could resist loving the opening line, "Septimus, what is carnal embrace?"..

Open letter to librarians from California

Dear Librarians of California,

Why? Why do you have to be so helpful? It puts pressure on us other poor librarians, especially those from the east coast. And then add to that your natural beauty, us less beautiful east coast librarians just can not compare.

Hah. We had a patron in the other day who told us that life was better in California as for as libraries and librarians go. I'll be taking his words with a grain of salt, however, because he also believed that my boyfriend called me at work to break up with me (because I was a bad kisser). I really don't know where he gets this information because that never happened to me at all! And, I might add, is slander. Especially the way the story is spreading... (not that I'm helping at all by posting it here).

Librarians are helpful and hot the world over, not just in California. Or that's what I choose to believe.

Love,
Kristin