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I'm calling it done right now, even though I started at 1:00 on Friday, because I have to go to work this afternoon.

Books Read: 8
Time Read: 11 hrs, 22 minutes (just shy of the 12 hour mark, boo)
Time spent on my audiobook: 4 hours, 24 minutes
Time spent Blogging: 4 hours, 11 minutes
Time spent cheering others on via Twitter and visiting their blogs: 41 minutes

Besides having to work, I also had a family birthday lunch to go to on Saturday, as well as laundry and cleaning, so I definitely did not get as much time in as I wanted. That's okay, though, I still got a lot of books read!

While I tend to focus on YA in this blog, I found myself picking up a lot of middle grade novels for this challenge. Maybe because I happened to have a lot of them checked out from the library? Maybe because I didn't really have the energy to tackle big fat books (except one)? Who knows.

Thanks as always to Pam for running this crazy game, and thanks to everyone who sent me their encouragement! Happy reading, everyone!

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My last book for this challenge was Jennifer L. Holm's The Fourteenth Goldfish.

From my review: "I especially loved that she didn't just go the "rah-rah-science!!" route. A major theme of the book is the negative consequences of scientific discovery, such as Marie Curie's death from radiation poisoning or the aftereffects of Oppenheimer's atom bomb.  At the same time, Holm balances that with the wonder of discovering the world and its possibilities - a more nuanced rah-rah-science theme than most."

I'm going to write a wrap-up post and also take some knitting time with my audiobook before I have to get ready to go to work.

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I started Goblin Secrets by William Alexander last night, hoping to get it done before I fell asleep. But I crashed pretty hard, so I finished it up this morning.

From my review: "I kept reading this for the world of goblins and witches. Alexander has a way of dropping grotesque and magical details about the world and the people that indicate intriguing secrets, which we never fully get but know are there. I also read this for Rownie himself, discovering the magic of acting and his own strength, which both help him when he finds his brother again."

I have a couple of hours before I have to go to work, so I'm going to find a book I can read in under an hour.

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Congratulations! You've completed the challenge!

When you finish your 48 hours, sign in with Mr. Linky below with the link to your final summary, which should include the number and/or titles of books read and the amount of time spent on the challenge. Rounding to the quarter hour will do just fine. Given different time zones, all final summary posts should be up by 7:00 a.m. Monday, June 22nd. Winners, prizes and such will be announced on Monday afternoonish.

Thanks to everyone who participated, supported, and promoted the 48 Hour Book Challenge!

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My sixth book was another fluffy, zany middle grade novel, Gabby Duran and the Unsittables by Elise Allen and Daryle Conners.

From my review: "I think kids will enjoy the breakneck pace, the goofy action, and the familiar, everyday events given a silly sci-fi twist."

I'm debating whether to pick up a thick, weighty tome or go for another fluffy one. I only have until noon tomorrow and I do plan to sleep tonight.

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My fifth book was the middle-school funfest, The Doublecross (and other skills I learned as a superspy) by Jackson Pearce.

From my review: "This is a book you probably shouldn't think about too closely, what with its prepubescent spies and I-Spy antics. It's awfully fun once you have a generous suspension of disbelief. The plot romps along, with plenty of explosions and gadgets and excitement, as well as humor."

I think I'll take some time for knitting and listening to my audiobook before I pick up my next book.

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My fourth book for this challenge, which I started late last night and worked on throughout the morning and early afternoon, around chores and meeting family for a birthday lunch, was Phoebe North's Starglass, a weighty tome at 439 pages.

From my review: "This is a doorstop of a book, but I didn't want to put it down. Terra's world and her narration were completely compelling. Sometimes it's hard to put up with Terra herself. She seems naive, self-centered, often clueless about the motives and emotions of others or the political system that rules her world. And there are also times when she willingly keeps her blinders on, going along with what's expected because it's easy, trying to be a good Asherite because it's too hard to swim upstream. These things also make her tremendously real and sympathetic, and made me willing to see how she was going to change and grow."

I actually have the second book on my shelf, a review copy from the Cybils that I hadn't gotten around to reading yet because I wanted to read Starglass first. I'm debating whether to pick it up this weekend, because it's also a doorstopper of a book and those get wearing in a marathon like this. At the same time, I would really like to see what happens after the cliffhangery ending of the first.

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My last full book for the night was Holly Bodger's 5 to 1.

From the review: "I have to be honest: I've been completely over the whole novels in verse thing for awhile, so while Sudasa's free-versified thoughts and feelings were interesting, I was always relieved when I got back to the prose of Contestant 5's sections. That being said, seeing Sudasa slowly realize that there was a life for her outside of Koyangar and her grandmother's control was a fascinating character arc. I just wished it had been more fleshed out. Free verse tends to be extremely spare, without a lot of detail. This is obviously a personal preference, so your mileage may vary."


I had trouble with the formatting until I tweaked the settings on my reader about 2/3rds of the way through, so I spent a lot of time squinting and angling my reader. I'm going to pick up one of my library books for my bedtime reading and into tomorrow.

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My second book for this challenge, Karen Cushman's Will Sparrow's Road, was shorter and younger-skewing. I haven't been reading or writing about as much middle grade lately, so it was good to get into that.

From the review: "I love Karen Cushman's writing for the vivid way it brings history to life, but also for its complicated, realistic, and not always likeable main characters. Will is both hardened by life and tremendously naive, taking people at face value yet unsurprised when they betray him. Both of these qualities are things he has to unlearn in the course of the book."

I think I may pick up something more sci-fi-ish for my next book. I've been in a sci-fi mood lately.

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I started my 48-Hour Book Challenge at lunchtime, and spent it reading Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway.

From my review: "One of the reasons I wanted to read this book so much was that Robin Benway's stories have  a surface lightness with a surprising depth and heft once you get into the story. The narration is light and witty, the characters enjoyably snarky, but the themes that move through the book aren't light or fluffy. In this book, that theme is the impact of a traumatic event on friends and on the community."

I'm going to take some time to visit blogs and Tweet before going onto my next book.

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This weekend is the 48 hour Book Challenge, hosted by MotherReader. I'm so in, you guys!

As in years past, I'll write up a review of each book, but not post the whole thing this weekend, just a snippet. I'll space my reviews out on my regular Saturday schedule. (One of the reasons I love doing this is because it gives me content all summer and sometimes into the fall, depending on how much I read. It also flexes my reviewing muscles and I find myself reviewing more afterward.)

I'm not reading on any particular theme this year, just whatever looks good to me. My audiobook will be an old favorite, Beauty by Robin McKinley.

My starting time was 1:00 pm on Friday, which means my 48 hours will be up on Sunday at 1:00. Although I have to work Friday afternoon, I also have to work Sunday afternoon, so between the two I picked the earlier.

Cheer me on (as well as all the other readers) via Twitter (#48HBC) or by visiting our blogs. Want to join in or see who else is doing this crazy thing? Go to the starting lineup post over at MotherReader. It lasts until Sunday night.

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So it begins. Whenever you start your 48 hour period, sign in with a link to your blog with old, reliable Mr. Linky. Keep track of your time — which includes reading, reviewing, blogging, and connecting (blog reading, tweeting, and general bookish socializing). To keep the Starting Line post at the top of my blog, I won’t publish my personal posts until sometime Saturday evening.

On Sunday, I’ll have a Finish Line post where you can leave the link to your final summary, which should include the amount of time spent on the challenge. Rounding to the quarter hour will do just fine. Winners, prizes and such will be announced on Monday afternoonish. Happy Reading!

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Okay, we are seriously close to the Tenth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge and it is time to get ready. Do you have your books? I've got mine. Do you have your plan? I sort of have mine. Which can serve as an example for those of you without clear schedules.

When I set the dates, I wasn't really thinking about my daughter's dance recitals over that weekend. With a little internal negotiating of what does or does not make me a bad mother, I've settled on going to the last one and skipping one entirely. This isn't quite as awful as it may sound because my teen is less interested in the recitals than others may be. It also turns out that I work on Saturday, so I'm going to lose a huge chunk of time. But so be it. I'm making my own goal to hit 24 hours of reading in the 48 hour period - and I'm not sure I can do it. But that's why it's a Challenge.

So don't worry if you can't put in a whole weekend. Just let it be a weekend where reading is a priority and done with friends. Sign up in the comments and look for the starting line post on Friday. See you there.

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One reason to go to Book Expo America was to get books for the 48 Hour Book Challenge this coming weekend. Here are some of the signed books that I plan on reading this weekend and giving away as prizes:

Last-But-Not-Least Lola: Going Green, by Christine Pakkala; Last Night at the Circle Cinema, by Emily Franklin; House of Charms, by Christina Cameron; Lies I Told, by Michelle Zink; Those Girls, by Lauren Saft;

Elvis and the Underdogs, by Jenny Lee; The Girl in the Torch, by Robert Sharenow; Five Nincompoops, The Princess and One Saviour, by K. Edward; Endangered, by Lamar Giles; and The Summertime Girls, by Laura Hankin

There are also potentials for prizes among the ARC's I received. I didn't gather many, so most of these were ones that I requested that the publishers were able to give me.

The Murdstone Trilogy, by Mal Peet; Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, by Hal Johnson; The Bamboo Sword, by Margi Preus; When Mischief Came to Town, by Katrina Nannestad; Samurai Rising, by Pamela Turner; Steve Jobs, by Jessie Hartland;
Hunter, by Mercedes Lackey; How to Capture an Invisible Cat; by Paul Tobin; George, by Alex Gino; Sunny Side Up, by Jennifer Holm; Currents, by Jane Petrlik Smolik; and The Golden Compass: the Graphic Novel, adapted and illustrated by Stephanie Melchior-Durand and Clement Oubrerie.

So I've got my reading cut out for me. Are you gathering your choices for the 48 Hour Book Challenge this weekend? If you haven't signed up to participate, there is still time. And remember, you don't actually have to read the whole 48 hours. Consider it more like blocking off the time to make reading a priority. Check out the 48 Hour Book Challenge info and read along.

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Time once again for one of my favorite challenges in the kidlitosphere, the 48-Hour Book Challenge, hosted by MotherReader. This is a special year because it's the 10th annual. Tenth! We've been doing this for 10 years! That's the Mesozoic in the life of the Internet.

How it works: pick 48 consecutive hours in between the start and the finish and read, read, read! Blog about your reading and cheer others on Twitter and Facebook with the #48HBC tag. Check out MotherReader's blog post for more details and to throw your hat into the ring.

I love doing this because I often get my TBR pile winnowed down and build up a stock of reviews for my busy summer months. Plus I also make new friends!

It starts at 7 am on Friday, June 19th and concludes at midnight on Sunday the 21st. That's just about enough time to order your pizza, gather up your books, and worm out of all but the most pressing social engagements.

Will you join in?

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Hard to believe, but we're up to the Tenth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge, and with year ten, we're going back to basics. While I have loved past experiences of reading for RIF and in solidarity with WeNeedDiverseBooks, this time it's a simple weekend, bookish, get-together. While some will skip sleeping for the readathon, only twelve hours are needed to be an official participant of the 48HBC. So, you can do this. The rules below are to help both you (how does this work again?) and me (please link to your blog or I can't find you!). It's all on the honor system and it's all for fun.

1. The weekend is June 19th-21st, 2015. Read and review for any 48-hour period within the Friday-to-Sunday window. Start no sooner than 7:00 a.m. on Friday the ninetieth and end no later than midnight Sunday the twenty-first. So, go from 7:00 a.m. Friday to 7:00 a.m. on Sunday... or maybe 11:00 p.m. Friday to 11:00 p.m. Sunday works better for you. But once begun, the 48 hours do need to be in a row. That said, during that 48-hour period you may still have gaps of time in which you don't read or chose to sleep, and that’s totally fine.
   
2. Three winners will be chosen at random from each of three levels of reading commitment - 12 to 23 hours, 24 to 35 hours, and 36 to 48 hours. Since each level will progressively have less participants, the more you read the better your chances. Top readers will win individual prizes. International winners may be given gift cards instead of books due to mailing costs, unless a U.S. address is provided.
   
3. The books can be graphic novels, middle-grade, young adult, or adult books. One audiobook can also be included in your time and book total — helpful if you have somewhere to drive to or need to prepare dinner, etc.
   
4. You are welcome to include some networking time reading and commenting on other participant’s blogs, sharing on Facebook, and Tweeting about your progress (remember the #48hbc tag!).
   
5. When you begin, sign in at the "Starting Line" post at MotherReader on June 19th. When you finish, check in at the "Finish Line" post at MotherReader on June 21st.
   
6. At the end, write a final summary that clearly indicates hours — including partial hours — you spent reading/reviewing/networking, the number of books read, and any other comments you want to make on the experience. To be counted, it needs to be posted no later than noon EST on Monday, June 22th.

I’m always looking for donations for winners’ prize packages and other “door prizes” to be awarded to participants selected at random. Past prizes have included original sketches from illustrators, loads of signed books, t-shirts from Threadless, artistic blank journals, jewelry, gift cards, notecards, and more. Good stuff. If you’d like to contribute to the prizes this year, shoot me an email at MotherReader AT gmail DOT com.

Sign up now in the comments and block the dates on your calendar. Questions can also go in the comments, and I will respond in the comments and add a FAQ soon. Let's have some reading fun!

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What better way to come back to blogging from my accidental sabbatical than by announcing the dates for the Tenth Annual 48 Hour Book Challenge! We're going a touch later in the month of June than in previous years, but still before the ALA Conference. Hopefully everyone will be done with school and ready to relax with a bit - or a lot - of reading. It will be a low-key affair, but even the most casual of gatherings needs some established rules - that's why we don't double-dip our chips at parties - so those will go up on Monday. If you are too excited to wait, they will look remarkably similar to these.

So it's time to synchronize our calendars and make sure we're saving some time on...

June 19th - 21st

Yeah. You can feel the energy.

Check back for the details.

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What a weekend! With all the reading and reviewing done over the last couple of days, I feel like we're all winners. Am I right? But there were some noteworthy 48HBC achievements to be recognized and to prizes to award, so let's get started!

With 38 hours and 34 books read, the Champion of the Challenge is one Ms. Yingling! She wins the opportunity to donate a set of forty multicultural titles to a school or library of her choice through the generosity of Reading is Fundamental. Since she was a big prize donor of books and is so reluctant to receive back, she'll be getting a surprise prize package from yours truly. Both congratulations and thanks go out to her!

Coming in at 35.5 hours and 13 books read and reviewed is The One and Only Marfalfa. Beth at Library Chicken gives up 32 hours and reviews eight books for the challenge, and close behind with 30 hours of reading and reviewing is Alex at Randomly Reading. They will all be receiving an audiobook from Robin Brande and a collection of books contributed by Ms. Yingling!

And now for some prizes selected at random, just for playing:

The winner of five multicultural picture and chapter books from MotherReader is:
Sprout's Bookshelf!

The winner of a set of four diverse young adult books from Kelly at Stacked is:
A Random Hodge Podge of Bookishness!

And the winner of the second RIF multicultural book collection, along with an author signed Cupcake Cousins and tote bag designed by Tiffany Gholar, is:
Library Mama!

We had eighteen members of the 20 Hour Club:

Always in the Middle - 25.25 hours
As Inclination Leads Me - 21.5 hours
Book Challenge Blog - 20.5 hours
By Singing Light - 20 hours
Charlotte's Library - 20.25 hours
Confessions of a Bibliovore - 25 hours
Library Chicken - 32 hours
Love Notes to the Future - 24.5 hours
More like Flowers - 20 hours
MotherReader - 22 hours
Ms. Yingling Reads - 38 hours
No Boys Allowed - 24.5 hours
The One and Only Marfalfa - 35.5 hours
Quietly 20 hours
Randomly Reading - 30 hours
ReadSpace - 21.75 hours
The Sphere Also Gazes Into You - 25 hours
Technically a School Media Specialist - 20 hours


Thanks to all for being part of the 48 Hour Book Challenge!

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I need a concluding post for my 48 Hour Book Challenge effort. So this is it.

I read 6 books, blogged about them, and did some social networking in around 17 and a half hours. For the sake of a good Google+ post, I'll list the titles here with links to the blogs related to them.

Boxers and Saints

Haters

Josephine

Persepolis

Life is Fine

And now let's all take a look at Ms. Yingling's concluding post and recognize a serious 48 Hour participant. Hail to thee!

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Well, I'm done! I'm not as exhausted as I have been in past years, although I could feel myself losing a little steam toward the end of today, particularly as I blogged.

Reading, including audiobook: 19 hrs, 45 min
Blogging: 4 hrs, 7 min
Networking: 1 hr, 9 min

Total: 25 hrs

With 9 books finished, that's at least 90 dollars for my chosen charity. I'll wait until Monday night to total up the comments.

I'm happy with the books I chose. I tried to pick books that weren't explicitly About Diversity, and succeeded with about half of them.The other half had plots dependent on the non-white/non-straight/non-neurotypicalness of their characters, and while I think those are valuable too, it was nice having a book like Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel or While We Run, where the diverse elements are a background note for the characters and not the source of the plot.

How did you do? Share!

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Time: 5:55:29
Source: Local Library

Mel and Cathy have always been best friends, inseparable. Mel and Cathy, Cathy and Mel, that's just the way it is. Practical and down-to-earth Mel considers it her bounden duty to get and keep the dreamier Cathy out of trouble. So when Cathy goes and falls in love with a vampire, well, it's just business as usual. Even when Cathy decides to become a vampire herself, in order to be with Francis forever, Mel believes that she can rescue Cathy from her own folly. But something Mel fails to consider is that this trouble might be impossible to get Cathy out of, and even if it is, Cathy might not want or need her help.


I picked this as my audiobook because I remembered that Mel is Asian-American. But it's an interesting pick in another way, and that's how Mel finds her own prejudices about a group of people sometimes confirmed, sometimes confounded. She finds Francis thoroughly obnoxious (and frankly so did I) but Kit, the human raised in a vampire shade, challenges her beliefs. So does Camille, his vampire mom who also happens to be a cop and extremely, disconcertingly mom-like.

I can see the seeds of Kami, the intrepid/reckless teen detective from Brennan's Unbroken, in Mel. But Mel is sometimes harder to like, especially when she is explicitly not listening to Cathy. Yes, Mel hates the idea of Cathy becoming a vampire. Yes, it's dangerous, but Mel has to learn that supporting friends and respecting their choices is not the same thing as agreeing with them. Mel is invested in the idea of being Cathy's guardian - it's a central tenet of her identity. She's not sure who she'd be if she lost that, and so she's fighting.

This started life as a send-up of Twilight, and you can really see that in the bones of the story. But at its heart, it's really about lifelong friends pulling away, making different choices from each other, and also about how incredibly uncomfortable it can be to face down your own flaws and prejudices.

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My last two Book Challenge books.

First off, this is a two volume set. Be sure to read Boxers first.

Boxers and Saints are Gene Luen Yang's terrific historical graphic novels about the Boxer Rebellion. They're treated as one work because the books treat the same material from different points of view. I knew nothing about the Boxer Rebellion before 3:00 this afternoon. By 8:00 this evening, I had a working knowledge!

So in 1900 a secret organization in China called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists led an uprising of  peasants against western foreign influence, including the spread of Christianity. They were known as "Boxers" to the west because they practiced exercises they believed would give them powers. Presumably westerners thought they looked as if they were boxing. The Boxers fought against and killed "western devils" and "secondary devils"--those Chinese who either worked for westerners or accepted Christianity, the western devil's faith.

Boxers deals with the experience of a young villager named Little Bao who becomes the leader of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists. Saints deals with the experience of Four-Girl, a young villager who becomes a Christian. One of the particular pleasures in these books is that Four-Girl, the protagonist in Saints, is a minor character in Boxers. Little Bao, the star of Boxers, is a minor character in Saints.

Though, really, neither of them could be called minor.

Earlier today I had trouble with the long descriptions in Haters. The thing with a good graphic novel, and these are good graphic novels, is that the graphic images carry the descriptions and even some of the action. The author doesn't have to stop everything to tell readers how someone is dressed or what their surroundings look like. You can just suck in basic story, character, information.

Reading a good graphic novel is such a rush because you can take in so much so fast.

I am out of books, but it's 9:00 PM on Sunday, anyway. I'm ending this year's 48 Hour Book Challenge on a definite high.

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Time: 1:03
Source: Local Library

Last book!

Capsule review: "For everything she's been through, Wen has a quiet toughness that can work against her - as when she rejects her new family's overtures - or for her - as when she takes on the impossible task of getting one young teenager out of thousands adopted by somebody."

 I don't have time to read another one, so I'll just listen to my audiobook and run my time out.

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Time: 0:42:03
Source: Local Library

Well that book flew by. I had a hard time writing about it, though. Can't quite get a grip on the main character or the plot.

Capsule review: ". . . the jumbled tangle of emotion and uncertainty is awfully close to living inside Scotty's head. It's a quick and often confusing read. I'd give it only to people who are fans of Johnson's other work."

Torn now between picking up a longer book that I might not finish before two hours are up, or a short one and filling in the time with my audiobook and knitting. Hmmm.

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Time: 1:32
Source: Local Library

Awwwwwwwww. This book is like a puff pastry, sweet and delicious and just what I needed after my last book.

Capsule review: "This is a sweet, funny book with an incredibly sense of place. I want to visit Alex and Bijou's Brooklyn with all its color and variety and energy. It's not all sunny good fun, though. There are some ugly prejudices lurking under the surface. But Farrar keeps those light, brushing the edges of the story without making them the central conflict, and keeping his book light and sweet. Highly recommended for middle-school readers."

Might take some networking and knittting-with-audiobook time before I'm off to peruse the shelves for my next pick.

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