Dewey 24 Hour Readathon!

********  UPDATED HOUR 23 ********
I made it to hour 16 and then fell asleep. 
I'm up reading a little more before the readathon ends. 

This will be my very last readathon while pregnant. Yay! Unfortunately I'm on bedrest this weekend. I'm 35 weeks pregnant and have had a few preterm labor scares so far. I will be putting my feet up and reading today, but might not be updating as frequently as I normally do. I'll also be helping my husband with my 3-year-old, so we'll see how this goes.

This is my 15th readathon (see links below). Here's a link for more info about the Dewey Readathon. Today you can find me posting on Litsy and Instagram as @avidreader25 as well as here.

Reading Stats

Pages Read: 885

Currently Reading: #IMomSoHard  

Books Finished: 6: Lift, The Night of the Iguana, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?, The Handmaid's Tale (graphic novel), Leaf by Niggle, and A Delicate Balance

Snacks Eaten: Cinnamon raisin English muffin, ice cream bar, chicken tacos

Introduction:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Indianapolis, IN

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The brand new graphic novel of The Handmaid's Tale and Lift by Kelly Corrigan. 

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? I'm pregnant... so all of them! Definitely dark chocolate pretzels and maybe a Starbucks flat white. 

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! My second kiddo is due in exactly one month! I also love to travel, have been to 16 countries, and I review live theatre in the Midwest.

5) If you participated in the last readathon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? I will be resting a lot more. Being pregnant means my energy level is a lot lower than normal.

Mini Challenges: 
1) Book and a Snack at The Book Monsters.

2) Literary Clue 

3) Book Cover Puzzle

Mid-Event Survey:
1) What are you reading right now? #IMomSoHard, I love the authors' web series and so I knew this one would be hilarious! 
2) How many books have you read so far? Finished 4

3) What book are you most looking forward to? I'm rereading the Harry Potter series right now and I'm on book 6. I'll dive back in that if I finish my current read.

4) Have you had many interruptions? I have a toddler... so yes. 

5) What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? How beautiful the weather had been! Lots of outdoor reading.  

PAST READATHON POSTS:

April and October 2011 / April and October 2012 / April and October 2013 / April 2014 / April and October 2015 /April and October 2016  /  April and October 2017 / April and October 2018. 

Photos by me.

Dewey 24 Hour Readathon!

*********  UPDATED HOUR 13 ********

I had great plans for the read-a-thon today. Snacks set out, my reading stack was chosen, then I got the plague. So I will be fighting a nasty flu and chasing after a toddler today. If I get a little reading done it will be a miracle, but I'm going to try! 

READING STATS:
Pages Read: 662 pages 
Currently Reading: A Gentleman in Moscow
Books Finished: 3 (Amadeus, A Man Without a Country, Bone: Out from Boneville)
Breaks Taken: Lots for Sydney. I also gave myself a break after she was asleep and watched an episode of The Handmaid's Tale. 
Mini-Challenges Completed: 7 (Opening Survey, Give the Gift of Reading, Books to Empower, Picture Challenge, One Night Reads, Mid-Event Survey, Fur, Scales, and Stuffing)

Sydney (below) is doing her best to distract me from reading.

Introduction Quiz:
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?Indianapolis, IN
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? I think I'll ignore the stack I picked and maybe do some comfort rereads instead. I'm thinking my favorite Sherlock Holmes and Kurt Vonnegut. 
 3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?  Taking sips of gatorade and hoping I don't throw up.  
4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I've got an 80lb dog and a 15 month old keeping me company (distracting me from reading). I also love to travel and I just booked tickets for our next international trip! 
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? I've participated in 11 other read-a-thons, but this is the first time I've attempted one with the flu. I wouldn't recommend it. 

Mid-Event Survey! 
1. What are you reading right now? A Gentleman in Moscow
2. How many books have you read so far? I'm shocked, but I've finished 3! 
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I don't know how far I'll make it. 
4. Have you had many interruptions? Yes! Taking care of a toddler, having some trees delivered, generally not feeling so hot because of the flu. How did you deal with those? Just powered through and reading when I could. 
5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? That I've been able to get some reading done!

PAST READATHON POSTS:

April and October 2011  /  April and October 2012 / April and October 2013 / April 2014 / April and October 2015 /April and October 2016. 

Photos by me.

The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
★★★★★

Offred is a handmaid's whose story unfolds in Atwood's famous dystopian novel. She lives in a world run by men, where women are powerless. They've lost their right to make decision, to learn how to read and even to have a job. The rulers claim they have "freed" the women from the painful tasks of having to find a husband or take care of themselves. Any women who are fertile are turned into handmaids and assigned to a home where they are forced to bear children for a married couple.

When I began the book I assumed this was a dystopian set decades in the future, where the women had no memory of life as we know it. I quickly learned that Offred used to have a job, money of her own, a husband and child, etc. The decline into her current policed state was swift and terrifying. That realization made the book even more chilling because it's all too easy to imagine it happening today.

I loved Atwood's bleak prose. Offred's resignation and despair were palpable. The tense relationships between the characters were thrilling. Offred was forced to walk a tight rope of suspicion in every conversation, never knowing who she could trust.

In one scene Offred is using butter she hid and saved from a meal as lotion on her skin. It's been so long since she's been anything but the potential carrier of a child that the concept of being loved is almost obsolete to her now. She says...

"As long as we do this, butter our skin to keep it soft, we can believe that we will some day get out, that we will be touched again, in love or desire."
It was the small acts of rebellion like this, breed from a spark of hope, that made Offred such a heartbreaking character. After Offred loses her ability to support herself she struggles in her relationship with her husband. That shift of dependence in their relationship changed everything...

"We are not each other's, anymore. Instead, I am his."

BOTTOM LINE: I can't recommend this book highly enough. Though it's more than 30 years old, it's more relevant than ever. Atwood's writing reveals the story bit by bit, allowing the horror of the changed society to creep up slowly.I read it for the first time in 2010 and rereading it this year gave the story even more depth.

Women NOT in Love

The other day I saw a great post that made me stop and think. It was a call for books about women that have absolutely nothing to do with romance. I was absolutely shocked by how long it took me to come up with a only handful of books. 

Think about it, how many can you think of off the top of your head? No young crush, no heartbreak leading to self-discovery, no casual dating, try to think of books that have no love in them at all. It's way tougher than it should be. 

The opposite doesn't seem to be true at all. I can think of a dozen books about men that don't involve romance. There are coming-of-age stories, thrillers, mysteries, and classics like Moby Dick and Heart of Darkness. There are so many! But when you hold up the same criteria for books with a woman protagonist, the options are scarce. 

I understand that love: having it, losing it, trying to find it, etc. can make a great story. But women are complex and there are a lot of stories to tell about them that don't include love. 

Here are the books that I finally came up with and honestly there's a couple that I think are questionable.

The Whale Rider, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Flavia de Luce series, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Kinsey Milhone series, The Handmaid’s Tale, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, Still Alice, Wild, The Eyre Affair, Emily of New Moon, The Optimist's Daughter, The Thirteenth Tale, The Likeness, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, True Grit, Little Bee

What books could you add to the list? 

Added suggestions from you guys:  Nervous Conditions, Code Name Verity, Dolores Claiborne, The Gathering, The Year of the Flood, The Invention of Wings, We Were Liar,  Silver Sparrow, Matilda, Vanessa Michael Monroe series, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Nightingale, Alice in Wonderland, Room, A Little Princess, Station Eleven, The Just City, and Gray Mountain.

Lovely painting by Jacquelyn Bischak from here.

Margaret Atwood, The Robber Bride and a Giveaway

Last week I got to see Margaret Atwood speak as part of the Butler University Vivian S. Delbrook Visiting Writers Series. Yes, it was just as incredible as you all think it was. She is so witty and hilarious, while at the same time offering sharp, thoughtful insights about the world around her. She has a quiet droll tone and so her quick barbs surprise you at first.

She gave a three-part speech about the future, the difficulties in writing about it and her own experience writing about it. It was fascinating! I don’t think I can quite express how much I enjoyed the talk and getting to meet her in person. Atwood was all that I thought she might be and more. I wish I could just sit and talk with her over a cup of coffee for hours.

According to Atwood:

The outfits the handmaids wear were inspired by the outfit worn by the girl on the Old Dutch Cleaner bottles. Who knew?

She once saw a performance of Macbeth where his head was “played” by a cabbage in the death scene and it bounced about off the stage because they’d gotten one that was too fresh.

“There are writers and there are readers and then there is everything in between. Let’s call it two cans and a string.”

“On the web, that modern day equivalent of consulting an oracle, because you never know if what you find will be true or not...”

After giving her talk Atwood stayed and signed copies of her books. I was lucky enough to get my well-worn copy of The Handmaid’s Tale signed for myself, but I also took a copy of The Robber Bride, (see review below) and got it signed for one of you! I had Atwood make it out to “An Avid Reader” and I’m excited to now open the giveaway for the signed copy!

**UPDATE: Jenners is the winner of the signed copy. If I don't hear back from her within 24 hours I'll pick another winner. Thanks!**

To enter the giveaway please do the following:
1)      Tell me why you love Atwood’s work or why you’re excited to check it out.
2)       Leave your email in the comment as well so I can contact you.
3)      Tweet about the giveaway for an extra entry (leave a comment saying you tweeted).
 
The contest will be open until September 26, 2012. Good luck!

The Robber Bride
by Margaret Atwood
★★★★

I have been thrilled to find that each of my reading experiences with Atwood’s books has been completely unique and this one is no exception. Reading each of her novels has been fulfilling in a different way. The Handmaid’s Tale is a big picture look at a possible dystopian future and it makes you think about the role women currently play in society and how that role has changed throughout history. The Blind Assassin is an intricately built plot combining a sci-fi story and a mystery that comes full circle in an incredibly rewarding way. The Penelopiad takes a well-known Greek saga and tells it from a new perspective. Oryx and Crake is a post-apocalyptic break down of society. Whatever people say about Atwood, they can never call her boring.

For me, The Robber Bride holds perfectly true to my past experiences with Atwood. I’ve learned to expect the unexpected. I never know where her books are going to take me and this one surprised me with its simplicity. On the surface it has the most basic of plots: the thin line between jealousy and friendship in the relationships between women. The premise: a beautiful woman named Zenia has destroyed the lives of three women and now she’s returned to wreak havoc again.

The plot revolving around Zenia is technically the thread that holds the story together, but to me it was the least interesting part of the book. Atwood does an excellent job making us care for those characters before we become frustrated with them, but I still wasn’t a big fan of the manipulative evil woman vs. the pathetic and gullible woman premise.

The reason I enjoyed this one was not because of the actual plot. I thought the scenes with Zenia were the weakest aspect of the story. Instead, I loved the character development of the three main women; Charis, Tony and Roz. They are so different, yet men seem to be their one unifying weakness. Atwood presents the characters to us and just when we think we know them, she pulls back layer after layer in their history and we being to understand just how little we knew from our first impressions. None of them are simple or can be boiled down to a generic stereotype. They are all unique and complex and it’s a testament to Atwood’s skill as a writer that she can make us care so deeply about characters, while at the same time being frustrated with their choices.

BOTTOM LINE: Atwood is just brilliant. This isn’t my favorite of her books (it’s The Handmaid’s Tale if you’re curious), but it’s still a solid one and the characters will stay with me for a long time.

Photos by moi.

Top Ten Most Vivid Worlds/Settings In Books

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for my top ten most vivid worlds/settings in books. I’m going to list the top 5 I love and top 5 I hate.

Best Fictional Worlds

1) Harry Potter’s world: I know this will be on everyone’s lists, but I can’t help it. I can’t wait to visit Hogwarts and Hogsmeade at the new amusement park in Florida because Rowling created such an unforgettable place!

2) Avonlea: L.M. Montgomery’s quiet community has always held a special pull for me. I know Prince Edward Island is real and I feel like if I visit I’ll see Anne playing with Diana in a field.

3) Narnia: I’ve read the whole series multiple times and it’s such a fascinating world. We witness its creation in the Magician’s Nephew and return many times as decades pass throughout the seven books.

4) Middle-Earth: From Rivendell to Mordor, Tolkien went into insane detail describing the fellowship of the ring’s surroundings as they journeyed through the fictional world.

5) Pern: McCaffrey’s world is one filled with dragons and … wait for it… they’re your friends! That would be just awesome.

Worst Fictional Worlds:

1) Fahrenheit 451: They burn books! It is illegal to read! Need I say more?

2) The Handmaid’s Tale: Just about the worst fate for women that I can imagine.

3) Ready Player One: The world is horrible and everyone sits in front of a computer playing video games. The book itself is fun, but the world created within it would be awful.

4) V for Vendetta: Big Brother on steroids, this would not be fun.

5) It’s a tie for the final spot – The Stand and The Road: Both provide equally abhorrent living situations in a post-apocalyptic world. 

Image from here. 

You’ve never read any Sci-Fi, seriously? a.k.a. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress review

I used to think there was no way I would like Science Fiction. I ruled out an entire genre of literature because I was turned off by the cheesy covers and the fact that sometimes stories were set in space. This is coming from someone who grew up on a steady diet of Star Trek and Star Wars, so I have no idea why I felt that way. I’ve always tended to lean towards Austen over aliens, but that’s no reason not to give it a shot.

So a few years back, I listened to my Dad’s recommendation and read Ender’s Game. That’s the book that turned it all around for me. I realized that the reason good sci-fi books are so wonderful is because they highlight the aspects of human nature that remain the same no matter what the setting is.

People often focus on the extreme elements of sci-fi. Is it set in space? Is there artificial intelligence or aliens? If so, it’s not for me. What Ender’s Game taught me is that there are wonderful books in every genre and you truly miss out if you ignore a whole section. Just like any category of books, there are ones that are funny, serious, focused on religion, relationships, love, etc. There are good ones and bad ones. Sci-Fi isn’t my favorite genre, by any means, but there are some great books in it that’s I’d hate to have missed.

If you’ve never tried any sci-fi, I encourage you to try one of the following…

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Fahrenheit 451 or The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
by Robert A. Heinlein
★★★☆

Set on the moon, where a Lunar colony has been established for years, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress explores what happens when a society is left to determine its own rules. What began as a working prison of sorts has now become a true society. Years earlier, convicts were shipped to the moon from earth to farm for wheat, similar to the penal colonies established by England in Australia. Now, those convicts have gone on to start families and the lunar colony is populated with people born on the moon.

One such individual is a computer technician named Mannie. While working on the colony’s supercomputer, he realizes that it has become aware of itself. It’s now a sentient being that calls itself Mike and is desperate for friendship. With Mike’s help, Mannie and a few other “Loonies” begin a revolution. They’ve been treated like slaves for their whole lives and want to free themselves from the governments on Earth.

When sci-fi is done right, we learn how the most absurd situation boils our personalities down to their most elemental nature. This book does just that. A rebellion against an established government is basically the same no matter where it happens. Heinlein combines elements of politics, sociology and Artificial Intelligence all in one satisfying stew. It’s also really funny in a lot of ways. Heinlein’s sense of humor reminded me so much of Ray Bradbury.

The way they talk in the book is a bit hard to get used to at first. Here are a couple examples:

“Don’t think I can, I admitted. Best can offer is extensional definition.”

“So I minded own business.”

I was never as attached to the characters as I would like to have been. Wyoming, one of the only female characters, started off as a strong woman, leading part of the revolution. But by the second half of the book she’s faded to the background. It’s still immensely readable, but it’s not one that I would call a favorite.

“Women are scarce; aren't enough to go around – that makes them most valuable thing in Luna, more precious than ice or air, as men without women don't care whether they stay alive or not.”

“When faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand, then look at it again.”

So, do you guys have any sci-fi recommendations for me?