Bob Ross welcomes you to The Relentless Reader!

Omg Omg Omg I love this event! I’m ready to go! I’ve got a stack of books and big cup pot of coffee. I’m super excited about all the snacks I have lined up for today. I’ll show and tell about those later.

I’m a cheerleader again so I hope to see a lot of you out and about on the interwebs today! I’ll be visiting blogs and checking in on Twitter fairly often. I’ll be updating my progress here on the blog during the day as well.

Rah Rah ~ Sis Boom Bah! Gooo Team Otter!

I’m off to read, read, read. Have a great day everyone!

Introductory Questionnaire:

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
I’m coming at you from the lovely state of Wisconsin.

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Is it weird that I’m looking forward to reading Mary Poppins? I’ve never read it!

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
I’m making a baked potato soup that I’m pretty jazzed about.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
I’m a stay-at-home-homeschooling mom. I have blue eyes. I’m a Pisces. I like long walks on the beach. Ha!

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
I think I’ve found a pretty good read-a-thon rhythm. I do think I’ll take a bit more time to move around though. Jumping jacks? 

10:42 A.M.

I’ve finished my first book, hip hip hooray!

Onward! I’m going to go make this awesome dip right now. 

1:37 P.M.

I’ve finished another book. What a fantastic read!!

The caramel dip that I made? Sweet baby Moses! It was incredible.

Nom nom nom

Alrighty, it’s time for this cheerleader to go sprinkle some encouragement around. Adios, for now.

6:08 P.M.

The hours zipped by this afternoon. My potato soup was pretty damn good I must say. Want the recipe?  I’ve been sharing photos of my snacks and my cats (they love to help me read) on Twitter. More important? THE BOOKS! Here’s what I’ve read since I checked in last:

Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang~ a incredible set of graphic novels. Seriously great stuff.

I’m not tired yet. That’s kinda bonkers for me. I’m a big fan of naps on a regular day. Hmmm. I wonder if I’m surfing on adrenaline? We’ll see what happens as darkness falls. Talk to you later!

8:54 P.M.

I read Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers. Ohhh you guys, It was an absolute delight! I’m applauding with glee!

What shall my 6th book be? Even I’m not sure! I’m going to play on Twitter and Facebook for a bit and then I’ll get to picking out my next read.

Keep on keepin’ on readers! We’ve got this!

11:21 P.M.

Did I read another great book? I did, I did! But you know what grinds my gears? Ambiguous endings. Don’t do that to me dammit! Still, it was a fab read.

What’s next? I DON’T KNOW! I’m starting to feel a bit punch drunk. A little derpy, if you will.

Not quite THIS derpy.

It might be time to go outside and run around for a bit?

Sunday A.M.

Good morning!

This was the last book I finished:

It was in the middle of hour 20 when I just couldn’t do it anymore.

This was totally happening!

 So, I crashed. Still, I’m proud that I made it so many hours and that I read so many awesome books.

Now, to answer the wrap-up questionnaire:

1. Which hour was most daunting for you? Hour 20, I zonked out!
2. Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? Everything I read was a readathon success, but I’ll suggest Boxers & Saints. Graphic novels are fantastic for readathons.
3. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? I really don’t, everything about this event is freaking awesome.
4. What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? The encouragement and sheer awesomeness of the hosts and participants. 
5. How many books did you read? Seven! Oh, that reminds me, I have to go log those on the Dewey’s site!
6. What were the names of the books you read? The Secret Life of Objects, Number the Stars, Boxers, Saints, The Suicide Shop, Late Lights, & Mary Poppins
7. Which book did you enjoy most? Oh how I hate to pick favorites! Mary Poppins was especially adorable though.
8. Which did you enjoy least? No! You can’t make me choose!
9. If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I was a cheerleader, rah rah! It’s quite hard to read and cheer. I’m trying to think about how that can be improved. My brain is tired this morning…I’ll get back to you. Ha.
10. How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? There’s no doubt that I’ll be participating again. And again and again! I’ll probably be a cheerleader again. I might be just a plain old reader next time though, so I can participate in the challenges throughout the day.

It was a great day. As always!

I won’t be reviewing the following titles but I had to share them with you. All three of them receive my heartiest recommendation.

Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink
Publisher: Crown Publishing
Publication Date: September 10, 2013
Categories: Nonfiction, Disasters
Source: Crown Publishing

Description:

Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink’s landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina – and her suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice
 
In the tradition of the best writing on medicine, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs five days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amidst chaos.

Dr. Sheri Fink  Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the heat climbed, exhausted caregivers chose to designate certain patients last for rescue. Months later, several health professionals faced criminal allegations that they deliberately injected numerous patients with drugs to hasten their deaths. 

Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting, unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing the reader into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.
In a voice at once involving and fair, masterful and intimate, Fink exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals just how ill-prepared we are in America for the impact of large-scale disasters—and how we can do better.  A remarkable book, engrossing from start to finish, Five Days at Memorial radically transforms your understanding of human nature in crisis.

Photo by Nicholas Purcell/About Hannah Kent

A brilliant literary debut, inspired by a true story: the final days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in 1829.

Set against Iceland’s stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes’s death looms, the farmer’s wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they’ve heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, BURIAL RITES evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?

About Elizabeth

Description:

A glorious, sweeping novel of desire, ambition, and the thirst for knowledge, from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Committed

In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist—but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life.

Exquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, The Signature of All Things soars across the globe—from London to Peru to Philadelphia to Tahiti to Amsterdam, and beyond. Along the way, the story is peopled with unforgettable characters: missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses, and the quite mad. But most memorable of all, it is the story of Alma Whittaker, who—born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution—bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas. Written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time, Gilbert’s wise, deep, and spellbinding tale is certain to capture the hearts and minds of readers.

Have you read any of these? Do you plan on it?