Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon: The End!

It's over!! I am so ready for sleep. I read a total of 955 pages! Here's my closing survey:

1) Which hour was most daunting for you? I had a few tough spots, but I think the last few hours were toughest this time.

2) Could you list a few high-interest books that you think could keep a Reader engaged for next year? The Animorphs books never let me down!

3) Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Nope!

4) What do you think worked really well in this year’s Read-a-thon? I was on the computer so little today that I didn't even keep up with the hourly blog posts, so I really couldn't say!

5) How many books did you read? 5 and a bit

6) What were the names of the books you read? The Discovery (Animorphs #20) by K.A. Applegate, The Threat (Animorphs #21) by K.A. Applegate, The Snowman by R.L. Stine, The Solution (Animorphs #22) by K.A. Applegate, The Babysitter II by R.L. Stine, and part of The Scorch Trials by James Dashner.

7) Which book did you enjoy most? The 3 Animorphs books were a trilogy and sort of blended together; I think I enjoyed reading them the most.

8) Which did you enjoy least? The Snowman was a bit disappointing compared to the other Point Horror books I've read.

9) If you were a Cheerleader, do you have any advice for next year’s Cheerleaders? I wasn't a cheerleader, but appreciated the comments they left for me on my blog posts!

10) How likely are you to participate in the Read-a-thon again? What role would you be likely to take next time? I'll continue to participate as a reader.

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon: Middle of the Night

So, it's now past midnight, and the late evening hours did not go as well as I'd hoped! I've been reading The Scorch Trials, and it's good, but I'm just feeling bogged down and I keep dozing off and reading the same page 20 times.

Time to switch books! I'm gonna finish off that Animorphs trilogy I started this morning, and come back to The Scorch Trials later.

Total pages read so far: 639

Books Completed:

1) The Discovery (Animorphs #20) by K.A. Applegate
2) The Threat (Animorphs #21) by K.A. Applegate
3) The Snowman by R.L. Stine
3.5) A good chunk of The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon: Half Way!

1. What are you reading right now? The Snowman by R.L. Stine

2. How many books have you read so far? I'm on my third book.

3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? The first two books I read (Animorphs books) turned out to be two parts of a trilogy, so I've added the third book to my pile and am looking forward to seeing how it ends!

4. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Only the expected, pleasant interruptions. (I had a friend over for the afternoon so much less reading was done than in the other hours.) But the second half is gonna be non-stop reading!

5. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? I think I've done enough of these (this is my 9th!) to be beyond surprises, to be honest. And I haven't really been online much so it's just been me and the books.

The first half has gone pretty well! Even with friend time in there, I've read 2.5 books so far, with a total of 441 pages. Since I expect to read more pages in the second half, I'll probably hit 1000 pages! And make some good progress on my reading challenges, too.

Happy reading, all!

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon: Begin!

It's time for Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon!!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today? Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? The Scorch Trials by James Dashner, which I included because I want to read the book before I see the movie.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to? Thai coconut soup. Mmmm...

4) Tell us a little something about yourself! I love Halloween! (I feel like I'm running out of new things to say about myself for these memes.)

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? One thing I'll be doing differently this time around is that I haven't set up posts for updates every 2 hours. I'll just be updating whenever I feel like it.

Are you read-a-thoning today? Let me know in the comments so I can follow your progress too! Happy reading! :)

Write On Review-a-Thon Sign Up

It's been great having the time to write reviews again on this little break from my college courses. But I don't want my blog to hibernate again when school starts back up in September! So I'm hoping to have as many reviews as possible written and ready to publish, to make keeping the blog going between assignments easier. Hence, a review-a-thon!

Part of signing up for the Write On Review-a-Thon is listing the things you reviews you need to complete. So here are the books I hope to write reviews for during the 3 day event:

• Righteous Fury by Markus Heitz
• Club Monstrosity by Jesse Peterson
• Medusa Jones by Ross Collins
• Donuts by Julia Dweck

I'd list more, but I'm a bridesmaid in a wedding that Friday (yay!), so that's one day totally out for this challenge. Also, I might change this list a bit if I review some of them before the challenge starts, but my goal will remain writing four reviews.

The Faceless One by Mark Onspaugh

Title: The Faceless One
Author: Mark Onspaugh
Publication Date: October 28, 2013
Length: approx. 410 pages (ebook)

When an archaeological dig in Alaska unearths an ancient mask, an evil god called the faceless one is unleashed. While he can't reach full power until someone puts on the mask, he still manages to brutally murder anyone who comes into contact with it. Jimmy Kalmaku, a Tlingit shaman who is now living in a Seattle retirement home, is the only one with the knowledge required to return the faceless one to his icy prison.

This book was unlike any horror novel I've ever read. First of all, the use of Tlingit mythology was a refreshing change. Jimmy is guided in his mission by Raven, and has to make use of the shamanic skills his uncle taught him when he was a child. I don't know enough about the Tlingit to judge the accuracy, but it certainly felt real.

Jimmy is a great character with a lot of depth. Trained to be his village's shaman as a kid, he came into the position just as his people began to adopt the white people's ways. Now, living in a retirement home far removed from his native land and from his traditional ways, he feels disconnected. George, Jimmy's best friend, is also a delight, always a loyal friend and eager for an adventure.

If I have one complaint about this book it's that Jimmy and George didn't get enough focus, as the story also follows a number of other characters, including the family of the first victim, a New York cop who starts off investigating the murder and gets more involved than he'd planned on, and various lawyers who are connected to the case. The cop, Stan Roberts, does have a good story line of his own and is well-developed, but Jimmy and George were my favourites.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book was. And while the ending wraps up the story nicely, it does leave an opening for a possible sequel, so here's hoping!

5 stars. Highly recommended for horror fans looking for something a bit out of the ordinary.

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants by Louise Rennison

Title: Dancing in My Nuddy-Pants (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #4)
Author: Louise Rennison
Publication Date: 2002
Length: 214 pages

Warning: This is a review of the fourth book in the series, and may therefore contain spoilers from earlier books. My review of the first book is here.

Georgia is still with the Sex God (Robbie), but he keeps going away on trips related to his rock star status, leaving Georgia all-aloney-on-her-owney. Meanwhile, Ellen is kind of dating Dave the Laugh, even while Georgia keeps accidentally kissing him. Much like in the previous book, Georgia can't seem to resist Dave, even while she's sure she wants to be with Robbie. And now that Dave's with Ellen, she's also got some jealousy and guilt going on.

The usual hilarious writing in this series had me laughing the whole way, and the ending was particularly satisfying for me (which hopefully doesn't give it away too much). There's not much to say about this book since it didn't have the major events that some of them do, but it's still a great read that had me giggling all the while.

5 stars.