Sunday, January 15, 2017

The Sunday Post #80 And #DAReadathon Wrap-Up


The Sunday Post is hosted by The Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to recap the past week, talk about next week, and share news. It’s Monday, What Are You Reading? is hosted by Book Date. I get to tell you what I’ve read recently.




On The Blog Last Week







On The Blog This Week


  • On Monday I review Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist by Dan Barker.
  • On Wednesday I review My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories by Stephanie Perkins (Editor)
  • On Thursday I finally (FINALLY!) have my 2016 reading stats analysis. Get ready for graphs!





In My Reading Life


Last week, I finished Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson. Then I read The Vegetarian by Han Kang and The Unintentional Time Traveler by Everett Maroon. Right now, I’ve gone back to reading The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel and Three Moments of an Explosion by China MiĆ©ville. I had to abandon them briefly for #DAReadathon.






In The Rest Of My Life


Five things that made me happy last week:

  1. #DAReadathon. It was great.
  2. I restarted Couch to 5K. I’m totally going to finish it this time. No quitting at week 7.
  3. Walking my dog. It’s been so cold that we have the whole world to ourselves. No one else is stupid enough to go outside.
  4. Getting rid of books to make room for new books.
  5. I’m 4 books ahead on my Goodreads goal. We have to celebrate now because that won’t last long.







#DAReadathon Wrap-Up




I participated in my first readathon ever! I’ve never bothered with readathons before because my entire life has been a readathon. But, I decided to give one a try. I liked the social media aspect of it. I’m super nosy about what people read, so it was great to go on Twitter and see people’s updates.




I was terrible at keeping track of points because I don’t do math, people! I also didn’t do very well with writing reviews. The reviews you see on this blog take me hours to write. I’m hoping that the half-baked, two-sentence reviews posted below count as reviews. Regular-sized reviews of these books will be up on the blog in February.







Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) by Jenny Lawson

Review: I have a mental illness; Jenny has several mental illnesses. We don’t have the same illnesses, but close enough for the prompt, right? Jenny’s other memoir, Furiously Happy, was one of my favorite books last year, so I had massive expectations for this memoir. I didn’t like it as much as Furiously Happy, but it’s still hilarious. Also, the cover is adorable.







Witness by Karen Hesse

Review: My favorite book from the readathon. It’s a children’s novel-in-verse starring an African American character and a Jewish character. The characters have strong voices. I loved them both immediately.







Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Persepolis review: I learned so much about the history of Iran from this memoir. History is always more interesting when you hear it from the POV of someone who lived through it. I need to find more books like this.

Between the World and Me review: So, I kinda hated this depressing memoir/letter/American history lesson. I felt like it was just angrily telling me things I’ve already heard from other sources. I know everyone loves this book, but it wasn’t for me. *Dives under desk to avoid rotting vegetables and flying hate.*







 The V-Word: True Stories about First-Time Sex by Amber J Keyser (Editor)

Review: An educational book that aims to give teen girls realistic expectations about losing their virginity. It has essays about first-time sex by straight women, trans women, lesbian women, and bisexual women. I would have liked to hear from an asexual woman and a disabled woman. Other than that, it’s a solid educational book.







The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout

Review: This book had been sitting on my TBR shelf for months. It’s a dystopian love letter to books by an author who was murdered for writing them. The book is unfinished because the author was murdered while writing it, but it’s an unsettling philosophical story about Islamic extremism.







The Vegetarian by Han Kang

Review: I avoided this book for a long time because of the hype. Then it won the Man Booker International Award, and I was like, fine, I’ll read it. For me, it lived up to the hype. It’s a slow-paced story about a woman’s decline into madness and the men who romanticize her mental illness in creepy ways. Also, it made me crave Korean food.







The Unintentional Time Traveler by Everett Maroon

Review: A teenage boy travels back in time and finds himself trapped inside the body of a teenage girl. This situation makes romantic relationships . . . complicated. The writing and editing aren't great, but the story is unusual.




So, points . . .

(This is me attempting math)


1623 pages read / 10 = 162 points (approximately)
8 books read X 5 = 40 points
8 reviews posted X 5 = 40 points
ID image on Twitter = 1 point
Using Twitter too much = 20 points
Photo of my readathon TBR = 1 point.

I think that’s 264 points for Ravenclaw? (I haven’t done this much math since high school, guys.) I’m exhausted and need a nap.



If you participated in #DAReadathon, how did you do?






Take care of yourselves and be kind to each other! See you around the blogosphere!











36 comments:

  1. My daughter and I have been going for walks this week too, but it's been warm weather here so there have been quite a few others out. Congrats on being ahead on your Goodreads challenge. And my husband I really enjoyed couch to 5k. I think we had 2 30 minute runs left when we stopped it. We always seem to "quit" a program the last week. It's really weird. I'm sure there's something psychological to that. Hope you have a great week!


    SP & STS
    Sandy @ Somewhere Only We Know

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    1. Thanks! I quit near the end of couch to 5k last time. It gets hard at the end, but I’m not going to quit this time.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  2. Yay for being ahead on the GR challenge. You seem to have done great with your readathon!! I agree I liked Jenny Lawson's first book a bit less than Furiously Happy but it was still good. Have a great week!

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    1. Thanks! I loved Furiously Happy, so Let’s Pretend had a lot to live up to.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  3. Awesome for being ahead of the Good Reads Challenge. I don't do challenges, because i don't have the discipline for them. Great haul.

    Grace @ Books of Love

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    1. I’ve considered not doing challenges, but they’re so tempting!

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  4. I am curious about Jenny Lawson's books. Thanks for sharing, and how great that you are staying on track with your running.

    Enjoy your week, and thanks for sharing. Here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES


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    1. Jenny Lawson has an odd sense of humor. If you read her books, I hope you like them.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  5. I'm up to 3 books for my Goodreads Challenge. I'm hoping to read more this month!

    Here’s my Sunday Post!

    Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog and join in this week’s Book Photo Sundays!

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  6. I started c25k about 4 times several years ago and am fairly sure I didn't even make it to week 7. Part of me likes the idea of trying to run now but think I'm still too heavy. And perhaps I'm now getting too bloody old to even think about starting.

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    1. Couch to 5K does get hard toward the end. That’s one of the reasons I quit, but I’m not going to quit this time.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  7. Lol about points... and nacho platter. Funny post. :) Glad you enjoyed the readathon though, sounds fun! Looking forward to your review of the anthology- I enjoy reading those and seeing which stories people liked! I liked that one more than the one that came out last year (summery theme).

    The Unintentional Time Traveler definitely sounds different, sorry to hear the writing was inly okay.

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    1. I love anthologies, too. They’re a great way to discover new authors. The Time Traveler book was a bit of a letdown. It could have been so good.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  8. Wow, that DAReadathon had you reading a lot!! And you had fun, so that's awesome. I'm curious about Let’s Pretend This Never Happened because I like to explore books about mental illness. Have you read Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall?

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    1. I haven’t read Under Rose-Tinted Skies, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  9. Jenny Lawson makes me laugh. My physical therapist and I were reading Let's Pretend at the same time and we laughed like crazy at our appointments that the other patients wanted to know what was going on!

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  10. I have never heard of any of these books. Of all of them, is there one in particular that stood out that you would recommend for others to try? Good luck with going couch to 5k. I am very impressed.

    Have a great week.

    - Mama Vicky

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  11. I'm glad that you had a fun readathon! Hopefully your next one is just as fun. Have a good week, and happy reading! :)

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  12. I hate maths and do everything I can to avoid it! Any challenges that require maths of any kind are not for me!

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    1. Yeah, math is my archenemy. I’ve always hated it and always will.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  13. YAY YOU LIKED WITNESS!!!! I was so anxious that I was over-selling it. Persepolis is great too. The Last Summer of Reason sounds horrifying, and The V-Word sounds fascinating.

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  14. Like you, my whole life is a readathon. I've never taken part in one in the blogosphere. Since I plan out my reading at least a couple of months in advance, I don't feel like I could drop everything to read books in certain categories. I think you did a great job with your readathon. You can see my week here. Happy reading!

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    1. I was hesitant about doing a readathon because I thought I’d fail, but it was a lot of fun. I mostly liked following the hashtag on Twitter.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  15. I haven't done a read a thon before. I am not really sure that I could read more than what I usually do just because of my household obligations. We have been walking the dogs and it is very nice to not have to worry about other people out and about. It is actually quite peaceful. Have a great week!

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    1. Walking the dogs is so much easier when there aren’t other people around. My dogs are poorly behaved and start yanking on the leashes when they see other people and dogs. They’re going to rip my arms out of the sockets someday.

      Aj @ Read All The Things!

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  16. I hadn’t heard about that readathon. Sounds fun and it looks like you did pretty good! You had fun, you read and your participated that’s what matter right! ;)
    Have a great week and happy reading!

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  17. The Clan of the Cave Bear series has been sitting on my dusty bookshelf for decades! I really must get to it. Congrats of being ahead on your Goodreads goal!

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  18. I loved Vegetarian. The theme that we are all just a little bit capable of letting go of our sanity was so well done! I am glad that you liked it. It can be tough to read a book after the hype is already out there. It was my first Han Kang book, and I knew nothing about it when I read it pre pub.

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  19. The Unintentional Time Traveler looks interesting. Not sure about the plot. I'm glad you enjoyed your first read-a-thon and thanks for stopping by!

    Tressa @ Wishful Endings

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  20. Is it sad that I haven't heard of the hyped book you read for the challenge? LOL! I'll have to go check it out.

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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