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text 2020-03-21 22:17
Master Post for #StayHome24in48 Readathon
Juliet Takes a Breath - Gabby Rivera
Golden in Death - J.D. Robb

Status #2:

Got another 3 hours and 15 minutes of reading in and finished Juliet. I also listened to the FB Live event for COYER - we are not having a summer edition; instead they are going to go the full year, starting with COYER Quarantine theme, starting in April and going through August. After that, another theme for the next few months. They were planning on going to a full year COYER in 2021, but thought now was the time since some people are home a lot more to read. I'm in!

 

Also during my social media break from reading I found out my kids' school is moving our Spring Book Fair (which was supposed to start tomorrow) online, so family/friends of students can purchase books as well as parents. Hopefully, we can still meet our goal - we have a new school building being built right now and new books are needed to fill those shelves!

 

Up next, Golden in Death (In Death #50) by JD Robb. It came in through ILL on Thursday and I picked it up Friday. I need the comfort of the return of the In Death gang but I am not one for re-reading, so this installment came at the right time. And of course it's not in the book database here at BL. *SIGH*

***************************************************************************************************

Status #1:

Woke up and made tea, let the dog outside to do her thing. Got all nice and settled while the house was still quiet. Read for one hour, then took a break to make myself some breakfast and a second cup of tea. Currently reading Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera for the Book Riot Read Harder challenge. It's also due back at the library soon; even though the library is waiving all fines during the isolation period, I just can't shake the rule follower in me and I want to give the book back on time. I'm at 32% read and will probably finish by the end of the afternoon. 

 

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review 2020-01-01 18:23
My last book of 2019
I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala - Elisabeth Burgos,Rigoberta MenchĂș,Ann Wright

Somewhat fitting that my last book of 2019 was about the exploitation of native people.  This was a difficult reading, even knowing that not all of the story was Rigoberta's personal story.   I could probably find similar stories of American colonists taking over native lands here and we're still doing it.

 

The book was a bit difficult to read due to the language.  Rigoberta does not have a standard education and her word choice and story telling can occasionally be repetitive and hard to follow.  It still added to my understanding of how native people's view the world very differently from western European capitalists.   It was also interesting having her explain how they merged Catholicism/Christianity in with their own beliefs.  Ending up rejecting the "accept suffering here because you're going to a better place" line of reasoning and replacing it with "God would want us to alleviate suffering here and now".  Then taking their own lessons from the bible, especially the underdog defending our territory lessons.   

 

Rigoberta is still alive and still fighting.

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url 2019-12-07 23:01
Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge 2020

I decided to try my hand at the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge for next year because it is only 24 items (as opposed to the usual 50+ items on other reading challenges) and it seemed to be do-able with a mix of library books and what I own. And the owners of the challenge allow for one book to fulfill more than one prompt, which is nice. 

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text 2019-01-02 07:49
My New Year Goals!
These are goals to start the year off with, not New Year Resolutions because if I don’t do them… IT. IS. FINE!! No beating myself up. Mostly reading related, of course, but also some health stuff.
 
It isn't all fun and games; I have chronic pain, with mobility issues (can't walk or stand very long), depression, social & general anxiety. Because of these, it is so easy for goals to go out the window.
 
I don't have a "workout" plan, or a "diet" or any goals like that. It is all about getting my mental health in a better place and doing small baby steps to gain some mobility back. I just want to be able to move and not be in such pain. If you don't have depression or chronic pain, you might never understand how hard it is to crawl out from the darkness or to push beyond the pain to do a thing that gives you more pain in the moment. It is a vicious cycle and not an excuse or laziness!
 
The things below are goals, things I wish to keep up with, but I am going in realistically, knowing I'm going to fall and stand back up many times. Depression even makes things like reading and writing hard to do sometimes and not feel fun. No beating myself up when I fall down!
 
Daily Creative Brain Goals:
 
Read or write for at least 20 minutes when you wake up, before getting online and at least 20 minutes before bed (Replace with meditation when needed
 
Daily Healthy Brain Goals:
 
Meditate:
Monday - 5 Minutes
Tuesday - 10 Minutes
Wednesday - 15 Minutes
Thursday - 5 Minutes
Friday - 10 Minutes
Saturday - 15 Minutes
Sunday - Any length or off
 
Music:
All the music!!!
Find and listen to a new song/artist
Music is life!
Sing along, hum, chair dance, or wave your arms like you are a conductor
 
Love:
Think of 1 thing you are thankful for before going to bed, no matter how small, big, silly or weird
Say "I'm worth living, I matter, I'm meant to be here!" whenever death is on your mind
Every time you think something negative about yourself, imagine you going back in time and saying it to yourself as a child; you wouldn't, so why say it now?
 
Daily Healthy Body Goals:
 
Stretching:
5-10 before yoga
 
Yoga:
Monday - 5 Minutes
Tuesday - 10 Minutes
Wednesday - 15 Minutes
Thursday - 5 Minutes
Friday - 10 Minutes
Saturday - 15 Minutes
Sunday - Any length or off
 
Cardio:
5-10 after yoga
 
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Monthly Creative Brain Goals:
 
Read at least 1 physical book I own
Read at least 1 Kindle book I own
Read at least 1 library book (Support the library!!)
Read at least 1 thing you can not track on Goodreads! Be free, you don't have to track everything! (Fan work, an interesting article...etc.)
 
Write at least 1 short story
Write at least 1 poem
Write a few times a week in a journal
 
Monthly Healthy Brain Goals:
Research & learn about something new
Read about interesting people
Play trivia games or take quizzes on a variety of subjects
 
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Overall bookish goals:
 
Read more diversely, read more “new to me” authors, more authors with different backgrounds than the one I have, read more translated work
 
The Read Harder Challenge is great, but I won't stress it and think I have to hit every challenge in the year. Reading should not be stressful!
 
Here are the challenges: (If you have any book suggestions, let me know!)
 
Read:
1. An epistolary novel or collection of letters
2. An alternate history novel
3. A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018
4. A humor book
5. A book by a journalist or about journalism
6. A book by an AOC set in or about space
7. An own voices book set in Mexico or Central America
8. An own voices book set in Oceania
9. A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads
10. A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman
11. A book of manga
12. A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character
13. A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse
14. A cozy mystery
15. A book of mythology or folklore
16. A historical romance by an AOC
17. A business book
18. A novel by a trans or nonbinary author
19. A book of nonviolent true crime
20. A book written in prison
21. A comic by an LGBTQIA creator
22.A children’s or middle-grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009
23. A self-published book
24. A collection of poetry published since 2014
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review 2017-11-29 22:07
To the Lighthouse
To The Lighthouse: (Annotated) - Virginia Woolf

Okay, I'll admit it, I got a little lost in the language. It took me longer than normal to get through To the Lighthouse. I had begun trying to let my Echo read it to me, which I have loved to do to get ahead on some reading while doing household chores but it let me down here. It was all the sentences that ran far too long with too many semicolons. It drove me a little crazy, so I had to change methods. I went back to reading it like a normal ebook. The magic of the book is in it's insight into normalcy. There's nothing unusual about any of its characters but To the Lighthouse looks deeper into the family and those who surround them than most books do these days. Each characters gets POV time and with each character you understand their alliances within the family, the reasons for their alliances, who they are allied against and why, their hopes and frustrations. One of the great things about reading it so far removed from the time and place when it was written is seeing the way the family of that time worked and how they depended on each other. It wasn't a fun book to read but it's a valuable book when looking at progress and the lives of women and the way that plays into the family life. While it shouldn't alone speak for the family dynamic of the time, it's very existence is proof that things were not perfect before women to work en masse in the second wave feminism. The roles of Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay may have complimented each other functionally, I hesitate to believe that either was better off than a modern family. I'd love to have read this for a college class that dove deeper into what it all meant and the inner lives of each character. I feel a little like reading it for a reading challenge for a blog took a lot of the fun out of it but I don't know anyone else who has read it. Such is fate. This was my choice for Read Harder 2017 Task 7: Read a book published between 1900 and 1950 (first published 1927).

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