DETAILS: Read as many books as you can in the 7 days of the readathon which are 25th November – 1st December. Use the hashtag #ThankgivingReadathon via your social accounts to help celebrate the readathon and/or share it! Publish a Sign-Up Post between November 1st and November 30th. Publish a Wrap-Up post between December 1st and December 7th. Participate in the Bookstagram Challenge or in theory you could do those posts via #bookishTwitter. Link Up your sign-up and wrap-up posts. Comment on all the wonderful #ThanksgivingReadathon blog posts, Twitter updates, and Instagram photos from all the participants!
Hosted by: Death by Tsundoku | @DeathByTsundoku
Official Sign-Up Page & Where you Add your Links!
My Reading List for #ThanksgivingReadathon [2019]:
A Light in the Window by Julie Lessman
Sleigh Bells Ring (anthology)
Christmas Kisses by Alison May (anthology)
Christmas at Pemberly by Regina Jeffers
In Love by Christmas by Cari Lynn Webb
The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen (a non-Christmassy selection!)
→ (*as well as my purchase requests at the library*) →
A Family by Christmas by Viv Royce
Christmas Once Again by Jina Bacarr
(see also #SatBookChat featured Spotlight w/ link to archived chat)
→ and a few extras for good measure via audiobook →
Yuletide: A Jane Austen Inspired Collection of Stories by the Quill Collective focusing on “Pride & Prejudice” narrated by Harry Frost
One Magical Christmas by Berni Stevens, narrated by Willow Nash
Mr Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva, narrated by Euan Morton
Whilst reading a selection of Science Fiction & Magical Realism which are found via my #SciFiMonth TBR post – these lovelives will be alighting onto my blog’s archives during this readathon and through 7th of December to re-write history a bit & bend time per losing hours with my migraine & the crisis of my father’s BP spike as microblogged.
The ones I’m specifically looking forward to finishing are as follows:
- The Renaissance Club (Time Travel) by Rachel Ducas
- Far Orbit: Apogee (edited by) Bascomb James (Space Opera anthology)
- The Case for Space (Non-Fiction) by Robert Zubrin
- The Robot in the Next Cubicle (Non-Fiction) by Larry Boyer
- The Time Key (Time Travel) by Melanie Bateman
- Little Computer People (Speculative Sci Fi) by Galen Surlak-Ramsey
- The Dream Keeper’s Daughter (Magical Realism) by Emily Colin
- The Fighter of Aldea (Alt. Earth Spec Fict Fantasy) by Kira Weston
- Heaven’s Edge Novella Series (Space Opera, the Rims) by Jennifer Silverwood
(see also #SatBookChat featured Spotlight w/ link to archived chat)
- Trans-Continental: Girl in the Gears (Steampunk) by E. Chris Garrison
- Failure to Communicate (First Contact, Space Opera) by Kaia Sønderby
If you love reading #ChristmasReads and/or #HolidayReads – which befit the following genres of interest – kindly leave me notes on this post – Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Women’s Fiction, Historical Fiction or INSPY Lit.
Most of these stories were originally disclosed and blogged about joyfully ahead of participating in the #HoHoHoRAT (readathon) – however, at the time of the readathon those 10 days of readerly blissitude flew out the perverbial window and I decided to just throw in the towel than to remain perpetually angst ridden by the hours I had lost and the hours I felt unmotivated to read. I had such good intentions for November – and similar to the past Novembers, this November was plagued a bit by medical crises I hadn’t foreseen. I had hoped after 31 days of health afflictions (of my own) throughout October and the migraine I had this month as well (3x if you include the 2x from October) – I was foolishly hopeful November would be less afflicted.
Though nothing would quite have prepared me for the tech issues with my blog and the downtime that lead-in to happening concurrently with the migraine this month either. Nor, could I have foreseen the sudden spike in my father’s BP, the ER stay for nearly 8 hours whilst it was re-regulated nor the 3x days of worrisome anxiety trying to sort out what caused it and running between doctors & test appointments to gain more information.
Seriously – some months come at you fast and you just have to take it one day at a time – this is why I’m being kind to myself and not having guilt carry-over into the holiday season about what I planned to read and blog this year for #SciFiMonth and what I’ll be posting in-line with the final week and the rounding of posts the week following its conclusion. I’d rather enjoy the stories and the time spent blogging about them than to defer to regretting the hours I lost within them and the time to help raise a signal flag for them for new readers to find them whilst the event was in-progress.
The only glimmer of good news I had percolating in the background recently was the fact I was nearly maxed out of Media space for my blog – having totalled 70% in six years of active use of book blogging and by finding a lovely new plugin for WordPress which helps you re-size your images whilst helping you compress them at the same time (ie. Smush) allowed me to scale back to a totalled usage rate of 18%! Imagine? I was properly gobsmacked to tell you the truth! Here I was worrying over how to gain more storage and a plugin saved me that angst *and!* gave me back a heap of space to where I could literally reach close to my 25th blogoversary without fear of losing space to load images onto my blog! Also – words to the wise – you don’t have to do this manually like I was futile to attempt during my migraine – read the settings and use the “bulk smush” feature because it not only does the work ‘for you’ but in 3x hours my entire library was updated!
Ergo, now that my IRL afflictions, medical crises and other technological woes are behind me – I can’t wait to spend the next week or so focusing on the stories I most desire to be reading – whilst enaging with the #ThanksgivingReadathon community and re-engaging with my beloved #SciFiMonth community! I might be dearly late to both but I’ve been shouldering a lot lately personally and honestly even reading wasn’t motivating me too much as everything just felt dearly overwhelming!
Be sure to spot the reason why I’m reading my first Julie Klassen novel!!
Let us take a closer look at why I’ve pulled these stories to be read:
the majority of which you can read about on my #HoHoHoRat tbr!
→ One Magical Christmas by Berni Stevens, narrated by Willow Nash
Between #HoHoHoRAT and #ThanksgivingReadathon: I’ve mentioned to listen to approx. 2 to 2 1/2 hours of this lovely audiobook – however, I need to re-start it as somewhere between my listenings for it, I’ve muddled the story-line – I credit that to hearing it pre-and-post migraine! I still love the cheeky humour and the fact that the story has animal stories within it that rib my funnybone as much as Adam’s animal stories as a Vet inside the Kay Hunter series – whenever animals are round in stories (esp audiobooks) you know you’re going to laugh! Aside from that, its a lovely light and fun Christmas Romance!
→ The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen
3 years ago when my father was hospitalised with his moderate bilateral stroke – the one place Mum and I enjoyed going for a reprieve and a lift of spirits was the cafeteria. It gave us some breathing space, some cosy comforting vegetarian food and a chance to unwind our nerves a bit by just chattering about things non-hospital related and/or re-queuing our positive thoughts about the outcome we were hoping the hospitalisation would yield as during those days it was never a surefire thing if / when Dad would exit the hospital wards.
The hospital has a bookshelf in the cafeteria – which I might have mentioned at the time – its a place where you don’t have to exchange a book for a book – but simply if you find a book and its one that will lift your heart to read its meant to be taken home. As we were having a spot of lunch awaiting test results back in the ER this past Sunday when Dad’s BP spiked wayy past 200+ and put us on high alert for a potential 2nd stroke – I wandered over to the bookshelf. Never thinking really I’d find anything and honestly reading wasn’t even on my mind at that moment but I find bookshelves alluring and comforting no matter what mood I’m emotionally in at the time I find one. They also quirkily make me smile.
Tucked under a magazine was The Silent Governess – in a lovingly read copy of joy! I was thankful to have found it as Ms Klassen’s novels are a bit tricky to borrow at my local libraries as she’s very well-read and loved locally and/or regionally. I first found her novels pre-book blogging and I know I oft used to cross her path whilst online visiting group author blogs – starting circa 2012. I’ve tried to remember which blogs she frequents but sometimes I find my memory a bit clouded and of course, with afflicted health issues and/or regularly stress factors in life, sometimes my routes online alter, change or are amended.
Felt like a lovely random surprise to find one of her novels and to spend #ThanksgivingReadathon beginning to enter into her literary worlds! I was previously going to begin with a different novel of hers – one she suggested actually – but when this just landed in my hands so to speak, I felt it was rather kismet to begin here!
→ The Renaissance Club (Time Travel) by Rachel Ducas
I’m actually time travelling back to Saturday the day I hosted Jina Bacarr’s time travelling war drama Historical Romance chat – (the 23rd) – as I was reading The Renaissance Club that day whilst happily chattering about Christmas Once Again – thinking at the time I could spend time reading both stories but as it turnt out my migraine was on fast approach and I had to duck off early from #SatBookChat be as it were! I never had the chance to finish this novel nor get into the heart of Bacarr’s.
Thus, I am rather eager to know what happens now and curl back inside this rather interesting set-up for a time travel adventure as it begins rather interesting with a tour guide who ‘finds’ tourists who would benefit from slipping through the historic past!
→ Far Orbit: Apogee (edited by) Bascomb James (Space Opera anthology)
Bending time’s arrow again with this lovely selection – as I had previously begun reading this over a week ago and had fully planned to finish it then, as I *love!* the premise for this one – where its a very Feminist driven collection of Space Opera narratives where there are pro-positive inclusions for non-binary characters and a representation of the Great Tradition of Space Opera but told from a firmer line of equality than the origins of the niche itself when it first began decades ago. I was happily in the thralls of this anthology before my IRL woes started to pull me out of orbit within its sphere,.. will happily be concluding reading this lovely!
→ The Time Key (Time Travel) by Melanie Bateman
I happened to have had the pleasure of crossing paths with Ms Bateman a few years ago – wherein I spotlighted The Time Key (with an author interview) and had had plans to read it shortly thereafter – of course, that didn’t quite happen as I expected it too and now I can finally lock eyes on a time narrative which I’ve been itching to discover!
→ Little Computer People (Speculative Sci Fi) by Galen Surlak-Ramsey
Uniquely enough – this is a new publisher I found this year [2019] and this was my first request from the publisher as I was looking over their publishing catalogue and spied it rather interestingly on their shelf. There was something about it which just spoke to me – I knew it was going to be a quirky read – and as it arrived in the Spring months where I felt I was going to be reading it (this is ahead of the 5x migraines of May during #WyrdAndWonder) – it was pushed forward into #SciFiMonth instead. The interesting bit here is how in-line the story is with computer speak and tech code – how the humour runs into the computer world and how the computer world interweaves into the human side of life, too! All in – I have a feeling I’ll be smirking, laughing and contemplating the heavier themes of its heart!
→ The Fighter of Aldea (Alt. Earth Spec Fict Fantasy) by Kira Weston
This is one of my final selections for #WyrdAndWonder 2019 – wherein I was fascinated by this alternative Earth where there is zero electricity and everything has almost reverted back into a more Primitive Earth setting where this tackles High Fantasy elements within a Speculative Fiction narrative. I felt it was a good segue to revisit and finish during #SciFiMonth due to the absence of electricity by a major ‘event’ which took it out and how adaptive the people had to become of this newfound way of living ‘off-grid’ and off-electric resources as even the cars were abandoned and are ‘artifacts’ right where they last stood!
→ Heaven’s Edge Novella Series (Space Opera, the Rims) by Jennifer Silverwood
I’ve known about this series for awhile now but somewhere along the route of hosting Ms Silverwood for #SatBookChat this month and now, I had missed the note in one of her emails about receiving this series in the mail to read during #SciFiMonth! Imagine my happy surprise when I received #bookmail recently and Heaven’s Edge was in my hands!! Eek. I simply cannot wait – as what drove my curiosity about this lovely Space Opera set in the Rims was my keen appreciation and #booklove for another selection of Rim Space Opera called: RimRider which I listened to a few years back!
→ Trans-Continental: Girl in the Gears (Steampunk) by E. Chris Garrison
Last year, during #RRSciFiMonth (as it was previously known) I listened to Girl in the Gears and happily fell in love with Duffy and Ida! Their journey and their friendship together is what held the glue of the story-line because this is an #ownvoices Steampunk narrative wherein a transgender author is writing a transgender story wherein she’s creating the heroine she’s always wanted to see in a Steampunk adventure! I *loved!* every inch of it – however, sadly, as my health was also affected last November (eh, at this point its a curse of the Novembers,…) I never could put my thoughts together to properly express and share what pulled me into this lovely Alternative Earth world!
Thankfully I had a chance to discuss the components of this story during #SatBookChat this year wherein it was one of 2 chats I specifically hosted during #SciFiMonth to help promote not just Indie Authors and Sci Fi but two novelists I appreciate reading – both Ms Chris and Ms Silverwood respectively! Technically, Ms Bacarr is included as I hadn’t at the time of booking her chat realised that a ‘time travelling war drama romance’ is also in-line with #SciFiMonth! Laughs.
This is a moment of redemption – to re-listen and finally get my thoughts down to share with my readers and visitors alike why I love the Trans-Con series!
→ Failure to Communicate (First Contact, Space Opera) by Kaia Sønderby
This was meant to conclude my #WyrdAndWonder readings this year in May – however, as foresaid, after 5x migraines – I could barely tread water with my blog at that point and just had to abandon ship on all the stories in queue to be read. This one is an autistic First Contact story-line which most of my bookish friends in the book blogosphere have read – this is my time to settle into the story and find what they’ve found and loved!! I cannot wait!
After reading this or whilst I am reading it rather, I’ll be working on the discussion post I was talking to bloggers about both on #bookishTwitter and on Little Red Reviewer’s blog about why I love First Contact stories and what draws my eye towards them!
These arrived during #HoHoHoRAT *however!* I threw in the towel on my reading queue for the readathon after my EPIC horrid migraine!
- A Family by Christmas by Viv Royce
- Christmas Once Again by Jina Bacarr
→ [via audiobook]
- Carols and Chaos by Cindy Anstey, narrated by Fiona Hardingham
An Affair Before Christmas by Eloise James, narrated by Susan DuerdenTwelve Doctors of Christmas (Doctor Who) by Rachael Stirling (also narrator) & Colin Brake, also featuring narrators: Chris Addison, Sophie Aldred and Adjoa Andoh
Per my previous mentioning of these audio stories – the two I struck out are the ones I’ve already listened to on Tuesday, the 26th – or aka. Day 2 of #ThanksgivingReadathon and have found for whichever reason I a) cannot get into the throes of the stories and b) there is something I am NOT enjoying about traditional romances being narrated.
I’d much prefer apparently to read them in print! The difference is with Berni Steven’s One Magical Christmas – those kinds of Romances are more enjoyable for me – but when they get dearly descriptive and/or just, gosh, I have no idea how to describe it – but if you are a reader of Eloise James (I, am not, this was a first go) you might gather the gist of what I’m saying?
I’ll be queuing Carols and Chaos during the readathon and seeing how that appeals to me as well. I might throw in a few extras or see what is available via OverDrive and/or Scribd whilst the readathon is in progress. So far, nearly *all!* the Christmas stories are taken via OverDrive whilst I was offline… lol. I honestly found that wickedly hilarious! Also because I had a feeling everyone might have been faster than I was to queue them on their hold list! Laughs. Seriously, without some random humour we’d all go a bit batty in the head!!
Whose joining me this year?
And, what are your #mustreads for #ThanksgivingReadathon?
Remember – I’m just starting my #ChristmasReads now & will be concluding many of them throughout December – whilst the #SciFiMonth reads are most important and will be populating my archives this week and with a few back-dated entries as well – as I’m bending time to a calendar of relevancy that makes sense to me the blogger even if it will appear to be a bit quirkily humourous to my readers & followers! Smiles.
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Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life:
A dash of #bookblog news re: #SciFiMonth?, my recent tech woes; + my #ThanksgivingReadathon?#TBR!?
?a bit of #ChristmasReads
?a heap of #SciFi & SpecLit
?a #bookblogger‘s bookish retreat
?a week of lovely diversion??️?https://t.co/7WZbZBrMj6 pic.twitter.com/gIRVMtH1b6
— Jorie jumps hyperspace into #SciFiMonth??? (@joriestory) November 27, 2019
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- #ThanksgivingReadathon 2019
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