Peak summer — porch margaritas and books.
This past weekend was the 24 in 48 readathon. For those unfamiliar, the goal is to spend 24 of the 48 hours in the weekend reading. There are giveaways throughout the day and tons of people sharing their reading on Litsy, Instagram, Twitter, and the like. (I shared on Litsy, where you can find me @erinkwed).
In all honesty, I was not quite as ambitious as 24 hours. My goal was 12 hours of reading, which I came a little short on. Saturday I read for six hours, and Sunday I read for five.
Friday night/Saturday morning
I started with The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. An epistolary novel, it focuses on correspondence just after World War II with a newspaper columnist in London starting to write her next book and a book group from Guernsey. I actually had no idea that the Guernsey Islands were occupied during the war. The book is cozy, tragic, and heartwarming all at the same time.
Heading over to my parents to meet my Dad for lunch, I listened to a half hour of Angels and Demons each way. I’m enjoying the thriller and historical aspects of this novel, eye rolling at some of the dialogue and characterization. Overall a fun listen.
Saturday afternoon/evening
In the afternoon, I read Saga, Vol 6. I had been saving it for this weekend and was so glad I did. (**SPOILERS**) It was so satisfying to finally see some good things happening to this family. Honestly, the last volume was getting to be kind of hard to read, so this one was refreshing — back to action, humor, and pathos.
I followed it up with a palate cleanser of The Givenness of Things by Marilynne Robinson. I read Gilead in high school and didn’t see what the fuss was, but reading this essay collection with fresh eyes makes me want to revisit it. She is so smart, throws such shade, and just has a quiet quality to her writing that lulls you into complacency before hitting you in the face with her brilliance.
Sunday
Between Church, grocery shopping, and general lying around, I didn’t get as much reading in on Sunday. I did read all of Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist. It had been compared to Let the Great World Spin, which is one of my favorite books. I think that description was apt. This was a hard read, though, because the depiction of police brutality felt raw in a way I don’t think it would have a few years ago.
I also read bits and pieces of The Sympathizer all weekend. I’m kind of struggling with this book — it is a really good, fascinating book, but it isn’t engrossing. I almost have to remind myself to pick it up. I think it will be worth it when I finally finish, though.
All in all, this weekend was more than I’ve read in months. Definitely check out the readathon next time it runs. The next readathon will be January 21-22, mark your calendars!
ErinKwed 