24 Hour Read-a-thon - Hour 14

I'm steadily plugging along on The Winner's Curse, and have found myself sidetracked only slightly by playing Bite and Sting online, the same game the characters play in the book.

This hour
Book read: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Pages read: 63
Time spent reading: 34 minutes
Food and drink consumed: dangerously delicious Grand Slam snack mix from Trader Joe's (basically, fancy Cracker Jacks)

Total
Books read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Dodger by Terry Pratchett, Battling Boy by Paul Pope, The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Pages read: 597 (plus 1 disc)
Time spent reading: 4 hours 39 minutes

24 Hour Read-a-thon - Hour 13

I started reading The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski this hour, and I'm entranced. The vaguely Greco-Roman world, the alternating chapters between slave and master, the beautiful descriptions - this is definitely a good book for this challenge!

This hour
Book read: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Pages read: 53
Time spent reading: 34 minutes
Food and drink consumed:

Total
Books read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Dodger by Terry Pratchett, Battling Boy by Paul Pope
Pages read: 534 (plus 1 disc)
Time spent reading: 4 hours 5 minutes

24 Hour Read-a-thon - Hour 12

I managed to play a little catch-up this hour by reading a graphic novel, Battling Boy by Paul Pope. I was not impressed with it - I found it to be too frenetic and disjointed - so I'm not going to bother with a proper review for it.

This hour
Book read: Battling Boy by Paul Pope
Pages read: 202
Time spent reading: 36 minutes
Food and drink consumed:

Total
Books read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Dodger by Terry Pratchett, Battling Boy by Paul Pope
Pages read: 481 (plus 1 disc)
Time spent reading: 3 hours 31 minutes

Mid-Event Survey
1. What are you reading right now? Just finished Battling Boy by Paul Pope
2. How many books have you read so far? 2 completed
3. What book are you most looking forward to for the second half of the Read-a-thon? I think I'm going to start Winner's Curse right now!
4. Did you have to make any special arrangements to free up your whole day? Sadly, I had to work today, but I'm here uninterrupted for the rest of this challenge!
5. Have you had many interruptions? How did you deal with those? Just work.
6. What surprises you most about the Read-a-thon, so far? Nothing so far
7. Do you have any suggestions for how to improve the Read-a-thon next year? Everything looks like it's going smoothly!
8. What would you do differently, as a Reader or a Cheerleader, if you were to do this again next year? So far, so good...
9. Are you getting tired yet? Yes, and I shouldn't be!
10. Do you have any tips for other Readers or Cheerleaders, something you think is working well for you that others may not have discovered? Nope

Review: Maggot Moon

Title: Maggot Moon
Author: Sally Gardner
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Year Published: 2013
Source: Library book
Rating: 4/5 stars

I wasn't sure what to expect from Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner. I picked it up because it is a Printz Honor book this year, and I'm making my way through the YALSA Hub Challenge. I was intrigued by the cover and the description, but really had no idea what I was getting into.

Standish, the main character, is an odd duck, and he describes his dystopian world in a way that is strange yet heartbreaking. The reader spends much of the book thinking about Soviet Russia, but is that really the world this is taking place in? The Motherland is about to land on the moon for the first time, but Standish and his Gramps are among the few who know what's really going on.

While I found the story compelling and Standish to be a great narrator, what won me over about Maggot Moon was the simplistic sentences that still managed to knock me over. Case in point: "Gramps was the only person that still pulled at the gravity in me." That one sentence speaks volumes about their relationship, and I found myself rereading that one line over and over. It was the tiny gems like that that made me really appreciate this book.

24 Hour Read-a-thon - Hour 11

Yay! I finished my first book of the read-a-thon!

This hour
Book read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
Pages read: 79
Time spent reading: 25 minutes
Food and drink consumed: pad thai and beef satay

Total
Books read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Pages read: 279 (plus 1 disc)
Time spent reading: 2 hours 55 minutes

24 Hour Read-a-thon - Hour 9

So I just got home from work, which means the real reading can start now!

This hour
Book read: Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Pages read: 1/2 disc
Time spent reading: 40 minutes
Food and drink consumed: venti caramel macchiato 

Total
Books read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Pages read: 200 (plus 1 a disc)
Time spent reading: 2 hour 30 minutes

24 Hour Read-a-thon - Hour 7

So obviously I missed a few hours here, but no worries! There's plenty of time left to read. And clearly everyone else has had that same idea, because it's been a busy morning at the circulation desk!

This hour
Book read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
Pages read: 82
Time spent reading: 30 minutes
Food and drink consumed: hummus and crackers, vanilla protein shake

Total
Books read: Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner, Dodger by Terry Pratchett
Pages read: 200 (plus ~ 1/2 a disc)
Time spent reading: 1 hour 50 minutes