RAT: Hours Seven and Eight

One-third of the way through!  Woo hooooo!

Title of book(s) read since last update: Every Day with Rachael Ray (magazine); The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel
Number of books read since you started: one
Pages read since last update: 47
Running total of pages read since you started: 220
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 100 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 400 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: Introduction meme; Oldies but Goodies; Turn to Page;
Other participants you’ve visited: Deb Nance at Readerbuzz; Chris at Northern Stories; Becca S at The Sanborns; Alysia at My Little Pocketbooks; Courtney at Stiletto Storytime; Marina at Momma Writes About Books; Paulina at Two Canadian Readers; coffeymuse at Living to Think; Vincent at Vincent Does the Readathon; Christina at chimpanzee that;
What I've eaten/drunk: two Ooey Gooey Chips Ahoy cookies (RAT breakfast of champions, baby!); a bottle of water; 1/4 of my leftover Obscenely Loaded Fries from Hurricane Wings (lunch the other day); Publix cola; a couple of pimento-stuffed green olives; TGI Friday's sliders (for lunch); some gummi bears; a bottle of water; the rest of the gummi bears; two-thirds of the remaining Hurricane Wings cheese fries;

As you can probably tell, junk food is very important to me during a Read-a-Thon.  I try to stock up beforehand, so I can fill any particular craving I might have.  I've got the aforementioned potato skins in the freezer, frozen pizzas, pretzels, almonds, popcorn, soda, candy out the wazoo...basically anything junk-foodish, we've got it on hand.  What do you like to eat during the Read-a-Thon?  Are you a junk food junkie like me, or do you like to keep it healthy?

RAT: Hours Five and Six

Title of book(s) read since last update: Every Day with Rachael Ray (magazine); The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel
Number of books read since you started: one
Pages read since last update: 45
Running total of pages read since you started: 173
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 90 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 300 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: Introduction meme; Oldies but Goodies; Turn to Page
Other participants you’ve visited: Deb Nance at Readerbuzz; Chris at Northern Stories; Becca S at The Sanborns; Alysia at My Little Pocketbooks; Courtney at Stiletto Storytime; Marina at Momma Writes About Books;
What I've eaten/drunk: two Ooey Gooey Chips Ahoy cookies (RAT breakfast of champions, baby!); a bottle of water; 1/4 of my leftover Obscenely Loaded Fries from Hurricane Wings (lunch the other day); Publix cola; a couple of pimento-stuffed green olives; TGI Friday's sliders (for lunch); some gummi bears; a bottle of water;

I'm getting into my second read of the RAT, Jean Auel's The Shelters of Stone, which is one of the Earth's Children series.  I've read all the previous volumes, so now I have this one and the newest volume left to go.  I don't have a copy of the new one, The Land of Painted Caves, but I'll probably borrow it from the library in order to finish the series.  I don't see myself finishing The Shelters of Stone, but if I do, I have a Kindle book, Perfectly Matched by Heather Webber, ready to go (as well as several others on my book pile!).  What are you reading today?!

RAT: Hours Three and Four

Title of book(s) read since last update: Every Day with Rachael Ray (magazine)
Number of books read since you started: one
Pages read since last update: 57
Running total of pages read since you started: 128
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 90 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 210 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: Introduction meme; Oldies but Goodies
Other participants you’ve visited:  Deb Nance at Readerbuzz; Chris at Northern Stories; Becca S at The Sanborns;
What I've eaten/drunk: two Ooey Gooey Chips Ahoy cookies (RAT breakfast of champions, baby!); a bottle of water; 1/4 of my leftover Obscenely Loaded Fries from Hurricane Wings (lunch the other day); Publix cola
Blogger is being a bit temperamental.  I think all of us Read-a-Thon-ers are overloading it.  But I made it back in time to get a post up this hour.  Just finished my magazine and I am about to start my book, The Shelters of Stone by Jean M. Auel.

RAT: Hours One and Two

Here is my standard Read-a-Thon update meme, detailing what I've accomplished during Hours One and Two.  We're heading into Hour Three now and I'm in top form!!!

Title of book(s) read since last update: Every Day with Rachael Ray (magazine)
Number of books read since you started: one
Pages read since last update: 71
Running total of pages read since you started: 71
Amount of time spent reading since last update: 120 minutes
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 120 minutes
Mini-challenges completed: Introduction meme
Other participants you’ve visited:  none, yet
What I've eaten/drunk: two Ooey Gooey Chips Ahoy cookies (RAT breakfast of champions, baby!); a bottle of water

I started out a bit headachey from eating too much sodium yesterday (damn you, pad see-ew), but I popped a couple Excedrin Migraines (my happy pills) and was ready to go.  Also I had a bit of a stall about halfway through when I got something in my eye and I had to stop to try to get it out, but that's all over with.  Now I'm going to cruise on over to a few participants' blogs and try to finish my magazine before my next break at the beginning of Hour Five!  Happy reading!!!

RAT Introductory Meme

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
     South Florida

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
     The Shelters of Stone, which is probably the only one I'll get around to reading.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
     I have some potato skins that sound mighty good.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
     I'm a lawyer, I'm married, and my husband is participating in this Read-a-Thon, too.

5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
      I've done about nine Read-a-Thons before today, so I have my routine down pat.  I don't think I'll do much differently.  Maybe sleep more, since I've had a cold this week.

And, now....IT'S GO TIME!

Read-a-Thon Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the Read-a-Thon, tomorrow is the Read-a-Thon!  My favorite time of year!!!  This will be my ninth RAT, I think.  I've got books stacked up, junk food and soda waiting, and I'm going to try to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight, so I can be fresh and ready in the morning.  I've had a bad cold all week, so I'm not sure how much reading I'll get done tomorrow, but I'm finally starting to feel better, so hopefully I can make it through my usual 13 to 18 hours of Read-a-Thon-ing.  Can't wait!  I am planning on reading The Shelters of Stone most, if not all, of the day.  Are you participating in the Read-a-Thon?  What are you reading?

Review: The Best American Mystery Stories 2010 ed. Lee Child

This book is one of a triumvirate of books that I ask for every Christmas. I received this one for Christmas in 2010, and it's been sitting on my shelves for a year and a half or so, waiting for me to get around to reading it. And now I have!

I love this series, especially the mystery stories. The criteria for submitting a story to this volume is that a crime or the threat of a crime must be central to the story. Over the years, this requirement has resulted in some truly surprising stories, and 2010's installment was just as interesting as these volumes usually are. The book has the top 20 submitted stories, chosen by a team of readers, narrowed down by the series editor, and the final selections made by the guest editor, in this case Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher novels.

Far and away in this collection, my favorite story was Jay Brandon's "A Jury of His Peers." This story combined two of my favorite things: law and the Old West. It is based on a true incident, when the Spanish army kidnapped all the lawyers in San Antonio and held them hostage, during the Spanish-American War. This story deals with the aftermath. What happens when the lawyers return? Specifically, what happens to the men who have moved in on their practices (and, in some cases, their wives)?

While all of the other stories were very deserving of being included, I also especially enjoyed Lyndsay Faye's "The Case of Colonel Warburton's Madness," a Sherlock Holmes tale, done very well; Phillip Margolin's "The House on Pine Terrace," about a policewoman's affair that turns in on itself; and the late, great Kurt Vonnegut's "Ed Luby's Key Club," about a man seeking justice for himself in a town owned by another.

As usual, this collection was fantastic. I'd give it four out of five Whatevers. Perfect for the upcoming Read-a-Thon, for those who are looking to get more into short stories or those who already love them, and absolutely meant for mystery lovers. Please do yourself a favor and check out this series. The next classic short story might be in here!

2012-18