#24in48 Readathon: What I Read

This past weekend was the #24in48 Readathon. Since I read nine books, I thought I would dedicate a whole blog post just to those books. I LOVE having a whole weekend just to read, although by the end of the weekend I am exhausted. I think it feels a lot like the endurance of a marathon might (she says, having never run a marathon!). By hour 21 I just want to be D.O.N.E and "there's still three hours left to read but I can't stop now because I'm so close" and then I hit 24 hours and I'm like, "What?!?!? That's it?!?!? I'm done?!?!!?! It went so fast."

Anyway, I am reviewing the books I read this past weekend in the order I read them.

 

First up was Felix Ever After. This was one of the group reads of the readathon and I'm so glad I was introduced to this book. It's a YA story of love, discovery, and betrayal. It made me cry and it made me laugh and it was heartbreaking and heartwarming. And it made me think about how I would parent if one of my kids is transgender. It was interesting to read a YA book and relate more to the parent. Not that I agreed with the parent, but I could understand his feelings.

I was going to intersperse essays from Well Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves throughout the day on Saturday but I ended up devouring this book in two gulps. I loved reading the essays in this book and, from the books and authors these women wrote about, I definitely added to my reading list. Also, the white privilege of always reading stories about people who looked like me during my childhood was very apparent to me as I read this book.

I hadn't read a World War II book in quite awhile (maybe living through a global pandemic I decided I didn't need more stress in my reading???) but I picked up The Room on Rue Amelie and actually enjoyed it. Although, there is one scene where parents have to leave their 13 year old Jewish daughter behind which broke my heart (again, I can easily imagine this in real life with my half-Jewish kids). However, that wasn't the main focus of the book and so I thought it was pretty good. The ending felt a little rushed which took away some of my enjoyment of the book.

The next book I read was Between the World and Me. This is a short book, basically Coates' thoughts on being black in America as written in a letter to his son. One thing which made me sad is how things haven't changed for Black people in America (and I'm guessing the situation is similar in Canada). When will we learn? How can we do better?

The next book, I'd gotten about halfway through before the readathon started but finished during the readathon. You Can't Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson is funny, touching, rage-inducing, and irreverent. But it contains some hard truths which I, as a white person, needed to hear. I especially loved the way it ended with letters to Robinson's niece, giving her advice as she grows up and navigates this world.

I don't know how I found out about the next book. It took me a while to get into Africville but once the story caught hold of me, I couldn't put it down and ended up staying way later than I had intended to finish it. This story starts in Nova Scotia (one of Canada's provinces), moves to Montreal, then down to the US and ends up back in Nova Scotia. It weaves together the story of three generations plus a few other stories. This felt like a very Canadian book in that I didn't feel like there was a lot of hope (I often feel Canadian novels are bleak), and the spread out nature of the family contributed to the story telling.

This next book is supposed to be fiction, and fantasy, no less. Hollowpox: The Hunt For Morrigan Crow is about a pandemic, characters having to be quarantined, talk of storming the government, prejudice towards the characters accused of spreading the disease, events needing to be cancelled, and yeah, it all felt a little too real. I wasn't able to set aside that this was fiction written before the pandemic we are currently living through. It felt like real life. I kept stopping and asking, "Seriously?!?" because I couldn't believe what was happening in the story -- because it didn't feel like fiction. I think for me, this book would have been more enjoyable if I had read it before Covid or well after life has gotten back to normal. I was still somewhat sucked into the storytelling but I was very distracted by the pandemic in the book.

I started reading I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings back in June but never finished it before I had to return it. I decided to read it during this readathon, and was surprised at how close I'd gotten to finishing it the first time. However, it was good to re-read it and remind myself of Angelou's powerful storytelling. If you haven't read this book yet, you should. It's incredible storytelling will draw you in and Angelou paints vibrant pictures with her words.

I ended the readathon by reading about two-thirds of Wedding Cake Crumble from the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series by Jenn McKinlay. I love the characters in this series and these books are a fun, light read which make me want to eat a lot of cupcakes! Since McKinlay includes recipes at the back of her books, I might make some of the delicious sounding cupcakes at some point. Plus, I can never figure out who the murderer is so her books keep me guessing.

I started my reading at 6am on Saturday morning (I just couldn't stay up until midnight on Friday night to kick off the readathon with a couple of hours of reading like I usually do) and finished my 24 hours by about 9:15pm on Sunday night. Then I did a few tasks I'd been ignoring all weekend, crawled into bed, and finished Wedding Cake Crumble before I fell asleep.

The 24in48 readathon is one of my favourite ways to spend a weekend. It's a way to take some "me time" and just sink into a pile of good books for a few days, knowing I will have few interruptions. This time around, Sam read "with" me in that, if he was awake, he was reading in his room. I barely saw him all weekend! As always, a HUGE shout out to Dave who parents on his own during these weekends.

(Also, this review replaces my mid-February book review so come back at the beginning of March to see what I read during the rest of February.)