I haven’t participated in Dewey’s Read-a-Thon since… October 2010! Last April I was in the middle of a move during the read-a-thon and last October I had signed up for an awesome indie bookstore cruise to get acquainted with some of the great indies in my new home town. I am so glad to be back though, it’s been a while and I’m looking forward to this!

So I signed up for this read-a-thon eagerly some time after Christmas. I then proceeded to lose the link to it in the midst of traveling and have been on and off searching for it ever since. Thank goodness the read-a-thon host, Michelle at The True Book Addict, was kind enough to come and check on me and remind me about it so I can participate! Thank you!

It has been a very sorry start of the year as far as reading goes. I hate winter, and cold, and grey and all of those things are in abundance and it’s had me down in the doldrums all month. I have not managed to finish one book yet this year, not one! I’m hoping this read-a-thon will change that.

For me it was a rare Thanksgiving this year in that I got to celebrate it with both my family back in Pennsylvania and my in-laws in both Pennsylvania and here in Missouri. Last week we made the 14 hour drive to see my family and stayed there for a week, we got to see my brother-in-law and his rambunctious and fun family on Saturday and celebrated Thanksgiving with my family on Sunday. Then we drove back on Monday to find that I had managed to catch my Dad’s cold, so I have been sick and recovering most of this week. It is a nasty one too, I’m still on cold medicine and still feeling pretty miserable. Yesterday we hosted Thanksgiving in our own home, for the first time in the new house, and invited over the in-laws. We had good food, good company and enjoyed watching a fantastic parade! I even forgot how miserable I felt for a few hours.

I was really excited to hear about the Thankfully Reading Weekend this year. We are having a very low key and very late Thanksgiving (having it today!) because of work schedules and the fact that half of us are very sick, including myself. I thought I would take the weekend to get caught up on my reviews, and hopefully get some reading in as well.

I am very, very far behind on my reviews and I would like to push as hard as I can to get caught up enough on them to do justice to a year end wrap-up. I have 37 books I need to review. No pressure. A lot of them will require skimming to refresh so I will definitely still be reading thankfully regardless of whether or not I end up only writing reviews this weekend.

So now that I’m properly medicated and have cough drops, tissues and tea at hand, I think it’s time to get cracking on this first review! Hope all my American readers had a very happy thanksgiving, and that everyone has a delightfully low key weekend ahead like I do!

I am so psyched for my second Dewey Read-a-Thon, and my third overall. For the last two I managed to stay up all 24 hours and had a lot of fun doing it. This time I’m aiming for the same and have a whole lot of books I’m ready to sink my teeth into throughout the day.

First up is a new to me manga series (that is finished!) From Far Away by Kyoko Hikawa.

I’ve been eyeballing this one at the library all summer but just never got around to checking it out until now!

It’s an action/adventure fantasy romance about a girl that gets transported magically to a far away land where there is danger, a prophecy, and a man she just can’t stop thinking about.

The art is really alien-beautiful and the series looks really interesting, I can’t wait to give it a whirl.

Next up is a book that I actually discovered again thanks to this read-a-thon! Last time around a mini-challenge made me remember this book and this time around I went on a bit of a pilgrimage to get it just so that I would have it to read for this read-a-thon.

Seaward by Susan Cooper is a wonderful book that first got me interested in ancient mythology in non-Egyptian countries. It also could technically be considered my first ship!

It’s been a very long time since I read this book, so I barely remember anything that happens and I’m looking forward to the trip down memory lane.

And, in case I decide to get too comfortable, my third selection is an impulse library acquisition. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan has been talked about a lot in the book blogging world in the last year or so and it definitely has gotten my interest. So I’m finally biting the bullet and giving it a whirl.

I do not normally do this for books that are from an unfinished series, thank you Robert Jordan for scaring me off of that for life (may you rest in peace, though). Let’s hope granting this exception is well worth it!

I have several other odds and ends books waiting in the wings in case I get bored and frustrated. I think I will start with the manga to get a book or two under my belt early and then go from there. And, yes, I was stressed and pressed for time but I did make just one more button for the read-a-thon, and you are more than welcome to borrow it if you wish, I don’t mind.