Library Books Read-A-Thon Day 8: Wrap Up

Day 8 and our final day of the Read-A-Thon. Always a sad day for me. This year has been another great year for the Library Books Read-A-Thon. I had so many members this year and great participation. I loved interacting with you guys this week as well as getting some reading done. I will post my final stats tomorrow morning, but for now these are the books I was able to accomplish this week.

I read a total of 540 pages in 15 hours and 10 minutes in 7 days. I know the read-a-thon ran for 8 days, but I'm going to count today's progress for the Book Monster's Read-A-Thon because I'm trying not to cross read-a-thons this year. 

Book Finished: 

The One and Only by Emily Giffin and I actually already wrote my review also. I would love for more people to fall in love with this author.










Book Started:


I probably didn't have the usual strategy for Read-A-Thons where you pick short books so you can accomplish more. This is my Read-A-Thon and I say read what you are most looking forward to. I myself have been waiting to read City of Heavenly Fire the whole year so I started it and I'm about halfway through at this point. Below is some picture I want to share with you from this week.

The first picture my brother took. Actually I didn't even realize he took it because I was focused on reading. The second picture I took to show my favorite place to read at. I love to read laying down on the couch. City of Heavenly Fire is amazing. 

The week is done, but not to worry there will be a ton of library fun going on this week also thanks to the Book Monster's Library Readathon and yes I will be participating. 

This one is a traditional 7 day read-a-thon and I can't wait to join in on the fun. Want a sneak peek at Next Year's Library Read-A-Thon come back on June 23rd because I have a special post going up. 

Link Your Wrap Up Below. This is a new linky. I can't wait to see all the Library Book Progress everybody has made. Thank You again for participating and sharing the Library love with me. The Library Books Read-A-Thon will return next June so look out for that. In the meantime Happy Summer and Happy Reading!

Book Review: Sleeping Beauty by Jenni James (Faerie Tale Collection #2)

Book: Sleeping Beauty
Author: Jenni James
Series: Faerie Tale Collection #2
Publication: December 1st, 2012
Source: Intern-Library Loan
Read: May 22nd-24th, 2014
Summary (from Goodreads):

The sleeping girl has no idea she is asleep.

 After Aleyna witnessed the cruel deaths of her family, she was put to sleep by Ezralon the unicorn. He has been keeping her safe, hidden in the forest, until her true prince could come and rescue her.

 While Aleyna is protected in the forest, her spirit walks the halls of her ruined, deserted castle in a dream-like existence, believing everything is still perfect. However, she is halted in this state—almost as if time were frozen—until the prince awakens her. 

Prince Darién of Lybrooke Court loves a challenge as much as the next man, but believes it will be a fool’s errand to rescue a ghost who is already dead! He’s convinced no one could have survived sleeping thirty years, so what is the point of rescuing a girl who is quite content to haunt on her own?

 Of course, if Darién wasn’t so afraid of ghouls, this whole thing could be much easier to fathom..

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My Thoughts:

I had a hard time deciding how I wanted to rate this book. I really did enjoy which is why I decided to give it 4 Stars, but I did still have a few complaints about Sleeping Beauty. I'm going to start this review by saying that I enjoyed Sleeping Beauty a lot more than I enjoyed Beauty and the Beast. 

There was more originality added to Sleeping Beauty. Aleyna our sleeping princess, was put to sleep by unicorn Ezralon after she witnessed the death of her mother, father, and brothers. She was put into a state of altered reality of dream-like existence. She would wake up and walk around, but Aleyna was not really living. She did not know what was going on in the world and she had no idea of the horrible past that had happened. 

Then there is our prince Darien sets out to rescue the sleeping ghost otherwise known as Aleyna. Here's the thing the story, the idea, it was all magical. The story as it was written lacked depth, and the characters lacked depth also. The characters were rather two dimensional. I think it is all in the author's third person writing style. Despite these characteristics I did end up falling in love with the character of Aleyna. I was impressed how she was able to have a role in the story despite being asleep. My favorite character has to be Margie, the cook. She has the motherly essence that I really fell in low with. Eralon, the unicorn, really made this story magical and I enjoyed his protective role in the story. 

There were also a number of minor characters in this story that I really could care less about. Their role in the story was rather unexplained. Humphrey, George, and Michael. I think this is a downfall of the story although George has a role in the end of the story. I still think these characters should have been explained better what their role in the story was. 

Although Sleeping Beauty was a four star read for me, it still had its flaws. I enjoyed reading this magical retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but more depth could have been added. I will be moving on to the third book in the series, but overall I don't think these were every be my favorite series of fairy tale retellings. I also think the cover is beautiful. 

Library Books Read-A-Thon Progress

I'm sure you all have been wondering so how is Rachael coming along with the Readathon. Well I have to say not great. I will most likely finish my first book today which is day 3 and then I will be starting City of Heavenly Fire which I don't plan on finishing this week.

Day 1 June 9th

On Monday it was my first day of Kindercamp for our second week. This week's group of kids is a bit more challenging than the first group. My reading did not get under way until a little after 2. Here's what I read.
pg 241 to pg 263 2:13 to 2:52
pg 263 to pg 273 3:06 to 3:22
pg 273 to pg 325 6:15 to 7:26
pg 325 to pg 332 8:34 to 8:58

Pages Read: 91
Time Read: 2 hours 30 minutes

Day 2 June 10th












Today was a busy day. I managed a few pages before I went into the school, but then didn't read again until late at night.
pg 332 to pg 339 8:39 to 8:47
pg 339 to pg 368 9:57 to 10:45

Pages Read:36
Time Read: 56 minutes
Total Pages Read: 127
Total Time Read:  3 hours 26 minutes

Day 3 June 11th


pg 368 to pg 386 2:17 to 2:54
pg 386 to pg 413 5:52 to 6:36

The One and Only was not Emily Giffin's best book, but I did enjoy it. The cover of City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare is super beautiful. This is one of my most anticipated books for 2014 so I'm excited to dig in.

pg 0 to pg 34 9:48 to 10:51

Pages Read: 79
Time Read: 1 hour 21 minutes
Total Pages Read: 206
Total Time Read: 4 hours 47 minutes

Day 4 June 12th

pg 34 to pg 41 8:11 to 8:23
pg 41 to pg 57 1:03 to 1:39
pg 57 to pg 72 2:32 to 2:58
pg 72 to pg 98 9:55 to 10:39

Pages Read: 64
Time Read: 1 hour 58 minutes
Total Pages Read: 270
Total Time Read: 6 hours 45 minutes

Day 5 June 13th

pg 98 to pg 106 7:59 to 8:11
pg 106 to pg 113 2:35 to 2:50
pg 113 to pg 121 5:49 to 6:04
pg 121 to pg 140 9:27 to 10:07

Pages Read: 42
Time Read: 1 hour 22 minutes
Total Pages Read: 312
Total Time Read: 8 hours 7 minutes

Day 6 June 14th

pg 140 to pg 165 12:42 to 1:34
pg 165 to pg 173 2:29 to 2:41
pg 173 to pg 191 3:03 to 3:32
pg 191 to pg 249 5:20 to 6:55
pg 249 to pg 252 7:40 to 7:52
pg 252 to pg 258 8:00 to 8:10

Pages Read: 118
Time Read: 3 hours 30 minutes
Total Pages Read: 430
Total Time Read: 11 hours 37 minutes

Day 7 June 15th


pg 258 to pg 291 2:00 to 3:15
pg 291 to pg 316 3:30 to 4:07
pg 316 to pg 339 7:27 to 8:09
pg 339 to pg 341 8:22 to 8:28
pg 341 to pg 348 8:34 to 8:51
pg 348 to pg 368 9:05 to 9:41

Pages Read: 110
Time Read: 3 hours 33 minutes
Total Pages Read: 540
Total Time Read: 15 hours 10 minutes

Library Books Read-A-Thon Day 7: Suggest a Purchase

Welcome to Day 7 of the Library Books Read-A-Thon. Tomorrow is our last day. Just let me tell you I have had such a fun week and have made so much progress in my library book stack. Tomorrow will be a full day of reading, but I will wrap up my progress for the most part in the morning. The Read-A-Thon lasts until Midnight on the 16th. 

Today I'm going to talk about Purchase Suggestions. When the book is a New Release and I don't see it in my library catalog, but it is too new to Inter-Library Loan, I'm allowed to put in a purchase suggestion. 

For my library it is just a simple form and whatever book I was looking for will show up on my account if they decide to buy the book and for the most part they do buy the books I'm looking for. If not I wait and Inter-Library Loan the book. 

Short post today so you can get more reading done. Link Your Progress Below. If you are using one post for the week you are already on the list. If you use daily posts link up below. 

Library Books Read-A-Thon Day 6: Volunteering at the Library

Welcome to Day 6 of the Library Book Read-A-Thon. This week is just flying by.

Here's how far I am in City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. I'm going to pick up another couple of books this morning. This readathon couldn't have came at a better time. I'm hoping to read about 150 pages a day this weekend. That would put me at 440 in City of Heavenly Fire by Sunday night. I think I can do it. 

Today I'm here to talk about being a library volunteer: my experience. I know a lot of bloggers that are librarians and I think that would be an awesome job to have someday. My dream is still to be a teacher. After two weeks of Kinder Camp I can't wait for that dream to come true.

While I'm waiting to finish college, I have been volunteering at the public library in my college town. I first started volunteering at the library in November. I started out tracing and cutting paper for craft projects. We made a lot of different craft projects. The nice part about this is that it wasn't a hard job at all. I was stressed out from school constantly. College students I bet you could relate. I was just going crazy with all the stress, but every Wednesday I would drive down to the library and watch the stress float away. I would stop thinking about college and just work with the other volunteer that came at the same time. We would talk and laugh and continue to get those art projects together. Second semester things changed a little bit. The other person I volunteered with starting coming on Mondays so she would get the craft project ready with her time there. I still came on Wednesdays so there wasn't as much for me to do. I often shelved books. I loved learning how to shelve books and I have to admit I enjoy shelving books. Shelf reading wasn't my favorite, though (checking to see that the books were in order). I worked in the children's section so books were rarely if ever in the right place. I also had more free time second semester and I decided to spend it at the library. Thursday at 3:45 were program day. I helped out with one of programs each month and that was the Science Time program. One month we built boats out of random objects, and another one I helped at was weather related. I also helped at craft day once in a while.We made a bunny balloon for Easter (except you aren't allowed to call it Easter). I had so much fun getting to know those kids. We also had an end of the year carnival which was a lot of fun. The great thing about volunteering is that it is flexible unlike most jobs. If I couldn't make it one week, then I would just email Joyce, the lady I volunteered for, and she would say okay see you next week or tomorrow depending on the week and what was going on Thursday. Literally my volunteer experience at the library is what I looked forward all week, so I didn't cancel often and my friends knew how much I enjoyed the library and were very supportive. The sad news is that Joyce ended up moving to a different library in May so when I come back next fall I will have to meet a new person to volunteer for. I hope she is as nice as Joyce. I won't be getting a job the Fall Semester and maybe this is a weird reason, but I go home most weekends during the Fall Semester to watch my hometown college play volleyball and a job would get in the way of my driving time too much so my parents have agreed that I can find a job second semester if my course load isn't too much. Since I won't be working again, I'm excited to go back to volunteering.

Let me know have you ever volunteered at a library and did you enjoy the experience? 

Update your progress below. If you are using a different post for each day link up below. If you are using the same post for the whole week you should already be on the list. I'm going to use the same linky list for the entire week. Come back tomorrow as I talk about Purchase Sugggestions.