Halfway through 2016 already! I'm quite curious to see how my numbers turned out for this quarter of the year, since I had a baby during it! So far, my reading hasn't suffered too terribly much, I don't think - mostly thanks to the wonder of audiobooks!

Favorite books this quarter:  My nonfiction selection would have to be Among the Janeites by Deborah Yaffe. Lots of Jane Austen love, and it's just a fun book. Fiction is going to be a tie between The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter and Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger (which, by the way,, is awesome on audio.)

So my take-away from this is that I need to read more books that I own. My library use has gone way out of control! Which is actually the opposite of what I expected to happen when I had a baby. . . Strange. On the plus side, I've listened to 10 audiobooks this quarter, which is about as many as the last three years combined.

​All in all, I'm pretty pleased with how this quarter has gone. How is your 2016 reading going so far?

So I decided to sign up for the Make Me Read It Readathon last week, which is a readathon in July where you get to vote on what I read. I am now mildly obsessed with checking the voting results, looking several times a day to see which book is in the lead. If you would like to encourage my obsession (and please do), vote here!

How Readathons Saved My Blog
​Make Me Read It - Vote, Please!

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap by Wendy Welch (5 stars! Loved this book!)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (Enjoyed my first audiobook read of this, and will soon be moving on to book 2.)
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper (Our book club book for the month.)

The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell (A true story of a man adopting a penguin in Argentina.)
Son by Lois Lowry (It's fun to see all the books come together in this last book of The Giver series.

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder (Better finish the June book for the Little House Read-Along very soon!)

I discovered this readathon through Christine at Buckling Bookshelves, and it sounded like a lot of fun. Here are the basics:​

Look at the books you own, either physical, e-book or ones you've borrowed from the library and pick out a few you really want to read, or feel like you should read. It’s up to you how many you pick, personally I'd pick a few more than you expect to be able to read in a week. Example: if you think you’ll only read two, pick out five books or if you think you can read seven, pick out ten.

Make a list of these books on your blog, or make a video, or a Goodreads shelf or post a picture on Instagram—whatever is easiest for you. Then get friends, other bloggers/booktubers etc. to vote on which books you HAVE to read.

When the readathon comes along, you read the books in the order of most votes. For example, if one book gets 10 votes—you read that first, then the one that got 7 and so on. If there's a tie, then it's your preference. The goal is to read as many as possible. 

The readathon takes place July 9 - 16, which is right after my next Library Day - perfect! I'll probably only get through 3 books that week, but there are seven choices below to vote on. Vote for no more than 5, please. Voting ends July 6.​ And then I'll start reading your top picks on July 9!

One of my favorite discoveries of the book blogging world was readathons. What is better than a day or week devoted to extra reading time? And to make it even more awesome, lots of other people are reading as well, and there are posts to comment on and prizes to win. Basically, readathons = reading + community. And they are so much fun.

I've participated in Dewey's 24-hour readathon four times, since I first discovered it in April 2014. I knew there was one coming up at the end of April, but I had just had a baby, and bloggy things had really taken a backseat to the adorable, crying creature right in front of me.

I knew I would have to take a blogging break when my little guy was born, but I was having trouble finding time and motivation to return. I wanted to, but every time I had a few moments to write up a post, I lacked the energy.

Enter readathons. I thought it would be crazy to participate in a 24-hour readathon with a newborn, but I somehow just couldn't pass it up. I loved readathons too much, and Dewey's in particular. So I picked my audiobook, made sure I had my physical book next to me at all times, told myself that this was just fun and there was no pressure, and read. I figured out that posting updates on Twitter from my phone was easier than pulling out my computer to update Smiling Shelves (which is why there's only a summary post at the end).

It worked so well that I decided to try Bout of Books, which happened shortly thereafter. It was a week long instead of a day, which just meant that I would have even more moments to sneak in some reading. Audiobooks really helped, and by the end of the week, I was more than ready to dive back into the blogging world on a regular basis.

In short, readathons rock.

Which is why I'm excited to try two new ones (for me) coming up in July. I'm looking forward to joining in the 24in48 Readathon, which challenges you to read for 24 hours over the course of 48 hours on July 23-24. I don't think I'll get close to that, but I'm willing to try! I'm also going to join in the Make Me Read It Readathon, which allows all of you fine people reading my blog to choose books for me to read during the week of July 9-16. I really hesitated about doing this one, but in the end it sounded like too much fun to pass up. You get to vote on what I'm going to read, so please come back tomorrow and vote on my options!

Are there any other fun readathons out there that I should be participating in? Let's keep Smiling Shelves and the amazing blogging community going strong! :​)

Well, summer weather has officially come to Michigan! Ninety degrees all weekend and in the eighties all this week. I have never been so grateful for my window air conditioner. Hot weather also seems like a good excuse to go to air-conditioned places - like the library. . .​

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine (A promising start to a series)
The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero by Robert M. Kaplan (About halfway through, this got a little too math-y for me - it's been a long time since I've had to think about calculus - but otherwise, it was interesting.)

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book by Wendy Welch (Oh, my goodness, I am in love with this book!)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (My first time listening to the audiobook version. I still like the print better, but I am enjoying the audiobook!)

The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell (Who doesn't love penguins?)

I love Jane Austen. I discovered Pride & Prejudice in high school, and I've read all six of her novels many, many, many times. I'm somewhat of an Austen purist in that I don't really get into all the spin-off books that are popular nowadays. I am fascinated, however, by the Janeite culture, and I recently read a few books in this area. If you love Jane Austen, then you might consider reading one of these books.

Okay, we'll get this one out of the way first because it really does fall more under the category of "spin-off novels." In a nutshell, P..D. James sets a run-of-the-mill murder mystery in the world of Pride & Prejudice. Darcy and Elizabeth have been married for several years and are on the verge of giving a ball when Lydia screeches up in a carriage, screaming that her husband is dead. It is a fairly good mystery, but I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't used the characters from Pride & Prejudice. That may just be my Austen purist-ness, but I think it would have been even better if it had made up totally new characters rather than piggybacking on Austen's.

This book begins with Austen's life and the publication of her books. It then follows those books as they waxed and waned in popularity over the ensuing centuries. Jane Austen and her novels are such an ingrained part of our culture today - but how did they become that way? That's the question that this book seeks to answer, and it does it spectacularly well. It also goes beyond the books to Austen's letters and possessions that she left to various family members, as well as the places she called home. This book is a fascinating look at how one author became a household name, even though she lived so long ago.

And now that Jane Austen is such a part of our culture, what exactly does that entail? Deborah Yaffe investigates and participates in some of the activities that today's Janeites embrace. She buys a full Regency dress (complete with corset) in order to attend the annual JASNA ball. She talks to Janeites all over the country, including some with unusual views (Darcy was autistic? Jane's novels all have a secret, seedier meaning?). Personally, I find this sort of investigative, participatory, memoir-ish writing completely fascinating, and even more so when it's about one of my favorite writers. This book was a 5-star read for me, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever wished to be part of Jane's world (or has watched the wet-shirt scene multiple times. . .​).

There was lots of craziness going on this past week, which is why I didn't get a second post up for the week. If I had had time for that, it would have been a celebration of my third blogoversary. That's right - Smiling Shelves has been my little corner of the Internet for three years now. And I still love it!

The other major thing that happened this week is that the school year ended. Not as big a deal as it normally would be, because I haven't taught since my little boy was born. But I still showed up on the last day of school to say good-bye to my students. And I got to celebrate at Applebee's with the staff. And now I have to tackle the monumental task of emptying my classroom to make way for the next teacher. Yikes.

The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter (I loved this book so much!! It has everything I love about an alternatively magical England. Must get my hands on the sequel!)
Messenger by Lois Lowry (This was a very quick audiobook - less than 4 hours. But I enjoyed seeing the first two books in the series start to overlap.)
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (It took me a month to finish this book on my phone. Apparently I don't use my phone to read very often.)
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (Telling this story as a graphic novel made it incredibly powerful.)

Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine (I've wanted to read this one since it came out last summer. Hooray for libraries!)

The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero by Robert M. Kaplan (Because I'm a nerd, and I like books like this.)

This past weekend was an adventure. My cousin's little girl was baptized on Sunday morning - in Chicago. So we packed up our little guy and headed out for the weekend - 5 hours each way. It was definitely a bit crazy, but I'm very glad we went so my family got to meet him.

Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom by Deborah Yaffe (Being a Janeite myself, I absolutely loved this book!)
The Boys in the Boat: The True Story of an American Team's Epic Journey to Win Gold at the 1936 Olympics by Daniel James Brown (The Young Readers' adaptation was really well done, in my opinion)

The Midnight Queen by Sylvia Izzo Hunter (I'm not very far into this one yet, but I'm absolutely loving it so far!)
Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President by Eli Saslow (My current audiobook. An interesting way to look at some of the issues our country is facing.)
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (Getting very close to the end now. I love this book!)

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (The June selection for the Reading Together book club. I'm trying to actually read it early in the month this time!)

A nearby town had a Hot Air Balloon Festival over Memorial Day weekend. The theme of my little guy's nursery is hot air balloons, so of course we had to go! (Although he won't remember any of it.) It was an awesome experience to watch the balloons launch right in front of us.

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander was one of my favorite series as a kid. I read it several times, but that was all long ago. I had never reread it as an adult, so I decided this year to reread one book a month. I was hoping that it would live up to the rosy glow of my childhood view. And it did!

Now I just need to enumerate all of the many reasons why you should read (or reread) it, too.

1. It's an epic fantasy, the ultimate battle between good and evil.
2. As an epic fantasy, it has the great and glorious hero (Prince Gwydion), but he really takes a back seat to the true hero of the books - Taran, Assistant Pig-Keeper.
3. If you couldn't tell from a hero like that, these books are funny. Not rolling-on-the-floor, telling-jokes funny. Just humorous in a light-hearted way. And you will definitely laugh out loud.
4. The characters grow throughout the five-book series. Taran has a lot of maturing to do from his beginning as a hapless Assistant Pig-Keeper, and he does it very believably as the series continues.
5. There are creatures of all sorts, from a fortune-telling pig to a giant cat to a hairy creature of undetermined nature (Gurgi. He's one of my favorites.).
6. Prydain is loosely modeled on Wales, and takes some of its inspiration from Welsh folklore. It's just as magical a place to escape into as Narnia or Middle-Earth.

In short, you will enjoy these books if you are a fan of:

• C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia
• J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
• Strange creatures
• Witty dialogue
• Just a plain good story