24 Hour Readathon Day

Check back tonight when A Reader's Respite will be hosting a Readathon Mini-Challenge ( for those of you still conscious and awake) at 9pm Pacific Time, 12am Eastern Time.....it's worth the wait, I promise, so hang in there, set your alarms, whatever it takes!  And check out all the other hourly stuff going on at the www.24hourreadathon.com

In the meantime, be sure to hang with us on Twitter (#readathon #dewey #masochist just kidding on that last one...sort of), take pictures and use the same hash tags on Instagram, and follow the ridiculous Readathon antics on Tumblr (Reader's Respite) where I can use vulgarity much more freely than I can here.  Links are all to your right for those too lazy to type in an actual address bar! 

See you all at 9pm Pacific!  And good luck!

TudorFest 2013!

TUDORFEST 2013

Yesterday I dropped a few hints about my reading list for the Fall Readathon. And that, my friends, is where TUDORFEST 2013, comes in. What the hell is Tudorfest, you ask?

This is the brainchild of The Literate Housewife (you knew A Reader's Respite just wasn't smart enough to come up with this on our own, right?).  Now that all the Tudor nonsense spawned, I suppose, by Philippa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl has finally (dear God, FINALLY) died down, The Literate Housewife and I decided we kinda sorta missed the dysfunctional little bastards (the Tudors, that is, not Gregory...ahem).

The Tudor horrors we've all been subjected to over the past few years have been, admittedly, a trying time for all historical fiction buffs. We've been assaulted with salacious Tudor porn on television and far too many forgettable novels to count.  We've seen alternative Tudor histories, historical Tudor mysteries, and just plain bad history.

Thankfully, nestled among the avalanche of Tudor mania, were wonderful gems that kept many of us coming back for more: Cate Blanchett's unbelievable screen portrayal of Elizabeth I, Hilary Mantel's award-winning series about Thomas Cromwell, and the recent release of Elizabeth Freemantle's impressive debut novel, Queen's Gambit.

But with historical attention now riveted on another dysfunctional royal dynasty these days, The Literate Housewife and I found ourselves a little nostalgic for Henry and his brood. Thus, TUDORFEST 2013 was born.  Audiobooks seemed like the best way to make our way down memory lane so we came up with a general list of books, authors and narrators we were pretty certain would make this an enjoyable Tudor feast.

Here's what we came up with:

This non-fiction look at the life and reign of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, was released last year and seemed like a good place to start, especially since it is narrated by our fav voice belonging to Mr. Simon Vance.

Although we have both read this second installment of Mantel's series, it's worth another go. It's a first listen for me...and yes, you guessed it, another one narrated by Simon Vance.

Okay, it's a whopper, weighing in at +31 hours, but it's narrated by Kate Reading, one of the best!  And we've agreed in advance if we're not loving it early on, we're tossing it and that's the end of Liz for us and we move on to the next victim in our Tudor line which is.....

Yes, another whopper. Margaret George is incapable of writing a short novel. Donada Peters narrates this oh-my-God 42 hour audiobook all about Elizabeth's unlucky-in-love cousin north of the border in Scotland.

So how long does TudorFest 2013 last?  With the length of these audiobooks, we can assume it will usher in 2014.  But I think it's a fabulous idea and cordially invite anyone who might feel so inclined to jump in for a book with us.

You can find us over on Twitter! #TudorFest2013

Head on over to The Literate Housewife and see what she has to say about the entire thing....oh, and wish her a happy birthday while you're there!

It's Nearly Here....

Yes, it's almost here. The fall READ-A-THON! I truly do look forward to these twice-a-year events and not just because it gives me an excuse to ignore the telephone, the kids, and all other responsibilities of daily life for a full 24 hours, but it always seems to usher in a new season of reading.

And this year I've been extra busy preparing for the hoopla. In addition to total book submersion, A Reader's Respite will be hosting a mini-challenge during the event so I fully expect you to stop on by and enter to win a pretty nifty prize (if I do say so myself, thankyouverymuch).  And if you hang out with me on Twitter or Facebook, you've probably been subjected to my CRAFT HELL saga as I attempted to crank out around 100 bookmarks to go out as prizes for other read-a-thon events.  What can I say, other than I probably am not destined to be an Etsy Queen?  Alas, it is (or so I'm told) the thought that counts.

Okay, okay, 'nuff with that enticement.  Readathon is Saturday so you still have time to signup. Throw up a blog post, join in the fun on Twitter (that's where the real fun is) using #dewey #readathon #minichallenge #rahrahreadathon, get your Instagram on (hysterical fun there, too), if you use Tumblr that is also a fun way to document your Readathon triumphs and woes without cluttering up your blog, etc and so on.  If you've never participated before, you might be surprised how much fun it really is. And you'll really be surprised how anyone gets any reading done at all given the level of social media going on. But what the hell...it's all about the love of books.

So what will I be reading this time around? This time I'm changing it all up and going for the AUDIO. You'll have to tune in later this week when I will talk about audiobooks, The Literate Housewife, and TudorFest2013.  Curious?