Over the past 48 hours (starting Friday night at 8:00 p.m. and ending tonight at 8:00 p.m.) I have:

Read for 14 hours and 12 minutes

Listened to an audiobook for 11 hours and 32 minutes

Networked (reading and commenting on other participants’ blogs) for 1 hour and 18 minutes

Blogged for 3 hours and 31 minutes

for a GRAND TOTAL of 30 hours and 33 minutes.

During some of my blogging time, I was writing reviews for the books I finished.  Here is the schedule for those reviews:

Monday, June 11 at 12:oo p.m. :  Bitter in the Mouth

Wednesday, June 13 at 12:00 p.m. : Perfect

Thursday, June 14 at 12:00 p.m. : Keep Holding On

In addition to these books, I also finished Tina’s Mouth and finished listening to The Abstinence Teacher, which brings my book total to 4 print books and 1 audiobook.  During the last hour of the challenge I started Made for You and Me by Caitlin Shetterly (thanks for the recommendation, Cam ).  I won’t count it, considering I just just started it, but I love it so far.

I pledged myself 50 cents per hour read and donated $20 to Reading is Fundamental (I rounded up).

This was a great experience and I hope I have time to participate next year!  Thanks again for everyone’s help, especially to you, Mom, for helping my system for keeping track of time spent reading go from this:

This is my original system for keeping track of hours (or minutes)…a little crazy to say the least!

to this:

A much better system! (Note: The circled time here that says total reflects the total at that time, not the final total).

Happy Reading, everyone!  I’m off to have a shower and go to sleep…maybe we should do a sleep-a-thon next weekend, who’s with me? :)

Last night, during the hours that I had set aside to catch up on blog-reading, comment-responding and chasing thought-trails through a warren-y maze of links, I hit on a comment that Rie left on my Goodnight Irene post at the end of last month. Rie was responding to my end-note about pulling a Laura Ingalls Wilder novel off the shelf for my comfort reading — with a recommendation for Wendy McClure’s The Wilder Life, a “one year memoir” that I read and enjoyed this spring.

This got me thinking about the many “one year memoirs” that I have read — either in blog form, like No Impact Man and Green as a Thistle back in 2007, or in book form, like Animal, Vegetable, Miracle; Sleeping Naked is Green (Becky, I want my signed copy back!); Cherries in Winter; Reading Lolita in Tehran; and Two Kisses for Maddy. Specifically, I got to thinking about Made For You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home, the story of a young couple who decides to fight joblessness in the 2008 recession by heading west in search of new opportunities — and finds more hardship and heartache than they had ever imagine, but ultimately more love, too.

I really loved reading this book, and got to thinking about Caitlin and her husband and their son, wondering what they were up to now. A quick search revealed Caitlin’s blog, which I promptly added to my Reader account, but more prominently placed on the results page was a post Caitlin had made on a website called SheWrites. I poked around a bit — enough to learn that the writing community for women syndicates content from all over the place written by women who are searching for community and nurturing.

And then, nearly by accident, I clicked around and followed a link to a blog titled “Women Doing Literary Things”, and a post by poet and essayist Lorri Neilsen Glenn titled Sometimes a Moment. A tremulous, happy accident.

The post begins as an exploration of what speaks to the writer; “an image, a landscape that seems true, the sound of a voice, a constellation of color and shape that invites a closer look.” It turns to contemplation about the writers whose work we love without knowing why, in particular Bronwen Wallace and her “work on the threshold … [of] a world in flux”, and then leads to a musing about other rarely read or studied foremothers of thought and craft. But it becomes — and ends — a meditation on what it means to live in a world where one’s internal comfort and what is required for external success are in conflict.

Glenn speaks in particular of the publishing world, “the barking marketplace, the thrust and parry of gatekeeper battles, the petty jostlings of egos and toxic discourse that find their way into the air we breathe.” But with a slight distancing and a bit of perspective, the world of literature falls away, and she is speaking of the gentle connection all of us seek with those like-minded who came before us, with whom we yearn for a chance opportunity that is lost in the face of so much noise from a world that doesn’t seem to understand.

I wanted to share this — though it requires so much more than 140 characters — because the path of thought and exploration to what we find intriguing is important. It’s worth noting. And it reminds me to take the time to follow a threaded question.

Enjoy.

But frequently, personal stories are just the thing to assure the reader that other, real humans exist out there in the world, and that we all struggle in our own, unique ways under united misfortunes. Caitlin Shetterly, who will be speaking at The Booksmith this evening, addresses the helplessness of economic instability but also the ways in which strong family bonds can help to remedy the anxiety. Her memoir, Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home chronicles her journey across the country, her pregnancy (surprise!) and how she finally found that the things most important in life are beyond bank slips.

The event begins at 7:30pm and is free to the public.

For more information, visit the event website

One way to engage your audience not covered by Nick is singing. I recently attended a book reading at the local Brookline Booksmith for Caitlin Shetterly who read from her book Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home. After she finished reading, she handed out photocopied lyrics to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” and asked us all to sing along. She references the song in her book, but the version we sang included a more political verse about private property that did not make it into the popular version that we all know so well from our grade-school days. To sing along with friends, neighbors, and book lovers was really phenomenal—and completely unexpected, thus memorable. How many book readings that you’ve been to have stuck in your mind? Not many, I’d guess. Want to have a memorable speech, talk, book reading? Engage with your audience.

Information from wikipedia about “This Land is Your Land.”

For the past 16 months, Danielle has been living in her car with a new baby. We’re so happy she’s recently found a place to call home!

Chelsea’s husband lost his job and their small troupe had to move in with family. Chelsea says her two-year old’s sweet words made her feel better, even when it seemed everything in her life was falling apart.

As a thank you to all of our readers for sharing their deeply personal stories, here’s a simple and satisfying recipe for Baking Powder Biscuits featured in the book.

Photo courtesy of Dinner with Julie

As Caitlin can attest, there’s nothing better than making—and enjoying—comfort foods with the people you love most.

After the birth of their son, Matthew, the recession hits full force. Dan’s freelance jobs slow to a halt. Their beloved family cat becomes ill. Dan and Caitlin do everything possible to find work. When they can no longer pay their bills, the family returns home in hopes of recovery.

At its heart, Caitlin’s book is a love story, highlighting the bonds between husband and wife, as well as the kindnesses of family, friends and even strangers. Caitlin approaches the story with a raw, refreshing honesty which made MP laugh and shed tears of recognition. It’s a book parents can appreciate, as we strive to provide the best lives for our children, no matter the circumstances.

Want to win a copy of  Made for You and Me? Tell us the times when being a parent made you smile or laugh even when the going was tough. We’ll select two winners. Contest ends Monday, April 25th. Good luck!

To learn more about Caitlin Shetterly, visit:  www.caitlinshetterly.com Can’t wait to read her memoir? Find it locally at Longfellow Books or online at Amazon.com.

Bar Harbor, Maine, the author's birthplace. Image via Wikipedia

Caitlin Shetterly, in her mid-30s, was a freelance writer and NPR contributor who decided — just before the recession bit so hard — it was a good time to realize a lifelong dream and move from her native Maine to California with her new husband, Dan, a freelance photographer.

Within weeks of moving to L.A., though, she found herself unexpectedly pregnant and so violently ill with morning sickness she could barely stand up, let alone earn a living.

Desperate and scared, she and Dan and baby Matthew finally called her Mom, living in a cabin in rural Maine, to ask for refuge. They then drove all the way back across the country and moved in with her for a few months while they got back on their feet.

“Made for You and Me” is the result, a recession memoir.

Caitlin’s story was broadcast in a series of audio diaries on NPR, prompting offers of money, jobs and a place to stay from some listeners — and opprobrium from others who felt her choices quixotic at best, misguided at worst.

Here’s an excerpt from the book.

I went into Manhattan a few weeks ago to hear her read and meet her for the first time; we agreed to blog about one another’s new books, both of which offer a personal window into this recession.

Q: Tell us a bit about your husband.

This is the first meal I ever made my husband, Dan. And it’s the perfect meal for the feast of getting to know a new person. It’s easy, light and requires no skilled labor so if you’re nervous or want to focus on what the other person is saying, this is your dinner!

• 1 bunch green leafy or black lacinato kale
  coarse salt–kosher or sea.
  pepper
  good olive oil
• 1 package polenta–I prefer the kind that comes pre-made in that sausage wrapper
  butter
  Parmesan, freshly grated.

Red wine, something easy (and not too expensive) like a nice French table wine, maybe a Bordeaux.

Take the kale and wash it, cut off about an inch of the ends and put  it layered one leaf thick over a thick bottomed casserole dish. Sprinkle GENEROUSLY with olive oil and also be loose with your hand as you sprinkle the salt. Add a little pepper and set aside. Preheat the oven to 450. When it’s hot pop the kale into the oven.

Have a glass of nice red wine.

As the kale starts to crisp along the edges, start cooking the package of polenta as per the instructions and make sure to use a fork or a potato masher to break up clumps. While chatting, continue to stir the polenta so it stays creamy. Then, when it’s got no chunks and all golden and bubbly, stir in a big hunk of butter–2-3 tablespoons.
By now the outer edges of the kale should be very crispy–in an almost potato chippy way –and the center of each piece should be very hot and soft. This means it’s ready.
Pull the kale out and grate 1/3 -1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan into the polenta.

Serve steaming puddles of polenta on simple, non-fussy plates and pile 2-3 leaves of kale per plate on top of the puddle. Serve more wine and sit down to enjoy together. I usually have some extra coarse salt and a pepper grinder on the table.
Now, forget about the food as anything more than sustenance for the ultimate journey of the evening – the gift of enjoying each other!  •

Editor’s note: Guest writer Caitlin Shetterly is the author of Made for You And Me – the subject of  yesterday’s post.  Caitlin simply rocks.