Deborah’s Comments (group member since Dec 28, 2017)

Deborah’s comments from the Around the Year in 52 Books group.

I finished up The Inheritance Games and added it for flowers on the cover.

Not positive I'll finish another today, but I'm trying to finish up one more. Definitely glad for the extra motivation this readathon has given!

I think the background pattern on the cover of Black Girl, Call Home is floral and it should be finished by tomorrow.

I started The Inheritance Games which also has flowers on the front. Not guaranteed to finish by tomorrow but I suspect it will be a quick read.

I finished Black Buck and put it into the third different stages of life prompt.

Looks like this means we are down to 5 prompts unfilled!

I finished Shadow Tag it is much more lovers to enemies and definitely not warm and fuzzy! I put it down for stage of life (they're married with children) but it would also work for characters with pets - there were dogs and cats in the family.

Black Buck is next up to finish for me - it is due back to the library on Monday so I need to get it done! :) This would work for a different stage of life (he's 22, entering the job market). Some characters talk about aging, but I am guessing they're all shy of really being 'elderly'. I likely will finish this one by this afternoon - it reads quick.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin is third up for me I think and most likely will work for enemies to lovers when I get there? It's been tagged that way 65 times on Goodreads at least.

My audio hold for Shadow Tag came in and it's short so will likely finish it soon. I'm already more than half through. The characters mention their dogs so it would work for pets. It is also about a couple a little older with kids so a different stage of life.

I am about to finish Happily Ever Afters. It has some warm and fuzzy elements so I think I can slot it in there. It's not a favorite read but the male lead regularly brings yummy baked goods to the fake lead which inspires warm feelings. 😃

I just finished How Long 'til Black Future Month? and I put it in for one person on the cover. It really was either that or Female author both of which I know we had a ton of options for. I have a hard time matching short story collections with a lot of the prompts.

I am currently reading Black Buck which I will finish Saturday evening or Sunday. The main character's mom is older though I'm not clear exactly how hold and there are other parents/neighbors on the older side who are characters so I think that could work for one of the elderly characters prompt.

I have started Black Girl, Call Home which is a poetry collection - not sure where it could fit apart from single person on the cover which I know has a lot of options but if nothing else it's pages!

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin How Long 'til Black Future Month? and Black Buck are the others that I'm likely to finish by the end of the weekend.

Traci wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I finished This Is My America and I've been trying to figure out where to plug it in. I wound up putting it down as a stage of life - this being a high schooler as t..."

It was really good! I thought it handled the social justice issues really well and it was an easy read to get hooked into!

I finished This Is My America and I've been trying to figure out where to plug it in. I wound up putting it down as a stage of life - this being a high schooler as the central character.

There are definitely friendships in the book though I wouldn't call that a huge theme and trying to get someone off death row could be kind of looking for a fresh start, but not really? There's one person on the cover but we have a lot of books flagged for that currently.

Barbara wrote: "Deborah wrote: "Barbara wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I'm in California so have NO ability to complain about temperatures compared to so many of you! It has been very windy today though, so a good excuse..."

It definitely will break the heart! We've been laughing (to keep from crying) because our classics buddy read group picked Call of the Wild, The Color of Purple and Charlotte's Web for our first three reads of the year and all are rather tough/sad reads, though in different ways! It wasn't intentional!

It was quite the work day for me too, but I have been able to take some reading breaks and get some audio book listening in along the way.

I think I'll be set up to finish This Is My America tomorrow. I'll be starting A Song of Wraiths and Ruin tomorrow.

Yum to pancakes! I made french toast to ease the pain of the new work week!

I finished Betty and put it in for one of our connected to Shakespeare reads. I flipped back to make sure I didn't misremember there being a connection and the characters are talking about Romeo and Juliet at one point!

I'm just starting This Is My America - not sure where it will fit in at this point.

I finished Surviving Savannah and I put it in for the friendship theme since I think travel is covered with Kathy Jo's Death on the Nile.

I will most likely finish up Betty on audio tomorrow and then figure out what I'm starting next!

Barbara wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I'm in California so have NO ability to complain about temperatures compared to so many of you! It has been very windy today though, so a good excuse to stay in and read.

I am work..."

Re The Color Purple - Enjoying always feels like a hard term to use when a book deals with heavy topics of abuse and such, but I did think it was a great read. I unintentionally wound up reading both The Color Purple and Betty the same week and while I think both are well written, there are a lot of similarities in the abuse against women which was poor planning on my part! Hopefully I can get in some lighter reads this week!

I finished The Color Purple and put it in for the third book that covers more than 10 years, but it can certainly work for other things as well.

I'm hoping to finish Betty and Surviving Savannah in the next day or two or so.

Betty - a character mentions Shakespeare which I think could satisfy a connection Shakespeare

Surviving Savanah - travel (not such good travel given that the ship sinks with heavy casualties, but they were traveling), would also work for friendship themes.

I plan to start A Song of Wraiths and Ruin and This Is My America in the next few days as well.

I needed something a little lighter after a couple hours listening to The Color Purple so I added Foolish Hearts. It will work for a few different things, but it looks like it will be the most help for YA RomCom or connected to Shakespeare since it's a romcom that includes students putting on a Shakespeare play.



Edit - I finished this and put it in for our second YA RomCom since nothing else was slated for that category.

I finished Emerald Green and filled it in for the second matching cover. I highlighted that line blue as well since we have two.

I'm in California so have NO ability to complain about temperatures compared to so many of you! It has been very windy today though, so a good excuse to stay in and read.

I am working on Emerald Green for our other matching cover (decent chance I'll finish that up today) and I just started The Color Purple on audio.

Spreadsheet looks great!

I thought I posted this earlier, but it seems I just typed it, but didn't actually hit 'post'.

I did finish Crimson Hearts. I wound up putting it in for heart on the cover because the other categories where it works [friendship theme, debut author, stage of life (high school), female author] have more than enough possibilities checked. It can be moved around as needed. :)



I need to make some progress on Surviving Savannah for a halfway buddy read chat on Monday and then will continue on with Emerald Green.

Oh what a pain Kathy Jo! Hope your weekend gets to be relaxing soon!

I just finished Sapphire Blue and slated it in for one of the matching cover slots since I plan to read the third book in the series this weekend too. It's a bit longer than this one was, but they're a quick read. They would work for multiple other prompts too, so if we wind up with another matched sets we can always move them around.



I finished a graphic novel that wasn't long enough to count for anything (but will for pages) and now I'm going to finish off Crimson Hearts which would work for hearts on cover, friendship theme or debut author.