Lexi’s Comments (group member since Jul 27, 2016)

Lexi’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Sammy wrote: "If it comes to it, I can swap too, and then you can do the final set with no serious time pressure?"

I will take you up on that Sammy. I will find a copy by then.

Judith wrote: "Lexi, if you run into procurement issues I can swap if you need the extra days. Just give a shout!

I picked it up the last time Tiny Tyrant asked to go to the bookstore"

I might need that. I'm 2nd in line with 24 copies so fingers crossed. I should have thought of this earlier but I got back from a conference to a document that was due the same day to meetings start at 7:30 am today.

I should likely go get the book considering this starts soon but good for day 1.

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

A rich, magical new book on belonging and identity, love and trauma, nature and renewal, from the Booker shortlisted author of 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World.

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish. Decades later, Kostas returns. He is a botanist looking for native species, but really, he’s searching for lost love.

Years later a Ficus carica grows in the back garden of a house in London where Ada Kazantzakis lives. This tree is her only connection to an island she has never visited -- her only connection to her family’s troubled history and her complex identity as she seeks to untangle years of secrets to find her place in the world.

A moving, beautifully written and delicately constructed story of love, division, transcendence, history and eco-consciousness, The Island of Missing Trees is Elif Shafak’s best work yet.

I won, yay. New one is:


We Solve Murders by Richard Osman

A brand new series. An iconic new detective duo. And a puzzling new murder to solve...

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.

Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job...

Then a dead body, a bag of money, and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a lethal enemy?

Done reading for 2024 as well.

I started the year with 376 books on my TBR and ended the year with 325. I read 206 new to me books this year (and various other re-reads).

I have only 4 left from before 2020, and they are priorities for next year. I did not get to my goal because of these four but still progress.

New Wheel World Villains has been added

Link here - https://wheeldecide.com/?c1=Anders%20...

Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine

Wylodine comes from a world of paranoia and poverty--her family grows marijuana illegally, and life has always been a battle. Now she's been left behind to tend the crop alone. Then spring doesn't return for the second year in a row, bringing unprecedented, extreme winter.

With grow lights stashed in her truck and a pouch of precious seeds, she begins a journey, determined to start over away from Appalachian Ohio. But the icy roads and strangers hidden in the hills are treacherous. After a harrowing encounter with a violent cult, Wil and her small group of exiles become a target for the cult's volatile leader. Because she has the most valuable skill in the climate chaos: she can make things grow.

Urgent and poignant, Road Out of Winter is a glimpse of an all-too-possible near future, with a chosen family forged in the face of dystopian collapse. With the gripping suspense of The Road and the lyricism of Station Eleven, Stine's vision is of a changing world where an unexpected hero searches for where hope might take root.

I'm back with my nominate until it wins book:

Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.

Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world's first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party--or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, and the Fair Folk.

So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily's research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.

But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones--the most elusive of all faeries--lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she'll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all--her own heart.

Still have not managed to read it:

The Brothers Karamazov: A New Translation by Michael R. Katz by Fyodor Dostoevsky
910 pages

Dostoevsky’s final, greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov, paints a complex and richly detailed portrait of a family tormented by its extraordinarily cruel patriarch, Fyodor Pavlovich, whose callous decisions slowly decimate the lives of his sons—the eponymous brothers Karamazov—and lead to his violent murder. In the aftermath of the killing, the brothers contend with dilemmas of honor, faith, and reason as the community closes in on the murderer in their midst. Acclaimed translator Michael R. Katz renders this masterpiece’s nuanced and evocative storytelling in a vibrant, signature prose style that captures all the power of Dostoevsky’s original—the clever humor, the rich emotion, the passion and the turmoil—and that will captivate and unsettle a new generation of readers.

This translation has no audio yet but others run for 37 to 43 hours.

Got a new Discworld Monster:

Findee Swing
350-450
a character works in law enforcement
Author initials found in RIOT
a unit of measurement in the title
character has a silly name (your opinion)

My upped my goal as well during the year and won't make it for 2024 but a very happy with what I have done and I have almost 60 fewer books on my TBR list than I started the year with.

I am down to only 4 books from before 2020: The Brothers Karamazov (2016), The Gutter Prayer, Aurora Rising, The Slixes (2019)

I think next year's goal will start at 30 books. I will include the 4 from 2016 and 2019 that I did not read in 2024. I have 34 from 2020, so I will aim for 26 of those as well. As of Jan 1, there are 325 books on my TBR list.
Total 7/28

2016 (0/1)
1. The Brothers Karamazov

2019 (1/2)
1. The Gutter Prayer - DNF
2. Aurora Rising - 3 - 3/15
3. The Slixes

2020 (6/25)

2021: 36 on TBR
2022: 59
2023: 64
2024: 128

Michelle's Empty Nest wrote: "I'm so sorry that my reading really fell off this last round! Too much other stuff going on.

I won't get another one finished.

Thanks for all of your hard work, Captains!"

Michelle, can you check if your last two books are on your Wheel shelf? I cannot see them but GR seems to be struggling a bit today.

I am done for the round as well.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore - Day 5 - Part VII

18. How did you feel or think about TJ locking up her father. Was it really to keep him safe or more for revenge/punishment reasons?

I think she cared deeply for himself and was worried how the family might react if with his illness he started saying things that shed light on Bear’s death.


19. What do you think of the Characters and who was your favourite / Least and why?
Judyta and TJ were the tolerable ones. I wasn’t that fond of the others and found the teenagers written a little shallowly.

20. There seemed to be many topics covered in the book with the main one being abuse. What did you take away or feel about any of the issues highlighted?

I think it is important to discuss but not sure this book added anything to the conversation. It was more of a standard mystery/thriller with a past and current timeline. I didn’t find it especially novel or deep but I hope it might have provided help or information to others.

21. How did you like the book and will you read another book by Liz Moore? Would you consider this a book you would re-read and would your rating change?

Nope, I wasn’t that impressed, but it seems to be very popular so glad others like it. A lot of books like to write about rich, abusive, miserable rich people and this is another one. I have no general desire to read these. I guess this is not a new trend considering Gatsby and all that. (I didn’t like that one either).

Day 4 - Dec 5th - Part VI

14. How do you think the police are handling the disappearance of Barbara and how this compares to how Bear’s disappearance was handled?
It is the 70s but the current one isn’t too bad even if the police in charge seems to be more focused on keeping the family happy and avoiding the past case.

15. What do you think about what is implied about TJ and her relationship with Barbara? How does this relate to the themes of the book so far?
The book had already shown earlier with Louise that TJ was honorable but it did want you to question it and showed the other relationships that were toxic and abusive.

16. Do you have a favorite point of view or conversely, any point of views so far that you don’t think are necessary for the book?
I thought Alice was unnecessary and the police office (name began with a J) provide the most narrative progress along with Tracy. I think the book could have been those two.

17. What do you think of the survival trips and the squirrel hunting? Do you think this is a good idea with 8- to 14-year-olds? Any experiences from your childhood/schooling as comparison that you want to share?
I went camping as a kid and we had an overnight camping trip with my school but with lots of adult supervision. I think there is a line that is important for self-reliance and then there is neglect/endangerement.

Day 1- Part I

1.) Have you read any Liz Moore books before? Or, did you buy it to find out what the big drip of pink paint on the cover means?

Nope and not generally interested in this author. I am purely here because Judith’ s library wait list was too long. 60 points was worth it while 20 points I likely would have skipped. Flash back, rich people books are really not my thing.

2.) Have you ever gone to (or been a counselor at) a summer camp or the like as a kid? Did you like it? Is the setting of this book descriptive (or nostalgic) enough to bring you into the story?

I had overnight school trips but never a camp. I went to a day camp for a week here or there, but they usually cost too much and I spent most of summer outside anyways.

3.) So far we have been introduced to just a few characters; a couple of campers, a couple of counselors, a couple of useless parents, and a boogey man. What do you think of them so far?

Awful, or abusive, or being abused. I was not looking forward to this book at this point.

4.) How did you react to Louise not being very truthful about the night Barbara disappeared? How will it come back to haunt her (if it does)?

If everyone communicated well the first time, we would not have a book or a much shorter, more straightforward book.

5.) If you have not read ahead, do you have any wild guesses about what happened to Barbara? If you have read ahead, how do you like the way the story is unfolding?

I was going with run away at this point of the book. I don’t like all the points of view and wish it was a bit more focused.

Day 4 - Dec 5th - Parts VI

14. How do you think the police are handling the disappearance of Barbara and how this compares to how Bear’s disappearance was handled?

15. What do you think about what is implied about TJ and her relationship with Barbara? How does this relate to the themes of the book so far?

16. Do you have a favorite point of view or conversely, any point of views so far that you don’t think are necessary for the book?

17. What do you think of the survival trips and the squirrel hunting? Do you think this is a good idea with 8- to 14-year-olds? Any experiences from your childhood/schooling as comparison that you want to share?

I also have 4 left but know one is going to have to wait for another year but hopefully can get at least two others.