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

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

DQ Day 3: Chapters 23 - 33

9. Hurrah! Finally the bonedust arrives! What do you think of Satchel as an addition to the characters?

He was fun but never had any real personality or characterization. I pictured it very clearly and I am trying to remember what from. It may be a computer game, but it has blue eyes, and is cute and short.

10. Mystery book sale! How are you liking the changes to the bookshop? Have you / would you buy mystery book sets like this? A fun bonus: make up your own mystery book set and post your three word descriptors for us to pick a set!

That had these all the time at Trident Books in Boston, which is a fun store if you are in the area. I have also seen books wrapped like this at Little Free Libraries. I have never taken a book from one of these as I don’t buy a lot of books and I have a long enough TBR list but could be fun. I have also heard of people doing this for a party and a book swap.

11. The necromancer is on her way! What do you think of these dreams and of the sword from the book?

I have finished and kept expecting more from this sword, but it may be in the first book, and I forgot it. I think Viv should have been more worried or more communicative with her friends.

12. A hint here that the end of the relationship is not going to be as clean as Maylee and Viv said it would be. But, what do you actually think about this plot strand - necessary, surplus, well-done, meh? discuss
I think this could have been done with friends only. I didn’t find the relationship necessary or added that much to the plot. I think the author wanted to include it but had to build up everything up around it to support it but it kind of felt unsubstantial.

Tracking
Day 1 - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 2 - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 3 - here
Day 4 questions - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

DQs Day 2 ~ Chapters 11 - 21

5. What was your impression of the Man in Gray when he first came into the Bookshop? Of what significance do you think he holds?

Likely associated with the necromancer as the plot isn’t complicated enough to need more than one Big Bad. Also, as Cat noted, needed as the romance by itself will not carry the book.

6. The Gatewardens were an interesting group. Immediately taking everyone involved in the fight to the cells! What did you think of their tactics?

Typical fantasy guard tactic of throw everyone in the cell but didn’t seem to do anything from there but I guess they needed to be lax for the plot to continue.

7. I feel a little bad for Maylee; she seems to have real feelings for Viv but I feel like Viv is going to leave in a short time. Maylee said she was good with whatever time she could get, but I have to think it will still hurt. What do you think of this? Is any amount of joy gained worth the potential risk/hurt?

I think they are both open about the short-term nature of any relationship and Viv is very clear that she plans to get back to traveling as a mercenary. If communication is clear and open, I think it is fine.

8. “The shop … will last a little longer. It’s been better lately. A bit. A few more visitors. A few more books.” “But in another way, it’s the best it’s ever been. It’s been better for me. Having you here is connecting me to why I do this. To why I used to love it. I don’t know if I can explain it, but watching you read what I give you, putting a book in your hands and seeing what happens to you once you put it back down … I can’t make you understand how that gives me something I didn’t know I had to have.”

I liked this explanation Fern gave to Viv about why she wanted her in the shop. I think that it would be great if everyone could find the thing that reminds them of why they love things. Have there been any exchanges or quotes that made you stop for a second to think about them or that made you laugh?

Not really, I smiled in a few places but not really the type of book that makes me stop and reflect.

I’m stuck on all day online meetings so I have lots of time to fidget online since my input is generally not needed.

Judith finished off another one and I got us a new Human one:

Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
100 to 175
Blood on cover
Book has a manipulative character
Gendered word in title (lady, girl, fireman etc)
Author initials in SHAKESPEARE

Karolyn wrote: "Since lists seem to be our shiny object to chase today…

I’m working on putting the 50 most banned books of 2022-23 (specific to the USA) into a spreadsheet - using the PEN America list. I want to ..."

I'd appreciate seeing it too. Thank you

My favorite book of poetry I have read so far for my world books has been The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison. I'll send you the spreadsheet link in a message, as I think it is associated with my email.

Eldarwen wrote: "Would be cool to read something from every country in the world, but definitely difficult to come by some books.

Hmm... maybe we could set something up as an individual challenge where you/we cou..."

I've set up a spreadsheet with a list of countries. It has a tab for the ones I have already read and a tab for planning. I could share with either of you if you are interested in what I have read so far.

Adding, there are not all fiction - I include poetry and memoirs as well

I have but always interested in new books.

I’ve read for Bulgaria but not Luxembourg yet

DQS - DAY 1, 3 Jan

1. Thankfully, on GR this book is simply listed as "Bookshops & Bonedust", but my kindle edition adds the subtitle "A Heartwarming Cosy Fantasy and TikTok Sensation".
Recently I noticed this increasing trend (or is it just me?) of publishing books with these types of subtitles. How do you feel about them? Necessary info or off-putting advertisement?
I also hate them, and I had a library ebook version. Thankfully, it came with no subtitles. I have only seen them on books from KU or self-published and not library versions. If I see them, I kind of assume the book is bad. I’m glad my version didn’t have it. Maybe there is a regional difference?

2. In the first 25% of the book we are getting introduced to Viv, Iridia, Fern, etc. and other characters presumably playing a major part in the plot? How do you feel about them and their characterisation?
This is alluded to by your last question, but this is very much a prequal assuming you have read the first in the series. It is built like you already care who the MC is, and the plot is charming but character depth never really happens. That is true for the first in the series as well. I think “cozy” in general is used for shallower characters in many books.

3. What about world building? Is it enough? Interesting enough or do you need more to get involved int the story? How about the premise of an abandoned/struggling bookshop?
The struggling bookshop has been done before but so has the start a coffee shop plot (book 1) The fantasy aspect is interesting, but it is very much a cozy, waste an afternoon in a fluffy book kind of book and not one to really get you thinking. I think that is ok, and I rated it accordingly.
4.
“I gotta ask, is that the same mug you’re always cleaning, or do they all get a chance?” The sea-fey’s gray brows rose. The tattoos on his forearms boiled as he scrubbed. “Didn’t think you’d notice. Old tavernkeeper’s secret. Wash one, everybody assumes the rest are clean, too.” He grinned at her.

One of my first highlights in the book. This really made me smile as it really shows the cliches how barmen/women are depicted in books/films?
Did it make you think of such a (memorable) character in any previous readings?
Not really, he doesn’t stay in the book as memorial character that much and it kind of cliché. I liked other members of the town more.

Extra Q: This book has actually been written and published after Book 1, Legends & Lattes. Have you read it? If yes, what did you think?

I was surprised this was a BOM since the first one had not been. I think it got around by being labeled a 0, but I would say it reads better if you have read the first one. Also, the epilogue is a bit of a spoiler of the first book, so if you have not read it, I would skip that part when you get there.

Lists are good for that. I am trying to read a book by an author from every country, and I have read a large number of authors I would never have read otherwise. I am about 50% through the world and starting to get to some that I can't get access to a book yet but hope some day.

Sammy wrote: "Jenny wrote: "I just looked at the 1001 books list, and why the hell is the 27th Jack Reacher book on there? I love that series, but I don't think the 27th one should be on any "best of" list. Weir..."

I looked at that list and I am just under 100. I am not really aiming for more, but there are 4 classics on this challenge for me this year.

Cat wrote: "no! that's harsh! we read A Christmas Carol for school at 11, but then only odds and sods sections for comparative purposes. We did have to read Silas Marner at 12? 13?, which put me right off Hard..."

We did Tale of Two Cities when I was 14, and I really enjoyed it. We did Tess (Hardy) in school when I was 16 and I did not come back to Hardy for over ten years. I did not like that book.

Didn't quite make it but was up to 93% if I had managed to update before the spreadsheet locked. I did decide to DNF the YA books and removed some more for next year. I added them when I was reading YA fantasy, and I just am not that interested those books any more.

I also reduced from 420 to 382 so not quite 40 fewer but close.

I am right there with my last 2 non-classics ones. One is very YA and starts in a high school and the other is a YA fantasy book that seems very basic. I have started both but less than 10%. They are from 2016/17 so it might just be time to DNF them both.

Loot by Tania James

An unforgettably rich and vivid historical novel set in eighteenth-century India, London, and Paris, about a young man’s dream of leaving a mark on the world

Abbas is just seventeen years old when he leaves his family to serve in the court of Tipu Sultan, the beleaguered ruler of Mysore. An inspired wood-carver, Abbas is apprenticed to a master toy maker in order to build a massive tiger automaton, a gift to celebrate the return of the sultan's sons from British captivity. Working alongside the legendary French clock maker Monsieur du Leze, Abbas hones his craft, learns to read French, and then meets Jehanne, the daughter of one of du Leze’s fellow expatriates. When du Leze is finally permitted to return home to Paris, he begs Abbas to accompany him. But by the time Abbas travels to Europe, the palace has been looted by British forces, and the tiger automaton disappears. To prove himself and make a livelihood in Paris—with Jehanne at his side—Abbas must retrieve the tiger from an estate in the English countryside, where it is displayed in a collection of plundered Moorish and Oriental art.

A hero’s quest, a love story, a novel that traces the bloody legacy of colonialism across two continents and fifty years, Loot is a dazzling, wildly inventive, and irresistible feat of storytelling from an Indian American writer at the height of her powers.

The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar

This rich, moving, and lyrical debut novel is to Syria what The Kite Runner was to Afghanistan; the story of two girls living eight hundred years apart—a modern-day Syrian refugee seeking safety and a medieval adventurer apprenticed to a legendary mapmaker—places today’s headlines in the sweep of history, where the pain of exile and the triumph of courage echo again and again.

It is the summer of 2011, and Nour has just lost her father to cancer. Her mother, a cartographer who creates unusual, hand-painted maps, decides to move Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria to be closer to their family. But the country Nour’s mother once knew is changing, and it isn’t long before protests and shelling threaten their quiet Homs neighborhood. When a shell destroys Nour’s house and almost takes her life, she and her family are forced to choose: stay and risk more violence or flee as refugees across seven countries of the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety. As their journey becomes more and more challenging, Nour’s idea of home becomes a dream she struggles to remember and a hope she cannot live without.

More than eight hundred years earlier, Rawiya, sixteen and a widow’s daughter, knows she must do something to help her impoverished mother. Restless and longing to see the world, she leaves home to seek her fortune. Disguising herself as a boy named Rami, she becomes an apprentice to al-Idrisi, who has been commissioned by King Roger II of Sicily to create a map of the world. In his employ, Rawiya embarks on an epic journey across the Middle East and the north of Africa where she encounters ferocious mythical beasts, epic battles, and real historical figures.

A deep immersion into the richly varied cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, The Map of Salt and Stars follows the journeys of Nour and Rawiya as they travel along identical paths across the region eight hundred years apart, braving the unknown beside their companions as they are pulled by the promise of reaching home at last.

I have 29 to read with only 2 upcoming in 2024, and none from January. I want to get some of the older books cleared and to be under 15 by the end of 2024.

May NetGalley Challenge
Beginning of month
Books on shelf: 29
Feedback ratio: 84%

2019:

2020:

2021:

2022:

2023:

2024:

Judith finished off our oldest one and I got us a another Dr. Who one:

The 456

350 to 450
Author initials (all) in TORCHWOOD
Character regrets a past action
"radio" in text
MC has a child or children

Murderbot very particularly uses no gender in the books for itself, and I hope they don't change that.