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

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

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride

From James McBride, author of the bestselling Oprah's Book Club pick Deacon King Kong and the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird, a novel about small-town secrets and the people who keep them

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe's theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

As these characters' stories overlap and deepen, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive. When the truth is finally revealed about what happened on Chicken Hill and the part the town's white establishment played in it, McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community--heaven and earth--that sustain us.

Bringing his masterly storytelling skills and his deep faith in humanity to The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride has written a novel as compassionate as Deacon King Kong and as inventive as The Good Lord Bird.

Sisters of the Lost Nation by Nick Medina

A young Native girl's hunt for answers about the women mysteriously disappearing from her tribe's reservation lead her to delve into the myths and stories of her people, all while being haunted herself, in this atmospheric and stunningly poignant debut.

Anna Horn is always looking over her shoulder. For the bullies who torment her, for the entitled visitors at the reservation's casino...and for the nameless, disembodied entity that stalks her every step--an ancient tribal myth come-to-life, one that's intent on devouring her whole.

With strange and sinister happenings occurring around the casino, Anna starts to suspect that not all the horrors on the reservation are old. As girls begin to go missing and the tribe scrambles to find answers, Anna struggles with her place on the rez, desperately searching for the key she's sure lies in the legends of her tribe's past.

When Anna's own little sister also disappears, she'll do anything to bring Grace home. But the demons plaguing the reservation--both ancient and new--are strong, and sometimes, it's the stories that never get told that are the most important.

Part gripping thriller and part mythological horror, author Nick Medina spins an incisive and timely novel of life as an outcast, the cost of forgetting tradition, and the courage it takes to become who you were always meant to be.

Well, we got another really long one:

Randall Flagg (The Stand)
800+
Virus, bacteria or fungi important to the plot
Black bird on the cover
Disappointed in the ending of the book (your interpretation)
Good v Evil imagery

And he is joined by The Governor from the Walking Dead.

tagged zombies (10 times minimum)
Character is a local official (mayor, governor, city council etc).
MC has a daughter
One eye (only one) on cover

Great job, everyone. As teams have 24 hours to verify sheets, we will know our ranking tomorrow. As of right now, we have the most BOM points and that really shows how involved everyone was on this team (plus some good luck with the randomizer).

Probably my fault on the typo, but that brings up an idea I had. Can I make of overly specific wheel of literary monsters? No page count will be over 450 for people who like shorter books, but it is a risk for the overly specific tasks.

Thank you, there are about 5 hours left in the challenge and then we have 24 hours to finalize the spreadsheet.

For anyone who has books read but not on the spreadsheet, can you please add them as soon as possible.

It has been shelved 11 times (link: https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...)

Perfect. Thank you

Brittany, can you add The Summer That Made Us to your TT shelf please?

I got us one more spin but I don't assume we wil finish it unless people want to read short ones this evening:

TT9 Monsters: The Luggage
Read a book with at least four legs on cover
Read a book that features someone following a character
Read a book tagged Travel (at least 10 times)
Read a book with the word "luggage" or "baggage" in text

Judith is correct.

The books in both cases (Wheel and Teams spell-it-out) are 10 points plus bonus. The bonus is 5 points per wheel and 20 books per spell it out. The wheel points are for a set of 4 books and the 20 points are thus worth more as long as the word is less than 16 letters and worth less if more than 16 letters.

Judith had a spear one above. I just haven’t made it to a computer to add it today. Thank you all

We have banked books for War and Goat and I will read a Italy book. Can people check for spear in text?

New monster: Chimera

Read a book that takes place in Asia Minor (Italy, Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Libya, Israel and Lebanon)
Read a book with the word "spear" in text
Read a book with MPG War
Read a book that features a lion, goat, or snake

Thank you so much, I'll add it

When Rebecca's horse book is done, I will get us another spin.

Otherwise, last non-monster task:

Tower Teams 4: 25 Days of Tower Teams
Read 4 books related to winter seasonal holidays (e.g. with a Thanksgiving Feast on the cover, or set during Diwali)

Rebecca, can you add Hitched on Halloween to your TT shelf, thank you?

Great. Thank you

Jamie wrote: "I had just posted The Last Echo witch can be likely used for justice (stopping a serial killer) so victims can be at peace finally."

Perfect, thank you