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

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

DQs Day 3 - The Australian Open (58%)

9. Gwen sends Carrie a gift the start day of the Australian Open…a Discman! The first song it plays is ‘The Bitch is Back’…I love this album. I immediately went to play me some Elton John tunes😊 Do you have a song or routine that gets you revved up…sets a tone to put you in the right state of mind? I get focused on one song some times and play it over and over and then a new one. They can be really old or new songs and the genres vary.

10. Reflections--
Carrie thinks…I inhabit the silence of this moment with my father, when we are still asking questions and do not yet have to live with the answers. What do you think she means at this moment in time with that comment?
"Te quiero mucho, pichona," he says.
I open up my eyes, "I know. I love you too."
Javier and Carrie both have many reflective moments throughout these matches… Is this a premonition of what’s to come with the open or even more in the future? I think the parental relationship is the strongest in the book and nice to focus on. Also, yes foreshadowing, this author seems to like heavy handed foreshadowing.

12. We hear from the media in various forms throughout. What are your thoughts about some of their comments so far? Do you believe any of them have affected Carrie or the game? I was thinking about this especially when Gwen indicates Elite Gold was pulling back some of their ads prior to the French Open. Gwen has a role in her job with managing all of this…what are your thoughts about the impact of media and advertising with sport? It is very much an industry that exists to make money. I listened to the audio and I really liked how interspersed the new castes were and how they added to the discussion and how these women were discussed. I think it was realistic or could have been worse.

13. Carrie’s been doing some very smart training thanks to her father. She’s been practicing in recent weeks with Bowe on clay and Bowe has challenged her, calling her a ‘quitter’. And here at the end of this segment, she’s just had a challenge from Nikki Chan. Is she going to win? Is Nikki? What do you anticipate happening in Paris? I liked Nikki quite a bit and wonder since the author connects all her books, makes me wonder if we will see more of her. I’m done at this point so not guessing but the narrative arc of the book could not have her win quite yet.

DQs Day 1 - Chan v Cortez & The First Time Around (26%)

1. The most popular releases by Taylor Jenkins Reid have been BOMs in this group before (Daisy Jones & The Six in 2019, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo in 2021, and Malibu Rising last year). Have you read any of these books (or others) by TJR too or is Carrie Soto is Back your first book by the author? What are your expectations going in?
I have read them all and I dislike them. I kept waiting for the house in Malibu Rising to burn down in the hope the book might end sooner. I keep reading them for team challenges and I still hate them. I find them shallow, and I generally dislike all the characters and the foreshadowing is annoying. I don’t like Tennis, so I have very low expectations for this book. I hope it reads quickly.

2. After the first chapter is set in 1994 and Carrie Soto decides to get back into the sport to get her record title back the next few chapters follow her early years up until she felt like she had to retire because of her knee injury (and because she felt humiliated lbr) somewhat 30 years later. Her dad always wanted her to be the greatest whereas her mother just wanted her to be kind and happy. It doesn't seem like Carrie is either at this point in her life, also not the greatest anymore. How do you feel about her as a character so far? What do you think (sort of) being forced into retirement by her own body has done to her, mentally and physically; do you think she's changed at all in the last 5 years?
It can’t be easy, and my knees started disliking me at age 30 so I get some of it. (I started running cross-country in middle school but was never very good). However, she is fairly unlikable so far and sports will always be shorter than other occupations, so a backup plan isn’t a surprise.

3. What we've learned about Carrie's childhood and teenage years has quickly started to remind me of 'King Richard' the movie about the Williams sisters' life and I'm seeing a lot of similarities between Carrie's dad Javier and the Williams' (movie) dad (as I'm sure is often the case when athletes' parents are involved in their kids' sports careers/futures).
Javier seemed to have good intentions and only ever wanted what (he at least thought) was best for his daughter, but they grew apart after going separate ways in 1979. As we know, they've found their way back together (does this sound weird seeing they're father and daughter??), but things definitely changed between them. How do you feel about Javier and about his and Carrie's relationship growing up vs now?
I haven’t seen the movie or know much about it. Parents are often involved in sports and even coaching. Children often move apart from parents as they age and have different goals. Also, still don’t care that much about anyone yet.


4. It seems like Carrie doesn't believe in love (or actually of being worthy of being loved imo). She's been having flings/ONS left and right apparently, and appearing in tabloids with random guys regularly. The one time she let herself finally believe this could be IT for the long run was with Brandon Randall (who some of us already knew from Malibu Rising) who was cheating on his then wife with her. No surprise he left her for (yet) another woman, but were you surprised Carrie took him back after he wanted to go back to his ex-wife and she rejected him? Do you think losing her mother at such a young age and only ever having her dad as a single parent in her life has influenced how she views love, relationships and generally a deeper bond with other people?
A dead mother is always a convenient explanation for bad bonding patterns. Seems lazy writing it gets used so often. I feel like that part was given no time or effort because the author assumed we had read the other book or something. I thought if the author wanted us to feel it in this book, she should have spent more time on this relationship.

Logan, Mahi, and Aoife, how are you all doing with your Wheel books?

I added two new ones:

Bloody Mary and Ahool are both back

Thank you

Brittany, are you ok if we use yours for page range instead? We are short so far this month on the 500 page range books.

Rebecca wrote: "I’ll have the last quidditch book done tonight. RL crept in this morning…"

Thank you for the update

No rush, I am mostly doing audios these days and it is an ebook.

Tricia, I have a back up X book that I just got out of the library in case you don't feel like reading The Sunbearer Trials.

All yours then. I will go find something that is long with an O then.

Rebecca, in good timing, we got Tower Teams 6: Quidditch next. In order to finish more quickly, do you have an order you are reading them in? I can grab some as well.

Also, the backroom BOM for July is Big Gay Wedding. It is not erotica if people want to join who may not like the former backroom BOMs. You still need to be over 18 to join the group for backroom books.

Link: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Two new Sets of Tasks and we can also used banked books for July (if they are under 400 pages preferably)

Tower Teams 8: Discworld Tasks
Read a book featuring a witch or wizard
Read a book with MPG Crime
Read a book with the letters MOIST in the title
Read a book featuring DEATH or the Grim Reaper or equivalent

Tower Teams 3: Find the Elf
Read 4 books with a direction word in the title (e.g up / down / east)
The words can be repeated

Note: Directional prepositions are allowed if refering to an actual place, such as The Clue in the Jewel Box. When in doubt, feel free to ask.

Great, thank you, Judith

If anyone wants to vote for the July Backroom BOM, there is a runoff between the top three that tied. The poll closes today at midnight PST (in about 10 hours).

Here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Rebecca wrote: "

Found one that'll work and it short, I should be able to get through it either tonight or tomorrow."

It has a subtitle so it does not end with Burn. I'm sorry

Edited: It might work, let's wait for Judith to have a say

Rebecca wrote: "Can it be Burned? If so I have a book, I’m finally off tomorrow and plan on reading all day"

Sadly, it must end with only BURN or BUR, such as These Witches Don't Burn

Also, since Judith and I are both reading it. If two other people read Carrie Soto Is Back, we can just make an entire ladder out of the one book apparently. (The mods said so).

I checked for my lunch break. There are not so many books that start with Ones or Bones but there seem to be lots of books that end with BURN if anyone has one they want to read

I can do Burn Our Bodies Down, which can be either first in the list or someone needs a book that ends in BURN or BUR