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

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

Angie ☯ wrote: "I can't decide how I want to track my books!

My original goal was to clear 200 from my shelf. I've deleted 42 and read 39. For now, I've decreased the 200 by those deleted and listed 39 as read.

..."

Angie, that is how I do it. My goal was 40 and now is 37 since I DNF'd some.

Sonia wrote: "Cat wrote: "Sonia wrote: "Lexi wrote: "I almost suggested The Daughter of Doctor Moreau but I figured we needed a list with more than one author"

I totally forgot about that one, o..."

Sounds like a deal

Judith wrote: "Thank you Jenny. I'm a bit behind on getting some of this stuff more organized.

Work and other parts of real life have been a bit crazy"

I am there with you. I read 12 books only last month and not the 20 I signed up for UNO with.

My only comment Jenny is to make sure the prompts cover a variety of genres or don't end up too dark so the individuals who are playing alone.

Time's Undoing by Cheryl A. Head

A searing and tender novel about a young Black journalist’s search for answers in the unsolved murder of her great-grandfather in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, decades ago—inspired by the author’s own family history

Birmingham, 1929: Robert Lee Harrington, a master carpenter, has just moved to Alabama to pursue a job opportunity, bringing along his pregnant wife and young daughter. Birmingham is in its heyday, known as the “Magic City” for its booming steel industry, and while Robert and his family find much to enjoy in the city’s busy markets and vibrant nightlife, it’s also a stronghold for the Klan. And with his beautiful, light-skinned wife and snazzy car, Robert begins to worry that he might be drawing the wrong kind of attention.

2019: Meghan McKenzie, the youngest reporter at the Detroit Free Press, has grown up hearing family lore about her great-grandfather’s murder—but no one knows the full story of what really happened back then, and his body was never found. Determined to find answers to her family’s long-buried tragedy and spurred by the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement, Meghan travels to Birmingham. But as her investigation begins to uncover dark secrets that spider across both the city and time, her life may be in danger.

Inspired by true events, Time’s Undoing is both a passionate tale of one woman’s quest for the truth behind the racially motivated trauma that has haunted her family for generations and, as newfound friends and supporters in Birmingham rally around Meghan’s search, the uplifting story of a community coming together to fight for change.

I almost suggested The Daughter of Doctor Moreau but I figured we needed a list with more than one author

About a Chicano family


Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

A dazzling epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award Finalist Sabrina & Corina

"There is one every generation--a seer who keeps the stories."

Luz "Little Light" Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930's Denver on her own, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors' origins, how her family flourished and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.

Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine's singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love, filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz.

I went neither up nor down - 32 to go.

March NetGalley Challenge
Beginning of month
Books on shelf: 32
Feedback ratio: 81%

2019:

2020:

2021:

2022:

2023:

Thank you, that works for me and my library copy just arrived.

I'm next in line on my library hold so I can volunteer for DQs but only before March 3, as I fly to Senegal that day. Otherwise, I'll just participate.

I've stopped reading her as an author and just figure not a good match for me. (I've read 4 of hers and all 3s).

Lily wrote: "Is anyone else planning on continuing into Seasonal Fears? I have a little bit left before I'm done with Middlegame but am going to jump right in when I finish"

It is new charecters and seems to be mostly a romance so I will pass.

I apparently never answered my own questions so here we go.

DQs: Book IV to End of the Book

16. How do you feel about the ending? Does it feel satisfying?
I think so. Felt a bit rushed at the end there and the introduction of new charecters.

17. What do you think that Roger two most meaningful relationships outside Dodger being staged (parents, girlfriend of 7 years)?
I felt bad for him that this keep happening and think he may need therapy but unlikely to find a good option.

18. I find it interesting with books that cover a long time if the tone of the age of the characters fits for the whole book. Do you think Rodger and Dodger seem like 30 by the end of the book?
I wrote this so clearly, I don’t. They continued to read as undergrads to me (I deal with those a lot with my job).

19. If you could live in a place that is no more, where would you live?
I like that you took this all so very deeply. I just meant would you like to live in a building that no longer exits like your very own Greek villa or Library of Alexandria. I would need plumbing either way.


Days:
1- https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
2 - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
4 - this one

Kate's book covered 3 of them; impressed that you all are reading so many 800 page books. I'll go back to my novellas now.

I've added Fledgling to my TBR list and will see how that one goes. Dawn is from the 1980s, and I usually avoid that time if it is very biology heavy. Too much has changed and that time period tends to be too much of the DNA/”biology” as deterministic model more often as not.

I DNF’d Kindred. I just can’t do portal adult books. (I know not technically a portal fantasy but the sudden in a different time is the same for me as suddenly in a fantasy world. I don’t know why, but I really dislike them).

800 is never good for me. I read maybe two books all year with page numbers that high. I think another team is having the same issue and got permission to use large print books.

#4 - Parable of the Sower-****

This is my first book by Octavia E. Butler and she is an author that I've always meant to read. I read it and it was very well done but I have no desire to read the second book. Has anyone read it? It feels a bit dated, which makes sense for 1993 and a lot of sexual violence (off screen) but used as scene setting.

We cleared out another monster - Tambuakar, but the Harpies are back. Luckily, not over 800 pages.

Oh look, I'm already behind

DQs: Book IV to End of the Book

16. How do you feel about the ending? Does it feel satisfying?

17. What do you think that Roger two most meaningful relationships outside Dodger being staged (parents, girlfriend of 7 years)?

18. I find it interesting with books that cover a long time if the tone of the age of the characters fits for the whole book. Do you think Rodger and Dodger seem like 30 by the end of the book?

19. If you could live in a place that is no more, where would you live?