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

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

Well, that was an eventful Thanksgiving. The oven broke (thankfully post turkey) and then my 2-year-old niece dumped shampoo on the cat's head. At which point, I was holding a foaming at the mouth cat while my mum tried to help me wash him in the sink. Not a happy cat.

On the pie front, I prefer sweet potato pie to pumpkin pie. I think it has more flavor and texture. I do not like pumpkin pie personally very much.
Here is the recipe for the one I made: https://theviewfromgreatisland.com/cr.... You can make it with other berries if you don't have cranberries. I bake more than cook but can do both.

Happy Thanksgiving to the US folks. I made a gingersnap cranberry pie yesterday. Do people have favorite pies (Thanksgiving or otherwise)?

Good job everyone on Round 3 and you may now finish books for Round 4. We are in a very solid third place and tied for most BOM participation points so great job.

I think we are good to go for this round. However, if anyone finishes or have finished a book over 270 pages, please add it to the SS, and I will switch a shorter book out. Otherwise, please don't finish any books for the next just under 5 hours.

Cat wrote: "@Lexi re female authors: he's mentioned Susan Cooper but no others, to my recollection - Diana Wynne-Jones, le Guin would be two obvious ones he could have included. And I agree about the race - be..."

I think E. Nesbit was also mentioned but yes, lots missing. On accents, I went to college in Alabama and my classmates did the same. Accents were consciously turned off by those who had strong accents until they called home.

Jenny, I like the Abhorsen books better, but I found this fun too but no, subtle is never Nix's style.

Jenn wrote: "I can finish my last book on the spreadsheet tonight if it is needed. Otherwise I can hold off and finish it tomorrow so it counts towards the next round."

That would be great. Thank you, I'll move it to next round on the SS.

That is great, Lisa. I have one more to go as well and it is an X and then on to next week.

SandyL wrote: "I finished the book I had on the spreadsheet and added a few more - not sure where you are on substituting books for higher page counts - it you can use them, great and if not, no problem."

Great, can you please put all 5 of them on your wheel shelf? Thank you

DQ4: Chapters Thirteen - Sixteen

14. Each of the chapters has been headed with a poem or snippet of a poem, in varying styles. Do you scour these for meaning, and if so, what meaning have you wrung from them? Do you like them - as poems or as elements of the book structure? And critically: who is going to take on the challenge of writing one for review of the book? (Jenny's position as NBRC poet laureate is under strong challenge after Kaley's backroom haiku)

I liked them and they vaguely give a heads up for the chpaters but mostly I thought they set tone.

15. Okay... theories on Reg Holly and what is up with him?!
I have finished but again I go with my comment that Nix tends not to be subtle with his bad guys.

16. The Fenris wolf and the well-spirit - what do you think of these additions to the Old World creatures we've met? Do you think Susan did the right thing by removing the sword?
I liked both creatures and how they were both fair and harsh. They were more ambiguous that the earlier corpseborn and goblins. I think Susan did right by her own morals and her bloodline.

17. We have another gender-swap in pop culture, with the characters from The Professionals being switched to female from male. Together with the political figures that have been gender-switched, and a comment earlier about how Britain took early steps to achieve equality, this is clearly an important part of Nix's world. Does the subtly of this work for you? Is there a deeper point to it than simply wanting gender equality? Why hasn't he gender-swapped any authors?
This is a really interesting question. I noted the gender swapped characters and had not connected it to the authors. Nix may feel that he included enough female authors as is but from the sentence included in DQ3, I don’t think there is a single female author. Maybe, Nix is more attached to the books and didn’t want to mess with something he cared about. It does somewhat make it feel surface only for the worldbuilding. I also wish race played more of a part in this book.

DQs - Day 3 - Chapter Nine - Twelve

10. We are about half way through the book now and I've been looking at the cover and trying to see how it fits with the story. The cover feels dark to me and so far I don't really feel that in the story. Do you feel like the cover fits the story?

I read the ebook so I am not even sure what the cover looks like mind a vague sense of what color it is. This story never seemed that high of stakes even with the zombies. I did just go look at it and there are clear scenes later in the book that match the different items.

11. So the old fashioned booksellers in charge might feel the need to remove Susan if they find out her father is one of the Ancients. It seems like Merrihew and Thurston are not greatly respected in the Booksellers realm. How do you feel about them? Do you think they might be involved in what is happening to Susan?

I think they had incompetent/evil flashed over their heads from day one, but Garth Nix is not usually sneaky with his antagonists. Also, I have finished the book.

12. We keep getting all these references to books, musical groups, and other pop culture from the 80's. Take for example this quote: "The ground floor facing the street was all floor-to-ceiling high windows, with a wonderful display of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose complete with a cardboard castle to the left of the central revolving door, and a selection of new release thrillers an mysteries built up in a series of pyramids in the window to the right, including John Le Carre's The Little Drummer Girl, Jeffery Archer's First Among Equals, and Ken Follett's On Wings of Eagles." That sentence is long and the following one is not much shorter. How do you feel about all of these references?

They get a bit long. We get that bookstores have books but also fun, as I have read some but not all.

13. In the last section Vivian gives Susan a steel knife and salt and tells her how to bind something to herself. Do you think she will have to bind something? Any idea who or what she will bind?

I thought she would have to use it since Vivian seems generally competent and it finds with the worldbuilding. As for guesses, I have finished the book.

Maddy wrote: "Do we have a countdown yet?"

Not yet but round is over 9 PM UK time on Sat again

Maddy wrote: "Wait, we got cut down?"

For next round, yes, we need fewer tags but still 10 for this round

Also, update, "Books with that tag (at least 5, not including those of your team members) used in your spell out can earn your team bonus points."

You only need 5 tags this time and not 10.

Karen, thank you, I just started Abhorsen today.

Tina wrote: "

I crossed another one off my list, which brings me that much closer to the goal. I thought the Paper Magician was pretty okay, it reminded me a lot of Howl'..."

I read that book. It had a very confused view of human anatomy that I could not get past.

Maddy wrote: "Okay.

Also, yellow text. Is it enough if title is in let's say white, but author name is yellow? Or only titles yellow counts?"

Author is fine too. Mostly just try for whatever has a lot of yellow letters and no multicolored letters count.

I's are great. We only need 5 yellow texts and I think we already have 5 on the SS but a few extra never hurt. Also, since gold is yellow, I don't think we are going to have a hard time as compared to other colors.

We will take any book that you have read on the SS and will switch out the smaller page numbers.

DQ's - Day 2 - CHAPTER 5 to CHAPTER 8

6. Merlin and Susan get pulled into the May Fair. "The happiness is unsettling, all the smiling and laughing". Was there a part of the fair that stuck out to you? And would YOU have noticed the colorless rose?
I’ve very good at noticing movement so I might have it the flower seller was walking. I was kind of hoping for something more fun but what stuck out to me was the way they reacted to being pushed. It really set the fakeness of it all.

7. Susan seems to have some sort of powers of command, which we see with the wolf at the end of the fair, and hear more about at the end of Chapter 8. What are your guesses about her heritage? Do you have any new guesses about her father?
I have finished the book but I did not guess whom her dad was. I was leaning towards a character of legend more so.

8. My favorite part of these chapters was reading about the New Bookstore and its contents. If you could spend time in there, what would you want to check out?
Classic children’s fantasy sounds great fun (albeit with an occasional side of cringingly causal racism)

9. The grandmothers were interesting. Any thoughts about them? If I were one of the grandmothers, I'd totally be hanging out with my mastiff. What would you have keeping you company?
I want a Irish wolf hound. They sadly don’t live that long and can have major health issues but a ghost one would be great. Otherwise, I think my cats would follow just because they are already hard to say no to and assume they rule the world. I liked the grandmothers a lot and how each had their own dog. They were fun.

It is ok if it just the title.