Kelly (Maybedog)’s Comments (group member since May 10, 2024)

Kelly (Maybedog)’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

Excellent. I'm not generally into the BOTM so it's really great when other players on our team are. Great points.

Excellent questions (not that there are any bad ones--all questions are good)!

1. I'm going to let the other mods answer this one since it can vary per game and group.
2. Books cannot be banked for Mini 1, novels around the world.
3. Either. It must be set for 50% or more in the selected country, or the author was born there, or the country is the primary subject matter of the nonfiction book.

Hi all, sorry for the quiet over here. I had some family issues to clear up but things are okay right now so I'm back.

I've got my harness on, my ropes checked, my carabiners and pitons handy and even a helmet in case I fall which is very probable. My backpack full of books is on my back. I'm all set for our ascent! How about you?

I went through the list for the mini 1 itinerary and I came up with 10 level medium books and 8 level hard books I can use. Most of them aren't that many pages, though, like 200-250. But some have a lot more. I haven't gone through the easy ones yet.

Welcome everyone! I'm very excited to get to know all of you! I'm very accessible as a person and on here. Message me any time about anything. I'm happy to help with anything.

I'm a Goodreads librarian so if you see a problem with a book, let me know.

Does anyone else here read M/M? I have links for that genre but I won't but them here if no one is interested.

Hi everyone! Judy's in Madrid and Christina will be gone a couple of days, but she'll be here most of the time and we'll all be back in time to start I think. I'll be here all along and will try to answer any questions you have.

You can call me Kelly and my pronouns are she/her. I live in the Pacific Northwest, specifically in Seattle. I love dogs, books, sewing and my friends and family, in particular my granddaughter. I take care of her once every 4 to 6 weeks for around 4 to 5 days. I'll still check in every day, just probably only once or twice. I'll let you know well in advance when I'll be less accessible. (The next time will be the week of June 15th.)

The last place I traveled to was Spokane, WA, but the last international was Canada which is only a couple of hours away and before that was India. I recommend southern Africa, though. My dream trip is to the Galapagos. My next big trip with probably be to Melbourne to visit my sister. I just renewed my passport, yay!

My favorite book is The Jesus Incident by Frank Herbert. I mostly read M/M Romance right now and my favorite M/M book is Zero at the Bone.

I would love to hear your favorites and any you recommend, particularly ones that take place outside of the main English-speaking countries.

Here is my Tower shelf.

.

.

I actually added Murder with Peacocks by Donna Andrews just a couple of days ago! Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop is totally up my alley and it's on audio, so I put that on my list at the library. I'm not that into food mysteries but something about another culture is really cool so I added Death by Dumplings, too.

And Melindam, I have a graduate degree in religion and culture so that book is TOTALLY for me. Thank you!

Joyce, Stranger in a Strange Land was my gateway book into adult SF when I was 12. I wrote a really long review of it talking about it.

I grok both of you Jenny!

Gosh, my TBR just for M/M was at 1379 books I think. I got it down to two hundred something. But it doesn't go down because most of what I read are series and when I'm done with one I often then add the next one. :)

My actual TBR is 2540, but that really isn't as bad as it sounds considering it's all genres including nonfiction, how-to, crafts, children's books, reference, etc. I'm really not reading much other than cozy mysteries and M/M right now, (no idea why the cozy mystery thing...) I should still go through it and clean my TBR up.

Well this might be a bit far for you but I and a ton of women love M/M romance. Most in the genre have sex but not all of them. I tried to choose books that had little to no sex. I just love seeing men be emotional and romantic and yet still be men, and without the gender dynamics of regular romance which is usually sexist even the ones that aren't supposed to be.

Anyway, these are all M/M romance books that I gave 5 stars to, just in different sub-genres. If I had to choose just one it would be (my fave M/M book) but I don't know if you like thrillers. Probably the best "gateway" book is the most mainstream one here, which they made a mainstream movie out of. Probably the most literary is . The author, T.J. Klune, has become fairly mainstream because he's so talented. His books get better and better and he wins more and more awards.

Thriller
(my fave M/M book) (my second fave M/M book)

Urban Fantasy


High Fantasy


Contemporary
(mainstream, they made a mainstream movie.)

Military


Historical


Horror


Western
(New Zealand)

Sports


Steampunk


Humor (contemporary)


Mystery


Adventure


Science Fiction


Not sure what genre, literature?
(the author is pretty mainstream)

Nonfiction/memoirs
BDSM & menage memoir (I think it's fake nonfiction personally) not my usual cuppa but this one was very good

(gay memoir, not M/M)
(I was honored to have dinner with him and a small group of people when he came to a book signing. He's pretty famous> Kind of an Oscar Wilde character and absolutely hilarious.

Yeah, there are some cheeses that don't cause me as much grief. Cheddar in small amounts is okay but I had a grilled cheese sandwich the other day where the person making it for me put a so much cheese on it that the grease actually turned me off cheese for a while even before it did me in. I use so little parmesan when I have it that I don't worry about it, either. But it's the soft cheeses I like best. Baked brie is amazing.

My 8 year old granddaughter won't eat vegetables but loves tofu. Today I asked her what her favorite food was and she said tofu. I think it's because we'd been talking about it and she couldn't think of anything else but it's cool I think. She likes it both fried and steamed.

I'd eat that way if someone cooked for me. :)

Wow, that's a long time. I've been vegetarian off and on during my whole adult life, starting when I left for college. The longest period was ten years. I've never been vegan though. Just my family. (My dad is vegetarian now, too. My sister used to be vegan. My mom was at the beginning of her relationship with my stepdad because she was trying to look like they had more in common.)

There usually aren't that many flavors of imitation ice cream. There's a vegan ice cream parlor in Seattle that has a lot of flavors but I was sitting down while my friends got the ice cream so I don't know what they had. But it was $7 for a scoop that was about half the size of a Baskin & Robbins scoop. So basically $14
a scoop. It was good but not worth that much.

Yes. The burger is really good if it's "dressed". (I prefer pants over a skirt.) I eat it like any other burger with ketchup, bun, pickles, etc., and it's really good but I don't think it tastes like beef.

My mom can't eat dairy because it gives her migraines and my step-dad has been vegan his whole life so their house always has fake dairy products. Some of it is really good like some brands of ice cream (I like Ben & Jerry's). But I just don't like the cheese. It's getting better--it melts okay now-- but I still am not fond of it. My mom's favorite cheese is hard to get so we have to pick some up when we're in Spokane, a 5 hour drive from us. :)

Mine is really bad. I've tried lactase and it doesn't do much. I need Gas-X, too, and Tylenol and ... :) I actually haven't tried lactase with cheese. I should. Cheese isn't as bad as milk or ice cream probably because of the aging. I miss ice cream.

I got to see an Edam shop in Amsterdam once. It was mostly underground!

OMG, my dream come true!