Alysa’s Comments (group member since Jun 27, 2015)

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

Melissa wrote: " I believe Alysa is reading to cover the last one"

Yup!

I went through my big pile of random "laundry room book swap" paperbacks and found this one:



Red Cover! :D

(ETA: and also Crime tag, though I guess we don't need any more of those)

Finished 2 books, updated spreadsheet!

Onward to... whatever my next book is. I need to go pick something to start tonight. Will look for a red cover but I dunno what will speak to me...

The Hollow Places does not count for Wheel bonus points. Only House of Hollow !

Not sure how I spotted that; I was not checking anyone else’s stuff but my own, but it popped out for some reason. 🤗

I just started The Secret Chapter. I am soooo far behind in this series!!! I bought this installment in paperback at a cute little bookshop during a long weekend road trip shortly after it was published, and right before COVID, so finally reading it now is reminding me of Ye Olden Times.

Won’t get any more reading done tonight, I’m afraid, but it’s for a good cause: I turned 40 yesterday and my dude is throwing me a birthday dinner. In a restaurant, in person, with friends I have mostly not seen since before COVID either!!! I am so excited!

@melissa -
Just happened to notice than the main spreadsheet has the wrong reader for “Of windmills and war”, I think the reader was swapped with “Oh William” (Ann vs Sharon) but it looks like you are still updating the William one.

Just finished The Only Good Indians!
Going to update spreadsheet now...

DQs Day 4: Three Little Indians - And Then There Was One 191 - 251 (80%)

13. What do you think about the Sweat Lodge tradition? Do you have anything similar in your culture?

I think it's pretty cool. I know the Jewish community has some sort of vaguely similar annual purification steam bath ritual thing, but one can probably tell by the way I've just described it that I know very little about that aspect of my ancestry.

14. So far the elk-woman's POV parts were my favorite and I oddly enjoyed her thoughts even though I'm finding her actions deplorable. Did you like seeing her thoughts? What do you think of her revenge spree?

I mentioned in previous DQs that I'm ambivalent about this POV. On the one hand, I think it detracts from the creepiness of the story to have her POV here: the inscrutability of the dark force terrorizing the men makes it scarier and more mysterious, and more open to interpretation. On the other hand, I'm aware that part of the point is to give voice to a female character in a way that many traditional stories don't, and I support that on principle. The revenge spree is also kind of… meh? To me, it's kind of a lazy plot device.

15. Cassidy and Gabe both made horrible mistakes and their rage fueled showdown was unexpected to me. Did you expect their final moments together to be this way?

Rage fueled showdown is a great way to describe what happened, and I was definitely not expecting it. Such pent up anger!

16. Now that all four of the 'Thanksgiving Classic' are killed, and the elk-woman doesn't seem satisfied yet, how do you expect this story to end for her?

I hope she is defeated but I doubt it, since this book's been pretty grim. I can think of a few different outcomes but can't decide whether any of them would be satisfying for me, either for the narrative itself or for my objective preferences.

Bernadette🎃 wrote: "Does "Mystery>Crime" work for the Crime category?"

If you click through to the page that shows all tags, and not just MPG, all the "Mystery>Crime" stuff will just show as "Crime" :)

DQ Day 3 : Sweat Lodge Massacre - Shirts and Skins 131 - 190 (61%)

9. What do you think about what happened to Lewis and people’s reaction to the news?

What happened to Lewis was uniquely terrible, but also terrible in the more general context of "Indians coming to a bad end" that this book is broadly concerned with. People's reactions to the news seemed closely aligned with that. But at least his old friends' reactions seemed a little more heartfelt and confused.

10. The section title is “Sweat Lodge Massacre.” Do you think the two other guys (Gabe and Cass) will live through this section? Do you think other bystanders or even Gabe’s daughter will be killed?

Between Gabe and Cass, I think one of them will die in this section, plus maybe some bystanders, but the other one will live a little longer into the final sections.

11. What do you think of this section so far as compared to the first one?

More or less the same. I am still enamored of the writing itself, but not super into the story. And I am ambivalent re the introduction of the elk woman POV.

12. Where do you think the dogs went at the end of this section? Do you think there is a relation do between the elk woman and dogs or just used for the imagery?

Imagery and metaphor.

Finished another old TBR today and realized that that makes 31 out of 30! Hit my goal, yay!

My last two were:


The first one was not good, but Dark Days Club was a lot of fun!

Finished The Dark Days Club today. That was fun!

I will definitely finish my other 2 books in time for this round.
No idea yet what I'll read for Round 3. Need to find some time tomorrow to look for some "Crime" books and some red covers :D

DQ Day 2 : Friday - Still Tuesday 68 - 129 (42%)

5. Wow. I was not expecting this section to end that way, did you? I really thought Lewis was going to be our main protagonist for the rest of the story. Were you surprised like me or were you able to predict the bloody ending?

I hadn’t anticipated any of the particulars, but I wasn’t entirely surprised. I think
I may have heard somewhere that the story structure involved the separate fates of the several POV characters involved in the elk hunt and had figured that Lewis would come to a bad end before the story moved on to the next POV, but I hadn’t predicted just how bad his end would be or that he would kill anybody else.

6. Lewis was often wondering why the “elk woman” was terrorizing him and his friends in this order. What do you think? Any predictions on which friend we’ll follow next?

Well it can only be one or the other! I have not read ahead, so it’s a coin toss.

7. Do you think the elk woman is real or just in the minds of our protagonists? If she is real: any ideas of who she might be?

I think she is in their minds but that this does not make her any less real, if that makes sense. Like, there is something supernatural going on that is affecting their minds, but it’s not necessarily a physical manifestation.

8. At one point Lewis thinks that Shaney can’t be all bad because she doesn’t fold down the pages on books. What are your feelings on dog-earing books? How do you like to keep your place when you read?

That part made me LOL. Dog-earing can be acceptable in very specific circumstances, but not in general. Instantly brought to mind was this one time over 20 years ago at university when I let a friend borrow a book for a class project we were both ostensibly working on (a really cool and unusual book that didn’t have much monetary value at the time but possibly would today) and she returned it totally marked up with notes, underlining, and big circles in blue ink. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK. She was unrepentant, like “Oh sorry haha” and didn’t understand why I was so upset. That made it even worse. For her I’ll treatment of my book, and for other reasons (AS IF I NEEDED OTHER REASONS) our friendship did not last long.

DQ Day 1 : Start - That Saturday 1 - 67 (21%)

1. Just here for the points, or was this one on your radar already? Is horror a genre you usually read, or is this an opportunity for you to go outside your comfort zone?

I had been hearing a lot about this book, and I like to read horror sometimes, but I hadn't added it to my TBR because I was really on-the-fence. The BOM just tipped me off the fence.

2. This book starts as I suspect it means to continue: Bleak, dark and with a hefty dollop of misery. Do you like it when a book starts in the middle of the action, or do you prefer a happy slice of life first before everything goes awry?

Depends on the book, but in this case I think the immediate bleakness works.

3. The elk. Were you intrigued about this straight away? Did you instinctively see this as a psychological or supernatural issue?

Eh, more psychological. I was more impressed with the writing of Ricky's miserable existence in the beginning of the book than I was with the elk when that whole bit started, though I did like how the backstory of the hunt was later filled in.

4. What do you think so far? Anything standing out that you really like or don’t like?

I like the writing. It's got the right amount of description. I like the author's willingness to uncover some dark corners of life via these characters. I'm not super into the story overall, though.

Trio wrote: "for author Jordan Castillo Price count as "C" or "P" for their last name?"

I would have thought C, but when you search in your "My Books" on Goodreads, they are alphabetized under P.

The Hollow Places isn't one of the BOMs that counts for Wheelathon though.
Only House of Hollow (I know, the similar names are confusing!)
I didn't read it as a BOM because I read it earlier this year and didn't feel like doing a reread.

Both of those books were good, I would recommend reading them anyway! But only one ill give you Wheelathon bonus points :D

I'll probably read the The Left-Handed Booksellers of London BOM. If I don't get it from the library in time, I'll reopen my Scribd membership. Looks like they have it.

I started it on the train this morning! :D

November 2021: Remember, Remember

Level 1: Damp Squib

Spell-It-Out:
T :
✔︎R : The Art Forger - CLN: Roth. Read 11/19
E :
✔︎ A : The Cousins - CFN Aubrey. Read 11/13
✔︎ S : The Secret Chapter Read 11/12
✔︎ O : The Only Good Indians Read 11/6
✔︎ N : Mutineer - CLN: Neals. 11/15


DID NOT FINISH!

I can’t not join a Guy Fawkes Day challenge, because my birthday is 5 November — and my daughter’s birthday is also 5 November! So although we’re in the U.S., there’s always a lot of “Remember, Remember” quoting going on.

I am in for Damp Squib. Or maybe I will use gift cards / gem coins to extend timeline and go up to a higher level...

Spell Out:
Spell-It-Out:
T :
✔︎R : The Art Forger - CLN: Roth. Read 11/19
E :
✔︎ A : The Cousins - CFN Aubrey. Read 11/13
✔︎ S : The Secret Chapter Read 11/12
✔︎ O : The Only Good Indians Read 11/6
✔︎ N : Mutineer - CLN: Neals. 11/15

Up early today and finished a book I did not like.
Finally done with that tedious awfulness!

I also started The Dark Days Club on audio last night, which is pretty good so far 🙂