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

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

Who else is excited!? I'm going to try to start this tonight.
Stupid job keeping me from starting now lol

So... I got impatient and added an Audible Audio edition of my own book Cuckoo Song.
Not really a conflict of interest on that since there's nothing to do with page counts or covers or spellings or whatever. :)

Again today I have no reading time, though I should have plenty over the weekend! Happy Dance!

Ugh I should not have started a new audiobook this morning. I only listened to like 20 min and have had zero time since then. Boo. I’m gonna go read some more of my Shadowhunters book right now though!

Who else is looking forward to the first Discworld BOM starting? This one will be a re-read for me and I feel like I remember the first half of it pretty well but not the end. Come to think of it, that seems to be the case for several of the other Discworld books I have read for some reason. Maybe the second reads will make the endings stick!

Diane ~Firefly~ wrote: "Is anyone having books on their shelves show up as both read and to-read? For some reason some of my to read books have both shelves listed, which shouldn't be possible."

Sometimes that happens multiple editions. Dunno why. It seems like it shouldn't be possible.
I'm kinda OCD about my GR shelves not having duplicates, so I usually go in and blast them out asap!

Enjoy Eurovision, Karen! 😆


Completion Post


Details on spreadsheet

Amazing world-building. So-so characterizations and plotting.
The story world is so great though; I will probably read the next installment. I am way more excited for the sequel to Roanhorse’s Black Sun though. Now THAT was a great book!!

Thirded/fourthed? The Bird King is great.
I thought the last section brought the book down slightly, but I also recommend this book anyway.
:D

@captains — can you ask someone to add an Audible edition of Cuckoo Song ?

Here is Amazon’s listing of Audible’s version:
https://www.amazon.com/Cuckoo-Song-Fr...

Jessi wrote: "Sorry I've been silent the last few days. Busy busy weekend…"

Wow, that is a LOT. I hope today went better for you!

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur - Minos's greatest shame and Ariadne's brother - demands blood every year.

When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods - drawing their attention can cost you everything.

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne's decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover's ambition?

Ariadne gives a voice to the forgotten women of one of the most famous Greek myths, and speaks to their strength in the face of angry, petulant Gods. Beautifully written and completely immersive, this is an exceptional debut novel.

A mesmerising retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. Perfect for fans of CIRCE, A SONG OF ACHILLES, and THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS.

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

A flying demon feeding on human energies.

A secret society of so called “Legendborn” students that hunt the creatures down.

And a mysterious teenage mage who calls himself a “Merlin” and who attempts—and fails—to wipe Bree’s memory of everything she saw.

The mage’s failure unlocks Bree’s own unique magic and a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that Bree knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, she’ll do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn as one of their initiates.

She recruits Nick, a self-exiled Legendborn with his own grudge against the group, and their reluctant partnership pulls them deeper into the society’s secrets—and closer to each other. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur’s knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

Christina wrote: "I already see The House in the Cerulean Sea winning; I doubt anything else will get enough votes going against this book everyone and their grandma has been talking about the last c..."

Not necessarily. I have only read one of this author’s other books but I didn’t like it, so I would be hesitant about voting for this one. I am going to nominate something else…
*wanders off to pick something…*

Finished a 2015 TBR --



Fun story, okay writer.

Tina ❣ wrote: "I didn't know you could do that. That's pretty nifty and great if you need to double check someone's edits. Thanks for the heads up Alysa. Also is very considerate of you think think of conflict of interest with these challenges :) "

Yeah during the last TT there was a huge background drama involving page counts being updated in a hinky way (often after people had already logged the books in question). I'm sure there are GR Librarians who still update stuff for themselves and their own teammates, but it's a really bad idea, expect maybe for stuff that is immediately verifiable like Amazon ASINs. When you start getting into non-Amazon ebooks and old print editions and such, you can encounter a lot of inconsistency!


Also --
COMPLETION POST


details on spreadsheet
ETA: I used it for Bingo because I will probably read more books that fit the tasks this book matches (and obviously other people may wanna read for them too!)

Tina ❣ wrote: "Alysa wrote: "If it helps any, there is a book I plan to read in June (it was not on the spreadsheet yet) that is on the satire list — and although I’m sure it’ll work for a spell-out or an mpg tas..."

Well apparently Melanie from Team Sam Vines is spying on all the team threads, because she (as a GR super-librarian) added it 34 minutes ago. :D
Thanks Melanie!

I'm a GR librarian (regular, not super) but I don't update page counts on my or my team's books during challenges, due to potential conflict of interest. I can still see other peoples' edits though :D

If it helps any, there is a book I plan to read in June (it was not on the spreadsheet yet) that is on the satire list — and although I’m sure it’ll work for a spell-out or an mpg task, I am only reading it because it is on the satire list. I’ll go ahead and stick it on the spreadsheet.
So @Celia, feel free to put your Adams book(s) on other stuff. ☺️

ETA:
@Captains, can you get a page count added to this edition of Extraction ?

395 p according to Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08...

Stacey wrote: "
Finished. 5 stars, which is something from me for a non-fiction book.

I'm curious about scribd. When comparing I read info on how it has a smaller library and that you can't always get the title you want right away. Is this true? I use Audible..."

The Scribd library is smaller than Audible for sure. So unless you listen to a lot of Audible Originals / Audible Exclusives, the effectiveness of Scribd can largely depend on how many books (esp audiobooks) you can get from your public library, and when.

I like both Scribd and Audible, but I love public libraries more. :D

Celia Buell wrote: "Tina ❣ wrote: "Celia Buell wrote: "Tina ❣ wrote: "Celia Buell wrote: "I read . On spreadsheet for frying pan bingo.

It was okay, better than the first in the..."

That's just happening because Celia has a LOT of GR shelves. On the book page, if a friend has the book shelved on lots of different personal shelves, the list of their shelves will be truncated. So you have to go to the person's specific TT shelf to see if the book is there.
I learned this the hard way when I was captaining TT7 :D

Double Completion Post



details on spreadsheet

Tina ❣ wrote: "That... is an amazing idea! I tried to do that with Audible but apparently you can only pause it for 3 months every 12 months. It was useful though"

Audible is great but I try to be careful about how much stuff I get there that can be got from the public library instead. Some stuff is on Scribd and Audible, and then it's kind of a matter of figuring out what is most cost effective, what UI you prefer, etc.
I used to have one of the Audible memberships where you get 12 credits per year but I have soooooo many TBRs that I "purchased" and haven't listed to yet that I switched my membership to the cheaper Audible Plus kind where you have unlimited access to only a certain catalog of stuff, and that stuff mostly tends towards being exclusive to Audible.

Tina ❣ wrote: "YAY! Awesome! Do you have anything fun planned? Amusement parks? Cinemas? Brunch?"

Well today I'm taking her and a classmate through Central Park and over to see this new soy grass turf park that's been installed on the plaza in front of Lincoln Center! Looks so cool!:
https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainm...


In book news, do we think this cover might count for one of those "cover has only men (one ok) PLUS something blue" tasks?
There's a male centaur, and some butterflies that look blue to me:

Jessi wrote: "https://www.scribd.com/g/92lj6c

There's my link if anyone else would like to do the 30 day free trial of Scribd

ETA: So it's actually a 60 day free trial if you use my link and yes each friend gi..."


I'm not posting mine. Jessi needs the refs more than I do, haha.