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

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

@Lexi, LOL, you were reading The Russian Cage and I was reading A Longer Fall and they are so close to each other on the spreadsheet that for a second I thought I'd messed up and put the wrong Gunnie Rose book on there somehow. :D

How was Book #3 compared to the previous installments? I need to read my NetGalley copy...

Finished Hogfather
12/2/2020
416 pages

Many interesting things...

"Klatchian coffee" p202
"find the coffee" p274
"last till the coffee" p274
"genuine ground coffee" p275
coffee p344
tea p21, 30, 48, 151, 213
"a daily bowl of rice and yak-butter tea" p175
lemon p170
"thicknesses of honey" p247
"a nice lot of honey" p247
"fish that made their own light" p42
"Krullian pipefish" p259
"a type of fish" p259
"suspicious of fish" p259
"orange fish" p269
"skeletal fish" p269
"mollusks and crustaceans" p180
"meat, fish, fowl, eggs and many types of vegetable dishes" p161
turnips p56, 57, 59, 88
potatoes p50, 104, 223, 264, 349
garlic p212, 273
onions p273
corn p256
beans p129, 227, 243
"a mess of beans cooking" p222
"eat beans" p222
"eating beans" p222
"a bowl of beans" p223
"a bit o' my beans" p223
gravy p349
pate de foie gras p384
salmon mousse p349
shrimp p384
curry 182
"half a bloody coconut, a lump of bacon rind, a handful of peanuts" p61
nuts p70, 84, 120
walnuts p76
pickled walnuts p205
bacon p218, 226
meat
chicken p151, 256
turkey p120, 151, 222
turkey leg p348
widgeon p223
swan's liver p223
salt pork p226
chitterlings p226
black pudding p226
pig knuckles p227
pork dripping p227, 241
"herb and butter dipping sauce" p180
butter p273
cheese p120, 203, 218
"the bread rose" p208
"after the bread rising" p208
bread p240, 241

local p107, 198, 208
quality p87, 231

Round 5 Completion Post


Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
Read: 12/2/2020
Pages: 416
How it fits: MPG Holiday > Christmas; "Hogfather" wearing a Santa hat on cover
Nouns chosen: fairy (precis), night (precis), stocking (precis), wizards (tagged 32 times), adventure (tagged 76 times)

Spreadsheet updated

ETA:
Adjective called: profound
Final noun pick: adventure

Went back and found a couple more words in A Longer Fall
(comment #546) -- including vinegar! I knew I had seen it in there somewhere! :D

I foolishly picked a Terry Pratchett book to finish up the Apples to Apples challenge. I say foolishly because although I love Pratchett, it can be hard to read his books quickly, and I need to be done by tomorrow afternoon. Lucky thing I had a lot of time on Sunday. Got a good amount of the book in then!

Camilla wrote: "Page count corrected."

Great!
Thanks, Camilla!

Anyone else a GR librarian on this thread?
I try not to update books while I'm reading them for challenges -- especially page counts!

I'm reading this edition of Hogfather, which is showing on GR as 236 pages but it's actually 416 according to many sources, including the publisher's site:
https://www.harpercollins.com/product...

I'll go post there...

Is anyone else here a GR librarian?
I try not to update books while I'm reading them for challenges -- especially page counts!

I'm reading this edition of Hogfather, which is showing on GR as 236 pages but it's actually 416 according to many sites, including the publisher's site:
https://www.harpercollins.com/product...

Finished The Smile of a Ghost
11/29/2020
516 pages

coffee p239, 270, 371, 443, 444, 445, 496, 526
tea p34, 47, 53, 55, 80, 88, 131, 133, 142, 158, 160, 166

"a cup of tea and a bourbon biscuit" p80
"a big chocolate flake" p40
"Cadbury's chocolate flakes" p271
"bars of Green and Black's Maya Gold chocolate" p350
chocolate p128
"hot chocolate" p329, 403, 405, 526, 532
marzipan p271
birthday cake p358
"a great turreted cake" p544

sugar p47, 55
bitter lemon p270
marmalade p225
wine p12, 102, 133, 197, 198, 341, 412, 416, 419, 420
white wine p265, 371
red wine p371, 414
brandy p241, 243, 249, 251, 254
beer p85, 130, 275, 391
lager p113, 375
"clutching long cans of lager" p360
"lager slurping out" 360
"glass of cider" p344, 434, 435
"cloudy homemade cider" p442
"can of Coke" p498

curry p371, 375
chips p38, 42, 459, 460
bacon p448
cheese p305, 379

local p19, 48, 61, 101, 102, 106, 113, 144, 145, 153, 166, 167
quality p241, 416, 435, 502

Finished A Longer Fall
11/28/2020
304 pages

coffee p69, 108, 111, 112, 195
"we need some coffee" p68
"like some more coffee" p68
snap beans p93, 124, 128
speckled butter beans p124
"I finished my butter beans" p128
"as butter beans ought to be" p128
squash p124
mashed potatoes p93
vegetables p61, 124
salt p128
catfish p124
chicken p61, 93, 99, 124, 128
bacon p66, 128, 195
butter p93, 124
gravy p93, 124
bread p64, 203
corn bread p124, 127
pepper p82
vinegar p82

local p61, 82
neighborhood p150

Wow, thanks! And I actually almost changed my final noun choice!
Glad I didn’t. ☺️

Finished 5 more since the last time I checked in here:



Glad to get them all off the list! Might squeeze in a few more before 2020 is over, but it’s not a priority.
All told, I also deleted probably something like 350 old TBR’s as well! Next year the “5 years old” goal will stand: anything that’s been on there since 2016 or earlier. I suspect there will be many more books deleted as well as happily read.

Round #4
Adjective called: delicious
Final noun pick: revenge

Spreadsheet updated

Finished Chaos Vector
11/25/2020
544 pages

"steaming coffee" 20%
"side of her coffee cup" 20%
"the swirl of her coffee" 20%
"can that thing make coffee" 24%
"your coffee machine" 24%
"stained with coffee" 29%
"at least coffee" 29%
coffee : 49%, 53%, 56%
"milk simulate" 31%
chocolate bars 5%
"the chocolate melted" 5%
"a delicious, almond-and-cocoa flavored concoction" 5%
"wiped chocolate from the corner" 5%
candy : 5%, 8%
"a steaming cup of tea" 8%
tea : 27%, 57%, 58%, 86%, 89%
"hot tea" 31%
"strong black tea" 31%
"spill his tea" 31%
"a perfect cup of tea" 49%
"an extra cube of sugar into Ilan's tea" 49%
"Biran added sugar" 49%
Sugar : 14%, 31%, 90%
Honey 39%
"a great noodle place" 2%
"excellent noodle shop" 8%
"best damned noodle place" 8%
"three noodle bowls" 8%
"empty noodle bowl" 9%
"the noodle place" 10%
"a bowl of noodles" 19%
root vegetables 13%
vegetables 50%
green onion 9%
Fruit : 20%, 50%
Apple : 30%, 69%
"Whiskey, by the scent" 58%
"how much whiskey she tossed back" 58%
"whiskey, smooth as silk" 58%
cocktail 31%
bread 13%
fish : 16%

Quality : 57%, 63%, 77%, 79%
Local : 3%, 6%
Neighborhood: 10%, 49%, 59%
Neighborhoods 8%
"all the celestial bodies in the neighborhood" 24%
"it had nothing in this neighborhood" 24%

Yeah, there was no way that Lucy wouldn’t win with that sultry elephant! 😂

Finished The Liminal People
11/23/2020
224 pages

coffee 21%, 22%, 27%, 36%
19% "comes from fish-and-chips"
19% "his parents owned a fish-and-chip shop"
19% "got to be like Fish'n'Chips"
20% "the fish'n'chips boy"
40% "Fish'n'Chips"
46% "Fish'n'Chips"
74% "Fish'n'Chips"
84% "Fish'n'Chips"
lemon 59%
mincemeat 68%
curry 19%, 38%, 47%, 59%

local 9%, 17%, 30%, 43%
neighborhood 16%, 19%, 39%, 51%

Again didn't track everything, so lemme know if a few more items would be helpful for variety.

Round 4 Completion Post


The Liminal People by Ayize Jama-Everett
Read: 11/23/2020
Pages: 224
How it fits: two P's in people
Nouns chosen: wrath (precis), girl (precis), nature (precis), crime (tagged 4 times), revenge (tagged 2 times)

Spreadsheet updated

ETA:
Round #4
Adjective called: delicious
Final noun pick: revenge

Gah, keep forgetting to do “local” etc. in the same completion post!

Queen of the Unwanted:

p318 quality

Unfortunately that’s it, unless we can somehow use “locally grown herbs” (p23)

Finished Queen of the Unwanted
11/22/2020
592 pages

I didn't track everything and there's no coffee and nothing for fish & chips. But @Lexi let me know if you need water for the tea(s), more wine or brandy or cordial, or any potential curry ingredients instead of stuff I've listed.

p19 wine
p28 "dainty -- and quite delicious -- seed cakes"
p29 "hesitant to touch the cakes"
p29 "boldly taken a cake"
p29 "the danger those seed cakes represented"
p86 brandy, sweetmeats
p87 brandy, wine, whiskey, ale
p114 "those damned seed cakes"
p114 "the seed cakes her council members ate"
p124 "a hot cup of tea"
p125 tea
p225 "sweet cherry cordial"
p257 "an afternoon tea"
p259 tea
p349 tea
p350 "a soothing cup of tea"
p354 apple, bread, cheese
p356 "crunched into her apple"
p356 "as she chewed her apple"
p359 wine, "hot tea that I dropped. In a very... inconvenient location"
p373 "a strong, smoky whiskey"
p373 "watered-down wine"
p375 tea, "a cup of mint tea"
p447 "an especially strong cup of tea"

When you first said tick papers, I started picturing ticker tape. Which is... not the same thing at all.