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

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

Alysa wrote: "I haven’t started reading A Drop of Corruption yet but I had put it on a Ladder ..."

On the hardcover edition of A Drop of Corruption, the title (and a lot of the artwork) is a kind of silvery grey.
It looks kind of white on Goodreads and IDK about the ebook/kindle editions, but on the hardcover it's definitely silvery grey.

Will that be okay for C46 Grey text on cover?
If it's not sure, I will keep looking for other stuff, or in the worst case just leave it on the ladder task.

ETA: I moved it to C23 - purple in text
But if captains think it works for Grey text on cover, feel free to move it again.

Melindam wrote: "I haven't been able to read any chunksters for this wheel, sadly.

I'm not sure I'll be able to, but will see."

Well the Nov themed BOM is a bit of a chunkster. I got the hardcover and it’s a big one!

Funny story about this book, actually (which was my nomination), because I will never get to tell it anywhere else:

A long time ago, in the late-1990s/early-2000s (when I was about 17 to 21), I was online friends with the author, Mariana Enriquez. We met in a small but very active listserv, for fans of the movie Velvet Goldmine, and some of us then split off into a separate mutual-interest group called Glitterati. Members became pretty close, and often had private one-on-one emails going as well. Many of us met in real life and I am still friends with some of them to this day.
But since Mariana lived in Argentina and most of us were in the U.S., we never met in person. I remember wanting to read some of her early published work but it was only available in Spanish.
We lost touch somewhere along the line; it’s been over 20 years. In 2020 when her name started popping up for me in English-language literary reviews, I recognized it immediately. I tried sending a congratulatory email to her old Hotmail address but of course that bounced. I would love to talk to her again someday but I am very happy for her success in any case.

(@ Mari , in the extremely unlikely event that you ever happen to read this: Love from the A.G.! )

Melindam wrote: "Alysa,

Three Axes to Fall with a U character is crying out for promotion, it's too good to miss. :))"

Yeah go for it! I thought about moving it yesterday too but it was already “hidden” and I was afraid of messing with that 😆

Thanks Karen!
I am almost done with a book that I just moved from “V” to “U” which hopefully helps!
I haven’t started reading A Drop of Corruption yet but I had put it on a Ladder task. If it ends up fitting an unclaimed Mini 2 task I will move it. It’s not unlikely to have some color words in the text.
I requested both hardcover and ebook formats from the library and so far only the hardcover has arrived, so I can’t do a quick word search. But I have hope. And also eyes. 👀😁

Melindam wrote: "I read the book first, the movie I watched much later, but apart from some basic concept, the movie haven't much resembled the book.

The book was layered and some parts really dark that may have ..."

Aha, I hadn't seen this comment. I think my notifications are being a bit weird again.
Interesting to hear from someone who read the book first before seeing the movie, as this seems kind of unusual!

ClaireB wrote: "I started the The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, which fits for the Middle Grade genre. Any one read that one before?"

I read that several years ago. It was very interesting to realize that the 1980s movie, which I grew up watching over and over, was basically only the first half of the book. Apparently Michael Ende absolutely hated the movie and thought that ending where it did undermined the message of the book.
I love the movie for nostalgic reasons but I can definitely understand where Ende was coming from. Curious to hear what you think when you're done!

Karen ⊰✿ wrote: "I’ve been reading such little books that I’ve now started a chunkster which works for grimdark . It is probably one of the harder ones but I’ll keep an eye out for any other minis as I read"

Oh cool. Yesterday I was opening some browser tabs for books that'll work for Grimdark, but I wouldn't be able to get to them until Round 4 at the earliest. So, whoever gets to that task first at least we know someone will do it eventually (doesn't have to be one of just us 2 people either, obviously). :)

Ooooh that sounds so wonderful, even if it is *not even the end of October* yet!!!! LOL

Happy late-birthday @ Elisabeth, if I didn't say!
It's definitely a big birthday season.
My partner's was on the 19th, and mine -- and my daughter's: yes we share the same birthday! -- is coming up on 5 Nov.

I was, blessedly, able to read quite a lot over the weekend. I read the first few chapters of that "buttery pierogi" Dragon book, but mostly I focused on my giant 720 page library paperback doorstopper, Three Axes to Fall, because I don't want to carry it around on weekdays. I managed to read a little over 2/3 of it!

Yay my nomination won!
Obviously I am writing DQs for Mount Doom Team Tongariro Alpine Crossing
😁

Sweet! I would just eat them whenever, but I guess that's because my diet is like Xmas everyday 🥳😁

Yay! Thanks captain and co-captains!


So I have started A Language of Dragons and the characters are having wine and "bowls of buttery pierogi"

That sounds like a good festive Xmas food to me! But if others don't agree I will just put the wine for Drinks.

Rebecca wrote: "Catching a flight to Venezuela tonight (figuratively)!"

LoL, for a split second I was like "Wow, what a coincidence!" 😂

I finished my last book for Round 1.
I noticed that we still have more than one incomplete spell-out. IDK if anyone is still reading for T but my newly-finished book has a T character name (noted in options) so it can be moved if needed, freeing the J space for one of the books in the other spell out :)

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India’s independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India’s 1,000 other “midnight’s children,” all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.

This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people–a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Twenty-five years after its publication, Midnight’ s Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.

MPG Classics :)

What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

2014: A great poem is read aloud and never heard again. For generations, people speculate about its message, but no copy has yet been found.

2119: The lowlands of the UK have been submerged by rising seas. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost.

Tom Metcalfe, an academic at the University of the South Downs, part of Britain’s remaining island archipelagos, pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the lost poem, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a crime that destroy his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.

What We Can Know is a masterpiece, a fictional tour de force that reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe, and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.

LOL.
I moved one of them (assuming we're going with Xmas), but another is staying put because of the BOM Square mini task.

The third, A Drop of Corruption, which we're assuming is the non-theme BOM for November based on it winning the poll... well, I won't know if it fits any holiday tasks until I get my Library Hold in a week or two!

I picked some mini tasks for planned Round 2 books that I haven't started yet but now I might need to move them to Mini-3 holiday tasks, lol.
Decision fatigue is real.
At least we know our next word though! :)

Melindam wrote: "🎃🎄 Mini 3 - Holidays..."


Ooooh! IDK what others would like to do but my vote is for Christmas. I'm not actually Christian but I do love me some Xmas holiday cheer. :D

Melindam wrote: "🏔️ Tomorrow or the day after, I think we'll be given the new country-word for the next round."

Oh great, I was wondering about that!

And I, like Julia, am also loving the LotR-themed salutations :D

I will finish my 2 remaining books for Round 1.
One of them is almost done and I should finish tonight (or possibly on my commute tomorrow morning), and the other I should be finishing on Friday night.

The latter, Stolen Songbird, I've had sitting on one of my devices since 2014 so I'm really happy I've finally gotten 'round to reading it.