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

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

#9 down. Another ancient Kindle Freebie chosen from the TBR by “random number choice” which turned out to be worth reading!



A not-very-original YA dystopia, but fairly well written and engaging. I would almost give it 4 stars but there were some things that annoyed me. I believe this could have been a truly excellent book if it had been picked up by a Big Five publisher and thereby had a real editor. Also maybe a sensitivity reader, but I’m not sure if that was a Thing yet, in 2013.

Welcome Salma!
I think I would pick France too :)

NetGalley Challenge Sept 2020

Beginning of month:
46 books
Feedback ratio 91%

Read:
Plain Bad Heroines (my review)
Raybearer (my review)
Stakes Is High: Life After the American Dream (my review)
Black Sun (my review)
Daddy: Stories (my review)
Fable (my review)
The Secret of White Stone Gate (my review)
The Trials of Koli (my review)

DNF:
The Zoo (my review)



End of month:
38 books -- not including 4 books read but still lacking reviews
Feedback ratio 92%

New 2 U Authors 2020 May-Dec 2020

Level: Devil May Care (20+ books)

Round 1:
Jayne Rylon : Kate's Crew
Kathryn Littlewood : Bliss
James Patterson : Taking the Titanic
Susan Harper : An Eye for Murder
Anita Valle : Sinful Cinderella
Sarah Kendzior : Hiding in Plain Sight
Amor Towles : You Have Arrived at Your Destination
Robin DiAngelo : White Fragility
Annabel Chase : Outcast
Devin Harnois : Mages & Mechanisms
Maria V. Snyder : Poison Study
Simone St. James : The Sun Down Motel
Bakari Sellers : My Vanishing Country
Rachel E. Carter : First Year
Sarah Perlmutter : The Blast
Sam Burns : Blackbird in the Reeds
Yvette Bostic : Magister's Bane
Douglas Adams : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Ava Richardson : The Dragon Tamer
Meredith McCardle : The Eighth Guardian

20 books
Complete!
4 Aug 2020

1 Amethyst Coin


Round 2:
Alastair Reynolds : Slow Bullets
Tom Standage : An Edible History of Humanity
A.G. Howard : Splintered
Karen Marie Moning : Darkfever
Tabitha Suzuma : Forbidden
Emily M. Danforth : Plain Bad Heroines
Jordan Ifueko : Raybearer
Mychal Denzel Smith : Stakes Is High
Rebecca Roanhorse : Black Sun
Adrienne Young : Fable
Adam Mars-Jones : Box Hill
Megan Campisi : Sin Eater
Connor Towne O'Neill : Down Along with That Devil's Bones
Natalie Zina Walschots : Hench
Bob Holmes : Flavor: The Science of Our Most Neglected Sense
Hanna Dare : Machine Metal Magic
Kate M. Colby : The Cogsmith's Daughter
Eldritch Black : The Book of Kindly Deaths
Ayize Jama-Everett : The Liminal People
Alex Bell : Frozen Charlotte

20 books
Complete!
6 Dec 2020

1 Amethyst Coin

Can I use books I've read since the start of 2020 or only books I'll be reading from now through the rest of the year?
ETA: I think I'll just count from now on, in any case, because if I count books I've read since Jan, I think I'll have already completed my level :D

Level: Devil May Care (20+ books)

Round 1:
Jayne Rylon : Kate's Crew
Kathryn Littlewood : Bliss
James Patterson : Taking the Titanic
Susan Harper : An Eye for Murder
Anita Valle : Sinful Cinderella
Sarah Kendzior : Hiding in Plain Sight
Amor Towles : You Have Arrived at Your Destination
Robin DiAngelo : White Fragility
Annabel Chase : Outcast
Devin Harnois : Mages & Mechanisms
Maria V. Snyder : Poison Study
Simone St. James : The Sun Down Motel
Bakari Sellers : My Vanishing Country
Rachel E. Carter : First Year
Sarah Perlmutter : The Blast
Sam Burns : Blackbird in the Reeds
Yvette Bostic : Magister's Bane
Douglas Adams : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Ava Richardson : The Dragon Tamer
Meredith McCardle : The Eighth Guardian

20 books
Round 1 completed, 4 Aug 2020

Round 2:
Alastair Reynolds : Slow Bullets
Tom Standage : An Edible History of Humanity
A.G. Howard : Splintered
Karen Marie Moning : Darkfever
Tabitha Suzuma : Forbidden
Emily M. Danforth : Plain Bad Heroines
Jordan Ifueko : Raybearer
Mychal Denzel Smith : Stakes Is High
Rebecca Roanhorse : Black Sun
Adrienne Young : Fable
Adam Mars-Jones : Box Hill
Megan Campisi : Sin Eater
Connor Towne O'Neill : Down Along with That Devil's Bones
Natalie Zina Walschots : Hench
Bob Holmes : Flavor: The Science of Our Most Neglected Sense
Hanna Dare : Machine Metal Magic
Kate M. Colby : The Cogsmith's Daughter
Eldritch Black : The Book of Kindly Deaths
Ayize Jama-Everett : The Liminal People
Alex Bell : Frozen Charlotte

20 books
Round 2 completed, 6 Dec 2020

Completed Team Challenges
(May need to confirm whether these all count for Onyx coins, but I don't see why not)

Team Fragarach
Cutthroat Book Club, 2018. 8 weeks.

2 Onyx Coins

Team Lock
Wheel-a-Thon III (Holiday Edition), 2018. 6 weeks.

1 Onyx Coin

Team The Color Purple
Wheel-a-Thon IV (Wheel O' Brown), 2019. 8 weeks.

2 Onyx Coins

Team Krakatoa Go Go
The Floor is Lava, 2019. 8 weeks.

2 Onyx Coins

Team Ira
Tower Teams VII (Seven Sinful Towers), 2019. 10 weeks. Co-Captain.

4 Onyx Coins

Team Don Quixote
Wheel-a-Thon V, Summer 2020. 10 weeks.

2 Onyx Coins

Team Second Breakfast
My Restaurant Rocks, 2020. 12 weeks (though I joined starting Week 5 so my personal total was 8 weeks.

2 Onyx Coins.

Team Carrot Ironfoundersson
Tower Teams VIII (Discworld), 2021. 13 weeks.

2 Onyx Coins

Team Cyndi Lauper
Wheel-a-Thon VI (Wheel of Wheels), Fall 2021. 10 weeks.

2 Onyx Coins

Team Agamemnon
Tower Teams IX (Muses), Spring-Summer 2022. 3 months.

2 Onyx Coins

Team Guards! Guards!
Wheel-a-Thon VII, Fall 2022. 5 weeks.

1 Onyx Coin

Team Qulit
Tower Teams X, Spring-Summer 2023. 3 months.

2 Onyx Coins


Upcoming or In Progress:

Team Tongariro Alpine Crossing
Wheel-a-Thon X, Fall 2025. 10 weeks.
(Worth 2 Onyx coins)

May: Wear Purple for Peace Day May-June July 2020


Gift card #1 of 3: extending challenge thru July 2020!

Level: Extraterrestrial (26+ books)
Option #5: Mix & Match

Spell out the words "Peace" and "Alien";
Read books with purple objects on the covers;
Read books about peace or books that come to a peaceful conclusion from a conflict;
Read books about aliens

✔︎ P - Nation by Terry Pratchett
✔︎ E - Tremontaine: The Complete Season Two by Ellen Kushner
✔︎ A - False Value by Ben Aaronovitch
✔︎ C - The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
✔︎ E - character Eletra, Network Effect

✔︎ A - Sinful Cinderella by Anita Valle
✔︎ L - Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood
✔︎ I - character Isabelle, Memory and Dream
✔︎ E - character Gideon Eames, Things in Jars
✔︎ N - character Neil, Kate's Crew

✔︎ P - character Pen, An Unsuitable Heir
✔︎ E - character Esmeralda, Tommy Nightmare
✔︎ A - character Ann, Rebel Angels
✔︎ C - character Colton, Firestarter
✔︎ E - character Edith, Mages & Mechanisms

✔︎ A - Trade Deadline by Avon Gale
✔︎ L - character Lurio, Perfiditas
✔︎ I - character Isaac, An Eye for Murder
✔︎ E - character Elijah, Shivaree
✔︎ N - character Nigel, Taking the Titanic

✔︎ A - character Alma, The Sun Down Motel
✔︎ L - Lucky
✔︎ I - character Irys, Poison Study
✔︎ E - character Elizabeth, The Testaments
✔︎ N - character Nina, The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed

Purple Objects on cover:
✔︎ : purple dart
✔︎ : purple mist(drug)
✔︎ : purple bottle

Peaceful end to a conflict:
✔︎ A Wizard of Earthsea

29 books
Complete!


1 Citrine Coin

I'm in. Why the purple heck not? :D

May: Wear Purple for Peace Day May-June July 2020


Gift card #1 of 3: extending challenge thru July 2020!

Level: Extraterrestrial (26+ books)
Option #5: Mix & Match

Spell out the words "Peace" and "Alien";
Read books with purple objects on the covers;
Read books about peace or books that come to a peaceful conclusion from a conflict;
Read books about aliens

✔︎ P - Nation by Terry Pratchett
✔︎ E - Tremontaine: The Complete Season Two by Ellen Kushner
✔︎ A - False Value by Ben Aaronovitch
✔︎ C - The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey
✔︎ E - character Eletra, Network Effect

✔︎ A - Sinful Cinderella by Anita Valle
✔︎ L - Bliss by Kathryn Littlewood
✔︎ I - character Isabelle, Memory and Dream
✔︎ E - character Gideon Eames, Things in Jars
✔︎ N - character Neil, Kate's Crew

✔︎ P - character Pen, An Unsuitable Heir
✔︎ E - character Esmeralda, Tommy Nightmare
✔︎ A - character Ann, Rebel Angels
✔︎ C - character Colton, Firestarter
✔︎ E - character Edith, Mages & Mechanisms

✔︎ A - Trade Deadline by Avon Gale
✔︎ L - character Lurio, Perfiditas
✔︎ I - character Isaac, An Eye for Murder
✔︎ E - character Elijah, Shivaree
✔︎ N - character Nigel, Taking the Titanic

✔︎ A - character Alma, The Sun Down Motel
✔︎ L - Lucky
✔︎ I - character Irys, Poison Study
✔︎ E - character Elizabeth, The Testaments
✔︎ N - character Nina, The Ghost in the Big Brass Bed


Purple Objects on cover:
✔︎ : purple dart
✔︎ : purple mist(drug)
✔︎ : purple bottle


Peaceful end to a conflict:
✔︎ A Wizard of Earthsea

29 books
Complete!

Finished #8!


Witch Hunt

Basically, I made a list of the Kindle Freebies I got in 2013-2014, asked my partner to choose between 1 and whatever-it-was (without telling him why), and ended up with this book.
It was pretty good! A fast-moving, entertaining Urban Fantasy. I gave it 4 stars, rounded up from 3.5 stars.

Lexi wrote: "I just took one of my oldest physical books out to the little free library as I finished it last night - I Capture the Castle. That book has moved at least three time so nice to see it..."

LOL, that was one of the candidates in my BOM takeover last month. Now I'm kind of glad that it wasn't chosen. I am still planning to read it for this challenge though!

I am also reading less due to no longer having a commute (by train), and when my daughter is home with me all the time, I can't read during workday breaks, etc.
I love my family... but I WANT TO READ! ;)

One of next month's BOMs is among my oldest TBRs, so that'll help me out, at least.

I am impressed with you people.
I am sooooo behind on this challenge.

But on the bright side, there have been even more old TBRs that I've tried and ended up deleting. I think I'm up to like 350 deleted books since the beginning of Jan! Once I start digging into the ones that I did *not* delete, I'll probably have a bunch of DNFs though.

I think I'm just afraid to read a lot of that old stuff because I'm afraid of DNFs resulting in a reading slump, just when I'm kind of emerging from a minor one...

Yay! If I can get a copy at the right time, I will join...

(It's on Scribd, but I was planning to pause my membership right around the same time that this BOM starts!)

Didn’t finish a 2nd book but made a lot of progress nonetheless. Spent about 6 hours reading, altogether. I am calling this a success!

I finished !
I haven’t started any brand new book today, but I still might, and in the meantime I have taken breaks from The Bird King to continue reading The Ghost in the Third Row, and will also read more of The Last Human and possibly The Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy!....
Hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t start yet another book today when I still have all of those to deal with, lol.

@Devann - How do you watch one thing and read something else at the same time?! I would remember nothing of either, and my head would explode. 🤯

Read for about 3 hours so far today... I think about 1 more hour for me to finish up The Bird King...

I am excited. I will hopefully able to finish The Bird King which I started last week along with some other stuff. Then I may try to cram in a shortish book just for the day..

Finished #s 6 and 7:


This was on my TBR since it was announced in 2013, despite the fact that I read and enjoyed Books #1 and 2 in the series, back to back, in June of that year and the fact that this 3rd one was released in 2014. I didn’t buy it right away, for obscure reasons, and then once I bought it, just didn’t get around to reading it.
It was a lot slower than I recall the other installments being. And apparently the author still has not released #4, so I guess I didn’t miss anything by waiting so long.



Another old paperback down thanks to reading aloud to my daughter! It was fun for both of us. I think it held the kid’s attention more than many other comparable modern fantasy stories have. (She also learned a lot of great new vocabulary words from it, which was a nice, unexpected bonus!)
We plan to read more of this series, which she calls “Kendra” — though I’m not sure I would if it was only me without my little buddy, simply because I haven’t been wanting to read as much Middle Grade stuff on my own meager alone time recently.

Jessi wrote: "I'm trying to do all BOMs this year. We shall see how that goes. Also, it was Alysa's takeover sooo I had too."

LOL!
Hey, if you do even half of the BOMs this year, pretty soon you'll be doing your own Takeover ;D