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

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

Yay BOMs!

I almost finished my book during lunch. Only about 20 min left probably. Argh, it is already Wednesday. And I will be busy most of Saturday with birthday stuff for my partner.

*may need to choose between reading only 1 more long book this week VS reading 2 shorter ones which would at least include Save the Date!*
*headhands*

We're not allowed to take color questions to the captains group anymore. I wish someone had raised the BOM Save the Date before the color lock-out, but I think most people were not thinking that far ahead to whether they would read it.

Also, in my case, I would never in a million years have thought this was not brown. I was basically asking the team as a formality, as I might read it for this week instead of next.

One other team (Gluttony) has someone who read it last week, but I can't see what sin they used it for because of spreadsheet lock-outs, so I just left a comment to ask them :)

Hi Team Gluttony!

Team Ira was wondering what sin you used Save the Date for?
We can see someone on your team read it on 7 Oct but can't see the details because the spreadsheet has locked the Week 1 books out of sight.

Thank you!

Jessi -- double Captain Pants day?

Are people not enlarging the image, or what? The thumbnail looks black but when you embiggen, it is hella brown.

We can't ask in Captains group, but we CAN quietly stalk other teams and see what they're using the book for.

If enough others are also seeing brown, I will put on my Captain Pants and declare it Brown. Which would mean we could all use it for Brown.

This is definitely one of those rare cases where I wish we could use The Website That Cannot Be Named, because it is in full agreement with my color assessment. ;P

@M
Can you check your edition for Kushiel's Dart?
The page count on the spreadsheet doesn't match the version you have shelved. Thanks!

But... the entire bottom part of the image is a dark brown leather couch... Plus brown hair, beige ceiling & skin and possibly one of the suits. Srsly, to me this cover is like 90% brown!

Make your screens brighter, people! ;D

Speaking of brown, the Back Room BOM also looks pretty brown to me!



Agreement?

Definitely brown

Suzanne wrote: "I finished reading tonight and added it to my tower teams shelf!"

Thanks Suzanne! You shelved the Kindle edition, is that correct?

@Jessi, it looks like this book has been tagged Dark Fantasy on Top Shelves, but only 1 time, so I took a screenshot :)

Rebecca wrote: "I can't remember for the genre can it be sci-fi-fantasy-dystopian or does it have to be straight up dystopia?"

Has to be straight up dystopia on the first page of Top Shelves.

Joanne wrote: "Blue, right?
"

It's one of those in-between colors, but I'm willing to say this one is more blue than green.
Anyone else wanna vote?

Looks like it can be used for Contemporary if we don't wanna risk color cover dispute.

Was it on Sinful Chat or here in the team thread when we were talking about speeding up Audios?
There have been a couple of exceptions, when the narration was slooooooow so I went to 1.25x or 1.5x speed, but otherwise I never do that, as I find that for me it takes away from the performative experience, and also I would probably miss a lot of stuff. But I think it's impressive when other people can listen at 1.5x or 2x speed on the regular. :D

ETA: I listen at work too, depending on what I'm doing. There are weeks when I am pretty much alone in my office all the time, and other weeks where it's like non-stop action. I am hoping for more of the former and less of the latter soon!

Oh but I am over halfway through Blood Heir, so that's something :D

You are a listening speed demon!

I am only like 1/3 thru Pillars, which I started on 7 Oct, because of my trip and because I keep getting interrupted and having meetings and shit. Right now I think I'm about to have about 2 hours of listening time though. Yay.

Ugh I just wrote out a whole thing, and then accidentally hit refresh before posting and lost it :(
Basically, I was saying that it's great when staff put out rotating recommendations, either in general or on a special theme, but otherwise I like it in bookstores when books are integrated/dumped everywhere by genre (mystery, romance, sci-fi...) with no regard to things like sexuality or race.
Teens, or anyone, can come in with personal interests and preferences -- lesbian necromancers, say ;D -- but it should still be possible to home in on books that fit those preferences, without relegating the book that has (vagely or not) lesbian necromancers to the "LGBT ghetto", ya know? Just put it in the fantasy section, point the teenager to it when they ask, and let other people stumble upon it later and expand their worldview. :D

Anyway, I am SO BEHIND on The Pillars of the Earth because RL work stuff is slowing me down dammit!

The Charioteer by Mary Renault

After enduring an injury at Dunkirk during World War II, Laurie Odell is sent to a rural veterans’ hospital in England to convalesce. There he befriends the young, bright Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly. As they find solace and companionship together in the idyllic surroundings of the hospital, their friendship blooms into a discreet, chaste romance. Then one day, Ralph Lanyon, a mentor from Laurie’s schoolboy days, suddenly reappears in Laurie’s life, and draws him into a tight-knit social circle of world-weary gay men. Laurie is forced to choose between the sweet ideals of innocence and the distinct pleasures of experience.

Originally published in the United States in 1959, The Charioteer is a bold, unapologetic portrayal of male homosexuality during World War II that stands with Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar and Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories as a monumental work in gay literature.

@M: Mea Culpa!

I was referring specifically to the ghettoizing of contemporary LGBT fiction, and it just came out wrong. I absolutely do not think you are an idiot!

Jessi wrote: "Hey Alysa will you add this edition of Les Miz from Scribd."

Actually there's the ISBN 1974917665 on Scribd, which makes this an alternate cover edition of an extant entry, so I created this one:

Les Misérables


You should be good to shelve it, but I'm still not sure whether you should use the GR Default ed for page count or if you should use an edition w/the same translator (Isabel F. Hapgood translated yours, whereas Lee Fahnestock translated the GR Default edition).
We might need to ask Caps/Mods.

Day 6: Chapters 34 to the end

22. In chapter 3 we get the first of the big reveals. Were you surprised by the actual dynamic between the twins? And were you as creeped out as I was by Ianthe's little speech about the place between life and death..."where the things are that eat us."?

I was only moderately surprised by the twins’ dynamic, because Gideon – the audience stand-in in so many ways – was already suspicious of them. And yeah, that speech was a bit creepy. I think it would have been creepier coming from Dulcinea though!

23. There have been many types of necromancy and magic and science talked about and demonstrated in this story. In sci-fi and fantasy books, I often find myself wishing that some of the science or magic was real. Are there any aspects of this world that you wish was real, or that intrigues you?

Well, it would be pretty cool if broken bones and bloody injuries could be instantly healed by bone or flesh magic, respectively! I also wouldn’t mind some skeleton servants running around washing my laundry and cooking my meals, but only if they are blank puppets like robots, not fully aware people, lol.

24. The second big reveal gave us the name of the big bad. I personally did not find clues to this littered throughout the story, so I was surprised. Did you find this reveal satisfying? Surprising? Did you enjoy the fight at the end?

It was totally out of nowhere, in part because from the very beginning I didn’t understand the whole Lyctor thing, what Lyctors are supposed to be for and why new ones were needed. I was just rolling with it. So the big bad being an older Lyctor was like, “Eh, okay, whatevs.” I did like the whole eternally-dying-of-consumption thing: Since she was dying at the time when she became immortal, she wasn’t healed, just stayed “dying” forever. That is so awesomely grim. And gross.
The fight at the end felt a little long but I enjoyed it. Except when Gideon sacrificed herself. I did not like that part at all. I had to think about it a lot before rating the book. I will explain more in Q#26 below!

25. Was anyone else waiting for a sex scene? Why use the term "lesbian necromancers" in the description? Who cares if they are heterosexual or gay if it really doesn't come into the story? Marketing? Or do you think it was an important story point that the main character liked girls?

I didn’t think there would be a full-on sex scene, but somehow get the sense that the author might not have been comfortable writing one? At least not in this book. It wouldn’t really have fit.
I’m a little annoyed by the “lesbian necromancers in space!” marketing ploy. The only word in there that’s really relevant to the substance of the book at all is Necromancers.
I liked the fact that Gideon’s attraction to girls being entirely irrelevant is was makes it relevant. Or to put it simply: we need more books where LGBTQ sexual orientations are present, but irrelevant, just like it’s always been for heterosexuality. So, this book is successful in that sense.

26. Will Gideon's and Camilla's bodies or selves be recovered? Will you read the next book to find out? Did you like the book?

I will absolutely read the next book! I liked this one, and I want to know what happens next. Harrow, the missing, the Locked Tomb. All intriguing. But I must say, I felt extremely shortchanged by the EFFING ALLEGEDLY PERMANENT SOUL DEATH OF THE EFFING PROTAGONIST, and I think there’s more to come, like Harrow finding some mysterious way to release Gideon’s soul back into her body once it is found. I mean, that just cannot be it for Gideon. Damn.