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

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

[[ Frankie ]] wrote: "I’m hoping I get to write DQ’s for Gideon the Ninth... that book sounds so awesome. I’m looking forward to reading it."

I was the first Ira volunteer on that one, but we can totally flip from you as back-up to you as main Ira volunteer and me (and whoever else) as back-up if you are really into the idea!

BTW right now it looks like we have the following people who had initially said that they would read BOMs.
But since plans can change, we should probably just not assume anything from anybody until it actually happens :

Gideon the Ninth: Ozana, Alysa, Kerri, Allison, Frankie

Wilder Girls: Ozana, Kerri (said maybe), Allison, Jessi, Frankie

Save the Date: Allison, Jessi, Alysa

I hope we get more. Wouldn't it be cool if we won Most BOM Points? Even if we don't get picked for DQs it's still possible to win on participation if enough people do it. :D

Jessi wrote: "Ozana wrote: "Alysa I repaired my page with The Priory of the Orange Tree so I can read it with orange cover and longer book.

Orange is Envy or Gluttony?!
Anyway since Kerry is rea..."


I think Ozana meant "Orange" as a nickname for the title of the book (i.e., "Orange Tree"). It can most easily be read for Envy (Young Adult), by genre instead of by color cover.

True for everyone on the BOMs, like Jessi said: No one needs to read any book they don't want to read. BUT the more the merrier... and the more the extra points :D

And if anyone is planning to read the same book (besides BOMs) and wants to set up an official Buddy Read, that could be fun! It's not extra points though.

I am finally joining now and I see there is already an Alyssa! Good thing I've only got one S, or this could be even more confusing ;D

DQs Day 1
Chapters 1 - 9

1) What attracted you to this BOM discussion? Have you read other books by this author? What do you think of the cover (those with the physical book, check out the eyeball on the back)? Have you ever bought a physical book because the cover was that pretty and it needed to sit on your shelves at home (please share said cover)?

I'd had it on my TBR since March, when I got rejected for an ARC, hahah! I like YA high fantasy in general, and for this one, the description had me at Great Libraries and Magical Grimoires. Sentient book are awesome(lol). The ones here are reminding me a little bit of Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books, if anyone has ever seen that movie -- the books basically scream when Prospero drowns them!
I haven't read anything else by this author, but I am liking the writing style of this book a lot.
The cover artwork is good. I don't have much of an opinion about it, beyond the notion that it doesn't match the book that well. I don't think I've even bought a physical book just because the cover was pretty, but I have probably replaced an edition with a prettier edition at some point.


2) What do you think of the world building so far? With sorcerers, warrior librarians, and grimoires that can interact, talk, hate other grimoires, or even turn into a Malefict. What fun!

Definitely fun. And more book-centric so far than some other books I've encountered which promised to be book-centric and weren't (The Binding, I'm looking at you)!


3) Have any thoughts on Elisabeth's lineage given her affinity for grimoires and her reaction to seeing magic for the first time? Why do you think The Director kept her as a baby? If it's a known fact that the Libraries don't take orphans until age 13, why do you think her family dropped Elisabeth at there and not an actual orphanage?

There's definitely something weird going on with her. Like another commenter, I also think she's secretly from a Sorcerer family or something like that. I don't know if the Director knew anything about that though, or if she was just fond of Elisabeth.

4) What are your initial thoughts on the characters of Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas? Like? Hate? Too early to call?

I like them all so far! Elisabeth is naive but seems pretty quick on the uptake. Nathaniel seems like he was dropped in from a Sarah Rees Brennan or Cassandra Clark book, in a good way, what with all the sarcastic fake-arrogance masking his hidden depths and inner pain. Silas is awesome, and so obviously a demon from the moment he's introduced! An awesome demon!

5) After Elisbeth gets to the city, it's clear the library is very sheltered, closed off, and honestly closed minded to the rest of the country. Did you find this odd? Why do you think they are so shut off from the rest of society?

It's odd. No odder than, say, an old-timey convent school or something like that. But I agree with the other comments that libraries should be places of enlightenment and that this ideal doesn't track with what we're seeing here. And that Elisabeth may be more extremely sheltered and biased due to her unusual upbringing. Not sure what to make of any of this yet!
Also, the city is reading more like a Victorian Age than the Medievalesque vibe I was getting in the earliest chapters, so that is an interesting and no doubt intentional contrast. It helps show how cut-off the library is, or at least Elisabeth's library branch.


6) When Nathaniel went to drop off Elisabeth, I think it is clear there was a trap set up to kill her. Do you think people want her dead so she'll take the fall for the incident? Did Elisabeth surprise you during the fight with the fiends?

Not sure why anyone wants her dead. I was thinking it could have something to do with whatever her secret heritage may be. The "taking the fall" theory is as good as any, I suppose, although painting her as a liar is probably just as effective a fall-taking ploy as killing her off. I enjoyed seeing her fight!

1.5x to me is soooo different. The most I have done, and again it is rare, is 1.25x

Anyway, I am off to read a little more of Sorcery of Thorns before sleep. Goodnight Team Ira! 😴

I almost never speed up audiobooks. There have been only a couple of exceptions where I thought the narrator was too slow or (more likely) the amount of dead air left in between sentences was way too much, but in general I find speeding up detracts from the listening experience. It's just not as enjoyable to me. Plus one probably misses more than one thinks, when listening too fast.

I tend to switch back and forth between formats for some books, in any case (Print/Audio or Ebook/Audio). This helps me get through stuff faster on those days that I have to walk a lot or am able to listen at work. The switching is usually fine unless the narrator is a total mismatch for the characters' voices in my head!
I shelve whatever version of the print or ebook I’m reading.

Nice! I will get everything on the spreadsheet ASAP.
I assume we have until the end of the countdown (whenever that is) to fix any lingering edition confusion too.

And we can start our Zone 3 books, yaaaaay!!

Lots of short books planned, to finish out the last week of Lava challenge. Except I will also read Sorcery of Thorns which is long.

There was a long book that I started a while ago and haven’t finished because of Lava, too. Hopefully I will have time to finish it. Otherwise I will have to chip away at it during TT, just to the extent that it doesn’t effect my TT reading :)

I am looking forward to starting Sorcery of Thorns after our last countdown book is done.
Fun Fact: The HC that I got via Inter-Library Loan is stamped “Property of US Army” and comes from a military base. Good to know our soldiers can sometimes kick back with some nice YA Fantasy! 😄

Alysa wrote: "@Megan and Erin:
Are your respective edition links of Zorba and Part-Time Indian correct?
I am trying to get ahead of the game a little bit so I don't have to bother you later :)"

@Megan, just realized this is still an open question. For Zorba, the print link is on the spreadsheet(s) but you have it shelved as ebook...

You can always do this!

Meanwhile, I will still finish my book today but a couple hours later than I thought. I got picked as a “class delegate” at my daughter’s school and had to attend a long training meeting all morning. I will finish during lunch. 😑

Yay! Megan you are our hero!

Does anyone have a short book for the Farm/Ranch task?
I do not. Everything I was considering is either not available at, or is checked out from, the library :(

Ozana wrote: "I just red 10-20 pages and leave to time when I can dedicate myself to such a long book. I check on my phone and it is Seidel to-read. Hope that is ok."

That's probably fine in terms of not "started" yet...
But you seem to have 3 different editions on your shelves (including one added today when you checked, I think?) and one of them is marked as Read on 26-30 April 2019.
If it's a mistake you should probably remove it, but if you are re-reading, there is a 6 month minimum between re-reads so you could read it again but you would have to wait until November. Does that make sense?

Not yet! Hopefully not too soon, lol.

Shanna_redwind wrote: "Would half Gypsy count as non-Caucasian?
Burn"

To me, no.

There is a lot of variation among Romani people, and who am I to categorize people by race anyway.

But I think you should wait for a few more opinions.

Ozana wrote: "You are so right! I started but than stopped it because of the challenge."

You're talking about Priory of the Orange Tree, right?
I hope you only sampled it and didn't START start, or else you won't be able to use it since we can only start on 7 October...

Edited to Add (ETA): is that also a re-read for you? Because it's on your shelves from April too.

Ozana wrote: "I rested from crazy weekend work and I think I catch up all the threads.
I have Wilder Girls book and I can read it for BOM" but before W.G. there ..."

Hi Ozana!
Wow, it's good that you are doing better after your illness!

For the 2 BOMS, that would be great. We definitely need more people to participate in those.

I was just thinking, you can also read books in any language you want, so maybe we'll get lucky and you'll find some good things in Croatian. If there is no Goodreads edition for a Croatian version of some book, let me know. I am a GR librarian and I can add stuff -- I probably just need an ISBN.

Jessi wrote: "Ozana wrote: "The Priory of the Orange Tree The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon . Is it a yellow cover?"

No, unfortunately, it's more orange than yellow."

But it works for Young Adult (Envy) so Ozana can still read it for that :D