Melanie’s Comments (group member since Sep 01, 2014)

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

Cait - When I was checking everyone's profiles to see what they've thought of the books they've read so far (because I can always use more books to add to my to-read list), I saw you finished Down Among the Sticks and Bones this week but didn't include it for the challenge. It would work for W for the series name. Just wanted to point it out in case you missed it/thought it didn't fit any of the letters.

I will be reading A Duke Changes Everything (works for A, L, N & T) today and then my plan tomorrow is to squeeze in short ones before the deadline. I'll pick up And Then It Was You (works for A & L) first and then depending on if I like it and have time, I'll also pick up Dance for You (only works for L) and Waiting for You (works for W & L).

I might actually re-read the Hunger Games books this weekend as they all work for the letter E and they all have Adventure as a page 1 genre.

Plus I recently got these really pretty 10th anniversary editions and they're all 400+ pages meaning they're worth 40 points each.



Ok, so I think that will be my plan for this weekend and then I'll have the rest of the week to work through the other books I had on my TBR (namely Spider's Bite and The Nowhere Man).

Judith wrote: "Our word for week 3 is up!

We have Beige, which has the genre bonus of adventure.

Hopefully everyone can find a lot of E’s!"

I added two books to the spreadsheet for next week that both have E's, Spider's Bite and The Nowhere Man. I'll be on the lookout for others. If anything I can continue on with the Elemental Assassin books if I like the first one in the series.

I'm having some difficulty finding adventure genre books that will fit the spell out. Lots of adventure books on my shelves, but not many that work for the letters in beige.

Judith wrote: "Melanie, I hope you enjoyed your conference. What was it about?..."

It was a lot of fun, it was my first time going. The conference was the American Library Association annual conference.

http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/i...

They have a lot of interesting sessions plus there's an exhibit floor where publishers have booths and you can pick up advance copies and finished copies for free. I ended up coming home with almost 75 books, so I would consider it well worth it for the cost of the conference and the hotel.

Sorry I haven't checked in for a few days. I got back from my conference late last night and today was spent catching up on everything after being gone for 3 days.

Unfortunately I didn't get any reading done while I was gone, but I should still get my 3 books done by the deadline.

Ok, I finished up my book and updated the spreadsheet.

Ok so because From Here to You took me so much longer than I thought it would, I will only be finishing one more book by the deadline.

I'm going to finish On Borrowed Time for this week and A Duke Changes Everything will go towards next week.

Wow so I'm hating From Here to You which means I'm reading it slower than I would have liked. I thought I would finish it tonight and only got a third of the way through. I should still be able to finish the three books I listed by the deadline but this one is definitely slowing things down.

Oh I wanted to mention that from Saturday morning until Monday night, I will be out of town for a conference in DC. I'll still be reading, but I won't be able to update the spreadsheet until Monday night when I'm back home. Thankfully the conference doesn't overlap with weekly deadline on a Friday.

I'm planning on finishing three more by the deadline, From Here to You, A Duke Changes Everything, and On Borrowed Time. I've just added the last two to the sheet since they weren't there yet.

One of those is tagged New Adult (From Here to You). If we need more books with the New Adult tag, I can always swap out one of the other two I have planned. but I wasn't sure if anyone else was reading stuff tagged New Adult so I just picked from my library books I need to return soon.

Judith wrote: "Melanie wrote: "Yeah it's disappointing as the letters are very limited and I was hoping for one of the words with a genre more in line with my reading tastes.

But who knows what chaos the chipmun..."

Yeah at this point I'm waiting for another team to choose to do a respin to see what happens. I'm just so curious.

Yeah it's disappointing as the letters are very limited and I was hoping for one of the words with a genre more in line with my reading tastes.

But who knows what chaos the chipmunks would come up with if we asked for a respin. I have a feeling it wouldn't be as simple as just getting a new word.

So I just saw the week 2 words have been revealed and we got Walnut again.

Judith wrote: "I'm not sure I have ever seen a look of such perplexed bewilderment on my husband's face when he asked what I was reading and I had to tell him the book was called Motherfucking Sharks. LOL"

What kind of prompt would something like that even be used for? I missed the craziness of Tower Teams but I've definitely heard of the weird books people read because of it.

Ok finally picking up my first book now. I ended up unexpectedly taking a nap when I sat down to watch an episode of Numbers before starting to read and fell asleep instead.

I'll be starting with Protecting What's His which has New Adult on the top shelves.

A bit about me.

I live in New Jersey with my husband and our two cats (one of which is my profile photo). I work in finance so spreadsheets are my life's blood.

This is my second time playing wheel, the first time was during the last round, the holiday edition.

My favorite genres to read are romance (historical, contemporary, suspense), mystery/thrillers, and urban fantasy. With few exceptions I don't really read much epic fantasy or really any type of fantasy that's not based in our world. I have a decently sized collection of books and a great library system, so I can usually find something to fit most prompts.

My reading during team challenges definitely picks up. I signed up at 3 books per week which is my normal reading speed just in case life gets in the way, but I should be higher than that most weeks.

Most of my reading will be done at nights and on weekends as my 9 to 5 job doesn't allow for much reading other than some possible audiobook listening. The bulk of my books will be in the 300-400 page range but I should be able to fit some longer ones in occasionally depending on the spin.

I have no idea what I'm going to be picking up first, but I know I'll be starting the book after I'm home from work tomorrow night. I do have a few books on my shelves that are tagged as New Adult so I should be able to contribute towards the genre bonus points.

Sunshine, it sounds like you may be trying to access the Team spreadsheet instead of the Tracking sheet? Which spreadsheet are you clicking on? The one in message 2 or message 6?

Hi team! Checking in, I'm very excited for the challenge to start. My reading is always better during team challenges which is something I need as I've been in a bit of a slump recently.

- Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

The year is 2380, and the graduating cadets of Aurora Academy are being assigned their first missions. Star pupil Tyler Jones is ready to recruit the squad of his dreams, but his own boneheaded heroism sees him stuck with the dregs nobody else in the Academy would touch…

A cocky diplomat with a black belt in sarcasm
A sociopath scientist with a fondness for shooting her bunkmates
A smart-ass techwiz with the galaxy’s biggest chip on his shoulder
An alien warrior with anger management issues
A tomboy pilot who’s totally not into him, in case you were wondering

And Ty’s squad isn’t even his biggest problem—that’d be Aurora Jie-Lin O’Malley, the girl he’s just rescued from interdimensional space. Trapped in cryo-sleep for two centuries, Auri is a girl out of time and out of her depth. But she could be the catalyst that starts a war millions of years in the making, and Tyler’s squad of losers, discipline-cases and misfits might just be the last hope for the entire galaxy.

They're not the heroes we deserve. They're just the ones we could find. Nobody panic.