Keli’s Comments (group member since Jun 23, 2016)

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

NARCISSUS - "...narcissi and gave them to Ursula Monkton..." The Ocean at the End of the Lane
NASTURTIUM - "...and nasturtiums wit leaves the size of small pizzas trailed over a stone bench." The Devil's Right Hand
OLEANDER - "...with its background of rich foliage of oleander..." Dracula
ORANGE BLOSSOM - "She steps in toward me and the scent of orange blossoms fills the air." Loc 2446 Alex: A Cold Fury Hockey Novel
ORCHID- "Each table was bedecked with lavish orcid centerpieces..." Cinder
PANSY - "I could be happy with Pansy, in some part of my head..." The Ocean at the End of the Lane
PASQUE FLOWER - "...and buried her on her old dower lands in a field pf pasque flowers." Entreat Me
PASSIONFLOWER - "It was an exotic bloom he'd seen in a shop window, and he would have been abashed to know it was called a passion flower." Strange the Dreamer
PEACH BLOSSOM - "Bushy, barely thirty centimetres high, it had bright pink flowers with petals resembling outsize peach blossom..." Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
PEONY - "She was going to start sounding like Peony. " Cinder
PETAL - "Each deep red bloom was full and perfect, the petals velvety soft." Grave Ransom
PHLOX - "Iceberg roses and white phlox grew more luminous night scented stock..." Polo
PLUMERIA "There were bushes of red bougainvillea and white gardenia, pink plumeria..." Dirty Angel
POINSETTIA - "He looked a hundred million dollars and was carrying a rose pink poinsettia." Polo
POPPY - "Poppy had simply disappeared in the library..." Firelight
PRIMROSE - "...tying back the sidelocks with primrose ribbon..." Outlander
PUSSY WILLOW - "She knew spring was coming, even if there was snow on the ground, when she saw pussy willow in the bowl" A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
QUEEN ANNE'S LACE - "...Queen Anne's lace whispering against Kirsten's outstretched hans." Station 11
*ranunculus*
RHODODENDRON - "Ancient rhododendrons began dotting the side of the road..." At the Water's Edge
ROSE - "Have you given any thought to what color roses? A Court of Mist and Fury
*safflower*
sego lily
*sepal*
SNAPDRAGON - "It goes by Snapdragon, although I don't know if that's a code..." The Wicked King
STOCK "I don't take any stock at all in such matters." Dracula
SUNFLOWER - "...and there would be a field of sunflowers at the bottom of the garden." The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
SWEET PEA - "I can make anything you'd know to order, sweet pea." Blue Diablo
THISTLE - Rainwater filled the deeper pits, and thistle and ox-ye daisy..." Outlander
*tickseed*
TIGER LILY - "I nodded, noticing for the first time that one petal of the tiger lily brushed the rim of the mug just so." First Grave on the Right
TRILLIUM - Title and throughout Trillium
TULIP - "What's the significance of the white tulips." Looking for Alaska
Venus flytrap
VERONICA - "Do you think Betty and Veronica here can keep an eye on these two?" Rock Chick
VETCH - "Vetch. Not a name Aleks knew..." - Cormorant Run
VIOLET -..."some lovely bits out of wood anenome, and violets..." Outlander
WALLFLOWER - "People dismissed Oris as a wallflower..." The House of Shattered Wings pg 84
*wild prairie rose*
WILDFLOWERS - "She followed the path through the wildflower field..." -The Cage
WISTERIA - "...past wisteria and bee balm; past jewelweed and milkweed..." The Darkest Part of the Forest
WOLFSBANE - "They salted the scene with wolfsbane." Magic Strikes
YUCCA FLOWER - "The edge of the cliff was thick with stubborn growth: yucca, small live oaks, firs, cactus, a huge variety of grasses..." Midnight Crossroad
ZINNIA - Name of a character so used throughout - Kind One
Books Used:
Radiance, Outlander, The Darkest Part of the Forest, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time, Until the Sun Falls from the Sky, Dracula, Firelight, Cinder, To Kill a Mockingbird, At the Water's Edge, Looking for Alaska, A Court of Mist and Fury, Dirty Angels, The Cage, Penmort Castle, Fire Touched, The Dream House, Equal Rites, When We Wake, Magic Bites, Darker Angels, First Grave on the Right, Dead Until Dark, The Devil's Right Hand, The Silver Witch, Midnight Crossroad, Slave to Sensation, Magic Strikes, Blue Diablo, Rock Chick, Kind One, Alex, Cormorant Run, The Restorer,Grave Ransom, Polo, A Pocketful of Crows, Entreat Me Blood in Her Veins: Nineteen Stories from the World of Jane Yellowrock Trillium The Immortalists Balzac and the Little Chinese SeamstressHide and Seek Curse on the Land Texas Roots Shiftless A Tree Grows in Brooklyn The Wicked King Strange the Dreamer

Louise wrote: "I was thinking a non-fiction biography. For example Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat"

That's s good idea. I didn't even think of non-fiction. I'll copy that.

So I'm trying to complete them all, I've mostly got the retellings left but I've having a hard time finding one about Pocahontas. So can I be broad in my interpretation? Could it be the same kind of story but in a different setting, like an alien landscape in a sci-fi? Or the Pocahontas story without specifically alluding or directly related to her story?

Eldarwen wrote: "That is a beautiful gesture, and absolutely makes me want to read the book!"

I've amended to make clear that JM Barrie, creator of Peter Pan left the rights, not Brom. Just in case. I'm not always as clear as I intend to be.

Eldarwen wrote: "I've never read anything by that author but I'm curious now... Sometimes I like reading a book that will shock me and make me realise how cruel humans can be. (And then I always return to my fantas..."

Well, if you read the Child Thief, I would suggest reading his afterword first. I appreciated the story more after I read it. He explained how he got the idea and why he chose to retell Peter Pan. He has made me want to read the original. Also, as dark as it sounds, I'm not the least bit surprised that JM Barrie left the rights to his book to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a place where children fight everyday to survive. Living in the shadow of imminent death is pretty dark.

I loved Brom's illustrations, though.

I finally finished a book from my tbr! I stuck with The Child Thief and it turned out to be exactly what I thought it was going to be; well written, yet in need of editing and too dark for me. I can take darkness but not when the characters are children or animals. I just don't find it entertaining and it can ruin the read for me. Like I really liked the Kite Runner but I'll never read another of the author's books again. I properly cried whilst reading that. I don't want to put myself through such emotional drama. I'd rather read Kate Daniels.
I'm glad I read it but I don't think I'd read another Brom book. Unless it's very different to this one. Or not about kids or about endless cruelty in general. Then maybe. But finishing it was more about the fact that I originally checked out it out from the library in 2017. It was necessary. I'm now giving myself a six month limit. If I haven't read a book in that time I'm returning it.
One down 49 to go.

I read Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Academy both of those essentially introduced the characters, their history and their world. I'm not sure what the story was in either of those books.
They're so popular and I'm sure they get better but how am I supposed to believe based on character intros? Richelle Mead's Dark Swan series was so good, I don't get VA.

Laurie wrote: "The other Sandy wrote: "I get annoyed with books--even the first one--ending on a cliffhanger to try to manipulate me into buying the next book. If the book was good, I would have bought the next o..."

I feel the same way. I recently read two firsts in two very popular YA series and, for the life of me, I have no idea what the stories were just that they were setups for the next. The average paperback is about £7, if I spend that I want to be told an actual story. I quit after both those firsts.

I'm going to have to check out Psycops. I used to be much more forgiving of a first book in a series but not any more. I just read the first book of the Vampire Academy series and it was pants, so I won't even give it another look. There are too many books to give a chunk of my time to mediocrity.

Didn't quite manage it even with the extension 😳. Too many "E"s needed.
Thanks for the challenge anyway. It was fun.

ChrissyM wrote: "This challenge is harder than I thought it would be with finishing up my Masters degree and going onto my third trimester with baby #5! I have 9 more weeks before I graduate with my degree and then..."

Baby number 5!!! My sister has 5. I don't know how y'all do it. I said after 1, that's enough. Congrats on #5 and the upcoming masters

Laurie wrote: "The other Sandy wrote: "Now I need to learn how to DNF books I'm not enjoying rather than struggling through to the bitter end.”

It took me a long time to become comfortable with DNFing books. My ..."

I think I might have to take this approach on. I've rechecked out The Child Thief for two years from the library, I'm on page 90! I might give books to one third cos I can't be quite 50 pages brutal (yet). But I agree there are too many books and not enough time to struggle on with books that will end up being mediocre. Except a classic. I'll struggle through those just to see what all the praise is about, why it's a classic. But otherwise I'll bin them after a third.

I'm going for this. It aligns with some other challenges but will push the clean up further.
I'm going to aim for the fifty oldest books.
06/46

1. King Leopold's Ghost
✔2. Envy - no longer appeals
✔3. The Child Thief - 13/06/19 ★★★
4. The Seal Wife
✔5. Shadow of Night 24/10/19
6. awakening
7. Rabbit_Run
8. mind-games
9. The_Becoming
✔10. Black Swan Green dnf about 55%
✔11. Kindred - 08/09/19 ★★★★
12. night-of-the-living-demon-slayer
13. Personal_Demons
14. Confessions_of_a_Failed_Southern_Lady
15. pretty-when-she-dies
16. hyde
17. sins-needles
18. love-in-english
✔19. The Offer - 25/08/19 ★★
20. darkhouse
21. spill-simmer-falter-wither
22. seven-princes
23. The_Wild_Shore
24. dearest-clementine
25. from-washington-to-moscow
26.wake-up
27. human
28.the-key-to-creation
29. india-black-and-the-rajah-s-ruby
30. india-black-in-the-city-of-light
31. azazeel
32. queen-of-shadows
33. the-assassin-s-blade
34. empire-of-storms
✔35. A Court of Wings and Ruin - 17/08/19 ★★★
36. kingdom-of-ash
37. ink-and-bone
38. menagerie
39. hidden-huntress
40. stolen-songbird
✔ 41. beauty- my library doesn't stock this and I don't want to buy it
✔Poison - 19/09/19 ★★★
✔42. charm - my library doesn't stock this and I don't want to buy it
43. Beyond_Black
44. the-secret-of-magic
45. if-sons-then-heirs
46. queen-sugar
47. What_Is_the_What
48. lamp-black-wolf-grey
49. The Hourglass Factory
50. the-madman-s-daughter

Moderators of NBRC wrote: "Keli wrote: "Can I use my extension card here? Do I post it on my challenge post?"

You may use the extension cards where ever you would like to extend your challenge(s)

Feel fee to add it to the..."

Thanks.

Can I use my extension card here? Do I post it on my challenge post?

TOURMALINE COINS

SPESSARTITE COINS

Drop Everything and Read ( DEAR ) Day Challenge 2019
Level: 2 hour minimum duration

Luckily, I can read whilst at work. Though, I will be giving the bulk of my reading to the wee hours. I'll be happy if I can get in a solid 7 hours.