Beth’s Comments (group member since Aug 12, 2014)

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

Final thoughts so spoilery!:

I was disappointed with the last section.

I thought the ending plot, especially with Nicky, made the whole thing completely unbelievable. It was hard enough to buy Minty's devotion (OK, maybe Joe is really sexy???), but nothing Beck's friends say indicate that she is this sex-goddess. I couldn't buy any of that, and it made the whole thing silly instead of suspenseful.

I also thought the author was inviting us to think that Beck to some extent earned Joe's actions through her actions, and no matter what rotten (and unlikely) things she does with consenting adults, it's just not true. It's impossible to "deserve" to be stalked, manipulated, and murdered. Calling someone to get help installing a bed (even flirting to get it) and breaking into someone's house, correspondence, and doctor's offices aren't parallel in anyway. Being immature and selfish at age 24 doesn't mean being a jerk forever.

Day 3 Discussion Questions (Chapters 9-11):

9. As Starr and her family huddle around the TV after hearing gun shots the night of Khalil's funeral, they watch news. The news anchor speaks of "multiple reports that a gun was found in the car" and the fact that "there was also suspicion that the victim was a drug dealer as well as a gang member". This comes after the police chief gave a statement stating that they saw no reason to arrest the officer who shot Khalil.

What do you think they are trying to do with that information? Do you think it's valid? What about the protestors? Do they have right to be upset about the situation? Does their means of protest get their point across?

I think things can go wrong even when people try to do the right thing. The police want to keep the trust of the public, even if they have a skewed idea of what the public is, and the press wants to have a clear story. I'm surprised that they haven't figured out who Starr is by now.


10. Starr has been giving her boyfriend Chris the silent treatment for a while now and when he confronts her about it, she tells him that he wouldn't understand. Her rationale for that is because he's white. What was your reaction to that statement? Do you agree or disagree with that? Can Chris understand where Starr is coming from?

I think there are a lot of things Chris doesn't have to deal with because he is white, and unless he makes an effort to see what is going on for other people, he can't understand. And it's unfair to make Starr explain these things when she's already feeling overwhelmed -- he could have made an effort before but he didn't see the need.

So it's more he *doesn't* understand because he's white, and giving her an extra burden when she doesn't want it (even if he doesn't know WHY she doesn't want it) is another thing he does without understanding.


11. The protest at Starr's school "For Khalil" really upset Starr. She mentioned that her "Williamson rules go out the door and the Starr from Garden Heights shows up". Do you think we are going to start seeing more of "Starr from Garden Heights" while she's at school? Do you think the two personas were necessary?

I think they were necessary because the norms of the two settings were different, and she wanted to stand out at her discretion, not all the time. But when the two come in conflict, she has to learn how to navigate that without feeling like she is betraying herself.

12. At the end of chapter 11, Maverick, Starr's father, tells Starr, "if you're ready to talk baby, talk. I got your back." Do you think that Starr is going to talk? Do you think that she should talk? What do you think you would do in that situation?

I read ahead, so I'll skip this one. In that situation, I'd have the advantage of being old and white, so I'd feel a lot safer.

I've been avoiding because I thought it was "grimdark" but now I see that's it's apparently not, so I'll try to give it a whirl.

The library just gave me -- if I read it now and answer the questions does it still count? I should go check the rules.

Shadow's Seduction by Kresley Cole
Finished: 6/14/17
BOM: Nope
Pages: 248
Rating: 2 stars -- very disappointing

You by Caroline Kepnes
Finished: 6/14/17
BOM: Yes! DQs: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
comment: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Pages: 422
Rating: 2 Stars

I commented on the BOM The Hate U Give here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Day 1 Questions, Chapters 1-4

1. Starr is considering whether to admit she was at the scene or not, due to fear of her own safety. What do you think you would do in that situation.

I couldn't be in that situation, because I'm white and the police are supposed to believe me. Starr knows that she doesn't have that expectation. It would be really hard to speak up knowing that it almost certainly won't help, but it might help someone else far down the road, at least a little.

2. Do you think Uncle Carlos is right when he says that the police officer may have felt threatened because he knew Khalil was a drug dealer?

Sure. But that still doesn't make the cop right. The kids felt threatened as soon as they were pulled over, but that doesn't make it OK to shoot the police officer. Same thing.

4. What are your thoughts on Mav's insistence on staying in the neighbourhood despite the fact that Starr has lost two friends in her short life to both a gang shooting and a police shooting? Do you think that life would be safer for Starr if she moved away?

It's really hard. How much do you sacrifice your family for the community? On a much smaller scale, I kept my kids in public school even though the private facilities have much better reputations. I have the time to do a lot of volunteering and work, so my kids mostly got a good education, and it's really important to me that public school provide that to everyone. But how bad would it get before I would say "not my kid"? It's a very hard call; the compromise they made of staying in their home but sending the kids to a different school is understandable.

1. Starr returns to school for the first time since the shooting. We get to see the other side of her personality, the one she puts on for her prep school friends. How does the situation we are in impact the way we relate to others? Do people have several personas or are we for the most part our true selves in whatever circumstance?

I think we all change up depending on what situation we're in; for many of us the big change is going away to school, but Starr does it every day. It can be different aspects of our true selves, with different accents and emphases, or it can be a front in places we never feel authentic.


2. We are introduced to Starr's prep school friends. Hailey makes a comment related to "fried chicken" and Starr gets offended. Do you think Hailey meant the remark in an offensive way, was it intentional or not? Was Starr being hyper-sensitive? How do you think this will affect the relationship between the two girls in the rest of the book?


I think Hailey doesn't think she can be offensive, that everything she says should be OK. It's not that she meant to be rude, but that other people's feelings aren't a consideration. So she's probably been casually offensive without blinking for years. Starr may have overreacted to a single statement, but for her it wasn't a single statement.

3. Throughout this section you feel the underlying guilt Starr is experiencing regarding the relationship between her and Khalil, or lack thereof. Do you think this was a conscious decision on her part, because she wanted to distance herself from life in Garden Heights or was it inevitable, a natural progression as they got older?

I think it was natural because they didn't see each other that much. Her parents (especially her dad) what her to feel part of Garden Heights, but she spends most of her time in the white school she attends, so it's hard to maintain relationships outside there.


4. Starr is asked to recount the events of that fateful night to the detectives. How do you think she handled interacting with the police officers? What does this say about her character?

I thought she was a typical teenager -- she was still really upset, she was understandably frightened of being around the police, and she was ready to believe they wouldn't believe her. It shows her character in that she knows what is right, she wants to be truthful, but she also knows that police are ready to kill if they don't like what they see. I liked how she resented the questions designed to make the shooter look good -- why ask her for hearsay about Khalil?

The questions haven't been posted yet, Abir. I'm watching for them too :-)

Hi Claire, it looks like In the Beginning Was the Sea doesn't have a "date read" set, so the spreadsheet isn't picking it up. Let's get all those points!

I just saw in the Captains group that a few teams are doing their own internal mini-challenges. Do we want to do something like that? Spell out Revenge of the Sith or something?

The Coyote's Bicycle: The Untold Story of 7,000 Bicycles and the Rise of a Borderland Empire by Kimball Taylor
BOM: Nope
Finished: 6/12/17
Rating: 3 stars
Pages: 423

Trickster's Choice by Tamora Pierce
Pages: 422
Rating: 4 stars
BOM: Nope
Read: 6/9/17

I'm dragging my eyeballs on You because it's CREEPY. But I will finish someday, I promise.

Abir wrote: "Hey guys, when does the challenge end?"

Audrey Jane cleverly put all sorts of useful information at the top of this thread, so I can easily remember: July 29th!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Kristie wrote: "Thanks, Beth! I always love good recommendations. I never would have considered Thief. I thought it was older. I'm glad to know that's one he can read with me earlier. Also, Where the Mountain Meet..."

We read it as a bedtime book at 1st and 3rd grades, but my older son was young for his age and my younger son was old for his (which worked out well for me in general). But it does have some intense scenes, so use your judgement. And the older one was wild to read on in the series, but I thought the next book was aimed a bit higher so I 'forgot" to find it for him. When he managed to find it himself at the library I figured that meant he was old enough.

The Best Man by Richard Peck
Pages: 240 (hardback; I did the audio)
BOM: Nope
Rating: 3+ stars.
Finished: 6/7/17

I only saw the rule about 25,000 words, and I hate having to figure out what age a book is at (I never did figure out what a "middle grade" book is and my boys are 16 and 18 now!)

If you read something you can't find on ArBookFind let me know and I'll figure it out. Those look like great choices -- I just got the last Clementine book for me to read (hey, just because my kids grew up doesn't mean I have to stop reading them...).

The Thief was my family's all time favorite read aloud, and as a read aloud it's works a bit earlier than Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. The characters are older, but the relationships and story are more straightforward. The sequels are older, though. Oh, and Grace Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon was an early shared book with my youngest (where I'd read it to him but he would read it himself as well).

Sorry, I'm hugely into reading books with kids. I went and started a book club at the local elementary school so I wouldn't miss out when my children rudely grew up on me.

I hope so! I read it already because it was a library book, and also I wanted to be ready with questions from all over the book.

By the way, I already got to do questions for You. Does anyone else want to take the front spot for Revenge of the Sith, and I'll be back-up? The initial lottery is just one spot per team volunteering, but I don't think they mind which person. It was fun writing the questions for You, so I'd enjoy doing it for THUG, but I don't want to hog things.

The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyons
Read: 6/6/17
BOM: Nope
Rating: 4 stars
Pages: 304 (somewhere around there)

Claire wrote: "In the Beginning Was the Sea
AuthorTomás González
Pages: 224 p
Date read: 5/6/2017
Rating 4 stars"

Hi Claire,

I'm not seeing the "date read" column checked for this one, so the spreadsheet isn't picking it up.