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

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

I had fun sniffing out everyone's banked books :-)

Although Nancy, you should still look at the spreadsheet, because if one of your banked books is better (longer=more points) you should definitely swap it out. Some things are easy to spot (starts with C) but some are better if you know what the book is. I put Miranda's The Giver into the Stop sign because I've read it so I know it's about a guy putting a stop to unsavory practices, but one of your books might also work and if they are 300+ pages that's more points!

By the way, what is the Travel Agent Account? That's the bonus for Pyramid, but I don't know what it is.

I will finish my Shadows book by this evening.

Did we hear back about whether Science Fiction counts as Science?

I like it! I think it works great, Ashley.

We're in really good shape for Love Letter, because I have to read Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson by Sunday before the library wants it back. So we just need genre Science and Book with "day".

Anyone got a "day" book? I have a few but I'm already reading Shadow. Or we can use a bonus. There's only a week left my friends -- we can use the bonuses!

If we go with Love Letter could use a bonus to move Sunne In Splendor to the edges so we can use that. Either the free square (maybe for teeth?) or the swap a category.

Any other 500+ books we want to fit in?

I'd like to propose "Love Letter" because the bonus is to increase the power squares. I colored in the bottom "Date Read" square for Love Letter to show you what we 'd need. If you like it I'll switch the pattern.

Also, Miranda, I snooped on your completed books and put some on the board, but there may be more that I didn't see. Can you check and tell me if I got them right?

I put in:
Genre: Chick Lit: Please Don't Tell
Starts with B: Being Dead, Boy in the Suitcase
Blueberries: Gathering Blue
Stop: The Giver

And several of your books looked like they might fit for Fairies -- the Finding Dead ones had flowery covers and the gothic looking one with the maid had spooky fairy tale vibes. And Scary Stories seemed to be full of fairy tales/folk tales. Does any of that feel right?

In the Black by Sheryl Nantus
Nook: 244 pages
Finished 9/3/16
Rating 2 Stars

It's in the bank!

Ang, your Ready Player One was published in 2011. If we stick that in, we have a finished Field Goal as soon as Sheila's The First Rule is complete.

Boom! Unless there's a shark. Silly sharks.

Do we want to use the bonus on the next card? The bonus is an extra power square. I guess if we had been clever we would have done this first and then done the black-out, but oh well.

Remember we've got the airplane bonus (make any box a free square) and the Railroad bonus (replace any box with another box on the square) . We should definitely use those with any tough box on the next square and stick one of the huge books in there.

The Great Death by John Smelcer
Kindle: 177 pages
Finished 9/2/16
Rating: 4 Stars

Has "Great" in the title

I don't have anything banked. I have to read on demand...

We could put Outlander in for "1" because it is the first in a series, and get the points for big tome that way.

In general, I think we are all comfortable with giving way to book with a higher page count. And that way if we get sharked we have a backup ready to use!

Notice that my "great" book is a tiny 180 pages, so anyone with a nice 300 page great book that is almost done is welcome to step in.

I say field goal! Can someone color it in? I am on my phone.

Field Goal looks close, but it still includes a lot of my guesses so some of those books may come back out when the actual readers have to confirm what they were about.

Pyramid would require:
genre "business" -- genre means on the goodreads shelf
Title contains "ring"
Leafy Seadragons: Didn't someone read a book about somebody having somebody else's baby? That's kind of what sea horses do -- the men are surragate baby carriers, right? Or it could be something underwater?

Tree needs:

Title "Like"
Fairy -- something better than has gay men, because that's kinda offensive don't you think?
Yo-yo (toys, up and down plot, ???)
Title "Great"

How to Cheat at Gardening and Yard Work: Shameless Tricks for Growing Radically Simple Flowers, Veggies, Lawns, Landscaping, and More by Jeff Bredenberg
Read: 9/1/16
Paperback: 384 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Gardening!
Also works for H square

OK, I'm going to suggest trying for Field Goal, although in the morning more people will have a chance to fill out their squares from banked books. I realized I was too tired to be useful when I started penciling in my M/M romance in the "fairy" square.

Field Goal Needs:
Circus Tent (camping? circus or state fair?
Yo-Yo (toys? lots of ups & downs? Famous cellist?)
Title "First" -- can't really fake this one
Title "Great" -- same.

And maybe some other squares that I put in other people's books for based on the goodread's description but that I may be way off for.

I've got a few "greats" on my TBR list.

So far Field Goal and Tree are looking good. Field Goal has a better bonus, IMO -- "add an extra power square". Tree bonus is "call for a new card."

Speaking of "X" -- none of the patterns we haven't done yet use that square :-)