MelanieJoy’s Comments (group member since Apr 26, 2016)

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

It starts at 2:00am for me... I will sleep first, then read. Unless my son wakes up for food and I'll read an e-book while he nurses.

I'm in! I'll volunteer as back up for the Capitol! (Never read the actual Jane Eyre so we'll see how this goes!)

I'm in! Been wanting to read this, I love De Castell! I'm volunteering as back-up for DQs - the Capitol

It looks like starling house is gonna win for June and I’m already on line at the library so the timing should work out for me to volunteer in June.

@Preeti I'm thinking about it but I don't have the books yet. I was going to do a free month audible trial to knock out both, but I was nervous to commit to DQs if I'm slow at catching the audio narration.

Wow Yasmine, a week of dance in Spain sounds incredible!

Ok Laura I'll just keep the spreadsheet updated, and I'll probably comment here if a book is good, or taking me too long to finish, etc. I know different groups do it different ways so I wanted to check.

The hunger games buddy read, hmmm. I just re-watched the movies not too long ago but I have only read the books once back in my teens. So maybe I'll join in just for points? I dunno yet.

I took a new look at the category guidelines and they're super broad, so I think it'll be fun finding books for each category.

Captains, do you want a completion post in this thread for when we finish books or do you want us to throw them on the spreadsheet (knowing you guys can move them around however)? Or both?

I love that both of you said gin!

@Preeti I want to read Agentleman in Moscow too!!

@Yasmine you dance flamenco? That would be a sight to see!!

Thank you both for your answers! I’m enjoying getting to know you!
Also, I have spent some time in India but it was back in 2009. My parents were there and I joined them for a summer.

I'll go ahead and answer these

-You are walking onto a stage with people clapping and cheering for you. What is the theme song playing you in? Walking on Sunshine. I did one of those shorts internet quizzes before buzzfeed was popular called "What Song describes your life" and that was the song I got, and I've been believing it about myself ever since.

-If you got your 15 minutes of fame, what would you want it to be for? Probably a really compelling Ted Talk that went viral

-Do you talk to your plants? I had a peace lilly named Irene (which means Peace) for several years and I talked to her every time I forgot to water her and went back to do so - apoligizing and begging her to stay alive for me

-Do you still consider Pluto to be a planet? yes

-If you decided to host a late night talk show, who would be your first guest(s)? I have no interest in this, but if I were to have dinner with any current living celebrity of my choosing, it would be Taylor Swift.

-Who was your childhood crush? Honestly I had a lot of crushes, like every year I had at least 2. The most prominent was a guy named ********** we'll call him J, who played the lead in a play I saw at a rival school, and I was hooked after watching him sing and act. My first celebrity crush was Viggo Mortensen after seeing Lord of the Rings when I was 13.

-Any current pets? Want to share pictures? 2 cats, Dipper and Winter, Dipper is a tuxedo and he's my BABY, and Winter is Dipper's cat basically. If she lays on her belly she looks like a snow covered tree.

-Whiskey or vodka? I stopped drinking at pregnancy and haven't started back. I'm fully into the mocktail game, and I have this dark purple juice from multiple fruits that I put in a wine glass, and it does the trick for me

-What was your worst haircut? I just had a inch of my scalp buzzed for MOHS surgery to take off a cancer spot - like 2 days ago, does that count? If not, I got a short layered bob in middle school at my jawline and it felt WAY too short for me.

-Backpacking or luxury hotels? I love the idea of backpacking
and the idea of adventure, but I'd probably hate it after 2 days, so I'll say luxury hotels

-Speaking of luxury, what is your dream car? the was a commercial a long time ago of beautiful barbie-esque women with long hair riding in Jeep Wrangler convertibles, and the tag was "silly boys, Jeeps are for girls. It's been my dream car ever since."

-Would you rather have a cook or a maid? a maid, hands down! I'm unfortunately a messy person and I hate cleaning.

-And finally (for now), what books are you looking forward to reading for this challenge?
Honestly I'm not sure, I like to take challenges as they since it's A LOT of reading. Definitely love Sebastien de Castell so I'm looking forward to the BotM

I lurked over on District 1's thread and they have an awesome set of ice breaker questions, they called it a pop quiz! Answer if you feel inclined!

-You are walking onto a stage with people clapping and cheering for you. What is the theme song playing you in?
-If you got your 15 minutes of fame, what would you want it to be for?
-Do you talk to your plants?
-Do you still consider Pluto to be a planet?
-If you decided to host a late night talk show, who would be your first guest(s)?
-Who was your childhood crush?
-Any current pets? Want to share pictures?
-Whiskey or vodka?
-What was your worst haircut?
-Backpacking or luxury hotels?
-Speaking of luxury, what is your dream car?
-Would you rather have a cook or a maid?
-And finally (for now), what books are you looking forward to reading for this challenge?

I'm lurking as I'm always looking to make GR friends, and I'm stealing borrowing Jenny's list of fun ice breaker questions for the Capitol!

Have a great challenge team!

you guys are making me want to just delete Red Rising from my TBR and not worry about it. But it's on my maybe shelf so I don't worry about those.

I'm doing the same thing as Karen and one of my longest books is:
(also I know I'll get more out of this as a discussion than just reading myself)

The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.

At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from – and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.

In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.

lexie wrote: "Hello team! Super excited to get this started. Not sure how I feel about being in the Capitol for these games, but I'm determined to own it nonetheless, hehe."

I feel the same way!! But I'm excited about our chats and getting to know you all and getting some good book recs!

PS - haven't read or seen the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Is it worth my time?

@Claire, I've been in many many reading slumps before! Hope you find something enjoyable to read!

@ Keely so excited for you!

@Kamaria and Laura I love UNO! I've done it 3 times and really enjoy it each time. Kamaria, best of luck in your studies! Those emphasis sound intense; I only got a bachelors in early childhood education.

I think I'm a Peeta fan all in all. I liked Gale at first, but Peeta was so loving and sacrificial, how can you ignore that?!?!

@Laura I usually buy books I don't own at a stepp discount that I'm pretty sure I'll really enjoy. I don't usually read books more than once. But I have only 1 shelf of books and most of my reads come from the library. I'm trying to figure out how to obtain a copy of The Malevolent Seven for the BotM, because I love De Castell, but this book isn't in any of the libraries in e-book form that I'm a part of.

Hey Everyone! I'm MelanieJoy! I go by Melanie or Mel in real life but there's a few Melanie's on GR. Feel free to call me any of the 3! I live on the west coast in the US currently, with my husband, 7 month old son, and my two cats Dipper and Winter. Since going on maternity leave last year I rediscovered my love for reading. The books I can get through really fast are in fantasy and romance, but I also like literary fiction, mystery, and suspense, as well as some hystorical mystery. I do stay away from horror but for some challenges, specifically NBRC BotMs, I do branch out and I appreciate the discussion. I really like books about books and bookstores.
Two of my favorite books last year were The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot and Remarkably Bright Creatures I love to give and receive book recs because I love talking about the books I read.

It's going to be a great challenge! As a capitol citizen, you'll find me dressed in yellow and orange ombre with a cape, bandeau, and flare pants :D

My shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I changed my nomination because I'm tired of nominating historical fiction lol). This one is MPG time travel

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen

To save his daughter, he'll go anywhere—and any-when…

Kin Stewart is an everyday family man: working in I.T., trying to keep the spark in his marriage, and struggling to connect with his teenage daughter, Miranda. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career as a time-traveling secret agent from 2142.

Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, despite the increasing blackouts and memory loss affecting his time-traveler's brain. Until one afternoon, his “rescue” team arrives—eighteen years too late.

Their mission: return Kin to 2142 where he's only been gone weeks, not years, and where another family is waiting for him. A family he can’t remember.

Torn between two lives, Kin is desperate for a way to stay connected to both. But when his best efforts threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself, his daughter’s very existence is at risk. It'll take one final trip across time to save Miranda—even if it means breaking all the rules of time travel in the process.

A uniquely emotional genre-bending debut, Here and Now and Then captures the perfect balance of heart, playfulness, and imagination, offering an intimate glimpse into the crevices of a father’s heart, and its capacity to stretch across both space and time to protect the people that mean the most.

fun fact - this guy wrote a different novel about a pandemic, published right before 2020, so reading it in 2020 was trippy for me

Sophie wrote: "Andy wrote: "excited to start

but... noticing a counter-intuitive effect,
the more team challenges I join the faster my TBR list grows 😭"

Yeah that's an unfortunately side effect of time spent on..."

this only happens for me if I'm on chatty teams. a lot of players post completions but if I don't recognize the book I don't follow up and ask if it was good. and a lot of people don't volunteer that info, so sometimes my list grows and sometimes it doesn't.

The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman

Is finding true love a calling or a curse?

Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York’s Lower East Side, Sara’s vocation is dominated by devout older men—men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves.

Two generations later, Sara’s granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara’s matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby’s grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she’s worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother’s mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?