Cat’s Comments (group member since Jan 28, 2015)

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

hurrah!

DQ's Day 2: Chapters 13-22

5. In this section, we find out how Opaline ends up in Dublin. What do you think of Armand and her relationship/friendship with him? I feel there is something off about him but he does seem to want to honestly help her.

I agree he seems a bit off, but not entirely sure why. His actions all seem reasonable, so it's pretty effective writing!

6. In many ways there are parallels with Opaline and Martha's stories. Both are running from abuse and from a life they do not want and both have ended up living in a basement apartment where the vanishing bookshop was located. Do you think these parallels will continue? Do you think this plays a part in Martha solving the mystery of the Lost Bookshop?

Yes and yes.

7. The old library in Italy! What a coincidence that a book that showed up in Martha's apartment, A Place Called Lost, is the same story of how Matthew's father built the building where his shop was! I just love how the author is building the connection from the past to the present. Do you have any guesses yet about what the connection or what happened to the Lost Bookshop? Have you read magical realism before? It's one of my favorite genres to read.

I dislike the use of the term magical realism for this type of book. Magical realism is a literary form arising from post-colonial writers, and primarily Latin American writers. It's not for this sort of whimsical light fantasy. I don't mind the Latin American magical realism (Garcia Marquez a good exponent, but there are more modern authors too), but have bounced of other versions (Salman Rushdie) HARD.
Whimsical books - hit and miss depending on the author and story.

8. "Were we all preconditioned to love certain things? A moment in childhood, lost to memory but indelibly marked on our souls?" This quote jumped out at me while I was reading and made me think. I don't know when I started reading or where my love for reading came from. My mom always says I was carrying a book around before I could walk! But I have no specific moment where I fell in love with reading just that I always have loved it. It made me think was there a moment that happened but I can't remember? Something so significant it created something in me? Or was I preconditioned to love reading? What do you think about this quote?

I don't think you are preconditioned to love anything, beyond safety and comfort. But for sure, childhood conditioning makes a massive impact on what you take into your future.

9. I think Madam Bowden is going to prove to be a character with surprises. Could she be Opaline? Or a descendent? I think she knows about this vanishing bookshop and why it shows itself to certain people and not others.

A descendant, possibly. She's certainly interesting and pretty formidable, as well as being sneaky

DQ'S DAY 1 - CHAPTERS 1-12

1. Love the cover, love the blurb! I'm expecting big things from this novel. "The thing about books" she said "is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of."
Is this why you love to read or do you just enjoy good old fashioned escapism? Discuss.

Like Sammy, both! and, indeed, more! Imagine a life better / different for myself and escapism and to learn things (from both non-fic and fiction). The putting yourself in other shoes is a MASSIVE part of why I like to read, and why I try to read widely and diversely and in contrast to my lived experience.
Interestingly, whist I can still happily read (good) YA from diverse authors, the equivalent "good" white privileged UK/US YA is much more likely to leave me cold - the themes tend to be so obnoxiously navel gazing I can't bridge the gap, even though I was (am) white privileged (comfortable). Those sorts of books just don't speak to me.

2. In the Prologue and the first two chapters we are introduced to the main protagonists, Opaline, Martha and Henry. First impressions of these characters and what differences and similarities to you notice about them?

I like Opaline; Martha and Henry are a bit too meh. And Martha not very believable. I can't believe that anyone thinks that a formal library is a place where you can just take a book. Given Little Free Libraries and their ilk generally have signs explaining that it's OK to take, no questions asked, it's clear that all libraries have rules.

The abusive connection is a strong one - is that what you need to have in order to access the lost bookshop? A strong need to escape life? (given Martha ends up in the shop and lets a needy boy in)

3. In a novel about books (and big bonus points to the author for Wuthering Heights being the first book mentioned) there seems to be a lot of novels names and famous authors mentioned in the early chapters. How many of these have you read and loved.. or hated!

Most, I think. not Baudelaire.

4. The novel is taking place in two time lines with Opaline in one and Martha and Henry in the other. How do you see the two timelines/storylines being linked and being a novel with a magical theme do you think the characters in the two timelines might actually meet?

Timewise, Opaline can't be (can she) Martha's employer? but she is probably also a connection to the shop. I'm hoping no actual timetravel happens - not sure I trust the author to deal with that (plus timetravel generally involves hijinks of some sort, and the vibe isn't there with this book)

oh, and curses re Jarvis! I've got that audio book too!

My possibles are Elton's memoir and Faster Than A Cannonball: 1995 and All That. But that latter one fails on the trombone front too. gah!

James Blunt is totally a musician! I (not a fan) saw him in his last tour at a smallish venue (Isle of Man) and as a live artist he fit the bill immaculately! A Howard Donald or Jason Orange bio I'd have many many more problems with!

Former boy band..... eeeeesh, that's tricky. Feels like, if he's put that career behind him it's not a great fit. if he's doing some singing in the film / for the soundtrack, totes works!

I'm done for the round now.

picking up the BOM and then will have a look for musician books :)

I've my salsa book to finish, will be done in a couple of hours 🙂

Melindam wrote: "

TP's name looks silver enough, right?"

Yup!

We could move Sammy's Anna K into the Audio tags (388 tags) plus LT author initials. sadly Anna is too long for the page count :(

Possibly she's got a silver bracelet too?

finished Fire Rush, which had both Ska and Reggae

Round 5 Info has been released!

We are finishing strong with TROMBONE, and yellow covers

The round bonuses this time are for reading books that are by or about musicians.
Non-fiction or fiction works. For fiction, it needs to be the main character. The musician needs to be a professional / aspiring musician.
So: rockstar romances and artist memoirs here we come!

yup, they are there now! GR being special again...

throwing in for Britpop

Saar The Book owl wrote: "I've completed and added it to the sheet:
- Bondi Vet: De mooiste verhalen van de charmante televisiedierenarts uit Sydney
- Grote dromen"

When you get a moment can you add these to your Wheel shelf, and double check what nonsense GR is up to - they don't have a read date at the moment?

well spotted - and fixed :)

Andy wrote: "Seasonal Hot Take - none (unless some hypothetical someone was planning to binge watch the trilogy over holidays 😇)"

You are not alone in that festive treat!
My OH is very excited to be doing an over-night watch of the trilogy at the London Imax just before Xmas. No, I'm not going, for many many reasons, starting with just not getting on with the physicality of the imax screens.

My wheel spinning curse has struck again!

finished Tambuakar, got .... yup, the exact same one!

Tambuakar
1 200 to 299
2 Waterbody in title
3 jellied or eel in text
4 Book set in the 1900s
5 Extinct animal mentioned

I finished off Prof M and spun Lady M!

Lady Macbeth (Macbeth)
1 100 to 175
2 Blood on cover
3 Book has a manipulative character
4 Gendered word in title (lady, girl, fireman etc)
5 Author initials in SHAKESPEARE

Melindam wrote: "Currently reading Rivals by Jilly Cooper and

listening to Cherry Ghost's "Thirst for Romance" and "People help the people".

There is plenty of romance and people he..."

oh! Cherry Ghost! that album is just gorgeous :)

I'm enjoying it. it's not reinventing anything, but Jalaluddin has done a couple of fun spins on Austen with observant Muslim characters, which is a nice spin. so, don't go in expecting hot and steamy explicit scenes, but you will get fun characters with a reasonable balance of family-driven angst and sweet romance