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

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

There's Under the Volcano which is weird.

I've made the note with mods - we've not decided who's IC team build yet - so do it! :)

And Danielle and I can make clear from the get go that it's relaxed time chez nous! (I'm actually minded to relaxed too, given work pressures over the AUtumn)

Sammy - my team is not going to be pushing hard this time, if you want to join us: one of the teamies want's to be a "bad" teamie, reading for themself, so you can join on the same basis. only an idea, zero pressure x

Amanda wrote: "Hi ❤️

When do the BOM polls typically open? & more specifically, when will the November one open?

TIA!"

The last couple of days of the month preceeding. You'll find links in the newsletter. They usually close on 7th of each month.
So November's will be added in a few days, and be active until 7 Oct.
Subject always to real life!

SET 2

6. There's a quote from Bear "maybe freedom is just about choosing the life you want"
Do you think this is true? And do you think it's a revelation that all three versions came to?

7. Julian's life seemed the hardest for him and Maia to find happiness. Do you think this is due to the lack of Cora in their story?

8. Did you expect the resolution of Gordon's journey?

9. We don't see much of Gordon Snr at all, until the Epilogue. Did the end of his story satisfy you? Do you think that his life would have been different if he was Hugh, as hinted?

10. Overall thoughts about this book? Did the conceit work well?

I updated with more :)

apart from the ghost jaguar pirate treasure warrior (missing only the kitchen sink, I think!), I think they were all of merit, though some will be skewed by mood too :)

how about: The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds (actually interesting)

The Ghost Pirate's Treasure: Mystery of the Jaguar Warrior (I suspect was pressed into service for an NBRC task)

This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health: A Journey into the Heartland of Psychiatry (also good, but not uplifting reading!)

Taxtopia: How I Discovered the Injustices, Scams and Guilty Secrets of the Tax Evasion Game (Infuriating)

The Stopping Places: A Journey Through Gypsy Britain (I enjoyed this one)

The Red Prince: The Life of John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster

The Reason I Jump: the Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

Playing for Freedom: The Journey of a Young Afghan Girl

The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj

The Kaiju Preservation Society (Scalzi!)

His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae (apparently 5 stars...)

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone (v good)

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (excellent)

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line

The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution

(shame you can't do it across both title & series: Ancillary Justice would work then)

DQ's 1

1. This was my pick because it had such an interesting premise. Does your given name affect the path of your life? Do people make assumptions about you, your personality even your ethnicity/cultural background because of your name. What do you think?

I'm not sure about name affecting the path of my life, but they definitely have cultural connotations.
For this book, the name started the different paths because of how an abusive man reacted to them, rather than the name per se.

2. Now that I have started (now finished) the book it actually is more a book about sliding doors. Three different names, three different pathways. Bear, Julian, Gordon - what do you think will happen to these three boys?

I wondered, about a third into it if their lives would come back together in the end, but suspect not. I hope they all manage to find happiness and fulfillment in their different ways.

3. What are the initial similarities/differences between the three stories? Were you shocked that all of the three stories involve murder and abuse no matter what the boy's name is?

I think the point is more about how different types of abuse and escapes impact more than the directly abused (Cora) than the names. I was interested by the post-partum depression when Cora didn't exercise any free will in the naming of Gordon, and how that shaped the relationship between father and son.

4. Do you think the sibling relationship between Maia and Bear/Julian/Gordan play out differently in the three stories? Is it the name of the brother or other factors that cause any differences between them?

They definitely play out differently, but again, mainly because of the shared knowledge or not of abuse. I find the Julian-Maia relationship the hardest to understand, given we are only looking in every 7 years- but how it went from sleeping in bed together to being quite distant and cool is odd.

5. Handing down family names is very common in many cultures. "Maybe consenting to live in the shadow of his father and his father's father is only perpetuating the likeness...Perhaps calling their child something different would be a liberation" Agree/disagree with this statement.

I agree, I think. Especially when the ancestral figures are negative/judgy in their approach to descendants. A link with a positive connection would be different. I think the solution is that the family name is a second name, not the primary one, to keep the connection but also to allow individuality.

generally feeling boo hiss about that Australia location too. :(

and sad that my current has an invisible M in the title (The Shadow Cabinet would be vastly improved if it smuggled an M in there somewhere, amirite?!)

Sammy wrote: "I have no fire titles in my tbr, but who knows what will pop up on audible+ once the new turf tasks appear 😆"

I had a James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time) but not feeling it right now. Though it's not unreasonable turf points (106 pages) so not ruling it out!

and possibly a cat one, going by the cover , but that'll be a week at the earliest, I'd think

I take it back! medium term (after the BOM) I'll have one for set in Illinois

So, tasks looking for books are:

title contains the word "FIRE"
A cat is important to the plot
Takes place in Australia
Letters in WOMBAT in title
Takes place in a state on the Great Lakes (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin)
author first and last initial is the same
character goes to fair, amusement park, carnival, etc

I put this there for easy reference and a mental nudge to myself, though I don't currently have any planned that will fit...

I did a reshuffle of books, and finished off a set.

spun us

John Lynch (Australia)
1 200 to 299
2 Takes place in Australia
3 "axe" in text
4 Letters in WOMBAT in title
5 Tagged farm or farming at least 3 times

I'll be joining for DQs :)

WTF! I'd offer to come shout at your stupid staff person but doubt that would help.

Totally understand, ignore us (or not) as it helps! We are not a source of stress for you x

I've decided that LA is famously a dry place, so claimed that task :)

ETA: also got a 500+ book :)

Yeah.... I should've let Mel or Domi spin for me....
finished Korea, we've now got

Jack the Ripper (England / London)
1 500 to 650
2 takes place in England or Wales
3 MPG Crime
4 sharp weapon on cover
5 author's name (first or last) has a double letter

We Will Be Jaguars: A Memoir of My People

From a fearless, internationally acclaimed activist, We Will Be Jaguars is an impassioned memoir about an indigenous childhood, a clash of cultures, and the fight to save the Amazon rainforest and protect her people.

Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest—one of the last to be contacted by missionaries in the 1950s—Nemonte Nenquimo had a singular upbringing. She was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. She played barefoot in the forest and didn’t walk on pavement, or see a car, until she was a teenager and left to study with an evangelical missionary group in the city. But after Nemonte’s ancestors began appearing in her dreams, pleading with her to return and embrace her own culture, she listened.

Nemonte returned to the forest and traditional ways of life and became one of the most forceful voices in climate change activism. She spearheaded an alliance of Indigenous nations across the Upper Amazon and led her people to a landmark victory against Big Oil, protecting over a half million acres of primary rainforest.

We Will Be Jaguars is an astonishing memoir by an equally astonishing woman. Nemonte digs into generations of oral history, uprooting centuries of conquest, and hacking away at racist notions of Indigenous peoples. Ultimately, she reveals a life story as rich, harsh, and vital as the Amazon rainforest herself.

this is fluff!

actually, I might have a Korea / yellow text book to cover here & Turf when I'm done with Katabasis