megan’s Comments (group member since Jun 26, 2015)

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

Well done everyone! We are filling things up fast. I think this challenge is going to come down to quidditch and length of books. I don’t think any house is going to have problems filling the classes and spells, but the subtle point difference between those 200 page books vs 400 page books could add up quickly.

Found one that doesn’t sound completely horrible!

Lilac Girls
Martha Hall Kelly
487 pages
3 June

Characters: Caroline Ferriday, Herta Oberhauser, Kasia Kuzmerick, Zuzanna Kuzmerick
Letters: C, F, H, K, L, M, O, Z

Questions for BOM answered

Lilac Girls Question Response:
1. Lilacs signify renewal, like spring. The purple lilac symbolizes first love and are used in love spells. So maybe the renewal of love? Not so much romantic love, but familial?

2. Caroline: kind with her heart in the right place, but her class stature makes it difficult for her to truly sympathize with those she is trying to help.
Kasia: typical teenage girl worried about things that are not important while still being aware of what is happening around her. No matter how engaged she is in the Underground, all still falls back on a crush.

3. Chapters dedicated to specific characters help with character and story building. Separating them allows for a strong distinction between each’s situation. How far apart they are in life, as well as location is important to the story. As WW2 brought the world together in ways it hadn’t before, all lines begin to blur. I assume Kasia, Herta, and Caroline’s lives will cross in a way that could only be possible in war.

4. I don’t think he does. They are still young and it seems more like an infatuation on Kasia’s part than Pietrik. His current focus is on Nadia and keeping her safe in hiding, even if their relationship is platonic.

5. Absolutely. Like so much of Germany at the time, she was caught up in the propaganda and prosperity of the NAZIs. Take away the politics and she’s still a women being sexually assaulted by a family member. That aspect of the story is classless, timeless, and makes her character so much more complex.

6. I see him using her for what he needs from America while his home country and love is destroyed. He might be fond of her, but his wife is always brought back to the forefront.

7. I’m a sap and cry over everything.


8. No, but only because the book would. Herta seems easily swayed, which fits her character as a committed Nazi era German.

9. Yes, she will hear from him again, even if it is just a last letter. It seems like all the important people in this story will survive, while statistically the wouldn’t have.

10. Yes, she is going to Ravensbruck because Kasia will become a Rabbit. And she should feel guilt. She knew she was being followed. She should have never gone to the cinema.

11. While she can locate camps based on correspondence and maps, I don’t think she would be the one to find Paul. That would have to be a word of mouth thing.

12. No. Nothing at all comparable.

13. Herta will only continue to keep Halina in her semi-position of power until she no longer needs her. It seems like they have a real friendship. I wish we got more of Halina’s personality beyond being a loving mother. I think Halina is playing Herta as much as she can, as well as staying in the good graces of the rest of the staff. Maybe it is more than just the leniency she is given that allows her to provide more for her children.

14. Nothing anti-Semitism, but I have certainly been around plenty of cases of open racism at work. I like to call them out on it, even if it makes me look like a total witch.

15. Taking it day by day. Seeing each other as sisters. Kasia seems to cling to the feeling of her mother visiting her in the hospital and lovingly kissing her on the head, even if it was just a dream.

16. I love Caroline. She doesn’t give up. She uses her position to grab on to new opportunities as soon as they come up. Though she still loves Paul, she can easily push thoughts of him/what if aside to concentrate on her mission, even if Paul could some how benefit from it.

17. I think the Lilac Girls are all the girls/women in the story.

18. Citizen’s arrest!

19. The Herta perspective. We rarely get a view from inside the opposition in any war story. I think that will help my rating of this book. Representing a Nazi as a real person and showing how easily it was to get wrapped up in the German pride. As a reader, you sympathize with her desire to succeed as a doctor but feel like you are betraying the side of yourself that knows what she does is atrocious.


20. She has the means to rush to France, so why not. I hope he still feels for her. I so want Carline to be happy.

21. She is allowing the guilt of her mother’s death to strangle her.

22. I knew something would go wrong. Things were turning out so perfectly for Caroline. But because she is amazing, she fulfills her mission and puts everyone before herself again.

Are we still on the hunt for a book with a mortar and pestle on it? I can make that my goal for this week.

I finished Lilac Girls but won’t get to the questions until I’m back at a computer tomorrow.

The Cowboy's Outlaw Bride
Cora Seton
2 June
No page numbers in GR, but GooglePlay says 350, iBooks says 300.


Letters: C, L, N, O, S, T, V
Characters: Noah Turner, Olivia Cooper, Liam Turner, Virginia Cooper

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War
Mary Roach
285 pages
1 June

Letters: G, M, R
Not really any characters

Deanna wrote: "megan wrote: "So I read Under Milk Wood. It’s a dramatic play by Dylan Thomas. But it has poetry listed as a genre since it’s by Dylan Thomas. I guess that means we can’t use it now, since no poetr..."

Dang. I didn't look at the list of genres because this version wasn't listed at poetry when I found it. Genres are based on what users tag books as, right? Because there are characters who write poems and read them to each other as part of the plot, but that's far from being a book of poetry. Grrr. Oh well. A Dylan Thomas writing assumption. At least it was good.

So I read Under Milk Wood. It’s a dramatic play by Dylan Thomas. But it has poetry listed as a genre since it’s by Dylan Thomas. I guess that means we can’t use it now, since no poetry?? Even if it isn’t a book of poems.

I can do Quidditch in one of the later matches. I moved last month and don’t have internet at home, so it’s been difficult to stay up to fate with the game because I get mad at the app and tiny font of my phone.

The Cowboy's Secret Bride
Cora Seton
260 pages
27 May

Letters: C, S, W, T, V, A
Characters: Virginia Cooper, Carl Whitfield, Sven Anderson, Camilla Torres

I just got my sisters copy of The Lilac Girls, so hopefully more points for BOM.

Black Fall
Andrew Mayne
371 pages
24 May

Characters: Jessica Blackwood, Gerald Turner, Jennifer Mathis, Jeffery Ailes
Letters: B, A,M, J, G, T

Utopia
Thomas More
192 pages
22 May

Letters: U, T, M, R, H, P, G, J
Characters: Thomas More, Raphael Hythloday, Peter Giles, John Morton

I can't see riddles and not thing 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

Holy cow! That’s awesome!

Name of the Devil
Andrew Mayne
432 pages
19 May

Letters: N, A, M, J, B, D, K, R
Characters: Jessica Blackwood, Joseph Knoll, Marta Rodriguez, Damian Knight

The book I’m finishing has clairvoyance in it, but it’s from the aspect of how it is faked. Does that still count?

Is the Planning Spreadsheet actually the "Spell Tracking Spreadsheet" linked at the beginning of the thread?