Moderators of NBRC’s Comments (group member since Jan 22, 2011)

Moderators of NBRC’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

A lavish historical drama reimagining of The Island of Doctor Moreau set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Mexico.

Carlota Moreau: a young woman, growing up in a distant and luxuriant estate, safe from the conflict and strife of the Yucatán peninsula. The only daughter of either a genius, or a madman.

Montgomery Laughton: a melancholic overseer with a tragic past and a propensity for alcohol. An outcast who assists Dr. Moreau with his scientific experiments, which are financed by the Lizaldes, owners of magnificent haciendas and plentiful coffers.

The hybrids: the fruits of the Doctor’s labor, destined to blindly obey their creator and remain in the shadows. A motley group of part human, part animal monstrosities.

All of them living in a perfectly balanced and static world, which is jolted by the abrupt arrival of Eduardo Lizalde, the charming and careless son of Doctor Moreau’s patron, who will unwittingly begin a dangerous chain reaction.

For Moreau keeps secrets, Carlota has questions, and in the sweltering heat of the jungle, passions may ignite.

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau is both a dazzling historical novel and a daring science fiction journey.

=====
nominators: Sonia & Lexi

Official page count = 342 pages

Lexi wrote: "If Judith's books wins, I would put a content warning on it for TTs."

Noted, thanks Lexi

Lexi wrote: "My audio book just came in but it seems that you have split DQs already. I can help if needed, as it is a reread for me."

Hi Lexi, any chance that you could throw together some questions for the last set please? Sonia under the weather & I'm busy having fun with spreadsheets for TTX....

If you can't I can drag myself away from fun tasks! :)

Damara Damara



• vicky (Captain)
• Shelby (Co-Captain)
• stacie (Co-Captain)
• paula-reyes-wagner
• carrie
• Susan-A
• sandyl
• donna
• vanessa-fangirl-faction
• jodie-jt
• briana
• denise
• Cass ☀️
• frida
• abir
• liz
• Berit
• stephie
• teddie
• Kim
• Christene Paula ✨


Challenge Status Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Team Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

sorry! late getting breakdown up, but it's there now. Two day periods for each section :)

Welcome to April!

This month you should be finishing :

Midsummer
Chapters 7-15
(chp 7"Loyalties" - Chp15 "Negotiations"

and if you don't make it, there is a break month coming :)

Sign Ups Open!

You can sign up now here! From this point (21/4/23) any sign ups will be on the reserve list.
https://forms.gle/xpDNeAjAEPgCL9ib8

Please think carefully about how many books you will read, and pay special attention to the information required for your ID.

Keep an eye out for announcements of when the teams are made - captains might reach out but it is up to you to make sure you check in promptly, and weekly through the challenge.

Please look at the spreadsheet below if you would like to check if you have signed up correctly.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Enjoy!

The challenge starts on 1 May 2023, 9am UTC.

Only books STARTED after the challenge begins can count.

Countdown is here:
https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

Time in main cities FYI:
Monday 1 May
San Francisco 2am
New York 5am
London 10am
Brussels 11am
Mumbai 2.30pm
Tokyo 6pm
Sydney 7pm
Check other cities here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldcloc...

◈ We need people to volunteer to be Team Captain(s) whose duties include:

- Keeping a Google Spreadsheet that all members can view (we will provide you with a template)
- checking team members books read and page counts
- communicating with a NBRC Moderator
- communicating with all Team Members
- making sure Team Members are staying active
- notifying the NBRC Mod if someone drops out
- have effective and kind (this is a game, remember) on-line communication skills to help members having trouble
- making sure Team Members belong on your team
- posting weekly status updates/reminders
- dealing with minor issues that arise
- post little challenges within challenges, if desired.

    You may rotate/share these duties. We would suggest you have at least one Co-Captain.
    You may have as many Captains and Co-Captains as you like.

◈ Captains and Co-captains will need to have access to Goodreads daily and be posting to the team thread and updating the team spreadsheet at least every 2 days.

◈ Please let us know, when you make a request to sign-up, if you are interesting in being a Team Captain.

◈ Those people who want to keep their Profiles Private, must be willing to "Friend"
    their Team Captain(s), the NBRC Mod account, or one of the Moderators, to allow
    page count verification and to assist you if you are having difficulty with your
    bookshelves.

◈ Teams will be similar in size to other Tower Teams or Wheelathon challenges. We haven't decided on the exact number, as we are going by books read, but we are shooting for 10-20 members.

◈ Books must be started after the start date of the challenge to count towards the challenge

◈ Books must be />100 pages. NOTE: This number is lower than our other team challenges!
    For page number questions, please check with your captain who can ask in the Captains group for verification.

◈ Audio books are allowed. (For page numbers, use the "default" GR book page numbers. If the "default" is a Large Print version, use the next most popular edition for page numbers.
If there is no print / ebook, then the audio book must be longer than 3 hours, and page numbers will be set at 100 pages, no matter how long the audio is)

◈ Books with MPGs Childrens / Kids / Poetry / Play / Graphic Novel / Illustrated / Photography / Art (or which have "Illustrated" in the title or an "Illustrator" contributor in the metadata) must have at least 30,000 words (must be a verified count. sites that provide estimated word counts are not valid sources for verifying word count). ArBookFind is a great site to double check (there are also .co.uk and .com.au versions). If in doubt, ask your captain. A good rule of thumb is that if the audio is over 3 hours, the book will be long enough.

◈ Anything with the word" boxed set" in the title on Goodreads can not be used as "one book". They need to be shelved as separate books to count for this challenge.

◈ Any book in any language will count, as long as it meets the criteria.

◈ "Re-reads" will be allowed, if it has been six months since you have read the book. This includes listening to the audio version, if you've already read the book.

◈ This challenge involves adding a special bookshelf to your personal
    GRs bookshelves other than "read." You may choose a preexisting one.

◈ Please wait to be told to which Team you are assigned. It might take awhile; however,
    you will be able to count the books you have read from the START date of the challenge.

◈ Once you actually join, please check-in with your team discussion thread by posting the name of your bookshelf.
    Remember to add a HYPHEN between words for your bookshelf.

◈ Helpful Tip: Knowing about Sticky Shelves may help you put your assigned
    bookshelf near the top of your dropdown box.

◈ With MOBILE DEVICES there have been major problems when trying to
    add books. If that is all you have to access the Internet, or you don't know how to Cut & Paste
    on it, then this challenge probably is NOT the right fit for you.

◈ Discussion threads will be in the regular NBRC group. (No secret groups allowed)

◈ You do NOT have to join the discussion, if you don't want to; communicating via posting a book is good enough. Nevertheless, Your Team wants to know if you are still participating. We understand Real Life gets in the way. However, please plan to "check-in" in some manner at least once every week. If we don't hear from you for two weeks, you may be replaced with another team member

◈ For reading books
◈ Books less than 100 pages = 0 points
◈ Books between 100 and 1000 pages = 0.1 points/page
◈ Books over 1000 pages = 100 points

◈ Points will be rounded up/down from 0.5 as per standard maths
◈ For audio only books, the page count will be set as 100, no matter how long the audio is.


◈ For current BOM (Book of the Month) discussions
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM (participating in discussion) = 20 points

NOTE: We will accept one team member per book per team for writing a days DQs. If, by three days prior to the BOM starting, we don't have enough volunteers to write all DQs, then we will let more than one team member per team write questions. If we have more people than days sign up (prior to 3 days before start date) we will randomise the volunteers to determine those who can write DQs.

Remember that you can collect your participation points from previous BOM (from January 2022) for an extra entry in the randomiser, on a basis of 3 participation points to 1 extra entry. Your team will be allowed a maximum of 6 entries for each BOM.

Restrictions:
- you must link posts to your participation if you want to claim them
- only one set of writing DQs will be allocated to each team (unless there aren't enough volunteers)
- must be from the main group, Backroom BOM participation doesn't count
- you must finish the book after the start of Tower Teams, and within one month of the BOM starting

Example:
The first challenge BOM is the June 2022 Adult BOM.

Cat participated in the January and February, plus the May Themed BOMs (5 participation points in total). She can therefore claim ONE extra entry for the June Adult, and still has two participation points. She participates in the June Adult, and thus gains an additional participation point (to a total of three). She can turn these three in for an extra entry in the June Themed BOM. She now has no participation points remaining.

Team Mods have three volunteers for the June Adult BOM: Cat (could claim two entries), Judith (could claim three entries) and Sophie (could claim two entries). They are only permitted a maximum of 6 entries, and so Judith only turns in enough participation points to claim two entries. Judith still has participation points to claim another entry in the June Themed BOM.

                        
What are Tower Teams?
Essentially it is small groups of members in a team who read and discuss books, record them for "points" in order to compete against other teams.
It doesn't matter if your yearly goal is to read five (5) books, fifty (50) books or five-hundred (500) books. Anyone can join! We balance the Tower Teams Reading Challenge by Total Books read.



To celebrate Tower Teams X we are going back to the original concept of reading a Tower of books as a team!

>>Each month, each team needs to read 223 books, and these must include the following minimum number of books in each category:

10 x 100-199
20 x 200-299
30 x 300-399
30 x 400-499
20x 500-599
10x 600+ pages


Note: 223 is the minimum you need to read as a team each month and provided you do that and meet the requirements of those page counts above you are eligible to win.

IMPORTANT
This is NOT a read-a-thon and WILL run for three months, so please only sign-up if you are a consistent goodreads user and are willing to discuss books with your team mates over a period of a few months. Unlike our other team challenges, the Tower Teams Challenge is a marathon, not a sprint!

Goal: Read! Read! Read!

When: Starts Monday 1 May, 9am UTC time and goes for 3 months, ending on Tuesday 1 August, 9am UTC.

How: We will take all the people who sign-up and divide them equally - by book goal - into teams, taking into account the number of books they read per week.

Challenge requirements
To be a part of this challenge you need to be able to:

◈ Create a special shelf for the challenge for the books you are reading

◈ Check-in on your team's discussion thread at least once per week

◈ Have fun!

Deset



• jenny (Captain)
• angie (Co-Captain)
• karolyn (Co-Captain)
• ushashi
• Christine
• vaidehi
• Ivelisse-Colón
• Monisha
• sana zameer
• preeti
• eunice
• jess0404
• Elli
• prinzessbookdragon
• rachel-anne
• angela
• kate
• jl-roberts
• jessica-buzzard
• tory


Challenge Status Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Team Sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

.

(TW alert)

Please nominate an Adult Fiction or a Non Fiction book that you would like to read in the month of June 2023.

Nominations will be open until 27 April, UK evening

***Please pay special attention to the Rules and Guidelines listed below.***

Rules and Guidelines
1. Books nominated after the deadline will not be included in the polls. Sorry.
2. Each person is limited to nominating ONE book per category.
3. Please use the add book/author tool located at the top of the comment box when nominating a book. (Please make your nomination clear because side conversations do happen and we don't want to accidentally miss a nomination)
4. Please add the Goodreads synopsis for the book you nominate; optionally you can include a reason why we should read your nomination.
5. Books that were read as a past BOM will not be considered for the poll. (link to the sheet under the spoiler (view spoiler)[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... (hide spoiler)])
6. Books that are #2 or higher in a series will only be considered if all earlier books in the series have been a past BOM.
7. Books must be published at the time of nomination.
8. If your book is successful in being picked as the BOM you are expected to actively participate in the discussion. This will include writing a set of DQs as well as engaging in conversations.

Also, please be aware of your nomination's genre and list them in the appropriate BOM category.

Genres that DO NOT go here:
Young Adult
Middle Grade / Children's


The BOM nominations are for our members to nominate a book they are truly interested in and have no affiliation with. Promotional activity is NOT permitted and nominations that the Moderators perceive to be promotional will be deleted without warning

.

Theme Book Of the Month

Each month we have a themed BOM. June's theme is Longest



In the Northern Hemisphere June has the longest day of the year, whilst of course the Southern Hemisphere rejoice with the longest night of the year. And with Tower Teams in full swing in June, we thought we'd honour this with 'Longest' as a BOM theme.
Longest book? check. Longest book on your to-read list? check. Setting on the longest river? check. Be creative with your nominations!

Nominations will be open until 27 April, UK evening

***Please pay special attention to the Rules and Guidelines listed below.***

Rules and Guidelines
1. Books nominated after the deadline will not be included in the polls. Sorry.
2. Each person is limited to nominating ONE book per category.
3. Please use the add book/author tool located at the top of the comment box when nominating a book. (Please make your nomination clear because side conversations do happen and we don't want to accidentally miss a nomination)
4. Please add the Goodreads synopsis for the book you nominate; you should also include an explanation of how it fits the theme for the month.
5. Books that were read as a past BOM will not be considered for the poll. (link to the sheet under the spoiler (view spoiler)[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... (hide spoiler)])
6. Books that are #2 or higher in a series will only be considered if all earlier books in the series have been a past BOM.
7. Books must be published at the time of nomination.
8. If your book is successful in being picked as the BOM you are expected to actively participate in the discussion. This will include writing a set of DQs as well as engaging in conversations.

The BOM nominations are for our members to nominate a book they are truly interested in and have no affiliation with. Promotional activity is NOT permitted and nominations that the Moderators perceive to be promotional will be deleted without warning

TTX Tip

The goodreads app is.... {insert many words here}.... best described as not useful for team challenges.!

It is HIGHLY recommended you only sign up if you have access to the desktop version (via a computer or by using a browser on your device and selecting the desktop version)

And before you ask... sign ups open April 15 ;)