Suzanne’s Comments (group member since Aug 13, 2015)

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

Janine - I don't know how in the world you keep track of the challenges! I admire that (and you) tremendously!

I'd say one week into this round, things are going great. Especially given it's a holiday week for many.

Hello my sweet team! I'm feeling quite a lot better - my kidney stone has passed. Now instead of not sleeping, I've slept 10 hours a night for the past few. BUT, I expect to be feeling normal very, very soon. Well as "normal" as I ever am. So - I'm thankful for that.

I'm very thankful for all of you - for your positive attitudes and great teamwork. And I'm so grateful for your kindness to me and just moving forward, even when we had a lot of books not counted (the last day's reads).

The mods saw my note to them and got back to me today - I'm also thankful to them and the large amount of time they put in. They opened the spreadsheet and let me put in those last days books - isn't that awesome!? But I love that we were moving forward with grace, and would have been happy either way.

For those of you in the US - have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Because of the last week, we are just having me and my husband and his sister - and he has done most of the cooking! For those of you not celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope your day is also fantastic :)

Oh and Amanda, they said you should have access to the spreadsheet now and an invite to the captains group :)

DQs Day 3
Chapters 13-19

9. I don't know how I feel about the school basically milking Ray owning a Stradivarius and him having to do an interview without even getting asked to do so. I personally would have preferred to keep it private, at least for a while. What are your thoughts on the situation? I would have preferred to keep it private too - but I suppose I can see the side of the school - the more publicity Ray gets the more potential money/contacts.

10. I can see where Ray's family is coming from wanting to sell the Stradivarius and divide the money, but they never showed any interest in the violin even though it had been in the family for a century, and Ray's grandmother gave Ray the fiddle for Christmas. He had to take care of everything surrounding it and his school/education himself, and he never even had much money to begin with. Would you be selling whatever in your life might turn out be worth this much money, and would you feel like your family was entitled to fair shares? I think I would feel like my family was entitled to shares if it was this situation - but I also 100% see why Ray wants to keep the violin - he has such good reasons!

11. Another family claiming ownership of the violin - it was bound to happen. On one hand I'm surprised they're suing Ray for the Stradivarius since I doubt they can prove the fiddle was stolen in any way, but on the other hand the odds clearly are against Ray. And now his family is suing him for the violin as well?! Who do you think is the rightful owner of the Stradivarius? I do feel like Ray is the rightful owner, but I can see why people feel entitled to it.

12. We've been introduced to a lot of different people (whose names I don't even all remember) and they all (most of them anyway) seem to have different reasons to possibly want to steal Ray's Stradivarius - greed, jealousy, racism,... it's all there. Do you have any more guesses of who's behind it all? I am guessing Nicole, but I have no real reason other than how she kind of showed up and was right there. We'll see!

Side note: I laughed out loud when [don't remember who] described the Tchaikovsky competition as a cross between the Olympics and American idol; what does that even mean?!

DQs Day 2
Chapters 7 - 12

5.His mother and Aunt Joyce had gone to the store - ostensibly because they needed more collard greens, but in reality because one of the biggest family traditions was to keep Aunt Joyce out of the kitchen
Do you have any unusual family traditions, Thanksgiving if it applies, or Christmas, if it's not too early, or any other significant cultural event that revolves around a convoluted family meal?
I certainly have a lot of memories and ideas of "must have" things for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. But lately, I've just tried to enjoy what comes. However, we haven't really done a huge extended family thing in a long time.

6. When Grandma gifts PopPop's fiddle to Ray, his mother's immediate reaction is that he can't keep it and she even scolds her own mother,
Mama .... what are you thinking?
What do you think motivates Ray's mother's resistance to his pursuit of music?
Is it purely because she wants his focus to be on earning money for the family, or does she anticipate the racism and resistance he could face and is trying to protect him from heartbreak?
I think she just feels like his music is a waste of time and won't hear anything to the contrary. She's awful!

7. Ray's meeting with Dr. Janice Stevens seems a pivotal moment, giving him access to the connections that sustain the close-knit classical music world
Do you feel there is a message here that hard work and talent may not be enough to overcome barriers to success, or is Ray's progress and recognition simply a result of his dedication? I suspect talented artists in many areas have never been discovered, no matter how hard they work. It does seem to take connections and lucky breaks, as well as really hard work.

8. So... PopPop's old fiddle might be a Stradivarius, but before the appraisal Rowland offers to buy it for $25,000 dollars. Ray refuses, declaring
I'm not selling it. Ever
What do you think is behind Ray's attachment to the instrument at this point, the rarity of it and the legitimacy it will give him in pursuing his dreams, or the link to his family's history, back to slavery, or something else?
I think it is precious to Ray because his beloved grandmother gave it to him, no matter if it's a valuable instrument or not.

DQs Day 1
Chapters 1 - 6

1. Can you even imagine losing a 10 million dollar anything?! Have you ever lost something and felt as Ray is portrayed in chapter 1...constantly retracing your steps over and over? What are your thoughts on other security precautions, if any, that should have been in place?
I cannot imagine having a 10 million dollar anything to lose! It makes sense to me though because Ray had his violin with him everywhere, so it's familiar - this routine, familiar things are easier to lose! They mentioned YoYo-Ma and his cello - I totally remember reading about that. For me, putting things in the same place is the only way I don't lose them.

2. At this point in the book, when/where do you think the Stradivarius was taken?
I feel like it had to be from the hotel room, but I have no idea about who stole it.

3. Money can be a keen motivator...the ransom note leads us to believe it's all about the money...do you think it's possible it's about something else? It makes sense it would be all about the money. I can't think of anything else at this point.

4. It's eluded to that Ray is about to make history because of his race with the upcoming competition in Russia. His family sure doesn't seem to be proud or supportive. Should Ray be proud of this accomplishment or is putting the focus on race poor form by everyone concerned? No matter his race, Ray should be super proud of being eligible for the upcoming competition. I cannot believe his family! I think making the focus on race is in one way, diminishing the accomplishment. But in most ways, Ray making it to that point is even more incredible because some people would put up stumbling blocks because of his race.

That's probably going to be normal this round. It's a trick finding books with ANY letters to use.

Wow - we are going to rock Vuvuzela! Weirdly, I was lying down listening to a book and they said "I even heard a vuvuzela". It's a good sign!

I bet they haven't read my messages to them yet. I'll bug them again in a couple of days if they don't reach out.

You guys made me cry grateful tears. Thank you so much for all the things!

And thanks Amanda for stepping up, and requesting access. Between the three of us, I suspect we will have perfect check-ins these last two rounds.

Thanks ladies! It was another rather sleepless night, but at least I have drugs now. And have learned that they work for about 4 hours and take a bit to kick in :) But I sure appreciate all of you. You know how it is when you can't sleep - I kept repeating in my brain "this too shall pass" and thinking I was extremely funny.

But yes - on to round 4! Let's all read hard and see what happens. I guess we are like the kid who fell on the third lap of the race but got up and ran hard. And really our third round even without the last day's books was pretty amazing.

I sure appreciate all of you - whether I am drugged or not. :)

Yeah thank goodness for drugs. Although they don't quite dull my challenge frustration.
And thanks for volunteering as tribute Amanda. I told them you'd be requesting spreadsheet access, and gave them your user id to invite you to the captains group.

Luckily I set up the round 4 stuff yesterday, so we're good to go as far as updating. But bah - hopefully between the three of us for rounds 4 and 5 we will be 100% perfect. And who knows, maybe now we'll be one of those teams that gets extra bonuses.

But I feel horrible. You ladies don't deserve this! I guess we can add the missing points in our heads and know if we would have won at the end :( And who knows, maybe we still will.

Anyway, I am going to go to bed for now, but sorry again!

Thanks Amanda - I don't remember childbirth very well (thank goodness) but I'd say this was worse. No cute baby at the end either. I'll see about getting you on the list. It would be good to have a third updater, because clearly emergencies happen. I swear - I've enjoyed updating every morning, then today of all days....

I think for the primary spreadsheet, just request edit permissions, and the mods should grant them.

I told the mods what happened. I had a kidney stone - didn't even take my phone, so couldn't contact anyone, not that it really crossed my mind anyway. Came in and was going to lie down and remembered - rushed to the computer and 30 minutes too late.

Anyway - if someone wants to take over as captain or be put in as co-captain or something - just speak up. I'm so sorry that happened!

I think it would be fine - we can use nicknames.

BUT crap - you guys - I had a trip to the hospital at 3 a.m. - didn't get home til just now - and because of the stress I totally forgot about updating or messaging - walked in the door, remembered the update, but it was too late. I'm pretty sure there are no exceptions, but I am SOOOO sorry.
I'll try to read like a fiend these next two rounds - and maybe we can get yet another co-captain or if someone wants to captain - I'm such a fail!

That's a lovely green book! I'm sure glad we have a great bunch of planners!

Does tin eye add the "grey" of his shirt and face and come up with more than 50%? His shirt looks green to me too. I'm not positive the cover is over 50% green though? What do others think?

I stuck those on the spreadsheet so people would know what we have.

Wow Amanda - nice finds! You as well Janine!