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

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

Leslie - that hadn't crossed my mine! I went and verified and :
characters must be significant to the plot. you can use first, last or nickname.

So Yes Orphan X would work.

Xeno maybe? That's a brilliant idea Amanda!

Anything you read is a huge help. I love Fantasy - nice choice :)

Thanks Laurla! It has been a busy day here, but I will search for X books myself soon.

Cities I could potentially do: (couldn't do all, but can choose from these):
Liverpool
Austin
Berlin
Chicago
Detroit
Johannesburg
Kingston
Montreal
Nashville
Paris
Tokyo
Vienna

DQs Day 4: Ch. 23-31

14. After Mark's story, the siblings kind of bonded. What did you think of that and the hug. At that point of the story, did you feel like they were going to be unified or that it would be short-lived?
I thought the hug was nice, but then didn't like how Louise is still wanting Mark to apologize and she wants to feel like the "good person". It's hard for me to trust them as a team.

15. So they made a plan to go back in and take care of Pupkin vs. just burning down the house? Why?? Pretend you don't know how that turned out - what would you have decided to do after they both shared their Pupkin experiences?
I would never have reentered that house - burning it seems like a good option.

16. The battle! I don't even know what to say other than I kept needing to put the book down. Did you expect this level of brutality? Would you have been able to cut off the arm?
I didn't like reading this part at all. I think I probably wouldn't have fought so hard and just died.

17. Did you expect Pupkin to show back up like he did? I totally saw this coming, probably because there is a good chunk of the book left. And it made sense it'd be Poppy.

18. What did you think of Gail? If you haven't finished already, what do you think will happen? Gail seemed like a bad-ass to me. I loved how she casually mentioned fighting a warlock. She's my only hope. But it's annoying why they didn't go to her before the above mentioned fight.

Bonus: Are you systematically removing all puppets from your house now? If so, don't worry - they'll be back =O I DO have puppets in my house that were made by my Grandmother and Mother. They are in a box. Need to duct tape it shut now.

DQs Set 2: Chapters 8 - 15

6. Were you expecting those wills? Why do you think both parents were so unfair on the kids?
So although I've been squirming at some of the spooky parts, this part made me take a break for about a day. This same thing is happening in my family right now. My dad is leaving everything to my youngest brother, which has certainly caused some hard feelings, although everyone is being civil and trying to move past it.

7. Yikes! killer stuffed squirrels! The first violent haunting here, was it effective?
This was super creepy and I think at this point I would have just told the dumpster guys to do their thing and never entered that house again.

8. Despite the various creepy things that Louise has experienced, she's refusing to let her aunt exorcise the house. Would you still be hanging onto rational reasons over accepting family help?
With what she's already seen and heard, I think Louise is crazy not to accept help. Ha I did like how polite Mercy was about the whole haunted house thing.

9. We've had more insight into the childhood of Mark and Louise. Does this change your opinion of either of them?
I dislike Louise more and like Mark more - but I don't love either of them.

DQs Day 4: Ch. 23-31

14. After Mark's story, the siblings kind of bonded. What did you think of that and the hug. At that point of the story, did you feel like they were going to be unified or that it would be short-lived?

15. So they made a plan to go back in and take care of Pupkin vs. just burning down the house? Why?? Pretend you don't know how that turned out - what would you have decided to do after they both shared their Pupkin experiences?

16. The battle! I don't even know what to say other than I kept needing to put the book down. Did you expect this level of brutality? Would you have been able to cut off the arm?

17. Did you expect Pupkin to show back up like he did?

18. What did you think of Gail? If you haven't finished already, what do you think will happen?

Bonus: Are you systematically removing all puppets from your house now? If so, don't worry - they'll be back =O

Oh Janeylou absolutely NOTHING to ever apologize for - not sure how helpful those other tabs are anyway.

And Kari - I hadn't seen that yet - yikes! Although I suppose white is an easier color than some. But really - X, Y, O, P ---challenging! But we can do this!

And yes, new round starts on that countdown timer .

I still need to catch up with the Haunted House book and write my questions. And then will try to get the planning SS for Round 2 ready for our cities. Thanks for that list of ones you can potentially do Janeylou!

I'm thinking for this, we'll maybe keep a list of claimed cities?? Or what would make it easier for all of you?

Here is the Round 2 Bonus! I'll say more tomorrow - I have some reading to do so that I can ask questions tomorrow! But this bonus is pretty challenging - I'm sure we can do it though :)

Now you've got a collection of instruments, lets go on a tour!

During Round 2 books set in one of the musical cities on the list below earn an additional 5 bonus points. Only one bonus locale per book and a maximum of 10 bonus locations. Books must be at least 50% in the listed city, and you can only visit each city once!


Location List:
[Austin, USA
Berlin, Germany
Bogotá, Colombia
Brazzaville, Congo
Chengdu, China
Chicago, USA
Detroit, USA
Havana, Cuba
Johannesburg, South Africa
Kingston, Jamaica
Liverpool, United Kingdom
Manchester, United Kingdom
Melbourne, Australia
Milan, Italy
Montreal, Canada
Nashville, USA
New Orleans, USA
Paris, France
Seoul, South Korea
Shanghai, China
Sydney, Australia
Tokyo, Japan
Toronto, Canada
Varanasi, India (also known as Benares)
Vienna, Austria

And I went to the spreadsheet and it's like you ladies have read my mind! Note: I can put more instances of the word in, if we end up reading that much - but we shall see!

I'm HOPING I can do those two Zs, but we could use at least one more. We also can use Ys. Thanks to the great team effort, our I's are covered, although don't let that dissuade anyone if you have a great I book you want to read!

I'm so proud of our team :)

Here is the countdown to end of Round 1 / Beginning of Round 2
https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

Be sure to get all of your SYNTHESIZER books in before the deadline!

More information about Round 2 coming soon.

Thanks Nanci! Wow what a busy week for you :)

@Nanci - I don't see a Date Read for Horse on the sheet or your shelf, so when you have a chance, put that in. That was a lot of books to report!

Nanci and Cordelia - I hope both of you have wonderful, safe travels!!

I felt like I was waking up to a bunch of treasures when I got onto our planning sheet and saw all of those lovely finished books! Well done! I suspect we'll move books around a few times, especially towards the end of the week - and it's nice to have all these wonderful books to use for spelling!

DQs Day 1
Ch 1 to Ch 7

1.) What are your first impressions of the family and of Louise and Mark? How pivotal do you think their relationship (or lack thereof) will play in the story.
Aside: I plan to steal and use the phrase "Terminal Assholism" in future. Thank you Hendrix!
I am not keeping the older relatives very straight, but their comments make me laugh. I do suspect Mark and Louise's relationship will be a big part of the story - his having the junk removers come like they did (so soon!) surprised me.

2.) The book is organized into sections following the 5 stages of grief. Does this impact your expectations of the book at all? No, because I totally didn't notice that! So I'm glad you asked the question.

3.) Okay. Life size dolls named after her children. Weird, creepy? Would you be excited to have them as part of your inheritance? Even reading about them creeps me out. I wouldn't keep them.

4.) Have you ever experienced a family post-death squabble/fight like the one Louise and Mark had in front of the junk clean out guys? I have not, but certainly some post-death drama/hard feelings.

5.) Did anyone else google Fellowship of Christian Puppeteers? If so, were you surprised to find they were a real organization? Has anyone interacted with them before or a similar organization for other religious beliefs? [note: please keep responses respectful to people's beliefs, this is a safe space] I was very surprised to find out it was a real organization. The funeral actually gave me a smile - at my grandmother's funeral there were some puppets and I thought it was sweet and so appropriate for her.

We seem to be a little short of Zs, Ys, and I's. But I'm sure that's just because they are less common. But yes, we're doing really well!

And yes Nanci, I love the fall weather too! I really should go outside and read a bit. The Buddy Read for How to Sell a Haunted House started, and I am doing daily questions towards the last, so I'd better get that book started!

We are all figuring things out so it's important to speak up and ask questions. Then we can fix them together.

Thanks Cordelia - that's what I'm guessing too.

Lindsay - this is the sheet to use:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Most of the pages are still locked, but you should be able to enter books in "Round 1 Planning" which is the second tab. If you can't, please let me know (you can also do a "request access").
Fingers crossed it all works ok!