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

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

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!

I got our page updated to the main spreadsheet. Several teams haven't entered anything officially yet, so lots of surprises in store. But for those who have - we are in 2nd place and have been closing a pretty wide gap with the first place team (Team Metal). Well done!

We are at our max bonus points for this round. I wonder what the bonus next round will be! But for this week, enjoy reading all your SYNTHESIZER books. I keep wanting our word to have an "A". Probably because I keep finding "A" books :)

And yay team! We have one more week on this word then on to the next. We've sure done well this week.

Also a reminder about the buddy read which is starting in two days. Extra points and hopefully a fun book!

No problem Amanda - that's a super easy fix. Thanks!

Ok I think I got it changed for the character information - please anyone let me know if you have comments/suggestions. And thanks Laurla for the ideas and tips - it'll be nice to have all information to choose from!

I've glanced through the other team's planning spreadsheets - there's quite a variety - and some fantastic ideas in them. I'll likely stick with (basically) what we are using for this Wheels, but I'm for sure open to any easy tweaks and improvements you all would like!

Very true! I'll do my best to get that changed :)

That's a great idea! Thanks!

I'm not super smart at spreadsheets, so I don't know for sure if I can implement it in the middle of this round without messing up cells-I'll see. But I'm pretty sure I can do it for Round 2.

Welcome back Laurla - I hope you had a ton of fun!! How was the music?

That's a great question, and what a nice problem to have with lots of qualifying characters. Hmm...since we can only use one letter, perhaps choose characters with the most "rare" letters for the spreadsheet - I'd list rarity as "Z, Y, I, E" in that order. Then if you are willing, make a comment on one of the character names (you can do this by right clicking on the spreadsheet cell and selecting "comment"). You can list the other characters there. At least for now, that's the easiest way I can think of - but if anyone has other ideas, feel free! I'm also ok with you taking a second (or more) line just right under you book and listing more characters there - can just put "continued" in the book name.

Yes any character that speaks and has an important role in the plot. I'll change the SS heading from "Main".

Ys, Is, and Zs are the hardest, but there isn't a standout letter we are struggling with right now - I'll keep you all posted.

The round ends in a bit more than a week. If we can get even one letter, we can use the books.

Here's the end countdown:
https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

And we have completed our word twice now - hooray! Before the challenge I was thinking "oh I bet we will finish the word three times" but I think I underestimated our team :)

Kari wrote: "We have enough white covers and instruments at this time, right?"

Yes we do. Well done team - way to attack those bonuses!

Nanci wrote: "Suzanne, I think I know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask in case others have the same situation.

My book, [book:Mars and Venus in the Bedroom: A Guide to Lasting Romance and Pass..."

Sadly, we have to find a synthesizer letter in order to use it. It actually makes me worry about the upcoming book of the month - but we'll cross that bridge later since we don't even know what that word will be.