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

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

Lisa, I don't know if you have scribd, but there is a copy of Fourth Wing on it. Or at least there was last time I checked :) My library holds are about 2 months out - it sure is popular!

Thanks Vi - that's a hard one!

Thanks Kirsten!

And thanks all of you - the way you coordinate and work together as a team is wonderful!

Yes you can read at your own pace - just try to answer the daily questions reflecting what your thoughts were at that point of the book. I hope you enjoy it!

Weekly Status Report

Summary: (As of June 25)
Wow - only 5 more days in June! If you aren't going to finish a 500 page book you've put on the planning spreadsheet, please speak up as soon as you know. As Lisa said, we'll need one more than those on the list - I will start one that I can finish, and I think someone else (Elinor) is doing that as well.
We are still in the lead, although not as commandingly as sometimes - great job everyone!

Status sheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

June Books :
100-199 10/10 100%
200-299 20/20 100%
300-399 30/30 100%
400-400 30/30 100%
500-599 16/20 80%
600+ 10/10 100%
Free 155/103


Shelf fixes


Books of the Month


2 July is last day to answer questions


16 July is the last day to answer questions

Starts 2 July

Starts 16 July

Mini-Challenges
Rainbow Towers: Keep noting color covers if you use a book for a spellout. Try to use a book for rainbows if it is not black, blue (dark, bright, teal) or white - although we can still possibly use those

Chipmunks: We are almost done (one month early)

New spellouts! Remember the book has to be finished after 6/15 to use for this one.

I'll try to carefully look at the 500 pagers tonight. I'm almost done with mine and could for sure do another if we need

There's no pressure to finish by the 30th anyway :)

My trip with the 22 was good! One of the older (11 year old) girls was pretty naughty and disobedient, but not awful, more annoying. The rest of them were pretty much perfect - except the whole keeping track of all their stuff. Their favorite activities were archery and rockets (paper rockets they made and got to shoot up in the sky). But boy was I tired afterwards, and then yesterday my fever I'd had all the past week shot back up and I was so sick. I'm glad we went though - and glad it's done!

Welcome back Nanci!

I think maybe the MC wouldn't qualify as a professor since he teaches high school? So it might be a moot point. At least I've always thought university teachers were the professors?

Elinor wrote: "I understood we were trying to keep a good pace with the Chipmunks because it’s likely another challenge will start in July - so that would mean MT, RT, TT, Chipmunks, BOMs, and another list of pro..."

We are ok not finishing these in July - let's just keep making steady progress as we are. RT will never be finished anyway since we can get as many rainbows as we want :)

I'm taking 22 kids to Day Camp today - wish me luck!

And also good point about - if anyone has a book on the spreadsheet that you don't think you'll read - that's fine! But probably remove it just to help planning.

Vi - I think we'll use your Nora Roberts for the 500+ category as we want to be sure we fill that one, and I'll get mine done tomorrow. Hope that's ok!

I'm almost positive not - about the same initial since no letter appears more than once in Romance. If nothing else, my current book fits it (Nora Roberts). I just didn't put it down because I won't finish it til Thursday.

Lisa - I am SUPER glad we have til end of challenge to finish Chipmunks. Although I am sure that it'll be sooner than that.

Vi - yes about Sherry Thomas - she is certainly from China - good find!!

Nicole B wrote: "Brief checkin because I'm aware I didn't do one last week. I'm enjoying my books though struggling to read at the moment. Hope everyone's enjoying themselves :D"

Thanks for checking in! It's funny how some weeks just are more emotionally reading weeks than others :) Hope you are having a good summer!

Elinor wrote: "Thanks Lisa, we have been putting lots of our energy on the chipmunks. I saw the latest prompts, and I don’t have any that fit on my shelf unfortunately. Hoping other’s do but also prepared to get ..."

Elinor - I think to get the tokens the DQs have to be answered within a month of the group read. But yes, it's probably worth it to do for our current books! (And 3 questions or more gives the extra token. ) I'm glad you asked that because it reminds me that I need to do my summary for this months books.

Weekly Status Report

Summary: (As of June 18)

Status sheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

June Books *as of June 18 - which is 60% done with the month:
100-199 10/10 100%
200-299 13/20 65%
300-399 25/30 83%
400-400 19/30 63%
500-599 12/20 60%
600+ 9/10 90%
Free 105/103 102%


Shelf fixes


Books of the Month


Starts 2 June


Starts 16 June

Mini-Challenges
Rainbow Towers: Keep noting color covers if you use a book for a spellout. If it's not black or blue though (especially with common letters) it's likely good to prioritize rainbows.

Chipmunks: We are about 2/3 with the mini-challenge

New spellouts! Remember the book has to be finished after 6/15 to use for this one.

Provided by Apoorv and SO useful for Chipmunks:
Links to "Best of" lists:
2013: https://www.goodreads.com/list/best_o...
2014: https://www.goodreads.com/list/best_o...
2015: https://www.goodreads.com/list/best_o...
All the years: https://www.goodreads.com/list/best_b...

DQs Day 4 - 18 June
Chapters 9-11 32%

14) What do you think the cards symbolize for the yellow card man? I'm starting to think it could be like a warning, but I'm also connecting him to Al. They both died at the same time. Now that the yellow/orange/black card man has committed suicide am I alone in worrying that Jake may never make it back - and therefore not be able to reset things if he makes a mistake?

15) Jake originally though Carolyn's accident wasn't his to fix, but ended up fixing it anyways. What do you think the reasoning behind this was? The stay at the cabin in the lake sounds magical and relaxing. Do you like to canoe? And have you ever played cribbage?

16) Jake seems to be enjoying his time in the past a lot more than last time. Do you think there is a reason for this? Do you think you would be happy living in the past knowing what would happen? The general feel in this section is that of simpler and more trusting time. But how is it that nobody is even a little suspicious of a new guy, with such an oddly specific bet and other strange behaviors?

17) How do you feel about Harry dying in Vietnam? Is Jake right in feeling he wasted his time saving Harry or do we know too little about Harry's life to reach a conclusion? Should we be judging at all, and if so, based on what criteria beyond life and death?

Bonus: (we had a fantastic team discussion with this one) I suspect that that event was one of those where so many people remember where they were that day/moment, how they felt, etc. Any others you all can think of?

Kirsten wrote: "Hello Team!

I said I was going on holiday in the Pyrenees. I am not. Passport problems with my daughter, who has been tossed into the Canadian system despite the fact that she's had two US passpor..."

How frustrating when red tape changes plans!

Elinor wrote: "Wow those other challenges sound really quite stressful - I don't think I'd enjoy challenges that dictate my reading too much so v. happy to be here playing TTX just after UNO, which's also great f..."

I'd call it dark orange. Tineye has a hard time with those mixed covers.

DQs Day 3 - 17 June
Chapters 7 - 8, 26%

10) We find out more about Frank Dunning. He is portrayed as a smooth talker and good looking. Do you find this stereotypical of someone who will go on to murder most of his family? It always seems to be someone no one suspects. Jake's opinion of him obviously isn't very good. Do you think Jake would feel differently if he didn't know what Frank was going to do? I think Jake probably would feel differently - killers like Frank Dunning seem to be of the "He was such a nice guy" variety.

11) Jake plans how he is going to stop Frank. Would your thought process have been the same as Jake's? How would you plan to change the event? I don't think I would have been as "but I need absolute proof" as Jake. But it's probably good he's like that. I also would have wanted more backup plans given what happened to Al when he tried to change history.

12) There is something off about Derry. The place itself feels weird and the people act strange. Would you stay somewhere where you don't feel welcome? Would you investigate more into what was going on?Darry seems like something out of a Stephen King novel :) I would probably want to stay somewhere more comfortable. And...I'd like to think I would investigate but the whole thing is kind of scary.

13) Well, stoppping Frank didn't go to plan but he did get stopped. What do you think the cosequences of changing the event will be in the present, if any? Do you think he will go back and try again? If so, what do you think he will do differently?
I've read past this point, but at this spot I kept thinking of like the whole monkeypaw wish thing. I do think that Jake will try again given he resets things when he comes back. And hopefully with a better plan!