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

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

It is wonderful to wake up to seeing three more new team members - thanks for checking in!

I'm so glad we have teammates from different parts of the world. With all the crazy things happening sometimes, it's nice to think about a worldwide community of readers who have the "crazy" idea to read towers of books together.

Vi, my husband and I had the the opportunity to visit the Netherlands quite a few years ago but only for a day, so we really need to go back. As we drove places, I LOVED the street signs but had no idea how to pronounce most of them. It felt like I was in a magical place :) Good luck with the job hunting.

Janine - what wonderful hobbies. And how kind of you to foster guinea pigs! Good luck with the helping daughters move/find places. That sounds like a lot of moving help in the future :) I'm glad you decided to play tower teams! Even now, reading all of the rules makes me feel overwhelmed, and yet like most games it is easy once you get started. But ask questions anytime!

And Amanda - how exciting to have a baby due at the end of summer! You can complain anytime you want - with all those changes happening in your body, lots of that is NOT FUN. Miraculous, but sometimes a good complaint is just the thing :)

Hello, Nanci, Jen, and Apoorv - it makes me so happy to learn a little more about each of you!

Nanci - I love your hobbies! Living the dream! :)

Jen - what an important job. I know some people who have been greatly helped by a speech pathologist.

And Apoorv - first off, I did not know our team name meant auspicious in Arabic - I love that fact! And how awesome that you have a spreadsheet for all those life things - that is such a fantastic idea!

Thanks for linking shelves! I'll get those input tomorrow, and be sending out some friend requests too. But I'm going to bed so happy to have started meeting such great teammates!

Ashara is open and ready to meet you! Here is the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Lisa - I love the hobbies - such a fun variety! I had to look up duck pin bowling - that looks fun! And sniff...it's bittersweet having a graduate - but exciting.

And speaking of graduating - congratulations Shannon!! And how well planned having a single final!

We are lucky to have you both on the team!

I'm in and can do daily questions. If I get picked, I'm travelling the 10th - 13th so would need to be scheduled before that. (Not sure how long the schedule will run for this.)

Note: team Ashara

Hello team! I (and the other captains) are SO excited to get to read with you during the next few months! I'm looking forward to playing with some old friends again and to making new ones.

Please come, check in, and tell us a little about yourself. Oh, and if you can link your tower team shelf, I'll put it on our list above.

Also, whenever you have questions we're here for you, and if we don't know the answers, we will find them.

A little about me: I retired from teaching about a year ago - life has seemed just as busy, but it is a lot of fun. I love dogs and reading (obviously) and playing computer games. I look forward to travelling more - we have been doing a lot of grandchild care the past couple of years, but that will be tapering off in the next few months.

There might be other interesting things about me, but I woke up at 4 a.m. because I kept thinking about things to post here, and now my mind is blank :) I can't wait to meet you all!

Weekly Status Report

Summary: (As of July 16)
We have been reading so much! The top three teams are all being super competitive. The teamwork on Wheel has been super fun to watch.

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

July Books *as of July 16, 52% done with the month - :
100-199 10/10 100%
200-299 20/20 1000%
300-399 30/30 100%
400-400 16/30 53%
500-599 7/20 35%
600+ 5/10 50%
Free 86/103


Shelf fixes

Books of the Month

Starts 2 July Fantastic job on questions Kerri!!

Starts 16 July - remember to go answer questions :)

Mini-Challenges
Rainbow Towers: Keep marking any of your books that have colored covers.

Wheel: Nice Teamwork! This is a fun mini - and certainly a challenge.

Page points: We are behind or right on with our long-page books (I'm sure that's because we have focused on wheel, and can't count the pages for the tower - they still count for page points!) I know Leslie is reading some long books on her trip, and when I travel the next two weeks I'll be reading some as well.

Books of the Month (group reads)

These are a great (optional) way to get bonus points.
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions = 40 points
Participating in a current BOM (participating in discussion) = 20 points

May Books
Kings of the Wyld discussion Starts May 2

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau Starts May 16

June Books
City of Brass Starts June 2
11/22/63 Starts June 16

Challenge Description and Rules

Team Spreadsheet (only editable by Captains) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Team Rankings https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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

Mini-Challenges
Original: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Chipmunk: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Planning sheet (claim tasks and let us know your planned/finished books): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

If you don't want to use the planning spreadsheet, you can leave a completion post for your finished books in the team thread.

Sample Completion Post
Book:
Author:
Pages:
Date finished:
Any comments you'd like to make about the book.

If the book is for a mini challenge, please list all tasks it will work for, including reasons why


Team Shelves and NBRC Comments:
✔️ Suzanne TTX Comments
✔️ Lisa 2023-ttx Comments
✔️ Shannon O'Flynn ttx Comments
✔️ Nanci Drum tt2023 Comments
✔️Apoorv Moghe challenge-nbrc-ttx Comments
✔️ Jen Sabo tt10 Comments
✔️ Kirsten ttx Comments
✔️ Jackie tt-x Comments
✔️ Amanda tower2023Comments
✔️ Janine ttx Comments
✔️ Vi tower-teams-x Comments
✔️ Tone B ttx-2023 Comments
✔️ Andrea tower-teamsm-10 Comments
✔️ Cris towerteams23 Comments
✔️ Kerri McDonaldtower-teams-x Comments
✔️ Nicole towers-x Comments
✔️ Leslie Ann Towerx Comments
✔️Elinor 2023-towerteams Comments
✔️Keli ttx Comments


(Please try to remember to add your finished books to your challenge shelf - that makes your captains' lives so much easier!)

IMO the chat, support and friendship are the most contributions to any team. And the book recommendations :)

@Mods - would it be possible to lower my books/week to 15? I think that will be less stressful for me and allow me to read longer books.

Well done, Keli! I love murderbot - I think that is my book alter-ego.

I finished my first book of the challenge too: Cosmos. It was written in the 80s and I enjoyed thinking about what has happened since then, but mostly just thinking about the immensity of the universe.

That's wonderful! I'd love to be on a team with all of you! Fingers crossed.

It is a fun, very low stress challenge. Pretty much any book you read fits somewhere.

This has been an eye-opening challenge for me - I realized that the number of books published in the current year vastly outweighs the number on my TBR from years ago - yikes! Although I have to blame Netgalley for some of that.

But...
1. I finished The Camel Club series (on my list since 2012)
2. Read 15 books from 2015. A standout for me was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - I was very surprised to like it so much.
3. Ironically finished "The Finishing School series" from my 2016 list
4. FINALLY read The Pillars of the Earth, A Memory Called Empire and Super Powereds: Year 1 - some long tomes that have been on my list froever.

I am definitely going to try again next year.

I am almost done (resumed with Part 2 in late November) and thought I would check in here. My feelings have been well expressed by Karen - the writing is so good, but I'm so frustrated with the bad guys and I just want them to be dead. And I got very tired with the war.

I hope to finish this today - we'll see.

I want to keep trying to read some of the oldest books on my TBR. I'll go with 50 this time as I need to also catch up on Netgalley and I'm not reading as much.. Any books I've had on there from 2012 to 2019 will count.

52/50

2012:

2013:

2014:

2015:
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion February
Mother Earth, Father Sky - August
The Shop on Blossom Street - September
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - October
The Privilege of the Sword - October


2016:
Beauty and the Beast February
The Bookshop on the Corner February
Split the Party - April
The Devil You Know - April
The Wednesday Sisters June
Furiously Happy - August
Enchanted - September
Rosemary's Gravy - September

2017:
Cosmos January
West with the Night by Beryl Markham February
That Wintry Feeling - February
Where'd You Go, Bernadette - March
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror - April
The City of Brass - June
Side Jobs - September
A Fall of Marigolds - September
La Belle Sauvage - October
Wishin' and Hopin' - October
A Plague of Giants - November
Fierce Kingdom - November
The Visitor - November
Fated - December

2018:
Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones - May
Maids of Misfortune April
Zoo July
A River in Darkness - August
Whose Body? - October
Romancing the Werewolf - December

2019:
Assassin's Honor by Gail Martin - February
99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne - February
The Three Fates - February
The Other Queen - April
Broken Homes - May
Elizabeth II: Life of a Monarch July
11/22/63 June
Thrawn: Alliances June
Strange Dogs: An Expanse Novella July
City of Thieves - August
Her Body and Other Parties - August
Fairest - September
Foxglove Summer - September
Wicked and the Wallflower - September
Invasive - October
You're Going to Mars! - October
The City Baker's Guide to Country Living - November
Vox - December
Tunnel of Bones - December

I think we did as well as we possibly could. Im proud of us! Thank so much for all the work!!!!

we don't get points (just satisfaction) from those anyway. and I have to say I LOVED your descriptions!

thanks Rebecca! you've put in so much work this challenge!!