Jill’s Comments (group member since Nov 15, 2016)

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

DQs 2

Angels in the Snow

8. Shy puts up a good front that everything is just fine when he is actually starving and lonely. Haley's invitation to dinner seems to be exactly what he needs. Why do you think he is making choices that are clearly making him miserable?
I don’t think he has much of a choice. He comes from poverty and seems to live ‘paycheck to paycheck.’ He was relying on his cat sitting pay to sustain him. But since the owner said he’ll pay Shy when he gets back, Shy didn’t have any money for food and was too embarrassed to admit it.

9. Haley asks Shy about his meals, invites him to dinner, and then brings muffins which she puts straight into the refrigerator without giving Shy a chance to stop her. Do you think she suspects that he doesn't have any food? What did you think of her solution of fixing dinner and then dragging him up to her apartment to eat it?
No, I don’t think Haley had a clue that Shy was hungry. He played it off well. I think it was very neighborly to feed him. She felt bad for him and refused to let his pride get in the way.

10. In the end, it turns out that Haley wasn't completely honest, and she confesses her deception to Shy. What do you think initially motivated her to deceive him? Why is she telling him the truth now?
Haley deceived Shy because she still had her guard up. She was taking a shower in a stranger’s house with a man she didn’t know. She was creating a boundary. But I think she was also fooling herself into wanting to be in a relationship with Justin. She had lied to her boyfriend about it as well, but finally admitted to him and herself she couldn’t continue the relationship. She’s telling him the truth now because she was able to own her decision and realize her true motivations and feelings.

Polaris Is Where You'll Find Me

11. Given that Natalie has lived at the North Pole since she was a baby, did you find it odd that she seemed so completely alone at the party and separate from the elves?
No, because she is human and different from them.

12. What did you think of Santa as a dad: the dress, the dance, the fact he can't be lied to?
I thought it was cute!

13. The end of the story was really open ended. Do you think Flynn is right that she will go away someday and stop believing or do you think she will stay at the North Pole?
I don’t know, but I think that was the point of the story. Flynn gave her a way out by handing her the note with Lars’ address. She can either stay and keep believing or track Lars down and try to have a future with him as a regular person.

DQ's - Dec 1

Midnights
1. Mags and Noel meet at a New Years Eve party and we read dialogue from 4 consecutive celebrations. To me, it’s pretty obvious Noel is interested in more than a ‘friendship’ relationship with Mags. What are your thoughts about why Mags is so reluctant?
I think Mags is reluctant because she doesn’t think the feeling is mutual.

2. Not sure, but Noel appears to have some experience with other girls…Natalie, Amy, Alicia…while Mags doesn’t interact with other boys. What’s keeping Mags from other boys and if Noel really likes Mags why is he kissing/dating other girls?
Mags keeps from other boys because she likes Noel, but Noel doesn’t make it obvious that he likes Mags. He sends mixed signals. It seems like they don’t fess up to each others true feelings for one another, so they take it as the other person isn’t interested.

3. It seems that Noel is really the one open to different things and specifically change vs Mags who appears likes things status quo. One quote ’everything was the same and everything was different’… what does this mean to you?
I think this sets the tone to the story. Since we are getting the same snippet of just before minute in different years, we don’t really know what’s going on outside of that. A lot can happen from one year to the next. The quote “everything was the same and everything was different” tells the reader the party, crowd, and friendships are the same, but the feelings are different.

The Lady and the Fox
4. The man (Fenny) is outside standing still…in the trees always at Christmas, always in the snow… What do you think about this man? He says he’s where he’s supposed to be…he’s only allowed to come when it shows…why do you think he’s supposed to be there?
At first I thought he was a ghost, but after reading the whole story, he is a man trapped under some kind of spell.

5. Fenny gives Miranda the Fox Damask from his coat as a present and she fixes it so the fox is no longer chained and returns it to him one year later, again as a present. Is this ‘fox’ magic? Would he have been able to be free of the lady had this not occurred do you think?
I don’t know if it’s the fox itself or the damask that’s magic. It’s the physical representation of the magic, so physically changing it broke him free. The reader never really learns how the magic works, so it’s hard to tell if he could have been freed otherwise.

6. The fact that Miranda’s mother is in jail is one aspect of this story that requires ‘imagination’. What does her mother have in common with Finny (the man in the snow) and/or the lady? Do you think her mother is really in jail in Thailand?
The mom is like Finny in that she is “trapped.” I think her mother is in jail, but I don’t know why/if it was important to the story.

7. The book was written in a ‘different’ style. If you were going to put a label on the style, what would you call it and why? Does Link’s style remind you on another author you’ve read…if so, who?
It reads similar to fantasy and fairytale. It was very unique and haven’t read anything similar.

Updated

Yeah, Sammy, I think that's ok. I would hate to exclude people that want to play because of super strict rules that other teams aren't even following.

No trouble finding books here either. My library is an amazing resource. Now whether we all like the book is a different story :P Let's all forget about the rope challenge, amiright? XD

To be honest with you, this team is very relaxed and this challenge is very relaxed so I don't see a problem with having leniency on some of the tasks. Heather, I'm sure those books are fine

The rules state to get the full points, all members have to read A book. It doesn't explicitly say task. But we interpreted it as meaning reading the task. I saw that there are other teams on this challenge that choose to use the rule as reading A book. I don't want to change anything here, but I wouldn't be opposed to someone reading A book for certain stops, especially if other teams are playing that way. I don't see the need to kill ourselves over it. Members, please chime in

Natalie, please place Summer Lovin' to your wheel shelf :)

Updated

Heather, were you struggling to find books for all tasks or just the 2 that you mentioned? If just the 2, then not many getting added. But totally up to you. Let us know how you’d like to continue

Alexandra, glad you’re staying!! We are ready for business on Tues if we wrap up our last stop on time :)

Yes, we get max points if everyone does the task. You have a couple of weeks to find love/hot/steam and tattoo. I don't have anything on my TBR either, but I'm going to try my library. Some of the other members also posted ideas for these tasks in an earlier post if you wanna check that out.

Banked books are for books you read that you aren't sure where to place yet and that you're reading ahead of time. For example, we are on stop 1, and you are finished with stop 1, and you are reading something that fits stop 7 and 8, you can put it in banked books until you figure out where you want to put it. Hope that makes sense :)

Updated

I'm pretty sure Seraphina finished awhile ago, which is why she hasn't been as present. Maybe she just needs a little nudge

Yeah. Do you want to message them Sammy?

I know lol I finished this challenge in October so I've been impatiently tapping my foot until the next itinerary :P

Cathy, you can cross me off for 26. I'm not going to get to it. Work killed me. I usually can get a solid hour of reading in during my lunch break, and have not been able to do that all week :( I'm going to read another short one to make up for my slack/extra points

I just realized a book I'm starting on Sunday can fit for the challenge. I know it's early but I'm going to use it. Don't hate me!!

Yay! Heather, you can find our itinerary with the stops and detours here. You can start signing up for books if you want, no rush :) We also have a banked books tab for tracking your reads. Sometimes people read and then place them where they fit.

Sammy, you can message the mods.

I'm still wondering if we are going to need replacements for Seraphina and Alexandra. Or if they want to continue with us..

Heather wrote: "I was waiting on the sign ups for a new team, but I'll be a hitchhiker and join this one instead. What do I need to do?"

Hi Heather! Just to let you know, this team does mostly detours, rarely spell it out, and we finish about a book a week. Sometimes a few days past a week, but not often. Do you think you will still like to join?

They seem to be doing same number of books than us. They are doing books with big pages. And one of those teams has 12 people on it LOL so of course they're gonna win. Majority of these teams have 8 people..TBH I don't think they divvied up the teams fairly. I got lucky with such a great team :)

Damn..I was hoping we would get first place :'( I hate losing