Preeti’s Comments (group member since Sep 26, 2021)

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

Oh, and one question, where do we add our completion posts, here or on the spreadsheet or both? Thanks!

I had to look up Sky Tower too, and it has now been added to my travel wish list. New Zealand was already on the list so it isn't too much of a stretch.

I am terrified of heights, but for some reason, I also find myself wanting to go to the top of every high building I come across. I think it is partly FOMO and partly wanting to overcome the fear. So far, my favourites have been the WTC in New York (on July 4th, 2000 - the queues were ridiculous), Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai (so cool, it has a roller coaster inside the building), Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame in Paris.

Hi, all. I am so very happy to be taking part in this challenge with all of you.
I see a lot of familiar names... Hi 👋🏻 ... and I am glad to be meeting lots of new people!

My planned TBR (so far...)

Book set in Fiji

A Disappearance in Fiji (Akal Singh #1) by Nilima Rao

Book set in Bhutan

Married to Bhutan by Linda Leaming

BOTM (I have volunteered for the DQs for our team)

What the River Knows (Secrets of the Nile #1) by Isabel Ibañez

Massive book (1796 pages)

Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Audio Collection (Sherlock Holmes #1-9) by Arthur Conan Doyle

I will be adding more books as soon as I finish the first three... the fourth is going to take me longer. I will definitely be reading at least one more book set in one of the places on the Hard list. Edit: Added above!

DQs - Day 4 - Chapters: Interlude VI: Past is Passed, Part II to XXIV: The Thief, the Fool, and the Gamble (Pg. 230 to 306)

13. After learning more about Fox D’Mora's past in "Past is Passed," how does it change what we know about his connection with Death? How do these past experiences affect the choices he makes in the celestial game?

14. How do the labels "The Thief," "The Fool," and "The Gamble" represent the main choices and important ideas the characters deal with in this part of the story?

15. As the game goes on, and Fox and Viola start to understand the parts they are meant to play, how do we see the struggle between destiny and their ability to choose for themselves? Do you think the characters can truly make their own decisions, or are their lives already planned out by a bigger story?

16. What role does humour, especially Blake’s use of wit and irony, play in balancing the existential weight of the plot during these chapters? Does it serve to deepen or distract from the emotional stakes?

17. What is your opinion of how mortality and immortality are portrayed in these sections, particularly through the emotional stakes tied to Viola’s vampirism and Fox’s heritage? Do you think their supernatural identities helped protect them from human feelings like love and sadness, or did it make them feel more alone and cut off?

Judith wrote: "Sure! How about you take Day 4 and then that’ll leave the last day for either another late arrival or I’ll take a second day.

Thank you Preeti!"

Yay, thanks, Judith! And excellent book selection, by the way!

Hi. Do you need more volunteers? If so, I can take either of the days not yet covered. I started reading the book today and am already rather enjoying it.

Melindam wrote: "Keely wrote: "Just dropping in with the bombshell that is I don't like cheese... or wine. I've tried a few gins but I'm not much of a drinker unless it's a special occasion."

Not even Wensleydale?..."

😂

Sophie wrote: "I'm gin girl. Have a few different in the cupboard.

What I have noticed is that the tonic water makes an enormous difference to how it tastes too."

I agree absolutely... I shifted from Schweppes to these lovely new brands that make tonic waters where you can taste more than just sugar, and it has totally changed my G&T experience. In the process, I discovered just how much sugar Schweppes contains and was horrified! The two brands I buy have half the sugar so I don't feel bad when indulging.

Of course, now I have to stock two kinds of tonic waters - plain for the gins with botanicals and flavoured for the regular gins.

I'm in for DQs and am ok with any day.

(Edit: Volunteering for Team Sky Tower)

Am I the only person here who loves gin? It has become even more of a favourite after I discovered the better quality of gins, particularly the wide range of artisanal gins being manufactured in India at present. My current favourite is called Jaisalmer... it is so good!!!

I used to drink a lot of Coca-Cola but have lost my taste for it. Now I drink it very rarely either as a Campari Cola or with lime juice.

April



Book: The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil #1) by Soman Chainani
Date Read: Apr 2
Page Count: 488

Book: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Date Read: Apr 4
Page Count: 246

Book: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Date Read: Apr 5
Page Count: 169

Book: Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
Date Read: Apr 7
Page Count: 379

Book: Mort (Discworld #4) by Terry Pratchett
Date Read: Apr 9
Page Count: 309

Book: The Tower Treasure (The Hardy Boys #1) by Franklin W. Dixon (35948 words)
Date Read: Apr 10
Page Count: 214

Book: The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson (58626 words)
Date Read: Apr 12
Page Count: 337

Book: The Secret of Red Gate Farm (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #6) by Carolyn Keene (33699 words)
Date Read: Apr 14
Page Count: 202

Book: Girlmode by Magdalene Visaggio & Paulina Ganucheau
Date Read: Apr 16
Page Count: 224

Book: The Diviners (The Diviners #1) by Libba Bray
Date Read: Apr 18
Page Count: 578



Book: Redshirts by John Scalzi
Date Read: Apr 20
Page Count: 320

Book: Finlay Donovan Is Killing It (Finlay Donovan #1) by Elle Cosimano
Date Read: Apr 21
Page Count: 355

Book: The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
Date Read: Apr 24
Page Count: 157

Book: Leader of the Pack (Andy Carpenter #10) by David Rosenfelt
Date Read: Apr 25
Page Count: 360

Book: Unleashed (Andy Carpenter #11) by David Rosenfelt
Date Read: Apr 28
Page Count: 308

Book: Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys
Date Read: Apr 29
Page Count: 364

My April Page Count: 5010

Running Total: 700,871

New Group Total: 705,881

Melindam wrote: "Jenny wrote: "Some people don't like Douglas Adams? Fie!
Next you will say that there are those who do not enjoy Christopher Moore. Or Terry Pratchett.
Say it isn't so!

teehee"

Clutches non-exist..."

This is more my style... less effort of having to remember where the non-existent things are. 🤭

I have a love-hate relationship with the Delhi airport so I totally get that. I have the same thing with Munich and Rome... Gahhhh!

If Douglas Adams had ever seen the new terminal here in Bengaluru (where I live), he might have had second thoughts. It is absolutely gorgeous. The only downside is that we now grumble about why the older terminal couldn't have been designed and built by the same people.

TBR Tackler Challenge 2025

Duration: April 1, 2025 - Mar 31, 2026

Completed: 0/27

91: The Cider House Rules by John Irving
93: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
128: The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
161: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
229: The Mysterious World of the Human Genome by Frank Ryan
276: Mortality by Christopher Hitchens
303: The Mystery of Three Quarters (The New Hercule Poirot Mystery #3) by Sophie Hannah
324: The Valley of Masks by Tarun J. Tepal
429: The Painted Veil by Somerset W. Maugham
459: Wonder (Wonder, #1) by R.J. Palacio
511: The Fate Of Butterflies by Nayantara Sahgal
597: The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay
613: Anna K: A Love Story (Anna K, #1) by Jenny Lee
673: The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
735: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
798: Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf
806: Tender is the Night / The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald
828: Marilyn by Norman Mailer
832: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
953: Speaks the Nightbird (Matthew Corbett, #1) by Robert McCammon
956: Murder on Black Swan Lane (Wrexford & Sloane, #1) by Andrea Penrose
984: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
1015: Bacchanal by Veronica Henry
1018: Blue Skinned Gods by S.J. Sindu
1170: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
1179: The Cat Who Caught a Killer (Conrad the Cat Detective #1) by L.T. Shearer
1211: The Daemoniac (Gaslamp Gothic, #1) by Kat Ross

March



Book: Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories by Herbert van Thal (Ed.)
Date Read: Mar 1
Page Count: 864

Book: One Dog Night (Andy Carpenter #9) by David Rosenfelt
Date Read: Mar 2
Page Count: 387

Book: Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #2) by Jessica Townsend (99757 words)
Date Read: Mar 4
Page Count: 544

Book: This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki
Date Read: Mar 5
Page Count: 319

Book: Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis
Date Read: Mar 7
Page Count: 288

Book: Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
Date Read: Mar 8
Page Count: 320

Book: Bitterthorn by Kat Dunn
Date Read: Mar 10
Page Count: 316

Book: The Blessing Way (Leaphorn & Chee #1) by Tony Hillerman
Date Read: Mar 11
Page Count: 304

Book: The Winter Sisters by Tim Westover
Date Read: Mar 12
Page Count: 324

Book: How to Survive a Horror Movie by Scarlett Dunmore
Date Read: Mar 13
Page Count: 304



Book: Less (Arthur Less #1) by Andrew Sean Greer
Date Read: Mar 14
Page Count: 264

Book: The Twelve by Liz Hyder
Date Read: Mar 15
Page Count: 237

Book: The Djinn Falls in Love & Other Stories by Mahvesh Murad & Jared Shurin (Eds.)
Date Read: Mar 16
Page Count: 318

Book: The Winter of the Witch (The Winternight Trilogy #3) by Katherine Arden
Date Read: Mar 20
Page Count: 354

Book: Play Dead (Andy Carpenter #6) by David Rosenfelt
Date Read: Mar 22
Page Count: 308

Book: The Outsider (Holly Gibney #1) by Stephen King
Date Read: Mar 26
Page Count: 642

Book: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Date Read: Mar 28
Page Count: 468

Book: Vampires in the Lemon Grove and Other Stories by Karen Russell
Date Read: Mar 29
Page Count: 258

Book: The Gut: Story of Our Incredible Second Brain by Payal Kothari
Date Read: Mar 30
Page Count: 232

My March Page Count: 7051

Running Total: 546,435

New Group Total: 553,486

February



Book: Penny Dreadful by Laurel Snyder (55822 words)
Date Read: Feb 1
Page Count: 320

Book: Married With Zombies (Living With the Dead #1) by Jesse Petersen
Date Read: Feb 5
Page Count: 272

Book: Equal Rites (Discworld #3) by Terry Pratchett
Date Read: Feb 6
Page Count: 240

Book: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner) by Philip K. Dick
Date Read: Feb 8
Page Count: 258

Book: Lord Edgware Dies (Hercule Poirot #9) by Agatha Christie
Date Read: Feb 9
Page Count: 219

Book: Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor #1) by Jessica Townsend (89778 words)
Date Read: Feb 12
Page Count: 513

Book: The Secret of Shadow Ranch (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #5) by Carolyn Keene (34312 words)
Date Read: Feb 13
Page Count: 202

Book: Third Girl (Hercule Poirot #40) by Agatha Christie
Date Read: Feb 16
Page Count: 365

Book: Writers & Lovers by Lily King
Date Read: Feb 17
Page Count: 245

Book: Dragonsong (Harper Hall of Pern #1) by Anne McCaffrey
Date Read: Feb 19
Page Count: 192



Book: The Widows of Malabar Hill (Perveen Mistry #1) by Sujata Massey
Date Read: Feb 21
Page Count: 400

Book: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Date Read: Feb 23
Page Count: 258

Book: The Satapur Moonstone (Perveen Mistry #2) by Sujata Massey
Date Read: Feb 25
Page Count: 360

Book: Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond
Date Read: Feb 25
Page Count: 40

Book: A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot #1) by Becky Chambers
Date Read: Feb 26
Page Count: 151

Book: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Date Read: Feb 28
Page Count: 251

My Feb Page Count: 3886

Running Total: 353,321

New Group Total: 357,207

January



Book: Emma by Jane Austen
Date Read: Jan 1
Page Count: 255

Book: Booked for the Holidays by Liz Maverick (3Hrs41Mins)
Date Read: Jan 2
Page Count: 126

Book: Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea
Date Read: Jan 4
Page Count: 357

Book: Ghost Roast by Shawnelle & Shawneé Gibbs
Date Read: Jan 4
Page Count: 240

Book: Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman & Colleen Doran
Date Read: Jan 4
Page Count: 63

Book: The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Volume 1 (とつくにの少女 / Totsukuni no shōjo #1) by Nagabe
Date Read: Jan 5
Page Count: 186

Book: The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Volume 2 (とつくにの少女 / Totsukuni no shōjo #2) by Nagabe
Date Read: Jan 5
Page Count: 186

Book: The Thyroid Connection: Why You Feel Tired, Brain-Fogged, and Overweight -- and How to Get Your Life Back by Amy Myers
Date Read: Jan 6
Page Count: 425

Book: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Date Read: Jan 7
Page Count: 291

Book: Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy #1) by Robin Hobb
Date Read:
Page Count: 392



Book: The Light Fantastic (Discworld #2) by Terry Pratchett
Date Read: Jan 11
Page Count: 277

Book: A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (66117 words)
Date Read: Jan 12
Page Count: 252

Book: People Kill People by Ellen Hopkins
Date Read: Jan 13
Page Count: 449

Book: These Old Shades (Alastair-Audley Tetralogy #1) by Georgette Heyer
Date Read: Jan 15
Page Count: 384

Book: Curse of the Wolf King (Entangled with Fae #1) by Tessonja Odette
Date Read: Jan 16
Page Count: 408

Book: The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (Toltec Wisdom) by don Miguel Ruiz
Date Read: Jan 20
Page Count: 148

Book: Guards! Guards! (Discworld #8) by Terry Pratchett
Date Read: Jan 20
Page Count: 353

Book: Coraline by Neil Gaiman (30640 words)
Date Read: Jan 20
Page Count: 176

Book: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1) by Alexander McCall Smith
Date Read: Jan 23
Page Count: 152

Book: The Wall (Sumer #1) by Gautam Bhatia
Date Read: Jan 26
Page Count: 413

My Jan Page Count: 5533

Running Total: 169,971

New Group Total: 175,504

December



Book: I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue - Dec 2
No. Of Pages: 338

Book: A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes #1) by Arthur Conan Doyle - Dec 3
No. Of Pages: 175

Book: The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes (The Lillys #1) by Xio Axelrod - Dec 4
No. Of Pages: 457

Book: The Secret History by Donna Tartt - Dec 5
No. Of Pages: 629

Book: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore - Dec 6
No. Of Pages: 490

Book: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle - Dec 9
No. Of Pages: 229

Book: The Murder Game by Carrie Doyle - Dec 10
No. Of Pages: 384

Book: The Christmas Bookshop (The Christmas Bookshop #1) by Jenny Colgan - Dec 11
No. Of Pages: 310

Book: Billy Budd: Sea Adventure Novel by Herman Melville - Dec 13
No. Of Pages: 126

Book: The Jungle Book (The Jungle Book #1) by Rudyard Kipling (50939 words) - Dec 14
No. Of Pages: 277



Book: The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand - Dec 18
No. Of Pages: 400

Book: Maybe This Time by Cara Bastone (5Hr 45min) - Dec 19
No. Of Pages: 153

Book: Twelve Slays of Christmas (Christmas Tree Farm Mystery #1) by Jacqueline Frost - Dec 20
No. Of Pages: 311

Book: The Midwich Cuckoos (The Village of the Damned) by John Wyndham - Dec 22
No. Of Pages: 220

Book: The Heart of a Goof (Golf Stories #2) by P.G. Wodehouse - Dec 24
No. Of Pages: 256

Book: The St. Ambrose School for Girls by Jessica Ward - Dec 25
No. Of Pages: 358

Book: Gold Spun (Gold Spun #1) by Brandie June - Dec 28
No. Of Pages: 320

Book: Murder on the Safari Star (Adventures on Trains #3) by M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman (51426 words) - Dec 29
No. Of Pages: 268

Book: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis - Dec 30
No. Of Pages: 222

My Dec Total: 5923

Running Total: 1,994,318

New Group Total: = 2,000,241