Judith’s Comments (group member since Apr 15, 2015)

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

Cat wrote: "@Judy, @Logan: it's the curse of a challenge BOM: a book that is fine enough if you are just reading for disposable fun, but as soon as you stop and have to think about questions becomes an absolut..."

100% agree

New Mini 2 Tasks

Read a book tagged "History" at least 10x (had one to drop in here)
Read a book set in the time period "Contemporary / Modern History" - a fair few unassigned seemed to work for this one, leaving blank for now and figured we'd drop in whichever book gets completed first

New Mini 2 Task

Read a book that is in the Books You Wish More People Knew About List

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...

Discussion Questions Day 3

10. As we reach the halfway point I am seeing more and more similarities to the Amelia Peabody series. Is anyone else finding this. Does this affect your impression of the book?
With the setting and archeology connection there is some similarities but I also agree with Cat that the characters are fairly different. Though I've only read the first couple Peabody books so maybe if I'd read more I'd see a stronger connection.

11. We have been introduced to a number of Characters is there anyone that particularly stands out?
I'd like to see more page time between Inez and Isadora.

12. We have been introduced to Isadora and her Father. Why do you think he doesn’t let her out of his sight?
Well, there isn't a chaperone for her and in that time period and doubly so for the location women of her class did not go around by themselves. Also because he seems like a control freak.

13. Inez seems to be attuned to Cleopatra and sees some of her memories. If you could choose to see one memory of a historical figure whose memory would it be?
This is a good question. Eleanor of Aquitaine, I've been fascinated by her for a good bit of my life.


DQ Links

Day 1: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 2: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 3: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Cathy the BOM is fine, reads fairly quick. But a bit predictable, I’m hoping it picks up when Inez gets to the dig site

Haha! It was actually random coincidence.

This time

Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* wrote: "We have cheese!

Group mods have made the official announcement here, but as a recap for important notes:

🧀 Each book read can be used for one of the other Tower Teams mini challenge tasks.
🧀 Goin..."

slight clarification here.

books just have to be finished after the first cheese was lobbed. So finish dates of May 20th and later can be used for any cheese (which means more cheese will be lobbed in future).

ChrisP wrote: "If someone drops out I would be interested in joining. I read 2-3 books per week."

Go ahead and fill out the sign up form and it'll get you on the reserve list

Note: found books on tracking spreadsheet that weren't assigned to a mini task yet that worked for both new tasks (yay!)


Also, there is a filter on the book tab to hide the books we've moved to the official spreadsheet. if you need to view all the books, just click the filter thing in Column J and it will reveal the hidden rows.

New Mini 2 Task

Read a book 600+ pages

For the few people who do the BOM participation tracking, I pulled the tokens from the official tracking sheet and added them to our team spreadsheets. There is a space for them on the Summary tab.

3 tokens equals one extra entry. Any time a nomination from our team wins the BOM vote, we have a guaranteed DQ day (so no point on using extra entries for those). My nomination won for the June Adult/nonfiction BOM (yay for guaranteed bonus points!).

We don't have a guaranteed spot for The Berry Pickers.

Discussion Questions Day 2
Part One, Chapter 6 - Part One, Chapter 12

6. In this part Inez spends some time with Mr. Hayes. What did you think of their afternoon in Cairo? Did you enjoy their banter?
It was fine and relatively predictable. I find their chemistry lacking though. I'm not liking either character all that much, though Inez is very much acting her age. Which I don't mean as a compliment.

7. After sensing familiar magic from an old trinket, Inez buys it and later has a vision of Cleopatra. What do you think this vision means? Do you believe Cleopatra’s burial site can only be found with Inez’s help?
I think it means that trinket also came from Cleopatra's burial site. And Inez will help them find what they are looking for. Whether it can only be found with her help? I don't know enough to understand the vagueness of the magic system that exists in the story.

8. Every now and then, the point of view shifts briefly to Mr. Hayes. Do you enjoy these moments from his perspective, or would you prefer the story to stay entirely with Inez?
I think the shifts are helpful, there is a lot going on under the surface that Inex knows nothing about. I think those snippets will be important to understand the bigger picture.

9. Inez finds a letter from her mother, in which she suspects that Tío Ricardo is involved in illegal activities. Does this letter, along with the boat conversation Inez overhears, make you suspicious of Tío Ricardo? Or do you think he’s not responsible for Inez’s parents’ murder?
Not any more than I already was. I'm assuming his doing some smuggling of some sort or digging where he's not supposed to be. Or other similar shady type things. My guess is his sister and BIL didn't approve and were judgy about it (right or wrongly). But I don't think Ricardo killed them but secrets in the circles these people travel in can get you killed and I think that's more what Ricardo meant. Also, are we all sure her parents are dead? No bodies have been found, maybe they are trapped in Cleopatra's tomb or something.


DQ Links

Day 1: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 2: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* wrote: "A book I added to my list happens to start with One for the sentence, "One road in, one road out." It's based on the TV show Broadchurch, which I've seen both versions of and enjoye..."

Oh nice. And that was such a great show!

Discussion Questions Day 1
Prologue - Part 1 Ch 5

1. The first line is “A letter changed my life.” Would you say this was a good start, cheesy start, or are you indifferent?
I'd have to go with indifferent. With the blurb about the book, I had an idea as to what was going to happen and nothing was all that surprising.

2. Why do you think Tio Roberto wanted to immediately send Inez back to Egypt without even seeing her? Do you think he’s hiding something? Or do you think it’s just typical of men at that time to dismiss young women and enforce them being chaperoned and taken care of?
Well I think he's up to shady things and doesn't want her there for safety reasons. Nor does he really know her or used to dealing with a 17 year old girl who has no practical experience living on dig sites or in Egypt. I honestly wouldn't want her there either. I just wouldn't want to be bothered. But there is likely shady things going on because otherwise the story would be boring.

3. The ring scene with Thomas Sterling was definitely outrageous; I felt Inez's outrage and all of her shock. Do you expect to see the ring later in the story? Any guesses to its significance?
I definitely think the ring and the dude will made a later appearance. I'm guessing it lets you into the tomb? Reveals it's location? Something like that, it also has weird magic that Inez can feel/absorb. So I don't know how that factors in either.

4. What do you think of the writing style and the pacing so far? Are you enjoying the lyrical, rich descriptions or do you prefer a more fast paced story?
It's fine for now but I have a feeling Whit and Inez and going to start getting on my nerves at some point. And I'm worried Inez is either going to be some sort of spunky Mary Sue or TSTL. Or both. I hope I'm wrong.

5. In Ch. 5 we see politics at play, and we can tell this is just the beginning. How do you think this will affect your enjoyment of the book? Will it enhance the story for you or will you feel bogged down by the details?
I love political drama, especially when it's routed in issues that are real. And those very much are, I'm curious to see how the author runs with it in the story.

DQ Links

Day 1: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

As of a few hours ago, we’ve officially started the 11th Tower Teams

Happy Reading everyone!

A task I’m struggling with is the task in mini 2

“Book starts with the word One”.

I’ve lost count how many books I’ve looked at and it’s nothing. Not the easiest to search for either.

And yay for Cathy and Diane for finding books for our more random tasks.

Yeah, I cleared the decks today and just reading a few novellas until tomorrow when I need to start the BOM.

I have a book that works for 'features a bull' but I have to read some other library books first so if someone finds a book that works for that task first, please take the task :)

No worries, there's a lot of different pieces. It's hard for me to keep it all straight sometimes. And I wrote most of the posts and am the one who made the team spreadsheets. LOL