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

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

Nice!

Also, whoever finishes The Sword of Kaigen next can grab the IKEA task

Yep, Linda finished her book yesterday and I finished mine while I ate breakfast and that was a wrap for USA.

New country, off to Sweden!

Author born in Sweden
Yellow and blue on cover
"meatball" in text
snow on cover
character plays a sport (professionally or for fun)
letters IKEA found in title (any order)
S
W
E
D
E
N

Oh my Erin! I hope things all work out for the best and today stays nice and boring

That makes me happy!

I wasn’t expecting my nomination to win since Epic Fantasy isn’t always a popular genre but tossed in the ring on a whim anyway.

I’m glad people seem to be enjoying it. I get a bit bummed when my nomination turns out to be a dud.

Works pretty crappy but my kid is doing great this year in his summer program. Much less struggle than last year so awesome bit of progress there.

Just finished Solito today and that was quite the read. Glad I listened to it and I can’t imagine putting my kid through that. But I get the desperation too. Brought to mind a quote “people only see the choices we make, not the options we had.”

It came up in the captain’s group earlier, so adding the clarity here.

Mardi Gras counts as celebrating carnival

Oh wow Cathy I’m so sorry. Take care of yourself the best you can.

Go Team!!

Also, I updated the countdown in the tracking sheet. Which is a bit sad as it's not just the end of the next month but the challenge as a whole.

Done with Turkey and off to the USA!

Author born in United States
Red, White, and Blue on cover
"watermelon" in text
stars on the cover
character in (or was) the military
letters EAGLE in title (any order)
U
N
I
T
E
D
S
T
A
T
E
S
O
F
A
M
E
R
I
C
A

Cathy,

When you get a chance can you add Beyond the Veil to your challenge shelf?

Thank you!

DQs Day 1
Ch 1 to 4

1.) Had you heard of this book before it was nominated for/was selected to be a BOM this month? Or read other books by the author? Any expectations going in?
This book has been all over BookTok. Which is normally a reason for me to avoid a book. But something at this one kept having me peek at it. And then figured what the heck and added it to my tbr. Nominated it on a whim and was very surprised it won the vote, so yay. Never read anything by this author before. As for expectations, I'm hoping for some interesting political drama, cool fighting and an interesting magical system.

2.) How effective is the author at conveying the isolationist nature of Kaigen? And at the glimpses of what the rest of the world is really like? How do you think the Emperor has managed to do this so effectively?
I thought it was an interesting way to go about showing the issues from the beginning without it being too heavy handed. The history lecture was a bit longer than I think it needed to be and still convey what the author was trying to get across. Having the transfer student is honestly interesting that they let that happen at all. I mean what did they expect to happen? Though I guess most of the teachers don't necessarily even know they are teaching propaganda. It gives faint North Korea vibes a bit on this aspect of the story.

3.) Misaki is an interesting character with a lot of repressed or hidden depths I think. I like that one of the main characters in an epic fantasy is not a 20 something who just happens to master everything in 5 pages. What are you most curious about her at the moment. Also, shout out to her friends, who seem like real women-friends. Yay!
Real female friend who love and support one another genuinely, what a novel concept!! I'm most interested in learning how and why she ended up married to Tekure. He sounds like a douche. Maybe arranged marriage? Also a bit curious as to how she managed to train elsewhere and then come back.

4.) Tekure (husband/father) has managed to make me hate him without even popping up on page yet. Go him. Do you think we'll get a scene where Misaki does her version of 'down with the patriarchy' before the end of the book?
Oh I really hope so. And I hope she knocks his teeth in with her sons cheering her on.

5.) What do you think of the magic system so far?
I think it's a pretty fun system and it seems like there are a lot of different levels and types of power. I'm interested to see how it all develops.

DQs Day 1
Ch 1 to 4

1.) Had you heard of this book before it was nominated for/was selected to be a BOM this month? Or read other books by the author? Any expectations going in?

2.) How effective is the author at conveying the isolationist nature of Kaigen? And at the glimpses of what the rest of the world is really like? How do you think the Emperor has managed to do this so effectively?

3.) Misaki is an interesting character with a lot of repressed or hidden depths I think. I like that one of the main characters in an epic fantasy is not a 20 something who just happens to master everything in 5 pages. What are you most curious about her at the moment. Also, shout out to her friends, who seem like real women-friends. Yay!

4.) Tekure (husband/father) has managed to make me hate him without even popping up on page yet. Go him. Do you think we'll get a scene where Misaki does her version of 'down with the patriarchy' before the end of the book?

5.) What do you think of the magic system so far?

Linda, I saw you read The Seed Keeper. How was it? I’ve been meaning to read that one.

I’ve eyed the Zodiac series before but it seems like such a commitment. But then so are all my other series 😂🫠

Newest cheese spelling is complete! Go Team for always making sure we have the letters we need, completely by accident!

Hehe :)

Ann,

When you get a chance can you add Winter in Madrid to your challenge shelf?

Thank you!

Boo on that book Steven

Judith's BOM Tracking

BOM Tracking
Day 1: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 2: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 3: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 4: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 5: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Day 6: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

DQs Day 6, July 7
Chapter 53 - 59 88-100%

24. For most of the first half of the book, I kept picturing a lot of tragic endings for multiple characters. Did the book end happier than you figured? Are you happy with the way everyone's lives turned out and do you think it matches their upbringing and experiences?
There were more of them alive at the end than I expected so that was a nice surprise. I think their endings matched up well enough. Nothing seemed completely farfetched or cray-cray. Or too perfect either.

25. We now know the final fate of the painting. Do you agree with the choice? Did the result end up fitting the artist mentality and the magic of the friendship or was it illogical?
I liked it and thought it was fun.

26. Louisa starts the book and much of it is her journey, but Ted surprisingly takes over as a big main character as well. With the past history it mainly seems to be Joar's experiences that are told the most. Do you think the book has a main central character that stands out the most? Do you think some of the other characters are not mentioned enough equally?
I think part of it was Ted didn't find himself all that interesting or important so when reflecting on memories of their friendship, it's always in relation to what was going on with one of the others in the friend group.

27. We learn what happens with Ali. Spoilers if you have not gotten to this part, so I'll get it general. It was stated in a way that there is also beauty in a sense of also going out a certain way while they mourn and talk about tragedy. Did you think Ali would walk in alive also, such as when the car with the woman pulled up?
No, I wasn't surprised she was gone. There was always something about the way they talked about her in the present that I knew she was gone. It's a bit hard to describe what exactly it was though.

28. If this is your first book by Fredrik Backman, are you planning to now read more? If you have read another book by this author, was the style of this one with the writing similar to the other(s) you have read?
He's one of the short list of author's I have on a pre-order list.