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

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

In order to succeed in the Arena you will need to battle with your competing District Tributes.

You have been matched with an opposition and will fight them twice (once in round 2 and once in round 3), switching who strikes first.

The fight will consist of parrying book titles back and forth, by matching the end of your opposing team's title with the start of your own. You can use or ignore articles at the start of the title. There must be an overlap of at least three letters.

Planning
To start the fight each pair will be spun a title by the Arena Masters. The first team must find a book with a title that overlaps by at least three letters, and declare their planned strike to their opposition team, who must then plan their riposte. Each team will plan out a maximum of 10 strikes each this way.
Books can be read in any language, but titles must be in English.

Note: planning must be completed within the first week, and you must NOT start reading any book until the second, fight, week.

Fighting
Once the fight phase starts each team simply reads their planned books!
There's no requirement to read them in the correct order, but if at the end of the week you have missed a planned strike then you will lose the battle, regardless of how many of the rest of the books you complete.

Supply Drops
Supply drops from your partner team can be used to provide ONE extension letter to help you make an overlap.
You can use either the first or last letter of your supply drop title to make the overlap work.
Supply drop books can be read during either of the two weeks, and may be started at any point during the challenge.

Points and Winning
Each team gets 5 bonus points for each completed strike
The winning team in each pair will get a further 5 bonus points
The winning team will be either:
- the team to make the last completed strike, if not all 20 books (across both teams) are read; or
- the team with the smallest number of overlap letters in their strikes, if all 20 books are read; or
- if there is a tie for number of overlap letters, a coin toss will be made by a neutral mod to decide the winner.

Example
Team A will strike first.
Their randomly assigned book title is Orphan Black.

Team A Strike 1: Blackwater (BLACK overlap, 5 letters)
Team B Strike 1: Terms and Conditions (TER overlap, 3 letters)
Team A Strike 2: Onset of Danger (ONS overlap, 3 letters)
Team B Strike 2: Anger (ANGER overlap, 5 letters)
Team A Strike 3: Gerald's Game (GER overlap, 3 letters)
Team B Strike 3: Me Before You PLUS a supply drop letter A (AME overlap, 3 letters)

Team A final total (of overlap letters) = 5 + 3 + 3 = 11 letters
Team B final total (of overlap letters) = 3 + 5 + 3 = 11 letters

Battle Pairings

District 1 & District 8
District 2 & The Capitol
District 3 & District 13
District 4 & District 12
District 5 & District 11
District 6 & District 10
District 7 & District 9

Timings
The first week in each of Round 2 and 3 shall be for planning your fight
The second week in each of Round 2 and 3 shall be for fighting your fight

In Round 2 Districts 1 - 7 will strike first
In Round 3 Districts 8 - The Capitol will strike first

And the next thing has dropped! It's a bit of a dozy and it's a lot to unpack, but don't worry! Lexi, Sarah and I will help everyone get it figured out :)

DQs Day 2 - Baneful-"My Own Wee Thing”

6. Jane gives Rochester a black-coloured thumb-sized stone to keep with him as a protective talisman. Do you believe in talismans? Please tell us about an object that you keep with you as a talisman?
Hmm. I definitely think certain things can bring a sense of comfort, safety, or connectedness. There are certain pieces of jewelry I've worn, mainly a necklace from my grandparents, when I feel I need a bit of a boost. It reminds me that I have family who love and support me so even if X is a disaster, it'll be okay.

7. Between some of the chapters narrated from Jane’s point of view, we get chapters from Rochester’s point of view. What do you think of these “interludes”? Do they help or distract?
I enjoy the glimpses but I think I'm glad it's not an even POV split between the two MCs.

8. We are introduced to Dr. Poole. What did you think of this character particularly with regards to Jane meeting him in the poison garden? Were there any changes in your opinion after reading Agnes’ conversation with Jane about the late Mrs. Rochester?
I think he's up to no good and I think his name implies that. That conversation with Agnes just confirmed it.

9. We have been told several times about a curse on Thornfield. Then Jane follows Rochester to the graveyard where his family members are buried. At this point Jane says “This was a story of heartache. Everyone in Mr. Rochester’s family had died before their time, especially the females. Then his wife had done the same.” Do you think there is a connection between the curse and the early deaths?
I mean maybe? But that sort of thing wasn't uncommon in those times either. It could go either way. If the curse though is tied directly to Rochester's deceased wife, it can't all be connected. Right?

10. We have been given information about Jane and her origin? What do you think of this twist in the tale?
Wasn't surprised about her father and am wondering if that's one of the reasons he sent Jane there. For the mom, that just seems a bit strange and reminds me of Sookie Stackhouse and that's not meant in a good way as I found the fairy storyline in those books silly.

This does remind me though, if anyone thinks they may not finish a book on the mini before the June 15th deadline, please let us know and we can find a replacement.

Books not on the mini that aren't finished will simply be rolled over to Round 2.

Thank you and happy reading!

Krissy wrote: "I already finished a book that would fit that Heracles task if you guys want to update my book Best Beast."

Done! Thanks Krissy

I was going to look through books read but not on the mini this morning hoping to find one that fit and you beat me to it :)

DQs - Day 1 - Prologue-Blackthorn

1. A paranormal retelling?? of Jane Eyre - this prompts the question about the original or let's call it the "source for inspiration". What is your relationship to Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë? Have you read it? Loved/liked/disliked it?
I have always been a fan of Jane Eyre, one of my favorites from the classics. However I always thought she could do better than Rochester and felt he was a punk. Hence why I put him on the Bad Romance Wheel O'Monsters. I said what I said. :P

2. What about Retellings? Is it a genre you like/avoid?
I enjoy a good retelling, especially when it's not something that is often selected for a retelling. To be honest, author can relax a bit with the Beauty and Beast retellings.

3. Jane Aire as a witch in a school for orphan witches? How do you like the setting of this alternative Victorian world where magic is at least tolerated?
I think it's an interesting take and curious to see where it goes. But tolerance is not firm ground as the interaction with Agnes demonstrated.

4. What are your first impressions of Jane and Rochester?
He actually seems less of a dink than he comes across in the original. She seems to have a better sense of self than the original Jane as well or at least a fair bit of confidence in her skills.

5. What do you think about the occurrences in Thornfield? Are they really caused by supernatural elements or is it human action?
I'm not sure. Maybe a mix? I guess I still don't have a handle on how real the magic is in this world version. Though having an actual dryad seems to confirm it's all not woo-woo and magical beings are real.

It can get confusing and you weren’t the only one. It’s all been set to rights so no worries

I’ll let you and Sarah work that out.

I deleted it because it just had the word Idaho in the cell that had over written the formula. I thought it was a mistake, sorry!

There isn’t a need to enter things directly on the mini tab, you can enter everything on the Round 1 tab and it auto populates the mini tab with the formulas.

I would like to use an extra entry for this please!

District 8

It looks like a spot for “takes place in Idaho” opened up on the spreadsheet. So if anyone is looking for a book this week and has one that works there, it’s up for grabs

I love our team! I checked the tracking sheet and saw all the mini tasks are claimed.

Hats off to everyone for finding books to fit everything. And a special shout out to Krissy for finding 3 books taking place on Crete. That task is a struggle for most of the teams.

Happy reading everyone and go team 😄

I fixed it, somehow the formula got deleted on the mini tab.

Thanks for catching that!

FYI - Vikki, Lexi is reading Starling House and it doesn’t have a spot on the mini right now. If you are pinched for time we can just swap you two, no worries

In order to earn the extra points, you’d need to have it read and 3 sets of DQs answered by July 16th.

If you have it down for a mini task and you don’t think you’ll finish by June 15, just remove the mini task code so people know the spot is available.

Stacie wrote: "I'll be on vacation from Sunday to Thursday with just my phone so maybe not a lot of updating between now and then."

Enjoy your trip!

Krissy wrote: "Judith wrote: "Krissy, when you get a chance can you add The Forgotten Dead to your game shelf?
Thank you!"

Done 👍 Sorry for missing it!"

No worries, it happens to all of us! Thanks you :)

Krissy, when you get a chance can you add The Forgotten Dead to your game shelf?

Thank you!

Cordelia wrote: "Life's been busy the past few days and I haven't done as much reading but I did finish a book yesterday! And I'm making some slow but steady progress with some other reads.

Trying hard to read bot..."

Sounds good! I hope things calm down for you :)

Judith's 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/...

DQs Day 5
Chapters 27 - Epilogue

21. Wow what a ride! What were your initial thoughts and feelings after finishing the book?
I feel like this book was full of interesting ideas and takes on familiar themes but fell short in execution.

22. An integral part to the book is the way the story of Starling House is told through many different viewpoints, with truth and lies and rumors and heresay and opinions often woven together. Did you find that you learned more about Starling House through each story? Did this type of story building and layering work for you? Why or why not?
I like how the different stories were spread out and covered a wide range of perspectives. It made the story and myth about the house all that more interesting.

23. In the ending battles, the MCs were fighting beasts of nightmares and of their own making, inside dreams. Do think it's hard for good dreams to win out against nightmares? Explain your thoughts.
I think it depends on the person and their internal strength and hope. Nightmares can be easier to believe though. So I'll stick with my favorite answer to give in all things, it depends.

24. A major theme in the book is wants and needs, and how they seemingly twist into each other if you want hard enough. In this theme exploration, what was the message you got from the author, and did it resonate with you?
I the message from this author is to freaking communicate with your loved ones, even when it's hard. And do you best to ask for help when you need it.

25. Would you recommend this book? Explain.
No, this author is really inconsistent with me. Her ideas are always great but the execution is hit and miss. She missed with this one for me and for The Ten Thousand Doors of January but I liked her The Once and Future Witches.