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

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

Round 4 ends tomorrow, as per usual please post here when you’ve read your last book for the Round.

It greatly helps the captains as we finalize the spellings

The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

The remarkable, little-known story of Belle da Costa Greene, J. P. Morgan's personal librarian—who became one of the most powerful women in New York despite the dangerous secret she kept in order to make her dreams come true, from New York Times bestselling author Marie Benedict and acclaimed author Victoria Christopher Murray.

In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps build a world-class collection.

But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle's complexion isn't dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American.

The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.

My current 'nominate until I read it or it wins'. If it happens to win for January, I'll swap it out.

The Malevolent Seven

'Seven powerful mages want to make the world a better place. We're going to kill them first.'

Picture a wizard. Go ahead, close your eyes. There he is, see? Skinny old guy with a long straggly beard. No doubt he's wearing iridescent silk robes that couldn't protect his frail body from a light breeze. The hat's a must, too, right? Big, floppy thing, covered in esoteric symbols that would instantly show every other mage where this one gets his magic? Wouldn't want a simple steel helmet or something that might, you know, protect the part of him most needed for conjuring magical forces from being bashed in with a mace (or pretty much any household object).

Now open your eyes and let me show you what a real war mage looks like . . . but be you're probably not going to like it, because we're violent, angry, dangerously broken people who sell our skills to the highest bidder and be damned to any moral or ethical considerations.

At least, until such irritating concepts as friendship and the end of the world get in the way.

My name is Cade Ombra, and though I currently make my living as a mercenary wonderist, I used to have a far more noble-sounding job title - until I discovered the people I worked for weren't quite as noble as I'd believed. Now I'm on the run and my only friend, a homicidal thunder mage, has invited me to join him on a suicide mission against the seven deadliest mages on the continent.

Time to recruit some very bad people to help us on this job . . .

sure, that would probably be good especially if it would be a photo finish :)

Round 5 tab has been added to the tracking sheet and available for those ready to grab spots.

Our final round is almost here!

Round 5 word: jazz clarinet
Cover Color: purple

Round 5 Bonus



The instruments have been gathered, genres played, bands formed, and world tours commenced. Now it's time to read the stories, fact and fiction of the musicians.

Read books written by or about musicians. This could be non-fiction about a musician or band; or it could be fiction - in which case the main character(s) should be a professional musician (or aspiring). Someone who plays an instrument for personal pleasure only doesn't count.

Each book read will earn an additional 5 bonus points and a maximum of 10 bonuses.

Stacey,

could you add The Salt Grows heavy to your wheel shelf when you get a chance?

Thank you!

I'm in for DQs, with an extra entry

Team Jazz

I came across this book in my GR feed and it's available on Kindle Unlimited.

It works for an O and has Mariachi for the bonus. I may not be able to work it in so thought I'd share it in case it peaks someone's interest :)

West Side Love Story

Imma going with A’s all around. The song is trash but if it comes on I’m singing it and tapping my foot or whatever.

Forget about why Billy Ray has a mullet. WHY HAVE THEY COME BACK

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/...

Here are shelves with the music genres. But you should always check the word is in the text because people shelve things for all sorts of reasons.

Baroque
Bhangra
Bluegrass
Calypso
Electronica
Fado
Folk
Grunge
K-Pop
Mambo
Mariachi
Merengue
Motown
Noh
Polka
Rautalanka
Reggae
Salsa
Shashmaqam
Ska
Spiritual
Sufi
Tango
Yodeling (or Jodeling)
Zydeco

No worries! We need I's for round 4 and either way we'll get the points in our game total

Stacey, are you still working on The Women's March for Round 3? Or is it going to be a Round 4 read?

There's 15 minutes left in Round 3. Either way is fine, but I don't want to check in if you are about done :)

I’m done my last book for round 3

DQs Day 3
Chapters 13-19

9. I don't know how I feel about the school basically milking Ray owning a Stradivarius and him having to do an interview without even getting asked to do so. I personally would have preferred to keep it private, at least for a while. What are your thoughts on the situation?
I thought it was messed up because it's his business but was completely unsurprised. They wouldn't want to pass up the attention to their school.

10. I can see where Ray's family is coming from wanting to sell the Stradivarius and divide the money, but they never showed any interest in the violin even though it had been in the family for a century, and Ray's grandmother gave Ray the fiddle for Christmas. He had to take care of everything surrounding it and his school/education himself, and he never even had much money to begin with. Would you be selling whatever in your life might turn out be worth this much money, and would you feel like your family was entitled to fair shares?
Hmm, it would really depend on so many things and the amount of money. I'd probably dump money into niece/nephews' 529 accounts (in the US these are for college/trade school/etc). And invest a lot of it. $10M is life changing money for sure but if you stop working in your 20s I'm not sure that's enough to live on forever. Health care if nothing else is too expensive in the US to do so.

11. Another family claiming ownership of the violin - it was bound to happen. On one hand I'm surprised they're suing Ray for the Stradivarius since I doubt they can prove the fiddle was stolen in any way, but on the other hand the odds clearly are against Ray. And now his family is suing him for the violin as well?! Who do you think is the rightful owner of the Stradivarius?
Ray's grandfather was the rightful owner, which transferred to his grandmother. Then she gave it to Ray, so it's Ray's.

12. We've been introduced to a lot of different people (whose names I don't even all remember) and they all (most of them anyway) seem to have different reasons to possibly want to steal Ray's Stradivarius - greed, jealousy, racism,... it's all there. Do you have any more guesses of who's behind it all?
I've finished the book but my suspect was involved in the caper. It wasn't quite what I guessed but I wasn't far off.

Side note: I laughed out loud when [don't remember who] described the Tchaikovsky competition as a cross between the Olympics and American idol; what does that even mean?! 😂
I can't tell you what it means but it made sense to me when I read it. I don't know. LOL

DQs Day 2
Chapters 7 - 12

5.His mother and Aunt Joyce had gone to the store - ostensibly because they needed more collard greens, but in reality because one of the biggest family traditions was to keep Aunt Joyce out of the kitchen
Do you have any unusual family traditions, Thanksgiving if it applies, or Christmas, if it's not too early, or any other significant cultural event that revolves around a convoluted family meal?
We always make pretzel salad for every holiday and get together. And always ignore the fact is really more of a dessert. But we are firm believers that it is a SALAD. haha.
Most of our traditions aren't that weird. But the looks on my inlaws faces when I told them it was a salad was fairly priceless.

6. When Grandma gifts PopPop's fiddle to Ray, his mother's immediate reaction is that he can't keep it and she even scolds her own mother,
Mama .... what are you thinking?
What do you think motivates Ray's mother's resistance to his pursuit of music?
Is it purely because she wants his focus to be on earning money for the family, or does she anticipate the racism and resistance he could face and is trying to protect him from heartbreak?
I think when you are generations into living paycheck to paycheck and often not being able to make the money stretch you can have issues thinking longer term. And following a dream seems like such a luxury I don't think his mom can conceive of that being real. But I could never imagine crushing my son's goals like that, especially after they were becoming real.

7. Ray's meeting with Dr. Janice Stevens seems a pivotal moment, giving him access to the connections that sustain the close-knit classical music world
Do you feel there is a message here that hard work and talent may not be enough to overcome barriers to success, or is Ray's progress and recognition simply a result of his dedication?
Hard work and talent are almost never enough. There is always a connection somewhere, even if it is just a connection to a connection. Networking is so important.

8. So... PopPop's old fiddle might be a Stradivarius, but before the appraisal Rowland offers to buy it for $25,000 dollars. Ray refuses, declaring
I'm not selling it. Ever
What do you think is behind Ray's attachment to the instrument at this point, the rarity of it and the legitimacy it will give him in pursuing his dreams, or the link to his family's history, back to slavery, or something else?
It's his grandfather's. I don't think that is weird at all. His grandfather was an idol of his and he had a deep attachment to the instrument his grandfather loved.

DQs Day 1
Chapters 1 - 6

1. Can you even imagine losing a 10 million dollar anything?! Have you ever lost something and felt as Ray is portrayed in chapter 1...constantly retracing your steps over and over? What are your thoughts on other security precautions, if any, that should have been in place?
No, I can't really wrap my head around something you can hold in one hand that's worth that much money. I once lost a special necklace given to be by my grandparents. I was devasted because I couldn't wear it to my grandfather's funeral. I tore up the house, thought of every place it could be. About a week after his funeral I found it on top of the shower door.

2. At this point in the book, when/where do you think the Stradivarius was taken?
At this point I was thinking it was somehow taken from the hotel room.

3. Money can be a keen motivator...the ransom note leads us to believe it's all about the money...do you think it's possible it's about something else?
I've finished the book but I always thought a primary motivator was money. It's just too much money for it not to be a factor.

4. It's eluded to that Ray is about to make history because of his race with the upcoming competition in Russia. His family sure doesn't seem to be proud or supportive. Should Ray be proud of this accomplishment or is putting the focus on race poor form by everyone concerned?
People can't help themselves when it's the first of a given socioeconomic category. I often think it's better to be the second of something than the first. I wouldn't go as far as calling it poor form though. Often people have trouble visualizing something is achievable if no one who is like them has done it. I think seeing someone of your race, gender, ethnicity, etc reach a new level can help turn a dream into a goal. And that is nothing to dismiss.

There is just about 1 day left in Round 3. When you've finished your last book for the Round please post in the thread to let the captains know.

Thank you :)

And again, sorry for the delay getting Round 4 set up.