Melissa’s Comments (group member since May 12, 2019)

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

Megan, I just finished The Birth of Loud: Leo Fender, Les Paul, and the Guitar-Pioneering Rivalry That Shaped Rock 'n' Roll - because I was inspired by your rating. I'm so glad I read it. It was a really good book.

Lauri wrote: "Completion Post!
Green Witch
Alice Hoffman
Finished 12/6/23
Page count: 137
The only Spellout Letter in this one was T - CFN Troy
Hope we can use it…

[bookcover:Green ..."

got it!

Lauri wrote: "Completion Post!
Lessons at the School by the Sea
Jenny Colgan
Finished 12/4/23
Page count: 304
Spellout letters:
E - CFN Ella
M - CFN Maggie
O - CLN Offili
R - CLN R..."

It's up!
I don't see it on your shelf though...

Daniel, how are you liking Me? I am reading it too, and I like it. Have you seen Rocket Man? I hope to watch that once I'm finished.

I'm reading a Toscanini biography - he conducted Aida as one of his first operas. I looked it up to understand it better and came across Elton John's Broadway Musical of Aida. It's like having characters meet in different books :)

I'm going on a music biography bender this round :)

In the same vein, Happy Trail has "folk" in it. Ariel, could you see if you could find a page number for

"Folk music." I'm serious. He tilts his head to the side. "You're a fiddle player?"

again, no worries if you can't find it!

Lauri wrote: "Completion Post!
Olga Dies Dreaming
Xóchitl González
Finished 11/30/23
Page count: 369
Orange cover! (At least I feel it’s orange)
Spellout letters:
O - title
R - ..."


Hey Lauri! It looks like this book has "salsa" in it a bunch of times. One is in the beginning - ish and it says "salsa, Huh? Channel your inner Mark Anthony"
Unfortunately, Google Books is not giving me a page number. If you get a chance, could you scan your book for salsa for the extra points? :)
If you don't have the chance, no worries!!

And it looks like "There, There" has mariachi

"Mariachi music boomed through the room from the back yard."

Ashlee wrote: "My final books are added to the sheet."

Nice. Thanks :)

Volunteering for Opera

Ugh.
You've had a rough go of it the past few weeks!
I hope you get rid of it soon!

I keep finding orange books with only a C option...
I'll find some Ns....

Ashley wrote: "Also, one of the other lovely captains has shared this list (of lists) that pertain to the words. No guarantee the book will contain the word, but it's a good starting place for some of the more "h..."

Nothing yet for Shashmaqam.
I'm kind of feeling like this needs to be found...
I looked up "Central Asia music" on our library app - and will see where it gets me :)

Lorna wrote: "This might be the hardest challenge I’ve ever done🤣"

Truth!!

Brittany wrote: "Not really. My anxiety was too high and my son was freaking out and my mom wouldn't stop calling me and working with the airlines to try to at least make it without being stuck overnight.

We had t..."

Ooof.
so glad that's done for you.

😆
I haven't read any Central Asian Musical books! Maybe it's time to root around in the library.

My favorite was The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir. I picked it up at the library because I was in the mood for a biography / memoir and thought we might need a Y (author's name). I learned a lot about the Hmong people (from a base of 0 knowledge) and found the narrative very interesting.

I more 2 stars than usual too.

Any favorites from last round?

Brittany and Shannon, I put a book each of yours from round 3 to round 4, but I wasn't sure if they fit any of the letters.

Good reading team!!

We are moving into Round 4. Orange covers and bonus words in text.

The bonus words in text are music genres. The words can be found on the member sheet of our spreadsheet. They include:

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/Jodeling
Zydeco

I'll put them in the top of this thread too.
I definitely think some of these words should count more than others!

Ashlee wrote: "Finished my 2. Updating the sheet now."

Excellent.