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

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

I've got a few books with an open plain landscape on the cover if we need them.
I have borrowed some books from friends, and I really need to read them this summer!!

Laurie B wrote: "Melissa wrote: "I hope summer brings a calmer vibe to your work!!"

Well...I'm a children's librarian and it's Summer Reading season, so one of my busiest times of year. 😅 I kind of forgot how tiri..."

Nice!
Do you have any challenges going for those kiddos?

Mary C wrote: "I also just found out that they are sending me to do a trade show in New Mexico the first week of August. I just did one back in February in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.

Hubby can't go with me ..."

I haven't been to New Mexico since I was a kid. I loved it back then. Will you have time to look around? What are you looking forward to most?

Keely wrote: "I'm not sure any of the books I am currently reading will cover more that one task per monster (apart from Catch-22), so they are probably better reserved for when we only have one task left on a m..."

Wow!
Over 1,000!!
What book will that be?

Mary C wrote: "I finished book of cold cases and will do more questions tomorrow and post a link to my participation."

Laurie B wrote: "I should finally finish a book tonight, which will make me feel like less of a benchwarmer, lol! Work has just been crazy and tiring me out lately. Hoping it calms down soon."

I hope summer brings a calmer vibe to your work!!

Laurie B wrote: "I couldn't contribute to the maze at all - I couldn't even keep up with the discussion around it! 😅 Hopefully I can help with this one - looks fun!"

Tell me about it! That was a whirlwind! Nice people though :)

Keli wrote: "I'm reading Definitely Dead which hasca cat shifter on the cover. I can hold off finishing it until after the mini quiz starts"

That looks like fun!
Is it?

I also just finished Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence for school. It's a short book, so if we need to take one off at the end, that would be a good one.

Nanci wrote: "Melissa wrote: "I think we should get that boar!
Maybe we can use your book, Nanci for the boar, and Keely's. That would get us 1,2 4. I am reading [book:The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Explor..."

Yes!! What a wonderful documentary! This book is pretty good, but not as good as that movie!

Just finished The Book of Cold Cases
It was okay!
My link for all 5 sets of questions is here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

19. Beth's relationship with Lily is extremely important to the story, obviously but Shea also has an older sister? What do you think the point of having both main characters have sisters? Do you think it's a purposeful connection the author made?

Good question. I think it is important that they are sisters. Beth doesn't seem to have anyone else (except for maybe Black) outside of her family. I don't think an outsider would have made sense. There is also the ties of family that are not easily challenged.

20. Why do you think Lily always kept the house the way it was decades ago? Was it just a way to torment her sister or do you think there's something more to it then that?

Yes, it's just there to torment her.



21. Shea was almost murdered by Lily because she went to Beth's mansion while she was away. Do you think Beth knew her sister would try and kill Shea?

Probably. She has to lock the doors to keep her sister away every night, so that would make sense.

22. How did you like the ending? Did any of the reveals surprise you? Did the conclusion for the characters feel satisfying to you?

I thought the ending was a little flat. We learned a lot about the twists earlier in the book, which I normally don't mind too much, but there just wasn't a lot else to tell. Maybe the book was in response to a story the author heard about a haunted house? That would make the most sense to me.

15. In this section, we see Beth really open up in the interview and describe two different Christmas flashbacks. The first, when Beth was 14, Lily was bruised and had been clearly abused by her foster family. We also (at least according to Beth) see the beginnings of Lily as a serial killer. Do you feel any sympathy for Lily? Do you agree with Beth that Beth could have stopped her?

I don't really have a lot of sympathy for Lily. There are only the few days together that she and Beth had, and event those did not show a side of Lily that was compassionate at all. The story revolves around Beth not stopping Lily, so no. At this point of the book, it is more of just its own story instead of anything that could really be believed.

16. What did you think of the interview with the lawyer Ransom Wells? Why do you think he and Beth never told the police about Lily, even after the murders?

Well, Lily is still around, doing mischief! I think she is powerful beyond the grave.

17. Beth gets a wonderful shopping trip with her mom that immediately gets ruined when they return home and Lily is there. Lily is clearly the favorite. Why do you think that is?

Shame

18. Can Shea trust Michael? He seems almost too good to be true.

Sure! He's becoming a bit more of a flat character - just the good guy, which is nice to have in this otherwise dark tale!

I have a book that I can start that works for the Nemian Lion too for tasks 2 and 3

10. Beth's house has seemed important from the beginning of the story and there have been a lot of descriptions of the "Frankenstein ugly" house. During one of Shea's interviews Beth told her to go upstairs and see her childhood bedroom and then she said, "Not all of the answers you want so desperately are going to come from me. Some of them are going to come from this house." What do you think Shea learned from the house when she perused Beth's room?

Well, she didn't have a "normal" childhood by any stretch of the imagination!

11. We now have a better insight into the note that was left at the murder scene that said, in part, Am I bitter or am I sweet? In this section we got a lot of details about how this "bitter/sweet" was played out in the house with Mariana and the two girls. Lily also told Beth that everything was her fault and she could have stopped it. What do you think the note will reveal about the murderer and how do you think Beth could've stopped it or could she have?

I think that Lily murdered the dad. She keeps talking about how Mariana is hers, and how she hates the father. The father obviously doesn't have any good feelings towards Lily.
Lily probably is the sociopath! Or is she just acting on the rage of her situation? Maybe she convinces Beth to get the gun? Or be an accomplice in some way.
12. Julian's treatment of Lily is rather atrocious, especially considering how young she is when she first visits them. Why do you think he hates her so much and who do you suspect Lily's father is? (I have only read through chapter 29 for my questions, so I don't even know if that is revealed. Just curious what others are thinking about the situation.)
It does seem rather simple that Julian is just full of rage about Lily's father. Hmmm... The perpetrator of Shea's trauma's has got to fit in here somewhere....

13. Lily told Beth she wanted a lot of things, including the house. Beth told Lily she hated the house to which Lily said, "That's because you don't understand it...It's an abomination that shouldn't exist...It's exactly like me." What do you think she meant by this?
A simple answer would be that this is about her biological father. There's got to be some supernatural thing going on here somewhere.

14. Lily appears to have more power in the relationship between her and Beth, but based on Beth's current day ability to manipulate others, do you think Lily really is the more powerful one in their relationship? Why or why not?

I don't know! She dies later on, but she always seems to be the one in power. Beth seems to just be learning from her?

There are a few short books there!

I think we should get that boar!
Maybe we can use your book, Nanci for the boar, and Keely's. That would get us 1,2 4. I am reading The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness which would work for 5 (MPG Animals). Now, we'd just need some snow.

Nanci wrote: "Ok, I am listening to The Broken Girls, which is 336 pages. It will work for:
Boar - #2 or #4
Harpies - Possibly #3?
Sphinx - Possibly #3 - The MC is trying to figure out who killed..."
Sounds like a riddle to me!
Now which one to choose! It looks like we can use one book per monster, although we can defeat multiple tasks of that one monster with the book.

The maze is finished ✔️:)
Now to focus on slaying some monsters!!

The books can be started at anytime during TT, they just can’t be finished before the 15th.

Keely wrote: "I am currently reading to Catch-22 which would cover two of the tasks for the Boar. It is 519 pages long so would cover task 1 and a character (General Dreedle amongst others) is of..."

Nice!