Zoë’s Comments (group member since Apr 30, 2019)

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

Crap no. I won’t have time to finish it. Anyone else??

I finally found something for #7 I think I can finish it before Sunday! I’ll post a selection post when I’m at my computer

Okay so it looks like we have:

10 tagged MPG Crime KERRI
9 that has the letters A-R-S-E-N-I-C in the title ( in any order) ZOE
8 that was published in the 1980s SARAH
7 with a detective whose initials can be found in the word poison NO ONE YET
6 set in Scandinavia ZUZA
5 that is more than 500 pages SARAH - MAYBE?
4 from an author who was NOT born in the USA, Canada or UK KERRI
3 that is #3 in a series ZOE - DONE
2 with one or more flowers on the cover ZOE - DONE
1 that is on the Foreign Lands list ZUZA

Anyone wanting to do #7? I am in a school intensive all this weekend (and working, ugh) so I don't think I can finish more than one book between now and Sunday but maybe...

Zuza wrote: "From the list I will be reading Došel jsem daleko by Ishmael Beah

We can read in different languages, right?"

I believe so - I don't see why not?

So, I read the BOM for this month and put it up in our Regeneration but can't figure out if we can use the same book for regeneration and a round? Anyone know?

13. This section opens with a quote from 1984
"he who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past."

I love quotes used like this. I love trying to figure out how they go. Sometimes they are so poignant and sometimes not. This one feels well used.

14. Helena doesn't hold out long, and joins the team in correcting tragedies. Did you agree with her decision at the time? Would you change your answer at the end of the section? Has you opinion of Helena changed over the course of the book?

I'm not sure she really had any other choice. I guess I probably would've done it as well. Tried to be the voide of reason within the team lie she was. Though I don't agree with her chocies along the way.

15. The team start off idealistic... Would you be willing to be part of the team, fixing those sorts of tragedies? Do you agree with their ideals? The team got co-opted by the government very quickly. Did you expect that?

The team WAS the government, to an extent, so I wa snot surpirised AT ALL. Would I be on this team? See above - i think, if given no alternative, this would be the way to do it. But I don't agree with changing the past so I wouldn't do it given an open choice.

16. At the end of this section it all goes very grim (though I enjoyed the destruction of Trump Tower!). Do you think Helena can solve this, or is the world going to collapse in a mess of conflicting dead memories?

I didn't see a good way out of this at the time that I read it!!

17. Do you have a provisional rating for the book? Why? And are you missing Barry and Marcus?!

I was at a 3.5 stars at this point. ratings, for me, have a lot to do with endings.

18. In "Book 5" there is as much focus on Barry and Helena's relationship as there is on their attempts to stop the world remembering previous timelines and therefore avert catastrophe. What did you think of their romance, and how it played out over multiple time re-sets?

I was surprised. I deifnitely was like - wait what? They are gonna be together now? Liek I saw it coming but it didn't fully make sense to me. I didn't see or feel ay build up in their feelings for eachother.

19. Earlier in the book, I never got the sense that Barry was a particularly brainy person, but here we often see him doing advanced math and science stuff alongside Helena, on timelines where they met in their early 20s. What did you think of Barry's participation in Helena's work?

Yeah that part seemed to be thrown in as a - just believe this because I need to in order to make the story go further. I mean, it plausible, but we don't see any sense of him being that type of person.


20. Each April 16 2019 brings a brand new same old nuclear apocalypse! But if everyone in the world gets their "false" memories back at the same time, then everyone would remember those other apocalypses too. Do you think that humankind would really keep reacting the same way over and over, repeatedly dooming themselves?

This is an interesting question. Because I don't think generally speaking that we would agree on dooming humankind over and over again BUT the people who are in charge of these things are't always in alignment with everyone so....

21. The solution seems so simple, though I think it contradicts what we were told earlier in the book about the possibility of going back into a "false" memory. Did Barry going back to the "original" timeline make sense to you?

I think its BIZARRE that after ALL THAT TIME Barry and Helena never once were like "well I guess we could at least try going into a false memory instead of taking someone else's word for it". That was a face palm moment for me, for sure.

22. In the epilogue, we learn everybody's ultimate fate. What did you think of Barry being the only person to remember everything? What did you think of Marcus Slade's demise and Barry's hand in it?

That sounds terrible. Being the only person alive who understands what has been happening. And killing Mrcus Slade doesn't mean that the technology won't happen again. I dunno..it was a hard call. Not sure what I would have done.

Jenny wrote: "Day 2 – Book 2 &3
Most of these questions are spoilers for Book 1-3

1. Were you surprised to see how time travel works in this book?
Yes, I was. I am having a bit of a hard time suspending disb..."

1. Were you surprised to see how time travel works in this book?
Yes! It was unique in some ways and not in others. Super interesting though.

2. Did you anticipate the issues with Barry going back in time and Meghan? Do you think that is a realistic reaction?
I don't know if it's realistic. I mean, the whole idea that you would remember your death and still be alive is hard to think of anyway - much less how I would feel about it. I don't know if it would make me not want to keep living. But then again, I feel like the ideas that can pop up could be like "Am I supposed to be here?" because if I died, then why am I alive? It feels very philosophical to me.

3. Now that we are about halfway done, what do you think of the characters and motivations? Do you feel like you connect to them or that they are real people?
I definitely connect to them generally but I was surprised by some of the relationships. Like, they weren't fully fleshed out before becoming something more.


4. At this point, in the book, multiple timelines are starting to branch. How do you think this would change your view of reality if it was this malleable?
This is hard to wrap my brain around. Multiple timelimes but we can only see one at a time? Like...the other ones aren't real anymore so why would they matter anymore? Each one that gets snuffed out, so to speak, is no longer "real" and therefore only the present is what matters. I think that's how I would think of it.

5. Finally, this book is already optioned as a screenplay (I think) and many reviews comment that it reads that way too. Do you like books that read like a movie or do you wish the author wrote it differently?
I enjoyed the writing actually. I think it was easy to follow and made for an exciting ride.

Completion Post

Qualification: Has flowers on cover
Rating: 4 stars
Review:
This is the second book in this series. The first was so so beautiful. The second was just as beautiful but not quite 5 stars. Probbaly more like 4.5 It is just about people's lives. It's that simple. But the author has a way of weaving you into the story that makes you feel like you've know these people all your life.

Zuza - I know, so annoying, right? You’ll have to search through crime lists and see which ones have crime listed. Some definitely do but it’s not as easy as thriller or mystery for sure. If you can’t find anything, let me know, I’m happy to help you look!

Completion Post:
Book:
Qualification: Third in a series
Rating: 5 stars
Review: this is one of my favorite series of all time and it holds up to rereads!

Selection post:

#2
The Lost Art of Mixing
Qualification: has flowers on cover

#3
The Fate of the Tearling
Qualification: third in a series

#9
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Qualification: contains the letters ARSENIC in the title out of order

Sarah I’ve got 2! Already started it. :) I’ve got 2, 3, and 9 selection post incoming!

Thank you!!
I can definitely do #3 in a series since I was going to anyway, and I think I have one for ARSENIC spell it out, and the flower one too. I’ll confirm tomorrow with selection posts and a completion post for my last one too! Good job team!

Can someone update the spreadsheet for me? I finished my book for I but haven’t had internet all day! Thank you!!

I think I finally understand group 3! Haha. That’s probably easier to do. We can choose any word used in any of the ten topics for the round. So we can spell out “set” or “by”. I’ll finish I for ACID by Saturday and could fit in one more book before Monday (the deadline for safezone groups to be finished). Does anyone want to spell something out? Anything that you can start now and finish by Sunday night? (Or Monday by 7am Eastern US time technically)

Completion Post:
Book:
Qualification: Title begins with D
Rating: 2 stars
Review: I mean, I didn’t hate it. But it wasn’t good either. It has weird random violence that doesn’t feel like it fits with the rest of the story. It feels like a pretty stereotypical YA adventure fantasy novel. Girl goes on adventure. Becomes a hero. There are cute boys. But in this one, the antagonist is Dorothy who has gone back to Oz and become completely insane. All of the characters are there. The flying monkeys, the lion, the tinman, the scarecrow, the wizard. Witches. I wanted this to be so much better than it was. Oh well.

Completion Post
Book:
Qualification: “C” authors last name begins with C
Rating: 5 stars
Review: I’m not sure what I can say about this book without giving anything away. It’s a really beautiful concept that is heartbreaking but also very thought provoking. Imagine that you could go back and redo moments in your life? Would you do it? Would you do it knowing that it could change very thing and everyone? Those are the ideas that emerge while reading this. Worth the read.

All the safezone books have to be started AFTER everyone has finished the initial cluster of books.

Ooo Kerri The Ten Thousand Doors of January looks good!