Vicki’s Comments (group member since May 01, 2018)

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

1/02/19 282 pages
1/02/19 288 pages
1/03/19 400 pages
1/03/19 336 pages
My Total: 1,306

CURRENT TOTAL: 9,197

Fiction
There There 4/17/19 (5 stars)



Mystery & Thriller
The Outsider 2/21/19 (5 stars)
The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle 12/18/18 (3 stars)
Something in the Water 12/29/18 (4 stars)
The Chalk Man 4/27/19 (5 stars)



Historical Ficton
The Great Alone 3/5/19 (5 stars)
The Tattooist of Auschwitz 1/06/19 (4 stars)
The Tuscan Child The Tuscan Child 1/06/19 (4 stars)
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell 1/16/19 (5 stars)



Fantasy
Circe 3/31/19 (5 stars)




Best of the Best
The Hate U Give 12/09/18 (5 stars)

Reserved

I think I'll pick this one back up. Is anyone still reading it with me? LOL

MODS, do these books have to be read in order? If I wanted to start with a 2019 book and then move to 2001 and so forth, is that okay?

Vicki's Potential Reads for the Decades Challenge

✅ 2001 (1)
(view spoiler)[✅ 1. Fool Moon
EXTRA: The Surgeon (hide spoiler)]

✅ 2002 (2+)
(view spoiler)[1. Summer
Knight
2. Night Pleasures
3. Eragon Series Read FLOAB (hide spoiler)]

✅ 2003 (3)
(view spoiler)[1. Death Masks
2. Moloka'i
✅ 3. We Need to Talk About Kevin (hide spoiler)]

2004 (3)
(view spoiler)[1. Blood Rites
2. Divided in Death
3. The Last Kingdom (hide spoiler)]

2005 (2)
(view spoiler)[1. Dead Beat]
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (hide spoiler)]

2006 (5)
(view spoiler)[1. Proven Guilty
2. The Pale Horseman
3. Water for Elephants
4. New Moon
5. The Girl Who Played with Fire (hide spoiler)]

2007 (3)
(view spoiler)[1. White Night
2. The Name of the Wind
3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (hide spoiler)]

2008 (1)
(view spoiler)[1. Small Favor (hide spoiler)]

2009 (1)
(view spoiler)[1. Turn Coat (hide spoiler)]

2010 (1)
(view spoiler)[1. Changes (hide spoiler)]

2011 (2)
(view spoiler)[1. Ghost Story
2. Second Grave on the Left (hide spoiler)]

2012 (2)
(view spoiler)[1. Cold Days
✅ 2. The Sea of Tranquility (hide spoiler)]

2013 (1)
(view spoiler)[
✅ 1. Gina and Mike (hide spoiler)]

2014 (4)
(view spoiler)[1. Skin Game
2. The Silkworm
✅ 3. Long, Hot Texas Summer
✅ 4. #Nerd (hide spoiler)]

2015 (3)
(view spoiler)[1. Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke
2. The Girl in the Spider's Web
✅ 3. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye
(hide spoiler)]

2016 (5)
(view spoiler)[1. The Dry
2. IQ
3. Age of Myth
✅ 4. The Power
✅ 5. Vicious (hide spoiler)]

2017 (7)
(view spoiler)[
1. Blood Family
2. Righteous
3. Age of Swords
4. Down Among the Sticks and Bones
5. Kings of the Wyld
✅ 6. The Barefoot Summer
7. Down Among the Sticks and Bones (hide spoiler)]

2018 (18)
(view spoiler)[
✅ 1. by Five Feet Apart
✅ 2. Blind Kiss
✅ 3. Under a Dark Sky
4. The Broken Girls
5. The Shape of Water
6. The Nowhere Child
7. The Wife Between Us
8. Wrecked
9. The Great Alone
10. The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
11. Where the Crawdads Sing
12. White Rose, Black Forest
13. Circe
14. Age of War
15. Beneath the Sugar Sky
✅ 16. Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating
✅ 17. How to Knit a Murder
18. Children of Blood and Bone (hide spoiler)]

2019 (5)
(view spoiler)[
1. Smoke and Summons
2. In an Absent Dream
3. What the Wind Knows
4. Wolfhunter River
5. The Kiss Thief (hide spoiler)]

Decades Challenge 2019
Duration: January 9, 2019 - February 20, 2020
Level: VIII- 190 Books (Millennium level)

Books Completed: 13/190

✅ 2001
✅ 1. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher 1/12/19

2002
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2003
✅ 1. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver 1/03/19
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2012
✅ 1. The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay 1/08/19
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2013
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2014
✅ 1. Long, Hot Texas Summer by Carolyn Brown 1/09/19
✅ 2. #Nerd by Cambria Hebert 1/10/19
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2016
✅ 1. The Power by Naomi Alderman 1/08/19
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2017
✅ 1. The Barefoot Summer by Carolyn Brown 1/08/19
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2018
✅ 1. Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott 1/02/19
✅ 2. Blind Kiss by Renee Carlino 1/04/19
✅ 3. Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day 1/05/19
✅ 4. How to Knit a Murder by Sally Goldenbaum 1/06/19
✅ 5. Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren 110/19
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2019
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Moderators of NBRC wrote: "Vicki wrote: ""Since this challenge is for the year 2019 any books you've read this year may be included." I don't understand how the 2019 books can include any books we read this year. I could add..."

Okay, thank you. :)

Sadly, my plans went awry. I haven't read anything more the past couple of days...just too busy!

Serious Reading Challenge 2019
Level 1:

Starts: 01 January 2019
Level 1 Completed:

9/100

January
✅ 1. Gina and Mike by Buffy Andrews 1/02/19
✅ 2. Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott 1/02/19
✅ 3. We Need to Talk About Kevin 1/03/19
✅ 4. Blind Kiss 1/03/19
✅ 5. Under a Dark Sky 1/05/19
✅ 6. How to Knit a Murder 1/06/19
✅ 7. The Sea of Tranquility 1/06/19
✅ 8. The Power 1/08/19
✅ 9. The Barefoot Summer 1/08/19
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"Since this challenge is for the year 2019 any books you've read this year may be included." I don't understand how the 2019 books can include any books we read this year. I could add all 300 plus from 2018?

I know what you mean! I have never read anything about Telemechus before so I'm enjoying it.

Sorry if I got so long-winded! LOL

Introduction

When I taught The Odyssey, Telemachus was barely mentioned so I am excited to read the entire books and the sections that he is in so I can learn about him. I knew he was an infant when Odysseus went to fight in the Trojan War, and the war was 10 years long and his return took as long, so he had to be between 20-21. I didn't know anything else about him based on the only books that were included in my students' textbook.

I love the lines that the intro says includes "Dawn" twenty times. I didn't know that. "But when early-born rosy-fingered Dawn appeared..." is such a beautiful example of personification. The imagery is gorgeous. This poem has so much in it that we could talk about for a very long time!

I'd love a discovery of some kind that would definitively answer the question: Who really wrote The Odyssey and why is Homer given credit?

"Homer's World"
This section has a lot of information that is helpful to me. Some of the previous is info I'll never retain but was interesting to read and ponder.

It is pointed out that Odysseus traveled to some fictional and mythological places, both of which to me are the most fun! Obviously the Trojan War is historical fact, but the "Land of the Dead" and Scylla and Charybdis are too fun to think of them only as mythological!

It also mentions that Odysseus is "a master of deceit" which is also fun to read! I love the part when he dupes Polyphemus! Odysseus is a skilled LIAR! But it gets him out of a lot of trouble! He's just so clever and uses his brain to outsmart so many people and monsters!

"Goddesses, Wives, Princesses, and Slave Girls"
I've never really delved into who wrote The Odyssey but I certainly had never considered if it might be a woman. Perhaps the reasoning that Samuel Butler gave is faulty or sexist. I have done the same thing, admittedly, when reading a romance book written by a male and wondered how he could write it so well from the point of a woman's view.

I did think that the little we read about Penelope and Telemechus in class exemplified her as a strong woman of her home, especially so for her time.

I didn't think twice about Athena's power/influence because she was born out of Zeus's head so I'd expect her to be a powerful female influence.

"Becoming a Man"
I feel for Telemechus because he had no father at home teaching him to be a man. He tries so hard to protect his mother and their home in the only ways he knows how, but isn't very successful until his father comes home.

"The Choice of Odysseus"
I always admired that even though Odysseus spent seven years with Calypso, he never was happy. He truly loved his wife and wanted to be home. Calypso made the "mistake" of believing that her beauty and body could replace love for a woman who has a man's heart. She is an enchantress, so I can't help but to believe that he had him spellbound.

"Hated Odysseus"
I think that when Odysseus and his men are heading through the straits between Scylla and Charybdis, he really takes a chance. Circe warned him not to fight Scylla, and he knows he's going to lose at least six men (I think it was six) to her because she has six heads/necks, but he never warns his men. I believe this is indicative of his arrogance, just as when Polyphemus threw the top of a mountain out to the boat that Odysseus and his crew were on and caused the tidal wave, Odysseus still had to taunt him and called him "puny" and put his men's lives in danger.

I have this version: and the intro has tons of information and is almost 100 pages long.

I am in to Book 1 and wonder if we want to try to have somewhat of a breakdown when to post. I don't know if you all want to do that or not, but I'll most likely post at these points:

Introduction: pg. 1-104
Books 1-6 pg. 105-207
Books 7-12 pg. 208-315
Books 13-18 pg. 316-423
Books 19-24 pg. 423-525

I've read the intro and am in Book 1, page 115. The above will help me to stay on track to finish by Sunday. I might comment sooner if I feel the desire/need to or have questions to ask.

I taught The Odyssey to freshmen in high school, but they didn't have the whole book. They only read 5 books, if I remember correctly. If you are new to reading this epic poem, I suggest you definitely read the introduction if your edition has one. My edition also has a very brief summary of each book and a glossary, which I'm sure all editions have. The summaries are VERY brief though!

One more thing: it's a pretty quick read because it is a poem. I love that it's in iambic pentameter, which is how Shakespeare wrote most of his poems so I'm very familiar with it. It is NOT easy to follow a pattern like that, so I'm very impressed that the translator has done this story in iambic pentameter, too. It's so beautifully written!

I have to go help hubs right now, so I'll post comments later. I REALLY hope you all enjoy this one! It's full of heroics, intellectual wins (since Odysseus can't possibly win certain physical fights), monsters, nymphs, gods/goddesses, and so much action!

General Comment on Map
Odysseus was King of Ithaca, a small Greek island. The map is good to use as one way to show how much Odysseus traveled, which is by definition one aspect of an epic poem. The hero travels far and wide. He goes from Ithaca to Troy to fight and avenge Helen for King Melenaus. There are a couple theories. One is that Paris (Prince of Troy) abducted her; the other is that they had a steamy affair going and she ran off with him. Either way, that's what prompted the war that took Odysseus away from his home for 20 years!

RESERVED

Woo hoo!! Thanks for all your hard work as captain, Erin. I appreciated your encouragement and enthusiasm!

GOOD LUCK!

DQs Last Set

Star of Bethlehem
36. Lydia was very impulsive, in switching tickets with Hulda. Have you ever done anything so impulsive? What did it make you think about Lydia's character and situation?

I'm not really an impulsive person, so I can't recall anything.

37. Being British, the idea that an airport is four hours drive away is insane to me - I mean, I can be in France in four hours! which means I find it hard to connect with the situation (and, incidentally, completely got Hulda's outrage in the airport that getting a bus wasn't practical!) Did the setting of the story add or distract from your reading?

I thought that was insane, too! I live not far from quite a few different airports. The setting didn't really add or subtract from my reading.

38. Ethan's family was a really tangible element to the story. Do you think Lydia fell for the boy or the mob?

I have a feeling she fell for for the boy.

The Girl Who Woke the Dreamer
39. This story had a really unpleasant baddy, in the form of Reverend Thingy (I disliked him so much that all I retain of his name is that it began with S). Did you react strongly to him? Other characters?

I couldn't stand him. I hate when people are deceptive and claim to be something other than what they are. He was a total pervert and creepy!

40. The fact that the baddy was the priest and the love interest was a primoridal god-like creature made this feel kinda anti-religion. Do you think it fitted with the holiday theme of the collection?

I think it fit in the sense that everyone celebrates (or not) the holiday season in different ways.

41. The imagery in this story was really powerful. Did you enjoy it?

I did enjoy it, assuming the question refers to the imagery of the snow. I thought it was done quite well.

42. and finally: do you have a favourite story? which author(s) will you read more of?

I liked several, one being Welcome to Christmas, CA. I have read Stephanie Perkins and will read more of her books, for sure.

I finished my BOM and posted my DQ's on the thread and on our team's BOM SS. I am off to finish Scythe now because I'm almost done anyway. lol

There are two tasks now marked as done on the SS that my two books can fill, but I think they might have been completed but the completion dates were not added to the SS. If we end up needing to cover, the two my books would cover are "black boots on cover" Empire of Storms and "black text on cover" The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein. I won't have time to read anything else to cover the others. I hope the other teammates come through for us.

Thanks again everyone! It's been such a pleasure to work with all of you. :)

DQ Day 3 Ch 17-End

10) Judge Frankenstein did not let Elizabeth know that he was fighting to get her inheritance back. If she would have known, do you think she would have handled things differently with when she found Justine and forced a marriage between her and Victor? Would she have been a different person?

I doubt it simply because of the times in which Elizabeth lived. I think she would have been the same regardless.

11) Victor said, “You made it clear from the start you did not care what I did so long as you did not have know the specifics. It was our agreement.” Did Elizabeth contribute to Victor’s madness? If she would have told him he went was going too far at any time, would he have stopped or just not tell her?

I don't think that Elizabeth specifically contributed to his madness, because he's literally mad/insane; however, I do think that by not telling what she knew she did help perpetuate the acts that he committed.

12) Victor wound up leaving after the conversation Elizabeth saw with the monster. Later we found out that he was watching and protecting Elizabeth. Was Elizabeth committed to an asylum to keep her safe or to get the monster out of the way so Victor would be able to continue with his work?

I am pretty sure she was committed to make sure she remained quiet. I don't think it was to protect her at all.

13) Was it surprising that Victor killed Henry and used part of him for his experiments? Were you surprised that Mary and Elizabeth friended the monster and let him chose a new name?

No, nothing surprised me regarding how horrible Victor was to do such a thing. I thought from the beginning that he had or would kill Henry. I did think that for the women to befriend the monster was perhaps a bit of a stretch, but they probably felt that since it was part of Henry there was no way it would hurt them.

14) Do you believe that Victor finally succeeded with his experiment to retrieve Elizabeth or that he needed to go forward with the experiment on her to have her back the way she was?

No, I don't think he succeeded.

15) How did you like this retelling to the original and/or other retellings?

I definitely enjoyed this re-telling very much. What I remember most of the original Frankenstein came from the movies I saw as a young person. They were very popular at the time, but to remember enough to compare it impossible. I do, however, think it fares well with other re-tellings I have read.