Chaitra’s Comments (group member since Apr 29, 2012)

Chaitra’s comments from the Crazy Challenge Connection group.

I'm finished.

Countries of the World #11: Vietnam

Duration: Jun 01, 2025 - Jun 30, 2025
Completed: 10/6+

✔ Country: Vietnam
🚩Read a book whose title starts with a letter in VIETNAM (ignore A, An and The or equivalent if not English).
Things in Nature Merely Grow | Yiyun Li ★★★ (06/21/25)

Stats

✔ Capital: Hanoi
🚩Read a book whose author's first and last initials are in the word HANOI (letters can only be used as many times as they appear in the word).
Kale to the Queen | Nell Hampton ★★ (06/14/25)

✔ Population: 96,208,984 (2019 census)
🚩Read a book whose total number of pages contain at least 2 of the numbers in the population (tell us the page count).
Heart: A History | Sandeep Jauhar ★★★★ (06/04/25)
269 pages.

✔ Area: 127,932.95 sq mi
🚩Read a book whose year it was first published has at least 2 of the numbers in the area (tell us the year published).
Consider Phlebas | Iain M. Banks ★★★★ (06/01/25)
Pub. 1987

Trivia

✔ 1. Vietnamese Pot-bellied Pig
🚩Read a book which makes you happy.
Death on a Summer’s Day | Benedict Brown ★★★★ (06/12/25)

✔ 2. Water Puppetry
🚩Read a book in which an important character is a performance artist (the more exotic the better but actors will work; tell us who and what they do).
Murder at Brighton Beach | Lee Strauss ★★★ (06/02/25)
Poppy Kerslake, actress.

✔ 3. Hanoi’s Old Quarter
🚩Read a book that’s merely a blip in your reading journey (something with a basic plot that you forget just as soon as you read it).
The House at Sea's End | Elly Griffiths ★★ (06/11/25)

✔ 4. Son Doong Cave
🚩Read a book where a discovery of some magnitude is made (tell us what is discovered).
Revan | Drew Karpyshyn ★★ (06/03/25)
Nathema and its significance.

✔ 5. Non La
🚩Read a book whose cover shows multiple leaves (post the cover).
Baker's Coven | Nancy Warren ★★★ (06/17/25)


✔ 6. Hanoi Hilton
🚩Read a book in which an important character spends or has spent time in prison for whatever reason (tell us who and why).
How to Seal Your Own Fate | Kristen Perrin ★★★ (06/02/25)
Peony, for vandalizing an expensive car.

*** Completed (06/21/25) ***

Finished.

June 2025 Scavenger

Duration: Jun 01, 2025 - Jun 30, 2025
Completed: 7/7

✔ 1. Jubilee Day
🎪 Read a book with WAR on its main GR page.
Sisters in Science | Olivia Campbell ★★★ (06/16/25)

✔ 2. Farmers and Merchants Day
🎪 Read a book by an author whose first and last initials can be found in MERCHANTS; post a link to the author's GR page.
Kale to the Queen | Nell Hampton ★★ (06/14/25)

✔ 3. Vendors
🎪 Read a book with flowers on the cover; post the cover.
The Dark Tower | Stephen King ★★★★★ (06/10/25)


✔ 4. Book Sale
🎪 Read a book whose title words all begin with a letter in FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY (a letter may only be used as many times as it appears in the phrase); 3-word minimum.
How to Seal Your Own Fate | Kristen Perrin ★★★ (06/02/25)
FriendS Of THe librarY.

✔ 5. Special Deals
🎪 Read a book in which a major character owns/runs their own business; tell us who and the business.
Murder at Brighton Beach | Lee Strauss ★★★ (06/02/25)
Ginger owns two businesses, one a clothes boutique, the other a detective agency

✔ 6. Third Thursday of June
🎪 Read a book with a 3 or 6 in the year it was originally published; tell us the year.
Path of Destruction | Drew Karpyshyn ★★ (06/08/25)
2006.

✔ 7. Record
🎪 Read a book involving a long-standing tradition of some sort.
Revan | Drew Karpyshyn ★★ (06/03/25)
Jedi & Sith customs.

*** Completed (06/16/25) ***

Took me a while.

May 2025 Spell

Duration: May 01, 2025 - May 31, 2025
Completed: 21/21

✔ M - Murder at Gulls Nest | Jess Kidd ★★★ (05/12/25)
✔ A - The Sayers Swindle | Victoria Abbott ★★★ (05/04/25)
✔ Y - A Murder of Crows | Sarah Yarwood-Lovett ★ (05/25/25)

✔ T - Twist | Colum McCann ★★★ (05/05/25)
✔ H - Conclave | Robert Harris ★★★ (05/09/25)
✔ E - The Mill on the Floss | George Eliot ★★ (05/02/25)

✔ F - My Friends | Fredrik Backman ★★★★★ (05/20/25)
✔ O - The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot | Robert Macfarlane ★★★ (05/24/25)
✔ U - Under the Midnight Sun | Keigo Higashino ★★★★ (06/05/25)
✔ R - Kidnapped | Robert Louis Stevenson ★★ (05/03/25)
✔ T - Thread and Buried | Lea Wait ★★ (05/19/25)
✔ H - Moby-Dick | Herman Melville ★★★ (05/16/25)

✔ B - A Body at a Boarding School | Benedict Brown ★★★★★ (05/09/25)
✔ E - Chapter and Curse | Elizabeth Penney ★★ (05/03/25)

✔ W - A Lethal Lesson | Iona Whishaw ★★★★ (05/16/25)
✔ I - Suite Française | Irène Némirovsky ★★★ (05/22/25)
✔ T - The Fifth Elephant | Terry Pratchett ★★★★★ (05/28/25)
✔ H - Long Overdue at the Lakeside Library | Holly Danvers ★★ (05/17/25)

✔ Y - Things in Nature Merely Grow | Yiyun Li ★★★ (06/21/25)
✔ O - The Emperor of Gladness | Ocean Vuong ★★★ (05/25/25)
✔ U - The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming | David Wallace-Wells ★★ (06/11/25)

*** Completed (06/21/25) ***

☼♎ Carmen the Bootyshaker Temptress ☼♎ wrote: "Next guess: Y-9

Yes Daddy by B.B. Hamel
Pages: 179
Read: 5/17/25"

Y9 is a miss.

Christina (AKA Babbling) wrote: "Guess 4

L2 - Guilty as Cinnamon by Leslie Budewitz 22 June 2025 ★★★★ (audiobook) 287 pages, Mass Market Paperback

"

L2 is a miss.

Mary-Megan wrote: "Next guess:

J3 - Sweetwater & the Witch by Jayne Castle [304 pages] (6/13)"

J3 is a miss.

Andrea wrote: "I finally got my next attempt!

Hunted in Alaska by Jill Elizabeth Nelson | 224 pgs | N-4 | 6/20/25"

Congrats, you sank a ship! With this, you've sunk all ships. Would you like to play again?

Joanne wrote: "This is an interesting call-out. I think my oldest challenge is Help Me Decide 2015. I try to read all books picked for me and have 4 books left to complete. Going to go with [book:Half a King|1866..."

I hope you like it Joanne! I love Abercrombie!

Congrats, Jonquil and Meg! I hope you got to read some good books for the challenge!

Mabeelle wrote: "Guess #17

Suspect: Short order cook (KR)
Le Silence de la peur by Karen Rose - 6/14/2025

Causes of Death: Stabbing (knife)
Meurtres et pépites de chocolat by Joan..."

The murderer was not the short order cook.

Christina (AKA Babbling) wrote: "Guess #2

Suspect:
1. Librarian
Guilty as Cinnamon by Leslie Budewitz 22 June 2025 ★★★★
Weapon:
4. Poison (food/beverage)

L..."

The murder was not by the poison.

Meg wrote: "Businessman ==> Simon Brett - The Body on the Beach 06/16

Stabbing (stiletto heel) ==> Front Page Fatality, LynDee Walker 0..."

The murderer was not the businessman.

Congrats, Joann and Patrizia!

Congrats, John!

brain

Congrats, Mary, Jonquil and Lynn!

Congrats, Samantha!

Congrats, Ellen!

My longest outstanding challenge that I've got an account of is The Littlest Pet Shop (I lost some data on my computer so it's possible I'm missing a few challenges). I still need a whole bunch of letters to finish the challenge, but the Os are the highest need - 136 more to go! So, I'll be reading an O author for this callout: Brownsville: Stories by Oscar Casares - #120 on my TBR.

Last callout for the High Rollers! Watch for next year's version to be posted in the next week or so. :)

HR : June 21, 2025: Read ANY book on your TBR that fits into your longest outstanding challenge (tell us your longest outstanding challenge and how your book fits).