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

Chaitra’s comments from the Crazy Challenge Connection group.

I've done as many as I could.

LISTOPIA 2020

Duration: May 01, 2020 - Apr 30, 2021
Completed: 119/120

Choose from Lists

✔ 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime Readers' Picks - #5988
Piccadilly Jim | P.G. Wodehouse ★★★★ (07/16/20)

✔ 100 Mysteries and Thrillers to Read in a Lifetime Readers' Picks - #505
Lady Cop Makes Trouble | Amy Stewart ★★★ (10/09/20)

✔ 100 Science Fiction & Fantasy Books to Read in a Lifetime Readers' Picks - #873
All Systems Red | Martha Wells ★★★★★ (05/20/20)

✔ 100 Young Adult Books to Read in a Lifetime Readers Picks - #28
Matilda | Roald Dahl ★★★★ (05/13/20)

✔ African Fiction - #29
Cutting for Stone | Abraham Verghese ★★ (07/06/20)

✔ Beach Reads - Mysteries & Thrillers - #704
The Survivors | Jane Harper ★★ (02/09/21)

✔ Beauty and the Beast - #10
Rose Daughter | Robin McKinley ★ (01/14/22)

✔ Best "Strong Female" Fantasy Novels - #6
The Final Empire | Brandon Sanderson ★ (06/14/20)

✔ Best Action-Adventure Novels - #1835
Blood Rites | Jim Butcher ★★ (10/23/20)

✔ Best Adult Female Friendship Books - #15
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan | Lisa See ★ (05/18/20)

✱✱✱✱✱

✔ Best African American Books - #32
Paradise | Toni Morrison ★★ (06/17/20)

✔ Best Audiobooks - #787
Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ★★★★ (04/03/21)

✔ Best Book Cover Art - #2617
The Archived | Victoria Schwab ★★★ (07/30/20)

✔ Best Book Titles - #3843
Castle in the Air | Diana Wynne Jones ★★★ (10/15/20)

✔ Best Book With or About Dragons - #16
A Wizard of Earthsea | Ursula K. Le Guin ★★★ (12/01/20)

✔ Best Books 2019 - #43
In an Absent Dream | Seanan McGuire ★★★ (11/04/20)

✔ Best Books for Reluctant Readers - #45
James and the Giant Peach | Roald Dahl ★★★ (06/05/20)

✔ Best Books to Read When the Snow Is Falling - #752
Yes Please | Amy Poehler ★★★ (08/30/20)

✔ Best Books with Rural Settings - #137
A Thousand Acres | Jane Smiley ★ (05/23/20)

✔ Best British and Irish Literature - #61
Possession | A.S. Byatt ★★ (09/20/20)

✱✱✱✱✱

✔ The Best British Crime/Mystery Fiction - #42
Peril At End House | Agatha Christie ★★★ (07/29/20)

✔ Best Canadian Literature - #1
The Handmaid's Tale | Margaret Atwood ★★★ (01/25/21)

✔ Best Children's Fantasy - #187
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator | Roald Dahl ★★ (05/29/20)

✔ Best Christian Fiction - #28
Prince Caspian | C.S. Lewis ★★★ (11/22/20)

✔ Best American Civil War Books - #16
The March | E.L. Doctorow ★★★★ (04/09/24)

✔ Best Cozy Mystery Series - #1082
Lending a Paw | Laurie Cass ★★★★ (05/07/20)

✔ Best Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction - #94
Feed | Mira Grant ★★★★ (05/08/20)

✔ Best Ending - #1347
The Last Town | Blake Crouch ★ (08/05/20)

✔ Best Female Crime/Mystery/Thriller Writers - #43
Fingersmith | Sarah Waters ★★ (05/28/20)

✔ Best for Book Clubs - #6480
The Magician's Assistant | Ann Patchett ★★★ (05/10/20)

✱✱✱✱✱

✔ Best Hardboiled PI & Noir - #134
The Neon Rain | James Lee Burke ★★ (12/09/20)

✔ Best Historical Fiction of the 21st Century - #481
Girl Waits with Gun | Amy Stewart ★★★ (09/23/20)

✔ Best Horror Novels - #815
The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home | Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor ★★★ (11/22/20)

✔ Best Humorous Books - #661
Wayside School Is Falling Down | Louis Sachar ★★★★ (06/15/20)

✔ Best Lesbian Fiction - #1,198
Come Tumbling Down | Seanan McGuire ★★★★ (11/05/20)

✔ Best Literary Mysteries - #319
Night Soldiers | Alan Furst ★★ (11/26/20)

✔ Best Love Stories - #3,104
The Danish Girl | David Ebershoff ★ (09/25/20)

✔ Best Male Character - #970
The Thin Man | Dashiell Hammett ★★★ (07/07/20)

✔ Best Memoir / Biography / Autobiography - #15
All Creatures Great and Small | James Herriot ★★★★ (07/12/20)

✔ Best Middle Ages Books - #642
The Last Battle | C.S. Lewis ★★ (03/12/21)

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✔ Best Modern Mystery, Crime Fiction - #1171
The Ruin | Dervla McTiernan ★★ (10/20/20)

✔ Best Non Fiction About Music -
Born to Run | Bruce Springsteen ★★ (09/08/23)
✔ Best of Little-Known Authors - #5,100
Where the Red Fern Grows | Wilson Rawls ★★ (02/27/21)

Best Romance Series

✔ Best Romantic Suspense - #747
The Other Side of Midnight | Simone St. James ★★ (01/11/22)

✔ Best Science Books - Non-Fiction Only - #658
The Order of Time | Carlo Rovelli ★★★ (06/08/20)

✔ Best Science Fiction of the 21st Century - #337
Artificial Condition | Martha Wells ★★★★★ (05/20/20)

✔ Best Southern Literature - #140
The Little Friend | Donna Tartt ★★ (07/23/20)

✔ Best Teen Books About Real Problems - #2023
Sadie | Courtney Summers ★★★ (06/05/20)

✔ Best Traveling Vicariously - #80
The Lacuna | Barbara Kingsolver ★★★★ (09/16/20)

I think this is the only randomizer I've ever finished and it's the year I chose to do only 10. :P

2022 RANDOMIZER

Duration: Jan 01, 2022 - Dec 31, 2022
Completed: 10/10

✔ Bad Monkey | Carl Hiaasen ★★★★ (05/31/23)
✔ The Conductors | Nicole Glover ★★★★ (06/17/23)
✔ Disoriental | Négar Djavadi ★★★★ (01/19/22)
✔ Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit | Amy Stewart ★★★★ (09/26/22)
✔ Murder Buys a T-shirt | Christy Fifield ★★★ (03/06/25)

✔ Queen's Peril | E.K. Johnston ★★ (02/07/25)
✔ A Riesling to Die | J.C. Eaton ★★★ (04/12/23)
✔ This Is Happiness | Niall Williams ★★★★★ (12/10/22)
✔ Vida | Patricia Engel ★★★ (07/14/24)
✔ A Woman Is No Man | Etaf Rum ★★ (12/05/22)

*** Completed (03/06/25) ***

Finished.

Solids, Liquids and Gases

Duration: Jan 01, 2025 - Jun 30, 2025
Completed: 25/25

✔ 1. Phases
✳️ Read a book first published in a year with a 3 (tell us the date of first published).
The Raven Thief | Gigi Pandian ★★★ (01/01/25)
Pub. Mar 21, 2023.

✔ 2. Matter and Energy
✳️ Read a book you added recently, please tell us when you added it. (posted after July 2024).
Darkly | Marisha Pessl ★★ (01/08/25)
Added Aug 03, 2024.

✔ 3. Gases
✳️ Read a book whose main character’s first or last name has a double consonant (as in MaTThew or in IsabeLLe, tell us the main character’s name).
Aunt Bessie Enjoys | Diana Xarissa ★★★ (01/03/25)
Bessie Cubbon.

✔ 4. Gas Molecules
✳️ Read a book you read very fast (a book you “have to finish” or maybe a short book with more than 150 pages?).
Later Gator | Jana Deleon ★★★★ (01/06/25)
Very quick pacing.

✔ 5. Gas Examples
✳️ Read a book whose title starts with O, C, D or N; disregard A, An and The.
The Day of the Jackal | Frederick Forsyth ★★★★ (01/02/25)

✔ 6. Vapor
✳️ Read a book marked "Romance" on its main GR page.
Thread on Arrival | Lea Wait ★★ (01/04/25)

✔ 7. Boiling Point
✳️ Read a book set in a hot climate, (tell us where).
Murder at the Grand Hotel | Isabella Bassett ★★ (01/11/25)
French Riviera.

✔ 8. Boiling Point of Water
✳️ Read a book whose year of first publication contains at least 2 of the following numbers: 2,1,2,1,0,0 (tell us the year published).
One of the Girls | Lucy Clarke ★★ (01/03/25)
Pub. 2022.

✔ 9. Compression
✳️ Read a book with a conversion in the story (your interpretation, tell us about it, use spoiler tags if needed).
You'll Never Believe Me: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Things I Should Only Tell My Therapist | Kari Ferrell ★★★ (01/10/25)
Kari is a convicted felon who seems to have turned her life around after a stint in prison.

✔ 10. Liquid
✳️ Read a book with liquid in a container in the cover (a glass of drink, a bottle of perfume are good examples, post the cover).
Murder on a Girls' Night Out | Anne George ★★★ (01/03/25)

Drink in a glass.

✔ 11. Liquid Examples
✳️ Read a book with a scene set underwater (tell us how your book works).
The Lost Heir | Tui T. Sutherland ★★★ (01/07/25)
Lots of scenes underwater as the SeaWing Kingdom, where the book is set, is mostly underwater.

✔ 12. Water
✳️ Read a standalone book.
Mothers and Sons | Adam Haslett ★★★ (01/09/25)

✔ 13. Solid
✳️ Read a book with a human body on the cover, (post the cover).
London Rain | Nicola Upson ★★ (01/10/25)


✔ 14. Movement of Molecules
✳️ Read a book that helps you finish a challenge (tell us the challenge’s name).
Fall of a Philanderer | Carola Dunn ★★★ (01/09/25)
Deck of Cards.

✔ 15. Ice
✳️ Read a book set in a cold climate, (tell us where).
The Witch of Blackbird Pond | Elizabeth George Speare ★★★ (01/28/25)
Connecticut, winter.

✔ 16. Room Temperature Solid
✳️ Read a book with STEEL or COPPER intact in the title or author’s name, (post a link to the author’s page if you use this option).
A Tide of Black Steel | Anthony Ryan ★★★ (01/31/25)

✔ 17. Changing Phases
✳️ Read a series book, please tell us the series name.
Lowcountry Boughs of Holly | Susan M. Boyer ★★★ (01/04/25)
Liz Talbot #10.

✔ 18. Freezing Point
✳️ Read a short book (but still over 150 pages, 300 for graphic novels; tell us the number of pages).
Murder by Plum Pudding | Lee Strauss ★★★ (01/21/25)
152 pages.

✔ 19. Freezing Point of Water
✳️ Read a book with two of 0, 3 or 2 in the number of pages. (Tell us the number of pages).
Egg Drop Dead | Vivien Chien ★★★ (01/07/25)
320 pages.

✔ 20. Mercury
✳️ Read a book with something metallic on the cover (post the cover).
The Waste Lands | Stephen King ★★★ (01/13/25)

The train.

✔ 21. Solids
✳️ Read a book with a cover that has something that runs on electricity (post the cover).
Death Waits in the Dark | Julia Buckley ★ (01/15/25)

The lamp and the fan.

✔ 22. Solid-state scientists
✳️ Read a book whose author is new to you, (post a link to the author’s page).
The Owl Killers | Karen Maitland ★★★ (01/06/25)

✔ 23. Crystallographers
✳️ Read a book with something crystal like on the cover (wine glasses, snowflakes, diamonds, and table salt, are good examples, post the cover).
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust | Mindy Quigley ★★★★ (01/11/25)

Ice cubes.

✔ 24. Plasma
✳️ Read a book with all the letters in PLASMA in the title, (any order, pay attention, it has two As).
Murder at the Spring Ball | Benedict Brown ★★★★ (03/06/25)
Murder At the SPring bALl.

✔ 25. Bose-Einstein condensates
✳️ Read a book whose series title begins with a letter in BOSE-EINSTEIN (tell us the series).
The Black Country | Alex Grecian ★★ (01/08/25)
Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad #2.

*** Completed (03/06/25) ***

Jimena wrote: "Round 25 - Jimena Picks for Chaitra

Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen
This is a book ..."

Thank you! I'll get to all of them eventually, but Your Brain on Art goes back to the library soon, so that will be my first read. :)

Round 25, Picking for Barb

Barb, I've read 3 books on your shelf and liked them all well enough to recommend. The last one is from a series that I know you like. I hope you have fun reading!

I'm finished.

Too Good to Be True

Duration: Jan 01, 2025 - Mar 31, 2025
Completed: 15/15

✔ 1. Fiddle-Faddle
👀 Read a book by an author with a hyphenated first or last name; post a link to the author’s GR page.
The Club Dumas | Arturo Pérez-Reverte ★ (03/05/25)

✔ 2. Fad diets
👀 Read a book by an author who has published more than 20 books; tell us how many and post a link to the author’s GR page.
Later Gator | Jana Deleon ★★★★ (01/06/25)
51 so far.

✔ 3. The Cabbage and Urine Diet (175 BC)
👀 Read a book set in ancient times (before 1000 AD); tell us when.
The Voyage Home | Pat Barker ★★ (01/22/25)
Mycenae after the Trojan War, probably ~1400 BC.

✔ 4. Arsenic Diet Pills (Late 1800s)
👀 Read a book in which someone is poisoned; using spoiler tags, tell us who.
Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust | Mindy Quigley ★★★★ (01/11/25)
Ronnie Wong, Jordan Watts.

✔ 5. The Tapeworm Diet (Early 1900s)
👀 Read a book in which a character makes a questionable decision; using spoiler tags, briefly explain.
Egg Drop Dead | Vivien Chien ★★★ (01/07/25)
Lana tries to face the killer all by herself without telling anyone.

✔ 6. The Cigarette Diet (1920s)
👀 Read a book with HISTORY/HISTORICAL FICTION on its main GR Page.
The Owl Killers | Karen Maitland ★★★ (01/06/25)

✔ 7. The Grapefruit Diet (1930s)
👀 Read a book with a compound word in its title.
Lowcountry Boughs of Holly | Susan M. Boyer ★★★ (01/04/25)

✔ 8. The Master Cleanse (1940s)
👀 Read a series book that is a spin-off from another series; tell us both series.
Murder at Mabel’s Motel | G.A. McKevett ★★★ (02/17/25)
Granny Reid is a spin off of Savannah Reid.

✔ 9. The Cabbage Soup Diet, reprise (1950s)
👀 Read a book with any veggie shown prominently on the cover; post the cover.
Farm to Trouble | Amanda Flower ★ (02/01/25)


✔ 10. The Drinking Man’s Diet (1960s)
👀 Read a book whose primary characters are almost all men.
The Day of the Jackal | Frederick Forsyth ★★★★ (01/02/25)

✔ 11. The Sleeping Beauty Diet (1970s)
👀 Read a book in which someone volunteers to do something dangerous; using spoiler tags, briefly explain.
Carpe Jugulum | Terry Pratchett ★★★★★ (01/11/25)
Nanny, Agnes and Magrat volunteer to get rid of the vampyrs when they figure out Esme Weatherwax cannot or will not do it.

✔ 12. The Scarsdale Diet (1980s)
👀 Read a book that is #2 in a series.
The Raven Thief | Gigi Pandian ★★★ (01/01/25)
Secret Staircase #2.

✔ 13. The Atkins Diet (1990s)
👀 Read a book whose title includes a proper name.
Aunt Bessie Enjoys | Diana Xarissa ★★★ (01/03/25)

✔ 14. The Baby Food Diet (2000s)
👀 Read a book originally published between 2000 and 2009; tell us the publication date.
Fall of a Philanderer | Carola Dunn ★★★ (01/09/25)
Pub. Sep 01, 2005.

✔ 15. The HCG Diet (2010s)
👀 Read a book with a major character who works in a science-related career; tell us who and the career.
The Black Country | Alex Grecian ★★ (01/08/25)
Bernard Kingsley, doctor.

*** Completed (03/05/25) ***

Great job, Barb and Kim!

Congrats, Barbara and Jimena!

Congrats, Carolyn!

Congrats, Karen, Amanda and Mary!

Congrats, Barb!

Great job, Connie! Barb, I have too many to go as well.

Congrats, Barb!

Congrats, OM!

Congrats, Lynn!

Congrats, Birgitte!

Thanks ladies!

Congrats, Jimena!

Meg wrote: "Postal Worker ==> Alison Espach - The Wedding People 03/02

Vehicle ==> Murder at Buxley Manor, Leena Clover 03/02

Way..."

The murderer was not the postal worker.

Mabeelle wrote: "Guess #4

Cause of Death: Poison (cake)
Jusqu'à ce que la mort nous sépare (Till death do us part) by Lisa Gardner 02/27/2025
..."

The murder was not by poison.