Lisa’s Comments (group member since Dec 27, 2020)

Lisa’s comments from the The Perks Of Being A Book Addict group.

I finished The Toll today and put it on the spreadsheets. I'm still working on The Dalai Lama's Cat and Kingdom of Ash (yellow 7) and hope to have them both finished by the end of the week.

I finished The Love Hypothesis - a good Valentine's Day book! I placed it on the regular spreadsheet as well as on the mini challenge for an aspect of city life - University (Standford) setting.

I don't really have a preference for City or Country - I have a couple of books checked out from the library that would work for each one. I didn't see any books on either the specific City or Country book lists that I currently have and could commit to reading, though, so I could see how we might want to lean towards country since Jhmingos wants to read Cold Sassy Tree from the Country list. (I don't think someone has volunteered to read one of the specific books from the City list, but I could have missed it). On the other hand, that is only one prompt and I'm not sure if we'll actually be close to filling them all and therefore it might not matter?

What does MPG stand for? Something to do with genre?

Since finished books won't count for the mini-challenge until 24 hours from now, I started a new book instead of working on the old ones....The Love Hypothesis (side note...this could probably count for a city element of university if we go that route). So I may have four more finishes this upcoming week.

I'm at work, so haven't had a chance to learn about mini-challenge in depth yet, but upon my quick look I should be able to do book with trees on the cover (These Silent Woods) and book with character who has a pet (The Dalai Lama's Cat). I put them on the spreadsheet, but if someone finishes something that fits these categories sooner than I do, please feel free to bump me.

I finished Thunderhead. Will likely start The Dalai Lama's Cat next.

We had a day of rain followed by a day of snow here this past week - I worked on shoveling my driveway today and it was a challenge to get the bottom 0.5 inch layer of ice up - hopefully I'll be able to get my car down our access road to the main road for work tomorrow. High temps will be above freezing for most of the week, so it should melt soon...

I finished my second book of the month this morning - When the Stars Go Dark. I heard about this book a couple of months ago on a podcast. I haven't read this author before, but the other books I've heard of by her are historical fiction, so I figured this one would be too (I'd long forgotten what was said on the podcast by this point...). But it was a mystery with a touch of thriller/suspense. I enjoyed it quite a bit and it was a relatively fast read.

I'm still working on Kingdom of Ash for Yellow 7; I haven't decided which book I'll pick up next to accompany it.

Camilla wrote: "By the way, I think the only not-claimed color task is 5 Yellow. Does anybody have anything available for that one?"

Would work? It is set in Mumbai, India. I'm not sure if we can use the country India or if we have to use the more specific city Mumbai? Or can the "I" in Inspector Chopra count? That is more his title than his name and his first name starts with the letter "A", so I think that might be too much of a stretch.

If this book works, I could read it for the Yellow 5 card, although I would be happy to give this card up if someone else wanted it.

Audrey Jane wrote: "Glad it works and happy I could help ;)

The Inspector Gamache series seems like something I would enjoy. Added it to my TBR. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, Lisa!"

I hope you enjoy them! I've liked the series from the beginning, but they start getting really good at #5 (The Brutal Telling - you definitely need to read them in order, though).

I've started Kingdom of Ash and am about 20% done. It is a long book, so I expect it to take me another week.

I like to read more than one book at a time, so the other one I'm working on is When the Stars Go Dark. It is a faster paced book, a bit of a mystery-thriller, with short chapters. So I think I should be done with it within a couple of days. I am enjoying it.

I'm sorry for your loss too, Jennifer. Many of my friends have had a difficult start to 2022.

I started getting a lot of notifications tonight for all the messages that had been accumulating here and I didn't realize....maybe that means the notifications problem has been fixed. But I'll be sure to look every day to see what's going on.

I am about 2/3rds of the way through my first book - I expect to finish it tomorrow if not later tonight. I decided I needed a little Inspector Gamache in my life this week and started with The Nature of the Beast. Once I finish it, I will be starting Kingdom of Ash for our Yellow 7 card.

Camilla wrote: "Lisa, I read the Arc of a Scythe trilogy last year and thought it was excellent. Enjoy!"

I read the first book earlier this month and really liked it - I'm looking forward to finishing the series next month!

I'm going to start with Kingdom of Ash since that is the book that I've 100% committed to and it is ~900 pages. Others that I hope to read are: Thunderhead, The Toll, The Nature of the Beast, Lair of Dreams, The Starless Sea, The Shadow of the Wind. I have a bunch of others checked out from the library as well, so we'll see which way my mood takes me. I haven't put any on the spreadsheet other than Kingdom of Ash as until I read them, I'm not sure which cards they might work for. I'm excited to start next week!

Kaley wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "How do we determine who reads which book for UNO, I don’t remember and I probably need to start finding a book."

So I personally like just letting everyone read whatever they want..."

Yes, I will gladly take Yellow 7. I want to make that book a priority next month, so will start it on Feb 1st.

Camilla wrote: "Welcome Lisa! What kind of cats do you have? If I would get a cat, I'd like a British shorthair.

The Throne of Glass series is one I've always sort of looked at, but it's never made it to my TBR l..."

My cats are both females - one is a ginger tabby (Calypso) and the other is a dilute tortoise shell (Maisie). They will be three years old soon. And both love to read with me.

I do recommend Throne of Glass series, although I admit I was not impressed by the first book. I had several friends tell me how good the series was and that book just didn't live up to my expectation. But they told me to stick with it and every book has gotten better. Tips they have given me, that I 100% agree with are to read the book of novellas (The Assassin's Blade) between book #3 and #4. And to do a tandem read of books #5 and #6 (https://tellereads.wordpress.com/tog-...).

Hello,
I'm Lisa. This is my first time playing UNO. I live in Ohio with my two cats. I work nightshift, so my sleep schedule is quite random, and therefore I might be awake and reading at any time of the day. I often can read some at work which is nice too. My favorite genres are fantasy and historical/contemporary fiction. I have an UNO shelf (I think it is just uno-2022 or https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...). I will log books either here or on spreadsheet - I don't have a preference - whatever the group decides is fine. I'm looking forward to having fun reading the next few months!

P.S. I plan on reading Kingdom of Ash next month (just finished books 5 and 6 for that series yesterday and can't wait!) and I think it will fill our Yellow 7 card as it is seventh book in the series.