Q&A Thread

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

Me again..

For Bloody Mary -

13 in page number or publication date.. can it be 31?

[Judith]

Nope, sorry

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

Judith wrote: "Nope, sorry"

All good.. worth a try, LOL.

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

FYI - the newest monster wheel is up!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Keely]

I might be being blind here, but I don't see the link to the new monsters wheel.

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

Keely wrote: "I might be being blind here, but I don't see the link to the new monsters wheel."

Try now, the link wasn't showing up for some reason

[Keely]

Got it now! Thank you!

[The other Sandy]

I need to read a book with the requirement "storm important to plot." Does it have to be fiction? Can I read a nonfiction book about one specific storm, like The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea by Sebastian Junger?

[Judith]

The other Sandy wrote: "I need to read a book with the requirement "storm important to plot." Does it have to be fiction? Can I read a nonfiction book about one specific storm, like [book:The Perfect Storm: A True Story o..."

Sure!

[The other Sandy]

Thanks, Judith!

[Liz]

Hi!
I am new to the group and to all these amazing challenges!!! I have read through a lot of interesting threads and challenges, and would like to dip my toes into this one… if I understand how it works, lol. I choose the monster type, spin the wheel 5 times, collect my monsters regardless of difficulty level and get going with completing the 5 tasks assigned to each monster, am I getting the gist? I can use one monster to complete the 5 tasks belonging to him if I am lucky. But in order to complete the challenge I would have to complete 25 tasks in total.
Please let me know if I got this correct and I can’t wait to get started!
You guys are so much fun!

[Liz]

Oh, and is there a thread where I can join a group of people where I can just do an individual run once to see how I do without interrupting/holding back others much since I am new but still feel like I am part of the group? I don’t want to just insert myself somewhere in the middle of a tight-knit group.

[Judith]

Yes your understanding is correct for how it works.

There may be teams looking for new members or new people looking to start a team.

I will say though there is no time limit for this so you can take as long as you’d like to complete any of the tasks

[Liz]

Thank you, Judith!
If there is any group that wouldn’t mind me joining it and either trying to complete an individual challenge first to see how I do or maybe be a slowest member of your team while I am learning the ropes , let me know, please! 😊

[Maddielucy(Patti)]

Hi! I just joined this. So if I understand — I get 5 monsters at once. Then if I complete a monster I can get a new one. My question is — if I start with 5 Greek monsters — do I need to stay with the Greeks or can I move on to a different monster type once I vanquish one?

Then to follow — or can I do 5 of each type at once? Or is it just 5 total. Thanks! This seems fun.

[Judith]

5 total of any combination you like.

All Greek, all Asian, 2 urban myth and 3 human, one of each. Whatever strikes your fancy or mood!

[Liz]

Hi!

A question: for a task similar to this:

Letters in REOPEN in Title

Do I need to match all letters in the task, or just some?

TIA

[Judith]

The title (you can include subtitles as well as long as they show up in the GoodReads title) needs to include all of the letters but they can be in any order.

Here's an example of the title with a subtitle included on GoodReads:

The Sloth Lemur's Song: Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present

[Liz]

Thank you, Judith! It helps :)

[Cat]

Group think / Recommendations!

Any suggestions for
- set in Latin / South America / Philippines / Guam

with bonus points for under 18yo MC :)

ETA: and double bonus if it's by an author from the country in question.

demerits for Isabel Allende, with whom I struggle. sorry.

[Sammy]

I'm actually quite fond of Gabriel García Márquez, although One Hundred Years of Solitude was kinda hard work. Loved Love in the Time of Cholera though, and Memories of My Melancholy Whores and Chronicle of a Death Foretold were quick, enjoyable reads :)

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

Cat wrote: "Group think / Recommendations!

Any suggestions for
- set in Latin / South America / Philippines / Guam

with bonus points for under 18yo MC :)

ETA: and double bonus if it's by an author from the..."

How about something by Silvia Moreno-Garcia... 0r .

I think she may be Canadian of Mexican descent. Most of her books are set in Mexico which counts as Latin America, doesn't it?

[Cat]

yeah, I quite like him too. but doesn't get us the two-fer :(

[Lexi]

The Head of the Saint is Brazil and under 18

[Cat]

Lisa - (Aussie Girl) wrote: "How about something by Silvia Moreno-Garcia


oooh! good reminder :)

I've also got by Isabel Cañas who's Mexican-American.

[Lexi]

Not under 18 but still lovely:
When We Were Birds
It Would Be Night in Caracas
The Messenger

[Cat]

Lexi wrote: "The Head of the Saint is Brazil and under 18"

and looks utterly bonkers! shall investigate further - thanks :)

[Cat]

I love the group think recs! thank you all! :)

another one I thought about was Journey to the River Sea - set in Brazil / on the Amazon, under 18, but a British writer

[Tricia]

How do I learn about the different team challenges? I did Tower Teams this year for the first time and really enjoyed it, but I see people talking about Uno, Monster Wheel, and other team challenges and am super confused about how they work.

[Judith]

Tricia wrote: "How do I learn about the different team challenges? I did Tower Teams this year for the first time and really enjoyed it, but I see people talking about Uno, Monster Wheel, and other team challenge..."

This challenge (Marauding Monsters, which was spun off of a Tower Team 9 mini challenge) is a self directed challenge you can either do as an individual or with a self-made group of any size. You just start a new thread, make a copy of the spreadsheet for your monster fighting and spin some wheels. Liz up in message 64 was looking to join if you all want to start a group.

For the larger team challenges in NBRC like Tower Teams, Wheel-a-thon, and others those are announced in the newsletter and we often put up teasers here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... So if you follow that thread you'll get notifications.

If you are a member of NBRC and don't have broadcast messages blocked as a setting, you should get the monthly newsletter which goes out on the 1st of the month, give or take a day.

There a lot of individual challenges we have, please poke around the NBRC group site and see if something strikes your fancy.

UNO is actually a challenge that happens in The Perks of Being a Book Addict, often referred to as simply 'Perks'. link to group: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

There is a lot of overlapped membership between Perks and NBRC and two lovely ladies are mods in both groups.

Hope that helps some and please ask if you have additional questions

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

A new wheel is up!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Judith]

After some consideration, the top page count for all monsters are being set to 651+ pages.

Even for existing wheels.

If you've already spun and 800 page monster, before the change, please honor the original task.

Hope this change will help you monster hunters out!

*Note: the master spreadsheet of tasks has been updated accordingly

[Lisa - (Aussie Girl)]

Thank You Judith! 💕

[Sophie, The other one]

Group brain - adult books with a rodent on the cover? I'm almost at the point of asking is a love rat would count...

[Cat]

oh! oh! have you read any of T Kingfisher's Saint of Steel books? I think they have rats, and are just wonderful


horrific to say, but the concatenation of love + rat nudged me!

First two are cishet romances, the last is MM. all are mid-years, damaged people and there's very little fake miscommunication to drive the stories.

[Sammy]

I have on my tbr, but wasn't looking to read it this month... (it's a print book, and I have my print books already planned out until wheels start, lol)

[Sammy]

Oh, springs to mind!

[Cat]

Sammy wrote: "Oh, springs to mind!"

That's a great call too!
(yes, totally ignoring the creature feature horror suggestion!)

[Sammy]

also, there have got to be a gazillion books with squirrels on the cover. I just can't think of a single one 😂

[Cat]

Sammy wrote: "also, there have got to be a gazillion books with squirrels on the cover. I just can't think of a single one 😂"

I think I instantly cast squirrel (and pigeon) based covers out of my mind on the basis that they are foul fiends! (yes, a red squirrel is not a foul fiend, but I'm no Lexi, able to identify animals from slim pickings on a cover, so I err on the side of caution!)

[Judith]

Cat wrote: "oh! oh! have you read any of T Kingfisher's Saint of Steel books? I think they have rats, and are just wonderful
[bookcove..."

This series is great! and the audios are well done :)

[Sophie, The other one]

Sammy wrote: "I have on my tbr, but wasn't looking to read it this month... (it's a print book, and I have my print books already planned out until wheels start, lol)"

Saw this and instantly went nope.

[Sophie, The other one]

Have requested my library gets the T. Kingfisher option and can't find squirrel options (or porcupine/beaver/capybara which I thought would be a good twist).

[Sophie, The other one]

After more time than I should have spent searching I've decided on

[Lexi]

Sophie wrote: "Have requested my library gets the T. Kingfisher option and can't find squirrel options (or porcupine/beaver/capybara which I thought would be a good twist)."

If you want it as an ebook, joining Ursula Vernon's Patreon, which I think is not limited to the US, gets you acess to any of her self-published ebooks and the money goes straight to the author. This includes all World of the White Rat books.

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

New Wheel everyone

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Jenny]

Woohoo! The Doctor Who wheel is here!!!!

[The other Sandy]

Mods, would you consider adding the link to each monster wheel in the header (or somewhere) for its respective monster class in the master spreadsheet? The monster wheel links are getting kind of spread out in the comments and I think they'd be easier to keep track of this way.

[Tricia]

I'm super new to these challenges - did TT for the first time this year. Can someone explain to me how these monster wheels work? I see the wheel and spin it but don't understand what to do next. I've read the starting posts but clearly I'm missing something.

[The other Sandy]

Tricia wrote: "Can someone explain to me how these monster wheels work? I see the wheel and spin it but don't understand what to do next."

After you spin and get your monster, look it up in the master spreadsheet (link in this comment). The spreadsheet will list 5 things you have to do to kill your monster. Then just read books that fulfill those requirements.

If you want to track your monster marauding here on Goodreads, you can create a new topic in the discussion thread that will be just for you and your monsters.