January 2023 Read-a-Thon: Team Janvier

[Sherri]

I finished The Creative Act: A Way of Being. I used it for hobbies a book involving music. It could also be used for self help so if we need to switch later we can.

[Sheena]

That's perfect Sherri! Those both seem like they will be hard to fill than some other prompts - nice to have options.

I'm ready to start my next book, so having a look at what might be need and what would help my individual attempt as well.

[Kelly]

Read-a-thon newbie ... I'm going to fill in the bookmark tracking, plans and completed tabs with what I've read, X-ing the prompts that the books fulfill and let the team captians fill in the rest.
Is that how it's done? Thanks for helping me learn.

[JennH]

Sheena wrote: "JennH wrote: "Today ended up being a little more chaotic than expected and I got in less reading/listening than I planned. I also have to put aside Sad Cypress temporarily. Will get b..."

I had slotted it for a rich person bc I thought there were less books for that prompt. I know we end up moving books when necessary and I have no problem doing so but being the first day, it seemed early to be doing that. Honestly, my first thoughts going through prompt pages, I thought maybe I didn't enter it like I thought I did or maybe I'm losing my mind. lol Then I found it under birth/death and thought maybe I did put it there bc Sense and Sensibility does meet a lot of prompts and forgot about it? But realized I didn't do it bc of how the author's name was spelled. I'm fine with wherever it goes and whatever is needed. The audiobook I'm listening to now, Royal Valentine, can go fit in the rich person prompt.

[JennH]

Sherri wrote: "Sheena, I thought that was what was happening. I woke up this morning with a touch of vertigo & my brain is fussy. This is the way we have done it in the past so all is good. Thank You."

Hope you're feeling better!

[JennH]

Kelly wrote: "Read-a-thon newbie ... I'm going to fill in the bookmark tracking, plans and completed tabs with what I've read, X-ing the prompts that the books fulfill and let the team captians fill in the rest...."

Yep, sounds like you've got it! If you have any questions, or not sure where a book goes or anything really, just post. Everyone is very helpful, esp our captains!

[JennH]

Today was game day with the kids, so I didn't get as much reading in as planned. I'll see what I can make up tonight.

I did manage to finish Answers in the Pages and have started Ella Minnow Pea. I'll slot it for characters too young to work.

[Sheena]

Kelly wrote: "Read-a-thon newbie ... I'm going to fill in the bookmark tracking, plans and completed tabs with what I've read, X-ing the prompts that the books fulfill and let the team captians fill in the rest...."

Everyone was new at some point and you're doing great!

Totally up to you how far you want to go with adding to the spreadsheet. You can stop at completed tab or go on and add the finished Resolutions sheet if your comfortable doing that.

With everyone working on the sheet together it always has small issues along the way that the co- captains will go in and fix so dont stress at all about the sheet. Read books, chat here, add as much as you like to sheet and have fun. I still laugh about the last readathon we did and our sheet had "50 shades of green" that was making us crazy until Amy fixed it! LOL This might be weird but I love playing with spreadsheets so I actually enjoy fussing with them.

[Sheena]

Hey Team ... do you think a character with asthma would count as "A book with a character who has a physical illness/disability" or is that a stretch? She often uses her inhaler in the book, if that makes a difference?

The book fits under lots of other options so no biggie, but curious if you think that works?

[Sherri]

Sheena wrote do you think a character with asthma would count as "A book with a character who has a physical illness/disability" I think it counts.
Sheena wrote "I still laugh about the last readathon we did and our sheet had "50 shades of green" that was making us crazy until Amy fixed it!" I remember that one too. All the different shades drive me crazy. I was on a team once that did their own thing on the spreadsheet & used any color they picked. Finally we went to one shade. You can't break the spreadsheet & I know this because I have done some wacky things with it before.

[Sherri]

I finished . I used it for money a book with a green cover. I didn't like it as much as I thought it would. I'll start Trophy Hunt tonight. I will put it on the plans tab in the morning. I plan to use it for hunting/camping.

[Joan]

I completed 1922. It can be used for a book with a number in the title, or a financial event, or a book with a family secret or family conflict. I'll let you all decide.

It was a pretty good book. It was a quick read.

[Jen K]

Wow! This team is amazing! So many books read!!

Today ended up overly social for me, meeting 2 groups of friends and I've been out the last 8 hours. I got in a bit of audio on the drive but not as much reading as expected. I should be able to finish my 2 books tomorrow. Then I will check my library haul to see what best fits the remaining prompts.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

[Rachel]

I read 88 pages of The Overnight Guest today. I also took a look at the spreadsheet but can't seem to find any logical place for Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language to fit in, but if anyone sees a spot for it, feel free to add it!

[Sherri]

Good Morning All, Joan I put 1922 under money -a book with a number in the title. I moved that column to the completed tab.
Rachel I didn't see a place for Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language. Maybe another team member will find a spot. I wish there was a linguistics prompt because I like language origin. Rachel you can still put your pages read or audio listened to on the tracker for this book if you haven't. It helps with earning bookmarks.

[Sherri]

Hi, I've been putting completed books under prompts in cases where I didn't see where they haven't been used yet. Kelly I put under health-food on the cover. With that we completed Health. I'm going to use The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field under self help. First I'm going to walk the dog & do some quick chores. Then I will place your other completed books where they are needed unless Sheena does it first.

[Sheena]

JennH wrote: "Today was game day with the kids, so I didn't get as much reading in as planned. I'll see what I can make up tonight.

I did manage to finish Answers in the Pages and have started ..."

Game day sounds fun!! Well worth giving up a bit of reading time, I think :D

[Sheena]

Sherri wrote: "I finished . I used it for money a book with a green cover. I didn't like it as much as I thought it would. I'll start Trophy Hunt tonight. I will put it on..."

I didn't love lots of Verity either but I could not put it down (need to know where it was going) and that ending!!! It totally got me.

Good to have a hunting prompt in progress for sure. The book I'm reading now has some minor elements of hiking/hunting so I'll potentially add it as a prompt option once I've finish and judged if its enough to qualify, in case we go for round two.

[Sheena]

Joan wrote: "I completed 1922. It can be used for a book with a number in the title, or a financial event, or a book with a family secret or family conflict. I'll let you all decide.

It was a p..."

Perfect!! I need to be better at picking quick reads for the readathon. I thought I did okay, but mine are all taking me longer than I thought.

[Sheena]

Rachel wrote: "I read 88 pages of The Overnight Guest today. I also took a look at the spreadsheet but can't seem to find any logical place for [book:Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules ..."


Seems like this could fit Hobbies: A book involving reading and/or writing?

The description indicates reading/writing to me?
Language is humanity's most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before.... Even the most absurd-looking slang has genuine patterns behind it....

I'm going to go ahead and open up slot two now and add it but let me know if anyone thinks that's an issue.

Also .. I really want to read this book!! It sounds fascinating.

[Sheena]

"They say the first five days after the weekend are the hardest. Hang in there, cupcake"

- A Hard Day for a Hangover by Darynda Jones

Happy Monday / Day 3 Team Janvier
Everyone is crushing your reading! Hope you're all reading some great books.

I'm going to fuss with the spreadsheet now. The total books in competed don't match the total on the individual pages so I'm going to add some reference numbers for my own cross checking, please just ignore :D

Will update with our current totals in just a few.
Have a great day today team!!

[Sherri]

Check In day 3, Hello All. I went to the spreadsheet to fuss too but saw Sheena fussing so I will definitely let her get things sorted out. I'm so glad you like fooling with the spreadsheet Sheena. Thank you.
My goal today is to continue reading Trophy Hunt & hopefully finish tomorrow. This is a good series for those of you that like Big Sky & Longmire. It's a western so it can be used for the ATY challenge.
We are doing great. I can't wait to see what is completed today.

[Sherri]

Emily said we could adjust the tabs on the spreadsheet wherever we wanted. Sheena while tidying the spreadsheet would you mind moving the plans & completed tabs to the start? If for whatever reason this is awkward or doesn't work we can move them back. Thank You.

[Sheena]

Sherri wrote: "Check In day 3, Hello All. I went to the spreadsheet to fuss too but saw Sheena fussing so I will definitely let her get things sorted out. I'm so glad you like fooling with the spreadsheet Sheena...."

Thanks for that tip! I'm still on the hunt for a Western. Will check this out.

[Sheena]

Spreadsheet Update (Monday)

We have 18 books read and our first Resolution checked off! This is so, SO great! I've assigned 2 bookmarks and we have 3 left to go.

[ ] Money - 1 to read with
✓ Health
[ ] Career - 3 to read
[ ] Family - 3 to read
[ ] Hobbies - Sherri's reading Trophy Hunt

I've opened up column #2 on the spreadsheet for any books that only fit an already filled prompt. And can add more columns as needed.

Tabs are moved as previous discussed - chime in if you have any other suggestions to make things easier.

I added a couple pieces for formatting, and some numbers to the x columns to make it easier for me to double check all the books are logged across the sheet - you can just ignore these It's just a cross reference for my sake though I'm happy to explain if anyone cares, LOL

[Jen K]

Thanks Sheena for all the work on the spreadsheet!

I have about 1.5 hours of my audio which will work for the remaining money prompt and 90 pages on my hardcover which should fit one of the remaining family prompts. At the least I will finish the audio today!

[Sherri]

Thank You Sheena. The spreadsheet looks great & the best part is that it's up to date.

[JennH]

Morning! Spreadsheet looks great. Will take a little getting used - I kept automatically looking for planned and completed books at the end. Yay for a completed Health!

I've added two more completed books, Ella Minnow Pea for a second green cover and Diary of a Void for a character who changed jobs. But I didn't make it pretty and organized with the numbers and colors yet.

I've started on With the Fire on High and Love on the Brain.

[Edie]

Thanks for moving the Plan and Completed tabs. It was great to have the sheet open to the plan tab. I am still a day away from finishing another book.

WTG team Janvier!

[Sheena]

JennH wrote: "Morning! Spreadsheet looks great. Will take a little getting used - I kept automatically looking for planned and completed books at the end. Yay for a completed Health!

I've added two more complet..."

Me too!! I keep automatically jumping right to the end of the tabs and thinking I have really messed things up, LOL

I'm back a work so today so less reading time (BOO) but I'm trying to get all my high-concentration jobs done and will hopefully get some audiobook filing time this afternoon. And I'm hoping to finish up the last hundred+ pages of Hard Day tonight.

Then ... ?? will see where we're at and what prompts we're short on.

[Joan]

Sheena wrote: "Joan wrote: "I completed 1922. It can be used for a book with a number in the title, or a financial event, or a book with a family secret or family conflict. I'll let you all decide..."

I want to pick another quick one but I don't want to get off track with my whole reading plan!!!!!!!!!

[Joan]

Someone mentioned that they read Verity. I loved the beginning but wasn't a fan of the end. And then some things were kind of unbelievable which I didn't really notice until I read some other people's comments on it and then once I noticed it bothered me also!

Most of the time I try to go along with the author's story/theory and try not to think of the holes in the story. However, I just read one book and there were many obvious happenings in the story that most likely wouldn't have played out that way in real life. I won't say what book but they were complaining how hot it was over a period of days and someone was missing and they ended up finding them in the same house. And I'm like no way they wouldn't have smelled that!!!

I love thrillers and what not but sometimes you can find a lot of errors in the book. I'm all for fantasy of the horror stories though but some things still have to remain believable. I think Stephen King makes it more believable. Even though a lot of it is supernatural he keeps what would happen believable if that makes sense.

[Sheena]

Joan wrote: "Someone mentioned that they read Verity. I loved the beginning but wasn't a fan of the end. And then some things were kind of unbelievable which I didn't really notice until I read some other peopl..."

YES!! I was just in the 'What you don't read" thread trying to articulate exactly what your saying. I'm completely fine with all things magic and can roll with almost anything fantastical. But if it's realistic fiction (or realistic characters/events with a fantasy setting) I can only suspend disbelief up to a point. If a character action or event is just completely implausible it makes me crazy and then I start picking apart the whole book.

[Jen K]

Finished Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller which covers 20 years of owning a bookstore in Cairo. It mentions global recessions and the impacts including having to close a branch of the store so I used for the last Money prompt.

[Sheena]

Jen K wrote: "Finished Shelf Life: Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller which covers 20 years of owning a bookstore in Cairo. It mentions global recessions and the impacts including having to close a..."

Super!! Bookmarks allotted and officially done two resolutions!

[Rachel]

Sheena wrote: "Rachel wrote: "I read 88 pages of The Overnight Guest today. I also took a look at the spreadsheet but can't seem to find any logical place for [book:Because Internet: Understanding..."

It could fit there I guess, but I think it's a bit of a stretch. That definitely seems to be the closest fit though so I guess we should go with it. The book talks about how communication has changed through use of technology, so it mentions things like texting, emojis, memes, etc. So I guess that counts as writing.

[Kelly]

Thanks for the help! You’re all so nice. 😁

[Jen K]

Finished Olga Dies Dreaming and used for family gathering as her cousin's wedding is an important family gathering scene. Trying to decide which to read next now. This team is cruising through the prompts!

[Rachel]

I read another 134 pages of The Overnight Guest tonight. Most likely will be able to finish it off tomorrow.

[Sherri]

Happy Tuesday Everyone. I like Tuesdays because new books come out today. I'm not waiting on a new release today but I like looking for past authors I've read. I also like trying to predict which books will be big hits in 2023.
We're doing great. I'm impressed at how many pages we have read. We have 3 bookmarks to use. I will finish Trophy Hunt this morning I plan to use it for hobbies-hunting/camping if it's still available when I finish. I'm picking up Women Talking this afternoon from the library. It seems like it will just work for a couple of the family prompts. If anyone has suggestions for where it works I'm open to them. Also it has a green cover.
Here is what is needed.
Career: blue-collar (hands on work). Set in a workplace.
Family: Family conflict. Title starts with a letter in FAMILY
Happy reading.

[Sheena]

@Kelly - this is a wonderful group and a great team!!
@Jen - We're doing so well!!
@Rachel - I've got that on my TBR as well.

Thanks for a update, Sherri!
I'm off to a later start today. But I've finished both my books and will head over to update my reads on the sheet. I can check off blue collar with either of them if it's still open. And I'm current reading Florida Woman if we need it for the Family prompt

Have a great day team!!

[Sheena]

Sherri wrote: "Happy Tuesday Everyone. I like Tuesdays because new books come out today. I'm not waiting on a new release today but I like looking for past authors I've read. I also like trying to predict which b..."

I added my completed books to the sheet;
I filled A book with a blue-collar/hands on worker with The Thursday Murder Club for the police officers and murdered property developer.

A Hard Day for a Hangover fit both family conflict and set in workplace but I went with A book with a family conflict because it had fewer options. It can be moved around as needed though.


3 books to go plus 2 more bookmarks to finish our first round of prompts!

Career: blue-collar (hands on work)Set in a workplace.
Family: Family conflict. Title starts with a letter in FAMILY

... going to check out those new releases now and see if there is anything to add to my TBR

[JennH]

Morning, team! I finished Love on the Brain last night but was too tired to enter any info. I've slotted it for the workplace prompt and that completes a Career for us!

I should be finishing With the Fire on High today and I've started An Arrow to the Moon which I think is good for a few prompts. I'll see when I actually get further in the book. It's be at least good for the 'starts with a letter in FAMILY' prompt.

Happy reading today! We're doing great! Go Team Janvier!

[Joan]

I only read 29 pages yesterday. It was definitely a Monday. I filled it in on the spreadsheet. I had an audiobook for free on audible but it must have expired or something because it isn't there anymore. So I have to figure something out on my listening hours. I usually listen to a book on my commute.

[Joan]

The book I'm reading The Last House on Needless Street will count for a book starting with a letter in FAMILY. I don't think I'll be able to finish until Saturday though.

[Edie]

Sherri wrote: "Happy Tuesday Everyone. I like Tuesdays because new books come out today. I'm not waiting on a new release today but I like looking for past authors I've read. I also like trying to predict which b..."

For fans of Tuesday release days, Ann Patchett who co-owns Parnassus Books in Nashville and some staff do a Tuesday video called "Laydown Tuesdays" which highlights new releases. You can find this on FB or at Parnassus.net. Watching this is one reason my TBR list hovers around 690 books.

[Sherri]

I just finished Trophy Hunt. I’ll use it for hobbies- a book involving hunting/camping. I’m going to lunch with my hubby. I’ll log it everywhere when I get back.

[Kelly]

I just checked off the reading and writing prompt under hobbies for the book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. I hadn’t checked that one when I first added it. It’s about two cousins who create comic books so in my opinion it fits!

[Sherri]

I got Trophy Hunt where it needs to be. We finished hobbies. Right now my next read is Women Talking. It' s short so I should finish tomorrow. I was wrong about the color. It's light blue not green. There are a few prompts under family it works for I put it there. I'll know more once I get into it.

[Edie]

Finished The Verifiers by Jane Pek. Put it in Health... book with a birth or death. A death is a key element of this contemporary mystery. It also could fit several of the Family prompts, but we seem to have lots of possibilities there.