We Can't Even...(Unless There's Books)

[Katrisa]

Hi Even Team! Here is a list we can use for the planning. I am not great with spreadsheets though so if someone wants to make us one of those that would be amazing!

Book Points: 72
Bonus Points: 30
Points Total: 102

✔️Black - Katrisa - A Particular Kind of Black Man
✔️White - Lanelle - White Lies
✔️Black - Pragya - Black No More
✔️White Lanelle - The Window at the White Cat
✔️Black Margo - The Black Feathers
✔️White Margo - The White Hare
✔️Black Katrisa - Black Butterflies
✔️White Katrisa - White Holes
(Bonus Points: 4 )

✔️Hot Sharon - Hot
✔️Cold Sharon - The Pale Cold Light
Hot
✔️Cold Katrisa - Cold Wind
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️Summer - Lynn (or could be SLOW) - Slow Burn Summer
✔️Winter Margo- Five Tuesdays in Winter
✔️Summer Katrisa - That Summer
✔️Winter Katrisa - The Dead of Winter: Beware the Krampus and Other Wicked Christmas Creatures
(Bonus Points: 2 )

✔️Love - Anna - Love, Hate & Clickbait
✔️Hate Anna - Love, Hate & Clickbait
✔️Love - Katrisa - All About Love: New Visions
✔️Hate Katrisa - No Ordinary Hate
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️Up - Lynn - The Wake-Up Call
✔️Down Margo - Humans, Bow Down
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️On - Lynn - The People on Platform 5
✔️Off Pragya - Marrying Off Mother: And Other Stories
✔️On Anna - The Torture Camp on Paradise Street
✔️Off Beth - Better Off Dead
✔️On Anna - Cards on the Table
✔️Off Lanelle - The Mystery Off Glen Road
On Pragya - On Women
✔️Off Katrisa - Off the Map
(Bonus Points: 3 )

✔️Wet Katrisa - Put A Wet Paper Towel on It: The Weird and Wonderful World of Primary Schools
✔️Dry Katrisa - The Dry Challenge: How to Lose the Booze for Dry January, Sober October, and Any Other Alcohol-Free Month
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️Top Rusalka - Ayoade on Top
Bottom Rusalka - The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
(Bonus Points: )

✔️Front Katrisa - All Quiet on the Western Front
✔️Back Katrisa - Getting the Pretty Back: Friendship, Family, and Finding the Perfect Lipstick
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️Big - Kristie - Great Big Beautiful Life
✔️Small - Anna - Small Bomb at Dimperley
✔️Big Lanelle - One Big Open Sky (or could be OPEN)
✔️Small Lynn - Small Town Pride
(Bonus Points: 2)

✔️First Katrisa - First Person Singular: Stories
✔️Last - Kristie - The Last Murder at the End of the World
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️Right Sharon - A Heart in the Right Place
✔️Left Sharon - The Girl They Left Behind
(Bonus Points: 1 )

Open Beth (maybe) - Open Season
✔️Close Sharon - Close Your Eyes and Count to 10
✔️Open Katrisa - Do Not Open
✔️Close Katrisa - Close Range: Wyoming Stories
✔️Open Katrisa - Open House
Close
(Bonus Points: 2 )

✔️Clean Katrisa - Clean Mama's Guide to a Peaceful Home: Effortless Systems and Joyful Rituals for a Calm, Cozy Home
Dirty
(Bonus Points: )

✔️Empty Anna - Seven Empty Houses
✔️Full Sharon - The Full Moon Coffee Shop
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️Fast Kristie - Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls
✔️Slow - Margo - Slow Dance
(Bonus Points: 1 )

Tall
Short
(Bonus Points: )

✔️In - Margo - Lying in Wait
✔️Out -Lynn (or could be ON) - Out on a Limb
✔️In Katrisa - In the Blink of an Eye
✔️Out Katrisa - Inside Out
(Bonus Points: 2 )

✔️Day - Lynn - The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
✔️Night - Lanelle - A Touch of Night
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️Happy Anna - You Had Me at Happy Hour
✔️Sad Anna - Sad Cypress
(Bonus Points: 1 )

Soft
Hard
(Bonus Points: )

Thick
Thin
(Bonus Points: )

✔️Always - Katrisa (or could be DAY) One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
✔️Never - Lanelle - Never Forgotten
Always
✔️Never Kristie - Never Name the Dead
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️All - Beth - All the Colors of the Dark
✔️None - Anna - And Then There Were None
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️Yes Beth - Yes No Maybe So
✔️No Beth - Yes No Maybe So
(Bonus Points: )

Beginning
✔️End - Anna - Peril at End House
(Bonus Points: )

✔️Loud Katrisa - Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve
✔️Quiet - Katrisa - The Quiet Librarian
(Bonus Points: 1 )

✔️Old - Lanelle - Old Lamps for New Ones: And Other Sketches and Essays Hitherto Uncollected
✔️New - Lanelle - Old Lamps for New Ones: And Other Sketches and Essays Hitherto Uncollected
✔️Old Lanelle - Old Lover's Ghost
✔️New Katrisa - The New New Rules: A Funny Look At How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass
(Bonus Points: 1 )

Other Possibilities:

Lynn
(view spoiler)[short, happy, back, out/old, never, in, on, last, love, black (hide spoiler)]

Lanelle
(view spoiler)[black, hot, cold, summer, winter, love, up, down, on, off, back, last, close, clean, tall, short, in, out, day, always, all, none, yes, no, quiet (hide spoiler)]

Beth
(view spoiler)[ Last, Never, No (again), Happy, Day, Summer, In, Night, Love, On , All (hide spoiler)]

[Katrisa]

We also need a team name.
Here's a couple I thought of:
We Can't Even...(Unless There's Books)
We Even the Score
Don't Be Mad - Be Even

[Katrisa]

I did an initial pass over my June TBR and these books will fit the Toppler:
1. IN - In the Blink of an Eye (but this one is on hold currently so if someone else has one for this go ahead and take it as I am not certain if it will come in on time for this)
2. BLACK - A Particular Kind of Black Man
3. DAY or ALWAYS - One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
4. QUIET - The Quiet Librarian
5. LOVE - All About Love: New Visions

I love this Toppler because I am a teacher who is off for the summer and have lots of book time! So I can do more books. I will see what we need after people get a chance to gopher!

[Kristie, Moderator]

Thanks, Katrisa! I laughed out loud at We Can't Even...(Unless There's Books).

The first thing I thought of was Even We Can Read. lol Seems a bit self-deprecating.

[Kristie, Moderator]

I have 2 from the library that I'd like to read.

LAST - The Last Murder at the End of the World
BIG - Great Big Beautiful Life

I'm not sure if I'll finish a third this week, but I'll look for something shorter from my TBR and try to fill in for a matching pair once I see what everyone else has planned.

[Katrisa]

Kristie wrote: "The first thing I thought of was Even We Can Read. lol Seems a bit self-deprecating."

I found that a lot of my team name ideas seemed to come off that way! It has made me think about how the word EVEN changes connotations! I went down a rabbit hole with the phrase "Even a blind squirrel occasionally gets a nut" but nothing sounded not mean, lol

[Katrisa]

Kristie wrote: "I have 2 from the library that I'd like to read.

LAST - The Last Murder at the End of the World
BIG - Great Big Beautiful Life

I'm not sure if I'll finish a t..."

I put your first book as a possibility for END too just in case.

[Anna]

Hi 👋
Ill read Small Small Bomb at Dimperley
All All That It Ever Meant
None And Then There Were None

[Lynn]

I can commit to 5 books, and ideally it would be these five books:
Summer or Slow - Slow Burn Summer
On or Out - Out On A Limb
On - The People on Platform 5
Up - The Wake Up Call
Day - The Seven Day Switch


I have these other options if you're looking for someone to read a book for a certain word:
Short - Life's Too Short
Happy - The Happy Ever After Playlist
Back - Carrie Soto Is Back
Out or Old - The One Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climed Out Of The Window and Disappeared
Never - I Who Have Never Known Men
In - Seven Days In June
On - Notes on a Execution
On - Perfect on Paper
On or Last - The Last House on Needless Street
Last or In - The Last Family In England
In - The State We're In
Love - The True Love Experiment
Love - Stupid Love
Black - The Black Kids

[Lanelle]

Katrisa, thank you so much for starting our team thread. And it looks like you're willing to maintain a list for our reading, is that right?

When I saw that we were the Even team, I first thought of the phrase 'Even Steven(s)', which means to be balanced or equal. So maybe...

Even Steven Readers or Reading Even Steven?

[Lanelle]

I should be able to read 5 or 6 books. Here's what I've gophered:

(view spoiler)[
Black - Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche,
White - White Lies, The Window at the White Cat

Hot - Too Hot to Handel
Cold - Cold April, Cold Kiss

Summer - Aunt Dimity and the Summer King, Song of the Summer King
Winter - Winter Wedding, Winter Wish

Love - For Love of Mother-Not,
Hate -

Up - Up from Slavery: an autobiography
Down

On - Murder on Cape Cod, Murder on the Orient Express, Murder on the Lusitania
Off - Murder Off the Books

Wet
Dry

Top
Bottom

Front
Back - Inside Out & Back Again

Big - The Big 5-OH!
Small - Love in a Small Town

First
Last - Lord Sidley's Last Season, Last Scene Alive, The Spotted Dog Last Seen

Right
Left

Open
Close - Close to Famous

Clean - Clean Sweep
Dirty

Empty
Full

Fast
Slow

Tall - Stand Tall, A Tall Dark Stranger
Short - The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

In - In Milady's Chamber, The House with a Clock in Its Walls
Out - Inside Out & Back Again. Come Out of the Kitchen!, Out of Time

Day - A Modern Day Persuasion: An Adaptation of Jane Austen's Novel
Night - Those Who Hunt the Night, A Touch of Night

Happy
Sad

Soft
Hard

Thick
Thin

Always - The Thief of Always
Never - Never Forgotten

All - All Things Different
None - And Then There Were None

Yes - Operation Yes
No - No Doubt About It, Sleep No More, No Place for a Lady

Beginning
End

Loud
Quiet - Quiet Meg, The Quiet Professor

Old - Old Friends and New Fancies, Old Lover's Ghost, The Old Willis Place
New - Old Friends and New Fancies, There's a New Sheriff in Town (hide spoiler)]

I definitely want to start with Old Friends and New Fancies, since we'll get a bonus point for it. I'll look to see if I have a match for what other folks are reading and post the rest of my to-read list here.

ETA: Since a couple people want to read for Black, I'll read for White.
Since a couple people want to read for Always, I'll read for Never.
Since three people want to read for Day, I'll read for two books for Night.

That's my plan for now. We'll see if I need to change when other folks show up and announce what they want to read.

[Katrisa]

Lanelle wrote: "Katrisa, thank you so much for starting our team thread. And it looks like you're willing to maintain a list for our reading, is that right?

When I saw that we were the Even team, I first thought ..."

Yes I am happy to maintain the list on here. If anyone wants to make a spreadsheet to track our points and books though, go for it! I am not good at Excel.

[Lynn]

Katrisa - You've put The People on Platform 5 on 'Out' when it should be 'On'

[Katrisa]

Lynn wrote: "Katrisa - You've put The People on Platform 5 on 'Out' when it should be 'On'"

Fixed!

[Kristie, Moderator]

Margo will be joining our team.

[Lanelle]

Kristie wrote: "Margo will be joining our team."

Yay!!!

[Margo]

Thanks Lanelle. Glad to join you guys 😊

[Katrisa]

Welcome Margo!

[Margo]

Thanks Katrisa.

This is a tricky one! I can commit to these three, but one is for IN which you may have a book for it your loan arrives in time.

winter Five Tuesdays in Winter
in Lying in Wait
Down Humans, Bow Down

[Kristie, Moderator]

We can repeat words, Margo. We just get more points if we can also read the paired opposite word. We may end up with a couple of "out" books too.

[Katrisa]

I'll go ahead and add you for IN Margo. Since mine's iffy anyway. We also have the option of completing a pair more than once too.

[Katrisa]

I found a book for DRY I can use that is available right now. So I will take that spot with The Dry Challenge: How to Lose the Booze for Dry January, Sober October, and Any Other Alcohol-Free Month

[Margo]

Kristie wrote: "We can repeat words, Margo. We just get more points if we can also read the paired opposite word. We may end up with a couple of "out" books too."

Thanks Kristie.

[Kristie, Moderator]

I have Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between from the library. I will try to squeeze it in to pair with Lynn's "slow" book.

[Margo]

I could do SLOW, if Lynn wants to use her book for SUMMER as I have a book for WINTER.

Slow Dance

[Katrisa]

Kristie wrote: "I have Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between from the library. I will try to squeeze it in to pair with Lynn's "slow" book."
I loved this book! It is fun to peek behind the curtain of one of my favorite shows

[Katrisa]

Does anyone have a preference for team name? We have
We Can't Even...(Unless There's Books)
Even We Can Read
Even Steven Readers

[Katrisa]

I was looking for books with WET to complete that pair (and there were LOTS of not safe for work titles in that gopher session, lol!) but I finally found one right up my alley! Put A Wet Paper Towel on It: The Weird and Wonderful World of Primary Schools so I will take that spot.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Oh, that's funny, Katrisa! Glad you found a safe one. lol

[Beth]

I really like We Can't Even...(Unless There's Books)

I'm good for a least a couple books, we will see what my time looks like, since it will depend on music theory homework...

[Beth]

Here are my options:
Want to start with Yes No Maybe So since it will also help me with the year long--both yes and no for one book

Can also do:
Last, Never, No (again), Happy, Day, Summer, In, Night, Love, On , All--these are all audio, so I can probably get farther with them, but I'm also going to see what I have in paper form that might help with Toppler and Year long.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

If you've read my comments in Watcha Doin'?, We Can't Even...(Unless There's Books) is my vibe at the moment. And I will commit for you all :D

[Lanelle]

Thanks, Rusalka. Sometimes we need someone to make those tough decisions :)

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Lol I meant I will commit to my reads for you all

But you take it as you wish :P I am here to enable lol

[Rusalka, Moderator]

On that, lol

I am going to commit to one physical book and one audio this time, as who knows what will come my way next week. And hopefully I can jump in for more. I have a public holiday but also have removalists in for the other 4 days of the week who need directing... /sigh

Happy to read whatever, please tell me what fits:

Physical options -
Cold = Cold Comfort Farm
Happy = Happy Place
Bottom = The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Audio -
Top = Ayoade on Top. Now. This is only 4 hours on audio. It says it's unabridged. I check with audible, it's the same. But it says on goodreads and elsewhere it's a book with over 200pp. I am happy to get a ruling.
First = The First Woman

[Lanelle]

*grin* I thought you were talking about our team name.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Lanelle wrote: "*grin* I thought you were talking about our team name."

Really made me laugh :D

[Kristie, Moderator]

Rusalka wrote: "...Top = Ayoade on Top. Now. This is only 4 hours on audio. It says it's unabridged. I check with audible, it's the same. But it says on goodreads and elsewhere it's a book with over 200pp. I am happy to get a ruling...."

I've continued to use the old rules for topplers. We only use the ebook and audio rulings when there is no physical book to base pages on. The first book that pops up is the hardcover at 256 pages, so you're good.

[Kristie, Moderator]

lol, I think we can commit to the team name too. I've updated it. :)

[Katrisa]

Ok Rus, how about I will put you down for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and Ayoade on Top for the pair TOP/BOTTOM so we'll get a bonus point too!

[Katrisa]

I found a book for LOUD too. Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve

[Anna]

I can commit to 5 books. Found my fourth Love, Hate & Clickbait for the hate, + a bonus point 🥳

[Lanelle]

I'm excited to see how many pairs we're planning. Lots of bonus points.

Katrisa, I'll most likely read my Old/New book last, since the book is not paired up with another one. Yet :)

[Kristie, Moderator]

Lanelle wrote: "I'm excited to see how many pairs we're planning. Lots of bonus points.

Katrisa, I'll most likely read my Old/New book last, since the book is not paired up with another one. Yet :)"

Lanelle - Your Old/New book contains both words, so it pairs with itself. It is worth 2 points instead of 1.

[Lynn]

Rusalka wrote: "If you've read my comments in Watcha Doin'?, We Can't Even...(Unless There's Books) is my vibe at the moment. And I will commit for you all :D"

Excellent (accidental) dictatorship there Rusalka!

[Lanelle]

Kristie wrote: "Lanelle - Your Old/New book contains both words, so it pairs with itself. It is worth 2 points instead of 1."

Okay. Thanks. But I wouldn't get the bonus point, right?

But if I read Old Friends and New Fancies and another book with the word "Old" or "New" in the title, would I get 4 points? 1 point per book, 1 point bonus, and 1 point for having both words in the title?

[Kristie, Moderator]

If you read that book, you get two points. Or if you read that one and one more to match you could collect the bonus point, but not the extra point. You can't double up. Basically the book is pairing with itself.

So, the options would be Old Friends and New Fancies for 2 points or Old Friends and New Fancies paired with a different book for 3 points. Or you could read Old Friends and New Fancies plus an old book and a new boo and end up with 5 points (2 for Old Friends and New Fancies and 3 for the additional pair.) I should clarify that in the main thread too.

[Lanelle]

I think I understand. Thanks, Kristie.

[Kristie, Moderator]

Sorry about the confusion, Lanelle. I just made a post in the main thread in case anyone else read it that way. It was clear in my head, but maybe not so much when it was written in the rules.

[Lanelle]

Kristie wrote: "Sorry about the confusion, Lanelle. I just made a post in the main thread in case anyone else read it that way. It was clear in my head, but maybe not so much when it was written in the rules."

I am a moderator for a different group. I write challenges, too. I completely understand when things make sense in my head, but then I have to clarify to those participating in the challenge :)