The Codex Collective: Team 8

[Susan]

🔐 Week 5 Prompt: Through Their Eyes
The fifth lock is not yours to open alone.
Choose a book that helps you better understand someone else’s perspective—real or fictional, historical or contemporary.
Someone different from you.

I am going to read The German Wife this week.

[Alaina]

Susan wrote: "Alaina wrote: "• Week: 4
• Book Title: The Appeal
• Author: Janice Hallett
• Page Count: 447
• Reflection: I read this book because it has the trope of being an ep..."

I love mystery thrillers, and this one was fun! I also love an epistolary novel, really enjoyed the format of this book

[Alaina]

I'll be reading The Fisherman for Week 5

[MN Lisa, Mistress of Mayhem with a Method]

🗝️ Week 4 Response
Some keys are forged in pattern.
Whether you leaned in or tried to break free, you told us something.

Were you right about how your partner felt about their trope—or totally off?

[Susan]

MN Lisa wrote: "🗝️ Week 4 Response
Some keys are forged in pattern.
Whether you leaned in or tried to break free, you told us something.

Were you right about how your partner felt about their trope—or totally off?"

I was correct!

[Susan]

• Week: 5
• Book Title: The German Wife
• Author: Kelly Rimmer
• Page Count: 448pgs
• Reflection: I enjoy historical fiction about World War II. It's rare to find a story set in the United States during WWII. Set between the early 1930 through 40s and 1950. The German Wife is set from two prospectives, one of a German well to do woman and an American girl who had a hard life who lived on a farm during the depression. Both woman had to make choices and it makes me wonder what I would have done if I lived either of these two lives.

[Alaina]

MN Lisa wrote: "🗝️ Week 4 Response
Some keys are forged in pattern.
Whether you leaned in or tried to break free, you told us something.

Were you right about how your partner felt about their trope—or totally off?"

I was right too!

[Alaina]

• Week: 5
• Book Title: The Fisherman
• Author: John Langan
• Page Count: 266
• Reflection: This book follows two men who have lost their families and bond with each other through fishing together. This book explores grief in a beautiful and horrific way. I have (thankfully) never experienced this kind of grief, and it was such an interesting and terrifying read in many ways.

[Susan]

🔐 Week 6 Prompt: Same Word, Different Book
One lock. One word. Two keys.
Pick a single word together—any word.
Then each of you finds a book with that word in the title.
No need to interpret it the same way.

[Susan]

I choose the word Murder

[Alaina]

I like it! I'm gonna choose The Murders of Molly Southbourne

[Susan]

Alaina wrote: "I like it! I'm gonna choose The Murders of Molly Southbourne"

That was easy enough but there are so many books out there with "murder" in the title.

I think I'm going to go with a cozy murder Key Lime Pie Murder

[Susan]

Week 6:
Book Title: Key Lime Pie Murder
Author: Joanne Fluke
Page Count: 342
Reflection: I do enjoy a cozy murder and discovered Joanne Fluke's Hannah Swenson cozy murder mysteries over the course of this last year. They are a quick, easy read. Key Lime Pie Murder was a good one centered around the county fair and sweet treats.

[Susan]

🔐 Week 7 Prompt: Echoes and Patterns
You’ve been here before.
Choose a book that reminds you of something you’ve read before—whether it’s comforting, repetitive, or unsettling.
Is it a coincidence? Or a pattern?

[Susan]

I'm going to read Baby Teeth for week 7's prompt.

[Alaina]

• Week: 6
• Book Title: The Murders of Molly Southbourne
• Author: Tade Thompson
• Page Count: 122
• Reflection: This was a short and wild book about a girl who spawns dangerous versions of herself every time she bleeds and she has to kill them before they kill her. I enjoyed it!

[Alaina]

I'll be reading Thirteen Storeys for Week 7

[Susan]

Week 7: Prompt: Echoes and Patterns
Book Title: Baby Teeth
Author: Zoje Stage
Page Count: 304
Reflection: I love a good psychological thriller. Everyone thinks children are innocent, but Hanna was a scary brat! I'm really drawn to crazy, thrillers that seem unbelievable. I think it stems from reading V.C. Andrews when I was 13!

[MN Lisa, Mistress of Mayhem with a Method]

🗝️ Week 6 Response
The same word can tell a thousand stories.
Or maybe it tells one, just sideways.

Mashup time! If your two books had a chaotic love child, what would the plot be?

[Susan]

🔐 Week 8 Prompt: Unexpected Reading Conditions
This lock prefers the unexpected.
Read somewhere unusual. Or while doing something unusual.
Then reflect on how it changed—or didn’t change—the story.

[Susan]

Did you finish Week 7? We also need to respond to our chaotic love child from Week 6....

[Alaina]

• Week: 7
• Book Title: Thirteen Storeys
• Author: Jonathan Sims
• Page Count: 390
• Reflection: I really enjoy reading horror and thriller books, and this book was essentially 13 short stories containing several horror/thriller themes that definitely reminded me of things I've read before

[Alaina]

MN Lisa wrote: "🗝️ Week 6 Response
The same word can tell a thousand stories.
Or maybe it tells one, just sideways.

Mashup time! If your two books had a chaotic love child, what would the plot be?"

The plot of the love child of The Murders of Molly Southbourne and Key Lime Pie Murder would be about someone trying to solve a murder while simultaneously running away from clones of themself trying to murder them. Sounds chaotic for sure!

[Alaina]

I've picked up The Winter People for week 8, and the unusual thing I'm doing while reading this is sitting in the rocking chair in our nursery while holding/feeding my newborn son. I haven't done this since my daughter was a baby, and she's 3 now, so this is pretty unusual for me. I hope that counts!

[Susan]

Alaina wrote: "MN Lisa wrote: "🗝️ Week 6 Response
The same word can tell a thousand stories.
Or maybe it tells one, just sideways.

Mashup time! If your two books had a chaotic love child, what would the plot be?..."

And throwing a key lime pie in there somewhere... :)

[Susan]

Alaina wrote: "• Week: 7
• Book Title: Thirteen Storeys
• Author: Jonathan Sims
• Page Count: 390
• Reflection: I really enjoy reading horror and thriller books, and this book was..."

I'll check us in for week 7.

[Susan]

Alaina wrote: "I've picked up The Winter People for week 8, and the unusual thing I'm doing while reading this is sitting in the rocking chair in our nursery while holding/feeding my newborn son. ..."

I love that! I'm trying to figure out where I can read that's unusual or something different.

[MN Lisa, Mistress of Mayhem with a Method]

🗝️ Week 7 Response
The box recognized this story before you did.
We all echo something.

So what did yours echo — a book, a trope, or just your favorite drama making a comeback?

[Susan]

🔐 Week 8 Prompt: Unexpected Reading Conditions
Book: Steve Jobs
Author: Walter Isaacson
Page Count: 630
Reflection: I enjoy audio books and I listened to Walter Isaacson read his book about Steve Jobs. I work in technology and I have great admiration for Steve Jobs and what he did with Apple. My reading conditions changed this week as I returned back to work after working from home following surgery. It's not unusual to catch me reading during my lunch break, but it's different because it's been a couple months since I've been physically in the office.

[Susan]

MN Lisa wrote: "🗝️ Week 7 Response
The box recognized this story before you did.
We all echo something.

So what did yours echo — a book, a trope, or just your favorite drama making a comeback?"

For me, Baby Teeth was a return of a favorite genre.

[MN Lisa, Mistress of Mayhem with a Method]

Maybe I'm missing it but I'm not seeing Alaina's week 8 book???

[Susan]

MN Lisa wrote: "Maybe I'm missing it but I'm not seeing Alaina's week 8 book???"

Message #74

[MN Lisa, Mistress of Mayhem with a Method]

OK. I took that as the selection, not the completion.

[MN Lisa, Mistress of Mayhem with a Method]

🗝️ Week 8 Response
Where you read isn’t always where the story lives.
But sometimes it leaves a mark.

If you swapped reading conditions with your partner, how would your book have felt different?