Aoraki > Likes and Comments

Team Aoraki




Team Members
• Christine - Captain
• Sara Hollingsworth - Co-Captain
• Kelly (Maybedog) - Co-Captain
• Amanda Edgar
• Elisabeth Rose
• Emily Heisler
• Becky Q.
• Megan
• Catherine
• Saar the Book Owl
• Vi
• Lauri


• Tara Taylor


Team Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Challenge Status: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

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Mount Aoraki TT Shelves

Christine Upton ~ tt-xii-2026
Sara Hollingsworth ~ tower-team-2026
Kelly (Maybedog) ~ 2026-c-tower-team
Amanda Edgar ~ tower-team
Elisabeth Rose ~ tt-26
Emily Heisler ~ aoraki-tt
Becky Q ~ tower-team-xii
Megan ~ tower-teams-xii-2026
Catherine ~ tower-2026
Saar the Book Owl ~ tower-team-xii
Vi ~ tt26
Lauri ~ nbrc-tt-2026

Tracking Spread sheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Resources
Cover Color - TinEye - https://tineye.com/labs/color-extract...
Word Count - https://www.arbookfind.com/UserType.a...
Points - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Rules - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

About TBR Recommendations - Info about TBR Recs

The challenge starts on 16 May 2026, 9am UTC.

Only books STARTED after the challenge begins can count.

Countdown is here: https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown...

Check other cities here: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldcloc...

BOOK OF THE MONTH (BOM)

Participating in current BOM discussion (3 days minimum) = 20 points.
Writing a day's worth of discussion questions (randomly chosen volunteers) = 40 points

📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚 📚

MAY
The Will of the Many ~ Discussion May 18 - June 18
The Astral Library ~ Discussion May 25 - June 25

JUNE
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me ~ Discussion June 2 - July 2 ~ Links TBA when available
Memoirs of a Geisha ~ Discussion June 16 - July 16 ~ Links TBA when available

JULY
Nominations will be open until 27 May, UK evening.
Anyone can nominate a book; try your luck!

July General BOM Nominations
July Themed BOM - The 2000's - Nominations

Polls for voting will be added when available!


AUGUST
To be updated when nominations are opened.

Mini Challenge - Time to Climb

(view spoiler)[Part One

You know them, you love them (or maybe not? haha) - the ladders!
Unlike in some of our mini challenges in previous years, you are not going to use series numbers or titles. You are going to build ladders based on the years in which a book has been originally published.

You are going to build 2 ladders of 10 books each.
The publication years range from 1990 - 2025.
Not every year needs to be read for. Each year can only be used once per ladder. You don't have to start at 1990 or end at 2025. Your ladder could, for example, be: 1997, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2012, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022.


Part Two

Mountains - and towers for that matter - are tall. They have several layers and they have a peak. What would Tower Teams be without a tower? Or a mountain in this case.

You are going to build a minimum of 2 mountains of books. For these, you are going to use page numbers. The page numbers you can use range within the standard rules of the challenge. You don't have to start at 100 pages or end at 1000 pages.
Beware though, your mountain should have a mountainous form. As a team you'll need to work your way up to one or more peak(s) and then back down the other side.

Plan carefully and communicate with your team members, for you can only climb one mountain at a time! Books for a given mountain can be completed in any order, but each climb you start must be completed before working on your next mountain. Once a mountain is completed, books are locked in and cannot be moved.

The team will build a mountain with 1 peak (20 books):

Example: 150, 209, 343, 489, 492, 562, 631, 848, 999, 802, 700, 650, 575, 501, 485, 400, 350, 289, 210, 101.

And another mountain with at least 3 peaks (30 books).

Example: 105, 150, 209, 343, 489, 492, 301, 352, 401, 502, 562, 631, 848, 999, 900, 802, 700, 780, 689, 650, 600, 575, 501, 430, 485, 400, 350, 289, 210, 101.

There will be completion bonuses for the first 2 mountains. After that, the team can choose to build other mountains throughout the challenge (of 20 or 30 books), but no more completion bonuses will be given. One partial mountain is allowed.

The Restrictions


🧳This mini challenge runs the length of Tower Teams.
🧳Each book read can only be used for one part of this mini challenge.
🧳Only one mountain can be worked on at a time, once a mountain is completed, books cannot be moved. In that way, banked books are not allowed for this mini challenge.
🧳Books can be started at any point since the start of Tower Teams XII (16th May 9am UTC).
🧳The usual book length rules apply.
🧳You will gain 10 points for each book you read.
🧳You will gain 20 completion bonus points for the 1 peak mountain and 30 completion bonus points for the 3 peak mountain. (hide spoiler)]

Maze Mountain Challenge

Adding mystery to your route up the mountain is a maze with stone walls. You can’t see what’s coming next, but every step you take must be accompanied by a book.

(view spoiler)[These tasks have been specially brought together by Mod Sophie, who is leaving the Mod Squad at the end of Tower Teams. With the help of Mr Sophie, she created the maze website that has brought so much joy and frustration to NBRC.

The tasks contain references to:

* her various teams in NBRC from Leather Jacket Black in TT2 onwards,
* her life outside GR,
* fellow mods,
* and memorable NBRC moments.

This includes her first direct interaction with the mods, when she spent several hours searching threads for an elusive snitch during the Harry Potter Tower Teams, only to be asked whether she had found a clever method or simply relied on sheer stubbornness.

Have fun exploring the maze and seeing what you discover along the way.

Points

Each book used in the maze earns 10 points for your team.

Please use the mini codes from the MAZE tab on the spreadsheet and add the task into the task column as well.

Entering the Maze

To enter your maze, click https://maze.meic.dev/.

Your team's account name is your team name; your captains will have the password.


How the Maze Works

When in your maze, you must choose a direction to travel: North, South, East, West.

Each direction has a specific quality to the book you need to read.

🏆 North - Book title starts with A-M
🏆 South - Book title starts with N-Z
🏆 East - Even number of pages
🏆 West - Odd number of pages

The tasks will generate automatically when you change squares in the maze.

The book you read must meet:
1. the requirement for the direction you want to travel, and
2. the requirement for the task you have drawn.

For Example:
- Task: Read a book with the MPG Science Fiction.
- Direction: North (title first letter A-M).
- Ender's Shadow fits both criteria

Fill in all the information requested, then hit submit to make your move.



Re reads are allowed (6 month rule)
Page count = minimum 100 pages
Any format is allowed
Teams have until the end of Tower Teams to complete their Maze. It is not a race with other teams as we are all climbing different mountains. (hide spoiler)]

First leg of the maze

Maze: Aoraki
Task: Read a book with MPG Historical Fiction

Title*
Author*
Reader*
Pages*
Direction*
South (Title starts with N-Z)

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Tracking Sheet - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

This is for the entire team to use.

Here is my shelf
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

This is my shelf.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Thank you Emily and Elisabeth! Welcome to Mount Aoraki :)

Welcome all to Mount Aoraki aka Mount Cook aka "Cloud Piercer" the tallest peak in New Zealand. It has 3 peaks; low, middle, and high and I think that is a clear sign that we are meant to rock the mini challenge Time to Climb!

I am Upton or Christine and I'm excited to be your co-captain along with Kelly (Maybedog) and Sara.

I am from Minnesota (Go Wild! Go Wolves!) and am a regional manager for a handful of sports bars and restaurants. I have 3 loving, but high maintenance dogs that keep me on my toes and frazzled most of the time :)

I will read most anything for a challenge, but I love thrillers, mysteries, survival non-fiction, and a good apocalypse. My TBR shelf is 3026.

How about all of you...anything we should know?

Hello everyone! I'm Sara, and I will be co-captaining with Kelly and Christine this year.

I am from sunny California, and a kindergarten teacher. This is a perfect time of the year for this challenge for me because it will be through a good chunk of my summer off! Cheers. I have 1.5 cats, the .5 being a neighbor stray who comes and goes as he pleases and eats me out of house and home.

I read just about everything, but favor fantasy, sci-fi, and LGBT. My to-read lists combined across physical, digital, comics, manga, and audios is near 5000+ books. My Goodreads is not nearly up to date with my entire kindle library. I have *so* many more books then are actually added which is even more daunting.

So, I am very much looking forward to tackling the MOUTAINOUS collection of books and start widdling that TBR list down with you all!

I don't know if you *need* to know anything. :) I'm Kelly (she/her) and I live in Seattle with friends and my 15½-year-old dog Cupcake. In addition to reading, my hobbies include sewing and crafts, word games and I captain a trivia team. I'm on disability, but used to be in high tech. My funny, smart and kind granddaughter means everything to me and I'm obsessed with dogs, dogs, dogs.

Right now I read M/M almost exclusively with the occasional dog-centered cozy mystery. My favorite genres in M/M are urban fantasy and thriller/suspense/mystery. If there's a bedside vigil I swoon.

I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Elisabeth from Canberra, Australia, here. I like historicals and crime/mystery/suspense but will read pretty much anything for a challenge. I’ve been reading classics over the last few years to catch up on books I either read years ago or should have.

I’m retired but originally did a performance degree on clarinet. Now I play clarinet in a community orchestra and also do concerts occasionally with a wind trio. I also whack tennis balls a couple of times a week at the local club social sessions. All good fun.

Hi everyone! I’m Becky and I live in San Diego, CA! I’m currently a full-time caregiver for my parents which has actually allowed me to get back into reading a LOT more recently and I’ve been having so much fun with it! I have joined way too many challenge groups/challenges lately!

Our house is also basically controlled by dogs at this point because between me, my parents, and my sister…there are SEVEN of them running around 😂 So it’s a little chaotic over here at all times!

I’ll read pretty much anything and lately I’ve been loving reading challenges because they push me to pick up books I probably never would’ve chosen on my own otherwise! I think rom-coms have been my favorite lately, but I’m really wanting to get more into sci-fi too!

Also…I refuse to publicly discuss the size of my TBR for legal reasons. Just know it’s concerning and we’re all doing our best over here. 😅

Also Also, this is my first time doing this challenge and I'm a little bit confused about the shelf we're supposed to link? Does it need to be an empty shelf designated for this group or do I need to add some of my TBR onto it? Thank you for the help!! I'm very excited to start this with all of you!

The link to my shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I am Emily. Live in Portland, Oregon and work from home with hubby. I have two daughters and a granddaughter close by. Live with two dogs and a cat.

TBR shelf is currently at 9314, but I keep adding to it so there you go. Currently my go to is romance, thrillers, paranormal with a dash of what peaks my interest in the moment.

Have done this challenge a few times, very fun.

Becky Q. wrote: "Hi everyone! I’m Becky and I live in San Diego, CA! I’m currently a full-time caregiver for my parents which has actually allowed me to get back into reading a LOT more recently and I’ve been havin..."

Hi neighbor! Fellow Californian, though I am wayyyy up North. To answer your question about the shelf, this game does usually ask for you to make a dedicated shelf for the game. You create one and call it what you like. A lot of people call their shelves either tower team or tower team tbr or tower team xii. And that shelf will be what we use to track your completed reads.

It doesn't have to be empty though. Like I currently have some of my planned reads already on my shelf. You can fill it with what you want to read, and that is perfectly fine. As long as it's dedicated to books only for tower teams.

Hi everyone! 😊 Here is my shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

I'll give a more thorough introduction in a bit, but just wanted to check in real quick :)

Hey everyone. I'm Vi. I'm just checking in. I'll do a proper intro and link to shelf tomorrow. I'm in Netherlands, Europe so kinda ahead of you guys. I'll do it tomorrow when I have access to a desktop

Vi wrote: "Hey everyone. I'm Vi. I'm just checking in. I'll do a proper intro and link to shelf tomorrow. I'm in Netherlands, Europe so kinda ahead of you guys. I'll do it tomorrow when I have access to a des..."

I’m ahead of everyone haha. I’m usually on a team with the Aus contingent but this time we’ve been shared around. My husband was born in Rotterdam but his family migrated here in the early 1950’s with many other migrants from the Netherlands.

While I think of it, years ago when our daughter was 18 months old we drove a camper van around the South Island of NZ and spent a night at what was then known as Mt Cook. Aoraki. It was the worst night ever with a gale force wind rocking the van and a terrible NZ parrot trying to break in through the skylight. I’ve forgotten the name but they’re total vandals and wreck everything they can. Far worse than our cockatoos. 😀
Remembered the name.Kea!

“kea are notorious for taking delight in prying apart rubber windshield trim and wiper blades on cars, raiding and playing with the contents of tourists’ backpacks and handbags, dismantling skis and snowboards, and flying off with unguarded clothing and other items from campsites and carparks.”

I was unaware parrots were vicious! Animals are my thing and you just cannot have too many dogs as long as you have enough people to give them attention and care for them. I usually have three (the max my city allows) but I'm not in a place where I can have that many right now. We have half a cat, too, who's become a whole cat because his owners rescued two bouncy dogs and he got scared. It was fine because he's over here all the time anyway and they pay for vet bills and food.

You all are so interesting. I can't wait to get to know more about you as the challenge goes on! I normally would comment on every post but even though I bookmarked this page, I somehow didn't check "notify me". I can be an airhead sometimes due to some meds I take so if you notice I do something dumb/silly, please point it out. It's never anything egregious (knock on wood) and I usually figure it out myself within a couple of hours, but not always.

I want to add that for your Tower Teams shelf, if you add stuff that you haven't read yet, it would be very helpful if you make sure to mark the completed ones with the date read. When we check books, it's so much easier if the book we are verifying is at the top of the shelves. We can sort by date and it makes is so much easier.

Thanks!

Hello everyone my name is Catherine and I am from Utah. Summer is hitting strong, so pool side reading sounds fun. I enjoy mostly Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance, and Fiction but willing to venture out to other reads every once in a while. The Astral Library is my BOM pick so hope to see you all there.

?? how does BOM work as I will be writing DQ and joining in conversation but have already read the book as it was originally set for 5/2 but changed to later in the month.

For the last couple of weeks I've been having a problem with the add book/author function in a comment. When I do the search for the correct edition I can't move past the first page and then one other. After that if I try to move forward or back it resets to p1. I can keep re searching and click on the next page which works but is a pain and if a book has hundreds of editions I can only go as far as the three dots because of the p1 reset each time.

Has anyone had that problem? I get the same thing on my PC and Ipad. The GoodReads Help suggested things which didn't work (enabling pop-ups, emptying my cache etc) and then said they were aware of the issue. I'm not sure if that means they can't do anything or for me to stop asking.

Welcome everyone! What a fun group and I love all the animals, except maybe for Elisabeth's cray cray NZ parrots :)

I appreciate all your TBR number's make mine look manageable. Of course, my list doesn't include the stacks of books around my home and all the books saved in my reading apps. We will pretend those aren't there for now.

@Catherine, I'm not sure about your BOM. That is an unusual situation. I will ask the question and see what they say. I am going to guess they won't allow it, but it never hurts to ask.

Thank you so much for the explanation, Sara!!

Here's the link to my shelf! :)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

Elisabeth wrote: "For the last couple of weeks I've been having a problem with the add book/author function in a comment. When I do the search for the correct edition I can't move past the first page and then one ot..."

I've had the same problem many places I need to go to a second page like when I'm looking at my shelves. I have five pages of shelves but I can't get past the first page list. I get around it by finding a different book I know is on that shelf and click on it. Or I go in to "edit shelves," navigate to it, and click it from there. But it means I can't select multiple shelves at once to pair down the results.

I'm glad they're aware of the problem.

Hi All, I'm Vi. I live in the Netherlands. I have 2 kids, 7 and 12. I went back to full-time working and this current job has drastically reduced my reading time. Audiobooks don't always work either.

I read mostly romance and fantasy nowadays - I alternate between them and throw in good mysteries and thrillers now and then. My cinephile colleagues seeing how green I am with movies, have started a movie club where we take turns recommending a movie every week. It's been fun getting back to watching movies and being inducted into the movie club as long as it lasts haha.

This is my third year in a row with TT and 5 or 6 overall. We're going to have fun!

My towers shelf - tt26

Elisabeth wrote: "Vi wrote: "Hey everyone. I'm Vi. I'm just checking in. I'll do a proper intro and link to shelf tomorrow. I'm in Netherlands, Europe so kinda ahead of you guys. I'll do it tomorrow when I have acce..."

haha that's nice - I will have someone to chat. I guess this time around there were lot many people all over so they probably had to split.

Vi wrote: "Elisabeth wrote: "Vi wrote: "Hey everyone. I'm Vi. I'm just checking in. I'll do a proper intro and link to shelf tomorrow. I'm in Netherlands, Europe so kinda ahead of you guys. I'll do it tomorro..."

Where in the Netherlands are you? We lived in Den Haag for about a year back in 1976. Loved it.

Kelly (Maybedog) wrote: "Elisabeth wrote: "For the last couple of weeks I've been having a problem with the add book/author function in a comment. When I do the search for the correct edition I can't move past the first pa..."

Thanks Kelly. I’m not sure if saying the web designers were aware of it was a way of fobbing me off or not… It’s annoying though. At least it doesn’t affect adding books to our team tracking spreadsheets, thank goodness.

I am a pre-planner so I put my 20 books for the month already in so I can just plug away at them as the month goes along. If anyone wants to take a look, you can see how I filled it out as an example to see how the spreadsheet works.

Should we add some? I know my first few reads.

Also can one of our leaders fix the link from my name in our team member list that goes to someone called Jessica’s page, please? It’s something to do with my ID being an author one. Happens just about every team challenge and I don’t know how to avoid it. 😀Thanks.

Yes, of course Elisabeth! You can go ahead and add books now. Our working spreadsheet is open to everyone to start working in.

And I'll talk to Upton. I think the one here on the board needs to be fixed by her. My hyperlink on the spreadsheet goes to the right location though.

I Vi and welcome to the team!

@Elisabeth - I will mention it to the powers that be, that the link is wrong above to your page. They posted they will need to edit that. I will send them a message right now.

I think the only team member we are still looking for is Toni. I am going to post in Base Camp again and hopefully they find their way to us.

Elisabeth wrote: "Vi wrote: "Elisabeth wrote: "Vi wrote: "Hey everyone. I'm Vi. I'm just checking in. I'll do a proper intro and link to shelf tomorrow. I'm in Netherlands, Europe so kinda ahead of you guys. I'll do..."

I live in Utrecht now. Den Haag is an amazing city - so much to see and do there. If you do visit Netherlands, I would love your perspective on the changes that has happened since.

Thanks for fixing the link 😀

Vi, we’re going to Europe in September but mainly Switzerland.. My husband really wants to do one last overseas trip and see The Netherlands again. Maybe next year.

Should we only add the publication year if it’s 1990 ir later? I misread the date as 1900 at first.

Elisabeth wrote: "Should we only add the publication year if it’s 1990 ir later? I misread the date as 1900 at first."

Just go ahead and add the date. It's just info. We'll know we can't use it.

@Elisabeth here is the info the mods asked me to pass along regarding your profile link:

It is because she has an author profile. So if you can pass on to Elisabeth (as we can't PM ) to save 3226935-elisabeth-rose as her sign up user name then this won't happen again in future 😊

Upton wrote: "@Elisabeth here is the info the mods asked me to pass along regarding your profile link:

It is because she has an author profile. So if you can pass on to Elisabeth (as we can't PM ) to save 32269..."

Excellent, thank you!

Salutations teammates! We roughly 18 hours to the kickoff of Tower Teams XII! I see some of you have made good use of Sara's beautiful tracking sheet. Being a procrastinator, I don't even have a book picked out yet. But I am all over that today!

How is everyone else doing? Does anyone have any questions before we head off on this auspicious expedition?

Hello! I'm Tara and from southern Illinois. I'm married with two kids, 11 and 14, and one dog. The season of life I'm in has really hampered my reading, but I still plug away slowly. Very slowly. I mainly read mystery/thrillers, but I also enjoy historical fiction, nonfiction and an odd romance here or there. I haven't participated in Tower Teams in a while, but thought this would be a good time to jump back in. Summer 2026 is pretty much travel packed for us, as we have a cruise to the Bahamas, a trip to Florida and a trip to Europe all planned over the next 12 weeks. So I'm hoping to get a lot of good reading in :) Looking forward to being here and participating!